GLW issue 783, published 2009-02-18.

After it was officially announced that the “yes” vote had won the February 15 referendum on a constitutional amendment that would remove limits on the number of times any elected official could stand in elections for public office with 54.4% of the vote, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez delivered a speech from the balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, his two daughters beside him. The victory removes the current two-term limit will allow Chavez to stand in the presidential election when his current term finishes at the end of 2012.

One hundred people marched through Redfern on February 14 to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of a young local Aboriginal man, TJ Hickey. Hickey was impaled on a fence, allegedly as a result of a police vehicle chasing him and ramming his