December 1, 2007
The end of the line for Hugo Chavez?
Well, not quite, but momentum against the would-be dictator of Venezuela is building in the streets of Caracas and throughout the country. There is substantial opposition to Hugo Chavez’s plans to amend Venezuela’s constitution. If passed, these changes would give him a series of new controls over the political and economic life of Venezuela’s citizens. Chavez would have complete control over the country’s central bank. Even more importantly, there would be an end to term limits, so Chavez would be able sit in the president’s office in perpetuity. (Given his record of using street thugs to intimidate opposition candidates, this is not an unrealistic scenario.)
On November 30 I tuned in to CNN en español to listen as Chavez attempted to justify the constitutional changes to a crowd of tens of thousands of Venezuelans in Caracas. There were cheers, of course---but more than a few boos.
Since he cannot justify his power grab on his own merits, he resorted to the old canard so beloved by the Latin American left---the looming threat of American imperialism. The Yankees are coming, Chavez warned Venezuela, unless I have complete control over your lives. Quoting here from CNN.com:
Chavez told a crowd gathered in the center of Caracas that if the referendum was approved and the result was questioned -- "if the 'yes' vote wins on Sunday and the Venezuelan oligarchy, playing the [U.S.] empire's game, comes with their little stories of fraud" -- then he would order oil shipments to the United States halted Monday.
"We're not really confronting those peons of imperialism," Chavez said, alluding to his Venezuelan opponents. "Our true enemy is called the North American empire, and ... we're going to give another knockout to Bush."
Key Points:
Listening to Chavez’s speech, I rather thought that he was running for office in the United States. He referred to America almost as many times as he referred to his own country. Using the boilerplate language of old-line socialism, Chavez repeatedly framed his takeover of the Venezuelan government as a bid to save the people of Venezuela from President Bush.
This is classic Hugo Chavez. Hopefully the Bush Administration will not play into his hand. We should deliberately distance ourselves from the outcome of this internal dispute in Venezuela. The U.S. must make sure that Chavez has no pretext to make America his red herring any longer.
