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Tuesday was the tenth anniversary of the Bolivarian Constitution adopted by referendum at President Hugo Chavez’s instigation, and legislators met at the National Assembly to mark the event. Coincidence or not, at the same time, it was the first session ever to be broadcast live on a wavelength that used to belong to a private radio station before its permit was revoked by the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), in a decision upon which Venezuela’s highest court has yet to rule.

Deputy Cilia Flores, president of the Assembly, indicated that this was of little or no import to her. For her, what matterred was that the people had approved the Constitution “refounding the republic and supporting the revolution led by Comandante Hugo Chavez.”

More in this vein followed as lesser deputies — the great bulk of which hail from the president’s ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) — rose to their feet to do their bit.

For Deputy Earle Herrera, what was different about the Bolivarian Constitution was that it made provision for itself to be “modified through various mechanisms.” This had not been the case with the “rigid constitutions” that had gone before, he said.

This has perhaps been for the best, at least from the president’s point of view. The original version of the current constitution set a limit of two consecutive terms on the mandates of elected officials, and this later came to be seen to have been a serious oversight.

Towards the end of his second term running, Chavez took note that he would be obliged to stand down in 2012. This clashed with his vows that the people were set to keep him in power right through 2020, maybe beyond. He set out to remove the re-election ban from the Bolivarian blueprint via a referendum.

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