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One Small Step for Freedom
There was a victory of sorts for freedom and democracy in Venezuela over the weekend, as the latest power-grab by Hugo Chavez went down in the welcome flames of a plebiscite.
Chavez fancies himself as the Fidel Castro of the 21st Century, and unlike Cuba,
his country has enough petroleum wealth to make up for the
inefficiencies and outright incompetence of his increasingly socialist,
autocratic, and nepotistic state. Having taken control of Venezuela
in a military coup, he has now won election twice to the presidency
through a mixture of old-style fraud at the polls and more subtle
tactics, such as “allowing” employees of the state-owned oil company
(PDVSA) to retain their jobs in return for their votes.
Since
nationalizing PDVSA, Chavez has replaced competent, experienced workers
with cronies and sycophants; as a result, the efficiency of the company
has plummeted. The cost of a barrel of oil,
however, remains sufficiently high that even Chavez’s bumbling
socialism still brings in enough cash for him to lavish welfare statism
on the poor and bribe other Latin American countries to vote in Chavez
“mini-mes”. His price controls and centralized
planning have resulted in food shortages and other problems, but with
oil prices nearing $100 per barrel, he could probably light money on
fire and still have plenty left over.
Concentrating
power as he has (his “party” controls literally every seat in the
National Assembly and nearly every other political institution in Venezuela) is not enough, however, to satisfy his autocratic and dictatorial urges. Thus, in a thirst for even more unchecked power, Chavez proposed 69 amendments to the Venezuelan Constitution. In every case, these amendments solidified and increased his power to the obvious detriment of individual liberty for all
Venezuelan citizens not named “Hugo Chavez”.
Among
the various amendments were measures increasing the presidential term
from 6 to 7 years and removing term limits, allowing Chavez a
Constitutional claim to becoming president-for-life. Other
measures would have allowed him to rule by presidential decree
(bypassing even his own cronies in the National Assembly) and allowed
for an easy declaration of martial law-like further suspension of
liberties.
Chavez’s
agenda of Socialist “reform” further included an assault on individual
property rights, giving the government more leeway in seizing private
property, and allowed him to re-divide the country politically into
regions to which he could appoint Vice Presidents to control, bypassing
the locally-elected officials. The independence of the central bank would have been ended in the amendment process. More private businesses would be seized in the name of “the people”, and access to Venezuela by human rights and election monitoring groups would have been limited.
Many who are otherwise supportive of Chavez’s “New Bolivarian
Revolution” parted ways with him on this attempt at authoritarianism. There were high profile “Chavistas” who denounced the amendments, and Venezuela saw several protests over the past few weeks. Seemingly
shocked by poll numbers showing his agenda being viewed negatively by a
majority of his citizens, Chavez went on the personal offensive over
the past week, tying a vote for the amendments to a vote for him
personally and trying to use the bogeyman of United States imperialism
to scare people into voting his way.
Luckily, Chavez’s efforts failed. Despite the fear-mongering and threats (there
were claims of employment threats again), the people of Venezuela
took a step for freedom and stepped on the toes of a would-be
dictator. Venezuela voted for liberty and against the 69 amendments.
No doubt, Chavez will try other methods of achieving the power he
craves, but for now at least he has been denied.
Thank you, very nice post.
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I want to express my admiration to your website. Sorry for my english, translate through guglotranslit.
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Excellent post, but much too much.
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