Intrigued by this link (an editorial), I am asking here on the Dope, what, exactly, the dope is with Hugo Chavez?
Now, I can read through all the anti-Bush rhetoric in the link; I don’t need any help with that. I know next to nothing about Venezuela though, and I’m curious and slightly dubious about the democratic saviour Chavez is painted as being in this link.
I vaguely remember seeing a 60 Minutes interview where his democratic legitimacy was called into question.
Short answer: Chavez is very popular with the Venezuelan poor (which is a lot of Venezuelans; his approval ratings are around 80%, although his electoral majorities have been much slimmer) and is big on social-welfare programs and improving education, prosperity, etc., based on revenues from the national oil industry. He is extremely unpopular with the political opposition (no duh?), which however is disorganized and doesn’t have a lot of support among the people.
His approach to governing is what you might call borderline-dictatorship. Shortly after winning the presidency he called a constitutional convention which produced a new constitution heavily favoring the “unitary executive” approach. The pro-Chavez legislative majority has appointed a bunch of pro-Chavez judges, and expression of anti-Chavez opinions is discouraged by selective censorship of the media, by blacklisting adversaries from government jobs or services, and (rumor has it) by even nastier types of suppression within the armed services. His administration generally counters criticism of this sort of behavior by blaming it (the criticism, not the behavior) on lies and plots originating with the CIA and similar ill-wishers.
So yeah, if “democratic legitimacy” is defined in terms of protecting the rights of those who don’t agree with him, Chavez appears to have precious little of it. On the other hand, he has achieved quite a bit and gained a lot of popular support with his grassroots-level healthcare and education programs, which are desperately needed. In other words, think “Castro Lite”.
I got most of this information from Alma Guillermoprieto’s articles in the New York Review of Books, but the full text of them is subscription-only.
I get the impression that he sees himself as the future leader of a Latin American pseudo-USSR sort of arrangement. At least that’s my take on his Bolivarian movement. He has been poking his nose into elections around the Caribbean, trying to get like-minded politicians elected. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he has designs on Cuba - he’s doing his best to buy that island with his petroleum products.
Bear in mind I’m not a political scientist and I’m just basing my impressions on a few articles I’ve read about him. But overall, I don’t think he’s particularly benevolent.
I wouldn’t buy a used car from him.
Link TV had a show about him. It was sympathetic to the man and he still came off as “Castro Heavy” to me. Blustering rhetoric, visions of grandeur, popular saviour of his people. He appeared to really believe all of it (and well he might, but if he does then that’s just scary). They do re-runs quite a bit, see if you can catch it.
Specially if he gets the Venezuelan constitution reformed (as he intends) so he´ll be able to run for president indefinetly; having staked the cards in his own benefit it wouldn´t be surprising to have a President Chavez for decades.
This is interesting – now Chavez is lobbying for a seat on the UN Security Council. The U.S. supports a rival bid by Guatemala.
As for the OP: Yes, certainly Chavez (unlike most of his predecessors in office) is a man of the people – which does not excuse his intolerance for dissent, but which definitely is a point to be scored in his favor.