Twenty-nine Venezuelan professional associations and trade unions called upon Venezuelans to cast their ballots next December 2 to reject the constitutional reform advanced by President Hugo Chávez, branding the proposed changes as "illegal" and "anti-democratic."

In the headquarters of the Venezuelan Doctor's Federation, its chairman Douglas León Natera read a communiqué where workers and professionals rebutted the 69 items comprising the constitutional reform.

"The reform does not ensure personal security and integrity, it will not lower prices, it will not improve hospitals, and it will not stop illnesses such as dengue, measles, malaria, tuberculosis, and others from continuing to spread. It does not mitigate food shortage, it does not prevent low birth weight or growth or development disorders  resulting from the lack of milk consumption during pregnancy, it does not ensure plans for road maintenance, it does not provide for credit plans of plans to build houses, it will not lower inflation," they claimed.
 
They added that there is no excuse to stay lethargic "before the tragedy" facing the country. Besides urging people to vote no to the reform, they asked Venezuelans to "watch for their votes and doing every possible effort to make this election clean, transparent and prevent the people's will from being violated."