Hugo Chavez Becomes President For Life In Venezuela
Hugo Chavez – embraced by liberal celebrities like Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Harry Bellafonte and Sean Penn and cheered on college campuses by professors and union leaders across the country during a visit to America – just declared himself President for Life in Venezuela.
Or, more accurately, he brow-beat the populace into approving an end to term limits with fear of government reprisals if they didn’t vote his way.
But it amounts to the same thing.
President Hugo Chavez won a major victory Sunday when Venezuelans lifted term limits, which will permit him to run for re-election in 2012 and perhaps beyond.
Chavez’s measure won 54.3 percent of the vote, according to the national election board. . . .
The result is expected to give fresh impetus to Chavez’s decade-long effort to remake Venezuela as a socialist state. It also will fortify his role as the undisputed leader of a resurgent left in Latin America that seeks to check free trade, capitalism and Washington’s political and economic reach in the region. Chavez said he got his first congratulatory message came Fidel Castro, the long-time Cuban leader and U.S. nemesis.
The victory in the national referendum also guarantees continued political tumult in Venezuela and wherever else Chavez injects himself in Latin America. He leads an anti-U.S. bloc that includes Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Honduras.
Here’s how Chavez managed to force a victory:
In this deeply polarized country, the climate of fear was evident in the answer of Nestor Moreno, a 58-year-old construction worker, when he was asked how he’d voted.
“I voted yes because I didn’t want to face reprisals for voting no,” said Moreno. “People lose jobs because they don’t agree with the Chavez regime. Chavez is very authoritarian[."]
Liberals are fond of talking about how Chavez was elected, and about how he submits to the democrat process. I’d point out that the mere existence of a ballot box and cast ballots does not a democratic process make. In order for democracy to exist, voters must be free to vote their conscience without fear of consequences from the powers that be.
Clearly, that doesn’t exist in Venezuela.
By the way, I think it’s a bit ironic that Chavez wants to “check free trade” when his regime is propped up by oil sales from Venezuela’s nationalized oil industry on the free market.
