Chavez's 'revolution' hits a roadblock

Voters said no to letting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rule as president-for-life, in a referendum held over the weekend.

A humbled President Hugo Chavez was left reeling Monday after Venezuelan voters rejected a raft of constitutional reforms that would have allowed him to seek re-election indefinitely.

His defeat in a referendum Sunday was a political earthquake in Venezuela, an unprecedented blow to Chavez's hopes of turning his oil-rich OPEC country into a lynchpin of Latin American socialism.

"Now, Venezuelans, let's put our trust in our institutions," the 53-year-old leftist president said after reluctantly accepting results that showed his changes were rejected 51 percent to 49 -- the narrowest of margins.

This is good news. Frankly I'm surprised that the vote turned out this way, considering Chavez's recent authoritarian impulses (masked as 'socialism' and helping the common man against enemy America). The "Socialist Revolution" has hit its first major roadblock for the Venezuelan leader, a close admirer of Cuba's Fidel Castro and friend of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — all of whom do everything they can to inflame relations with the United States as much as possible. Anyone who still thinks Chavez is good for Venezuela should stop and think for a second; this statesman is nothing short of a dictatorial Castro wannabe.

Chavez makes 'socialism' into authoritarianism

Chavez: Castro wannabe
Stifling dissent in the media; making deals with ne'er-do-wells like Ahmadinejad of Iran and Castro of Cuba; stirring up hatred at America (with poor diplomatic results — see 'Bush is the devil' UN speech — and backward progress in, say, Colombia, as a result of hostility and petty stubbornness); performing possibly illegal actions to hold on to power; virtually stating himself as president for life; kicking out any company he doesn't like. These are the actions of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. He has also misused his country's abundant oil resources, often for his own political gain, something we've also seen with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia (natural gas for the lattermost).

Hailed as an anti-American imperialism and crusader against evil foreign capitalism by the far left, and the epitome of anti-Americanism and collectivist populism in Latin America by the right, Chavez, reelected late last year, has continued his so-called Bolivarian socialist revolution with little concern for democracy.

...and he has followers
Chavez, a follower of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, has his own populist allies in Latin America, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Evo Moralas of Bolivia. Ortega made a paranoid and extreme speech against what he sees as US neoimperialism and the imposition of harmful capitalism — of course, like his Venezuelan pal he paints himself as his country's savior from that evil — at the UN, although Chavez was absent after the events of last year (the aforementioned calling Bush the 'devil'). Ortega, quite the radical, also spoke in defense of North Korea of all despotic regimes, defending its right to nukes!

How are these anti-American populists getting elected, one might ask? The failure of post-colonial governments, still largely dominated by the rich and controlled by America and Europe is one reason. The US's meddling in the Cold War did not help either. As moderate alternatives to people like Chavez spring up across the (should-be) flourishing region, one hopes they still stand a chance against their power-hungry rivals. It is time for America to be more fair with its neighbors too.

Venezuela votes

Tomorrow, 3 December 2006, Venezuelans will go to the polls (see Wikipedia) to either re-elect long-time presidential incumbent Hugo Chavez, which looks likely, or decide on a new face to represent their Latin American nation. Venezuela has become more well-known in recent times due to Chavez's statements (like the one at the UN) and other headline-grabbing actions. Chavez, however, looks to have his strongest opponent in recent times running against him, a man by the name of Manuel Rosales. 2006 may be a year to remember for Latin American elections and politics. Even in the imperialistic and closely followed post-imperialistic days, politics in the Latin American countries were vocal and vivacious.

Chavez has long been the prickliest verbal and symbolic thorn representing Latin America in United States' side, hold Cuba — which is more sharp than dull only because of the US's policy towards the communist-run island. Chavez hates everything about President Bush, which elevates his popularity in a region increasingly left-leaning, and has gone so far as to call him "the devil". Venezuela, with its vast oil wealth, seems to have improved under Chavez, but with his cavalier, polarizing, and un-statesmanly attitude and his increasingly questionable agenda, Chavez may serve just as a poster boy of the anti-US group with the sort of politicking that no developing — or otherwise — country needs. His policies seem more shallow and superficial than ever; his movement for a democratic, people-led Venezuela seems to be canceled out by his chumminess with the likes of Libya, Iran, and Cuba.

Chavez-challenger Rosales, on the other hand, looks like a verge towards the realistic moderate politician contrasting Chavez's populist fantasies. The Rosales I have tried to learn about looks to have the social democratic mindset with the 'let's work together' attitude that has the potential to be beneficial for all. Sadly, even when Chavez wants to stand as far away as possible from the "imperialist" United States, his country and the US have one thing in common at this time: incumbents win. Venezuela needs a leader that will deal with unemployment, putting oil revenues to work for the people, verging the wealth gap while keeping economic freedom, standing up to powers such as the US, but not defeating good principles or trying to bend reality in the process, and certain things all countries need to have an effective government (little corruption, public welfare, stable economic policies, good but not blind foreign policy, etc.).

Bottom line: the United States should prepare for several more years of Hugo; opposition parties to Chavez's should get their democratic acts together; Chavez himself should practice much that he heavily rhetorically (another thing the US and Venezuela have in common) preaches — something President Bush should do as well. Neither the United States nor Venezuela politically control Latin America, though they both, in a third common trait, think/wish they did.

See also: BBC News special report.

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