Venezuela's dance with despotism
For nine years, the citizens of this South American nation have been subjects of and subjected to the strong-arm presidency of Hugo Chavez, former foiled coup plotter with a criminal record and current Maximum Leader. Yesterday, in his never-ending quest to foster amity and goodwill toward his people, Chavez ordered his security forces to use tear gas and water cannon on anti-government protesters demonstrating against an upcoming referendum that would allow him to run for re-election in perpetuity.
Lashing out against opposition
The latest referendum, scheduled for a vote next month,
is being frantically pushed by Chavez because in 2007, voters rejected a package of political reforms that would have allowed him to run again for the presidency. With typical bombast, Chavez charged that the protest was part of a U.S.-backed plan to destabilize the oil-exporting nation ahead of the referendum.
While lacking knowledge of any such diabolical plans, my Venezuelan in-laws nevertheless regularly curse his name and have labeled him evil, a totalitarian dictator, a brutal thug, and even a murderer. As an American whose visits to Venezuela occurred prior to the Chavez regime, B2 can neither personally confirm nor deny such allegations.
However, one would have to be ignorant of recent world events or incredibly obtuse to overlook or misinterpret all that has come about on his watch. Consider:
Known by your actions
On the international front, Chavez has been busy courting Russia, Communist China, Iran, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba, all with the intention of harming the United States and creating a threat to hemispheric stability. He misses no opportunity to remind anyone who will listen how highly he thinks of the Cutthroats of Cuba, the hangmen of Havana, the Brothers Castro; how reverently he grieves for Che Guevara, or how greatly he admires Marxist-Socialist principles.
Chavez, who controls the Western Hemisphere's largest oil reserves, is giving 
cash-strapped neighbors discounts and favorable financing on Venezuelan oil and billions of dollars in loans, thereby helping a growing number of leftists win or lead in Central and South American presidential elections. His meddling is apparent; all one need do is look at the recent elections in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico. And in nations where he cannot influence elections such as Columbia, he provides funding and arms to its leftist guerilla insurgents.
Given any public forum, be it an OPEC meeting, UN General Assembly, or televised gab fest with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Chavez routinely derides the United States, its presidency, and Western democracy. He has openly vowed to bring America to its knees by promoting and strengthening the alignment of other non-democratic governments against the United States.
It should therefore be no surprise to anyone that he carries a copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book wherever he goes.
Turning homeward from his many international destabilization projects, he had the democratic process altered within Venezuela so that his term, originally a non-extendible, five-year period, could be lengthen to six years with an immediate re-election.
In the name of patriotism, Chavez falsely focuses on the idolatry of South American liberator Simon Bolivar to the same extent that the worst military dictator in Venezuela's history, Juan Vicente Gomez, did in his day. Under this guise of patriotism, there is now a list of three to four million citizens who will never be able to apply for government employment or government contracts even though they must keep paying taxes.
The citizens on this list are subject at any time to further inequities as it pleases the regime, be it from passport issues to denial of access to any public services. Their crime? These people signed a recall election petition against Chavez in 2003.
My daughter-in-law's father, a retired army colonel, and his wife have been under limited confinement in Caracas (essential shopping trips only, medical visits, etc.) since his ascension to power. Their crime? They opposed Chavez politically, and had the poor judgment to do so in public.
The rape of democracy
Chavez was elected to preside over a civilian government. However, not only has he concentrated all federal powers under his direct control, he also filled the public administration from top to bottom with military officers.
As a collateral measure and certainly worse for Venezuelan democracy is that for the first time since its abolition in 1830, he re-established military immunity from the legal system.
Chavez ordered the armed forces to ignore judicial decrees when they are unfavorable to the regime and, in an infringement of the Constitution and with disregard for division of powers, has usurped municipal authority by taking control of the Metropolitan Police of Caracas. This was done to prevent the law enforcement agency from protecting targeted citizens and groups from the outrages of his paramilitary apparatus - known as Círculos Bolivarianos, or Bolivarian Circles.
Outrages against electronic and print media range from attacks on media headquarters to assaults against reporters in the street. These have been so numerous that they have become a source of concern for the United Nations. It is said on the streets of Caracas that the most dangerous profession today in Venezuela is being an ethical reporter. There have been deaths and death threats, and almost all journalists wear bulletproof vests.
I suppose that Venezuelans should give a small measure of thanks that Hugo Chavez is neither as cunningly intelligent or as bloodily ruthless as Fidel or Raul Castro. Nevertheless, he is delusional, prone to gross acts of irrational behavior, and enabled by billions in oil revenue -- making Chavez a very dangerous man.
The unfortunate Venezuelan people deserve better.