Invoking Jesus Christ, Karl Marx and Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has begun a new six-year term in office by pushing his anti-U.S., socialist revolution into a new era that critics say increasingly evokes Latin America’s authoritarian governments of the past.
This month alone, Chavez has announced plans to nationalize Venezuela’s electrical industry and its largest telecommunications company and has refused to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, the television station most critical of him.
He also has created a single leftist party under his leadership and tweaked the Bush administration by hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Chavez-dominated National Assembly is expected to approve by midweek a resolution giving him the power to rule by decree for 18 months. Chavez said he would use the authority to advance a host of “revolutionary laws” in areas ranging from the economy to defense, and he also is seeking to strip Venezuela’s Central Bank of its autonomy.
Even with Chavez’s contentious history, the boldness with which he has entered his third term–declaring “socialism or death!”–has stunned his opponents and raised questions about just how far Chavez will go in his quest to remake this oil-rich nation and become a counterforce to the United States in the hemisphere.
Yet, despite his ambitious socialist agenda, Chavez’s success in many ways is dependent on continued sales of oil to the U.S. at high prices. And some analysts say even his most loyal supporters may accept only so much revolution.
“This is not Cuba, nor China, nor Russia, nor Vietnam,” said Alberto Garrido, a political analyst who has written several books on the president. “Only Chavez knows the measures he will take.”
One of Chavez’s top priorities is amending the Venezuelan Constitution to allow for unlimited presidential re-elections. The current constitution would force Chavez out of office in six years. He has been president since 1999.
“We have received without doubt the mandate of the people to press down on the accelerator, to advance without rest, on the path toward a socialist Venezuela, toward a state of equality and justice,” Chavez said in a Jan. 13 speech before the National Assembly.
Attacks on critics stepped up
In recent talks, Chavez has described Jesus Christ as “the greatest socialist in history” and ended his National Assembly speech by shouting, “Fatherland, socialism or death!”–echoing the famous refrain of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his ally and mentor.
“We didn’t expect President Chavez’s announcements so quickly,” said Julio Borges, an opposition leader. “We never thought that only one month after the elections we are going to see the creation of a single party, the shutting down of RCTV, the nationalizations.”
Rather than reaching out to Borges and other critics, an emboldened Chavez has stepped up his attacks in recent weeks.
Chavez called Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, an “idiot” for challenging his decision not to renew RCTV’s license. Chavez later apologized for the comment.
But the Venezuelan leader also railed against the nation’s Roman Catholic church, saying Archbishop Roberto Luckert of Coro is “going to hell” for criticizing the government.
On Sunday, Chavez ripped U.S. officials after they expressed concern that the nation’s democracy could be at risk if Chavez acquires broader powers.
“Go to hell, gringos! Go home!” Chavez said on his weekly radio and television program.
The Bush administration said Monday that such insults only hurt Venezuela. But the U.S. has little leverage over Venezuela, which remains a top supplier of imported oil to the United States.
“Due to the hyper-engagement with Iraq, there has been no one in the administration to lay down a clear and direct strategy to respond to the facts on the ground in Venezuela,” said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington policy group.
Chavez says he remains committed to a multiparty democracy and press freedom.
“He is the best president we’ve ever had,” said Alfonso Blanco, 50, a merchant from the sprawling 23rd of January neighborhood in Caracas. “He has changed the county. Before, the poor had nothing.”
Blanco said, for example, that the Chavez government is paying for his 21-year-old son’s heart surgery–a $22,000 operation that he couldn’t afford.
But critics say Chavez has used his immense popularity–and countless missteps by the opposition–to take over the courts, the national electoral council and other state institutions.
Some nationalization unlikely
Luis Vicente Leon, a pollster and political analyst, argues that Chavez will continue consolidating his authority and nationalize more industries that provide public services or are of strategic importance.
But Leon does not believe Chavez will seize banks, private businesses or private property because polls show that about 80 percent of Venezuelans are opposed to such measures. Chavez also doesn’t need them.
More Top Picks Best Page Magnifiers For Seniors
The government already owns the oil industry, which provides the state with tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.
“This revolution is a little bit different than the revolution in Cuba,” Leon explained. “Who is the one with money in Venezuela? The one with money in Venezuela is the government, the owner of the oil. Chavez doesn’t need the money from the private sector.”
Still, many Venezuelans fear for the future and are looking for a way out.
Jovanni Sierra, 25, a law student who works as a newspaper vendor in downtown Caracas, would like to leave the country.
“The measures he [Chavez] is taking are too radical,” Sierra said. “All the power will be in one person’s hands. It’s totalitarian.”
———-
– – –
Quotations from President Hugo
Some of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s favorite verbal targets are U.S. officials. A sampling:
“I sting those who rattle me; don’t mess with me, Condoleezza.”
–Warning Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year not to meddle in Venezuelan affairs.
“The devil came here yesterday. [He] came here talking as if he owned the world.”
–Upbraiding President Bush at the UN General Assembly in 2006.
“Bush is an alcoholic, a sick man with a lot of hang-ups. He walks like John Wayne. He doesn’t know anything about politics; he got there because of Daddy.”
–During his trip to New York in 2006.
SOURCE: Tribune news services.