In democracies, elected leaders have broad latitude to ruin their countries. They are elected, after all. Election confers legitimacy.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has stretched electoral license beyond the breaking point.
Chávez is ruining democratic principles along with Venezuela. Elected on a promise to help chronically poor Venezuelans, he is systematically dismembering his country's oil-based economy and consigning all Venezuelans except his cronies to poverty.
Yet he was elected. Twice. Venezuela's constitution allows a midterm referendum on his presidency in August—but maybe not before. Chávez's opponents, having stalled the already teetering economy since Dec. 2 with a nationwide strike, say the country can't wait and demand a referendum in February. On Jan. 22, the Supreme Court delayed their effort by requiring a legal review of uncertain duration.
To some outsiders, Democratic presumptions and the rule of law support Chávez, whatever his failures at governance. But Chávez isn't acting like an elected representative of the people. He's acting like a power-crazed thug.
He threatens to investigate and fine television stations running advertisements by his opponents.
He plans to split state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA in an obvious effort to weaken the foundation of political opposition. He's intervening in currency markets, which have battered the bolivar.
A Jan. 17 article in the New York Times chillingly illustrated the situation in Venezuela. National guard troops, according to the report by Ginger Thompson, seized strike-closed warehouses storing beer, soft drinks, and bottled water, roughing up workers and protestors and taunting news reporters.
The leader of the operation, Gen. Luis Felipe Acosta Carles, gave an interview during which he swigged a soft drink and belched into a television camera.
"We are distributing this product to the population because collective rights come above individual rights," he said. "What I see here is hoarding, and we are going to move these products."
This is not democracy. This is state-sponsored larceny.
The sooner Chávez goes, the better. Venezuela will be a better place when he no longer holds power. The rest of the world will be better, too.
(Online Jan. 24, 2003; author's e-mail: [email protected])
