The Fall And Rise Of Hugo Chavez

 


Washington Times 
April 25, 2002 
Pg. 18

  
The Fall And Rise Of Hugo Chavez

  In Venezuela, the dust is finally settling after the dramatic 
turbulence of the past two weeks. President Hugo Chavez is once 
again at the helm of power, and the military has returned to its 
barracks. But there are many grieving Venezuelans who aren't 
quite at peace. Their loved ones were gunned down, first by 
sympathizers of Mr. Chavez and subsequently by supporters of the 
short-lived interim government.

  Mr. Chavez was ousted in a military coup on April 12 after 17 
persons were killed during an anti-Chavez protest, apparently by 
sharpshooters faithful to the president. Pedro Carmona, a 
powerful businessman, stepped into power on Friday but was 
forced to resign the next day. Following the coup, 40 persons, 
mostly Chavez supporters, were killed while protesting.

  A probe of what transpired should be in the offing. Mr. Chavez 
has placed his cronies in every democratic institution, from 
congress to the courts, and is expected to prevent any honest 
inquiry. So far, Mr. Chavez appears complicit in the initial 
wave of killings. According to taped radio conversations 
broadcast yesterday in Venezuela on radio and television, Mr. 
Chavez ordered tanks and troops to surround the presidential 
palace, as unarmed civilian protesters marched against him on 
April 11. The Chavez administration said it ordered the 
deployment to "prevent public order disturbances." Given the 
death toll, Mr. Chavez's claims seem rather flimsy.

  This is most unfortunate. Venezuela is this hemisphere's 
second-oldest democracy. At a time when democracy is losing 
currency in many countries, particularly Argentina, coups could 
be potentially destabilizing to the region. "We are happy to 
collectively have overcome the era of coup d'etats in the 
region, and when events in Venezuela took on the appearance of a 
military coup there was a reaction by everyone," said Brazil's 
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Mr. Cardoso's concerns are 
quite valid, but he has downplayed some of Mr. Chavez's more 
alarming faults.

  The Venezuelan leader has struck friendships with Cuban, Libyan 
and Iraqi leaders with great fanfare, and his open defiance of 
U.S. interests has wooed Venezuelans wary of U.S. power. Indeed, 
after all the muscle-flexing, Mr. Chavez has little to offer the 
Venezuelan people. He has choked off foreign investment by 
doubling the royalty payments oil companies must pay to the 
government and by restricting corporate ownership on some oil 
projects to 49 percent. He has also alienated workers at his 
country's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, by 
replacing long-serving professionals with his supporters. In 
fact, Mr. Chavez consolidated his power by rewriting the 
country's constitution in 1999.

  Interestingly, Mr. Chavez initially rose to power in the 1990s 
because of the discontent with former President Carlos Andres 
Perez, who had ordered the military to shoot at crowds in 1989. 
And, while only time will tell if he would voluntarily give up 
power when his term in 2006, one thing is certain: A serious 
investigation of the massacre of April 2002 is certainly called 
for.