Chavez Puts His Ego Ahead of Progress

Some of my friends speak highly of Venezuela’s strong man Hugo Chavez. This pisses me off, because I detest what he’s doing to his country and his dangerous braggadocio all over the world stage.

I have read travelers’ accounts of how pathetic it is there compared with neighboring countries like Colombia. One traveler said he crossed the border and once he was in Venezuela, the store shelves were empty, and the roads in terrible shape. I read about how Hugo wants to develop a dairy industry, so he built these huge dairy processing plants yet there is no gas to get the milk to them from the far-flung farms. Another example of state-run business that like socialism, just doesn’t work.

Last night I read a favorite author of mine, Carolyn O’Grady in the WSJ, who wrote about what it is like to be an enemy of Chavez in Venezuela. “Last week his handpicked supreme court ruled that 260 aspiring candidates for the November municipal and gubernatorial elections–most of who oppose him–will be barred from the ballot because they have been accused of corruption.” Not convicted, accused. That’s apparently enough in the Strongman’s world. By fiat, they all have been declared guilty, and that is that.

There are many political prisoners languishing in Venezuela’s jails, including Ivan Simonovis, former chief of police in Caracas, who was in office on April 20, 2002, when Chavez resigned briefly and in the end seventeen people were murdered. Chavez took over as head of the police, arrested the former chief in 2004 and he’s been imprisoned in solitary in a four-meter cell with no windows or ventilation. No bother to investigate the murders, according to Chavez.

The next time I hear praise for ‘the courageous Chavez’ or thanks for his largesse with Citgo’s oil, I will bring up the many prisoners and the articles that show that his leadership is about his ego, not at all about making life better for ordinary Venezuelans.