Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and his legacy of plunder

Posted on Tuesday, 03.05.13

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and his legacy of plunder
By The Miami Herald Editorial
HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com

Hugo Chávez's folksy charm and forceful personality made him an
extraordinary politician. His enviable ability to win a mass following
allowed him to build a powerful political machine that kept him in
office from February of 1999 until his death on Tuesday. But as a
national leader, he was an abject failure who plunged Venezuela into a
political and economic abyss.

Dead at 58, Hugo Chávez leaves behind a country in far worse condition
than it was when he became president, its future clouded by rivals for
succession in a constitutional crisis of his Bolivarian party's making
and an economy in chaos.

A former paratrooper, Mr. Chávez had a radical vision for "21st Century
Socialism," which was never fully explained. His skillful rhetoric,
which filled supporters with utopian dreams, was used to justify the
methodical destruction of Venezuela's democratic institutions and the
free market.

Shortly after coming to office, he rewrote the constitution to his
liking and aggressively set out to rig elections and stifle adversaries
in the legislative branch and the courts. Unable to brook criticism, he
turned his fire on the independent news media, eventually silencing most
voices of opposition by bully tactics and economic intimidation.

His Bolivarian regime rewarded supporters and punished opponents, giving
rise to enormous corruption and the creation of a new class of greedy
oligarchs with political connections. Unfortunately for Venezuela and
for all his political skills, the president was both an incompetent
executive and a worse economist.

In an energy-rich country that once knew no blackouts, electrical
shortages are frequent, the result of Mr. Chávez's plundering of the
country's public oil company. In a country that once enjoyed a thriving
free market, prices are controlled and food items often scarce.

In recent weeks, while Mr. Chávez was hospitalized, Venezuela was once
again forced to devalue its currency, this time by one-third. This was
the inevitable outcome of a series of disastrous economic decisions that
included nationalizing the telephone company and other utilities, which
scared off foreign investors and spurred capital flight.

For Venezuelans, the worst aspect of the Chávez years was the soaring
crime rate. Venezuela has become one of the most violent countries in
the world, with nearly 20,000 murders recorded in 2011 and a homicide
rate that some experts say is four times greater than in the last year
before Mr. Chávez took power.

On the international front, Mr. Chávez eagerly accepted Fidel Castro as
his mentor, providing Cuba with cut-rate oil and making common cause
with Iran and other rogue regimes. His departure leaves the
anti-American front leaderless on a hemispheric level and could
eventually threaten the subsidy that Cuba relies on to keep its economy
barely functioning.

As a result of all this, Venezuela today is a polarized society divided
between the intolerant supporters of Mr. Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution
and a democratic opposition that, against all odds, has waged a
courageous fight for a democratic alternative.

The president's death means a new election must be called soon. Under
Hugo Chávez, the electoral machinery was stacked against the opposition
and that will doubtless be the case again, but the United States and
democracies throughout the hemisphere should insist on a fair and
transparent electoral process to select the new president.

The Organization of American States, which was once seen as a defender
of political and civil liberties in the hemisphere but has made itself
largely irrelevant in recent years, could regain some of its stature by
taking a prominent role in ensuring that the people of Venezuela can
make the most of this opportunity to restore their democracy.

None of Mr. Chávez's would-be successors, including Nicolás Maduro, his
vice president and designated political heir, possesses the fallen
leader's forceful personality or political skill, though his popularity
may extend beyond death to give the regime's official candidate an edge
in the next election.

But without discarding "Bolivarian" principles and restoring the
country's democratic institutions, no one will be able to stop the
downward spiral of Venezuela that began the day Hugo Chávez was elected
president.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/05/3268749/the-plundering-legacy-of-hugo.html#storylink=misearch