Chávez Drops the Democracy Mask

• FEBRUARY 1, 2010, 2:28 P.M. ET
  
• 
  
• By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY

• Hugo Chávez likes to say that Venezuela is a democracy and that a majority of the electorate supports him and his "21st Century Socialism." Or at least he used to make that claim. Last week the strongman gave up trying to maintain a democratic image.

  Referring to nationwide civil protests—led by university students—he warned the country Thursday that if they "intensify" he is ready to take "radical measures."

  Given that the Chávez government already expropriates property at will, jails political opponents, polices prices, controls foreign currency exchange, seizes media outlets and fires rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators, his threat to turn "radical" is chilling. Venezuelans have reason to fear martial law.

• The Venezuelan economy is in a free fall and Mr. Chávez is in damage-control mode. One thing he can't afford is to let Venezuelans complain without consequences. Successful dictators, like Fidel Castro, make dissent a dangerous proposition, and if Mr. Chávez is to survive he knows he must do the same. His plan starts with carrots and ends with sticks.

  To use carrots Mr. Chávez >>>

Chavez's War Wish

Posted 12/09/2009 07:24 PM ET

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was all bluster last weekend, flashing his missiles, hurling insults and spoiling for a fight with Colombia. The big danger here isn't Chavez, but growing White House indifference to an ally.

This fall, when U.S. officials agreed to expanded military-base access in Colombia to fight drug trafficking and terrorism, it never occurred to them how much Chavez would use the arrangement as a pretext for aggression.

"They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said Monday. So from Russia, he said, "thousands of missiles are arriving," along with T-72 military tanks "to strengthen our armored divisions."

The U.S. ought to take this as a threat, because signs are piling up that Chavez is preparing to move against Colombia. It's not just that he has ruined Venezuela's economy and wants to distract his subjects by whipping up nationalist fervor. He seeks to break the U.S.-Colombia alliance and drive the U.S. from the region.

Chavista military doctrine, after all, claims that Colombia doesn't actually exist. The 2005 "Pensamiento Militar Bolivariano" says Colombia's alliance with the U.S. renders its sovereignty null, giving Venezuela a right to take it over.

Monday's missile announcement follows a string of>>>

Chavez’s Haiti Logic

Posted 01/22/2010 07:33 PM ET

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has gone off the deep end again, claiming the U.S. engineered the Haiti earthquake. It's a laughable malevolence, of course. But given the spectacular U.S. aid effort, it's also a threat.

Right now, the dictator's No. 1 foreign policy aim is to discredit the U.S. aid effort in Haiti. Shortly after Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake, Chavez, trying to whip up paranoia, accused America of seeking a "military occupation" there.

When that didn't work and U.S. aircraft carriers and hospital ships steamed in to rescue ravaged Port-au-Prince, Chavez told Spanish newspaper ABC that the earthquake was the product of a "tectonic weapon" launched by the U.S. Navy in a test-run for the U.S.' ultimate target: Iran.

As lunatic as it sounds, the Venezuelan dictator>>>

States Of Siege

Posted 12/23/2009 06:56 PM ET

Narcoterror: Drug lords shocked Mexico on Tuesday by massacring the family of a marine killed in a raid. The same day, Colombia reeled from the killing of a governor. Both were hits on the state. But the enemy hasn't won.

Cartels left no doubt about their al-Qaida-like depravity when a pack of them burst into the home of the grieving mother of a Mexican hero who died in Dec. 16's raid on kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Hours after 30-year-old Ensign Melquisedet Angulo's funeral, hit men linked to the Los Zetas faction of Beltran Leyva's cartel blew the mother's front door off and machine-gunned the dead man's family, killing four, including Angulo's mother.

A similar nightmare hit Colombia, also seeking to fight drug dealers. FARC narcoterrorists, disguised as Colombian troops, shot their way into the home of the governor of Caqueta state, dragging Luis Francisco Cuellar off to the jungle, presumably to hold hostage. Hours later, with troops in pursuit, they slit the elected official's throat and left him for dead in a burnt-out truck.

These crimes shocked the conscience, leaving Mexico, Colombia and the rest of the civilized world simply aghast.

The implications are worse: The attacks show that cartels will stop at nothing to create terror and weaken poor nations' wills to fight them. The drug lords are getting powerful, and are now out to topple states.

Even more significantly, the attacks show a particular contempt for democracy, challenging its very existence.

The fallen Mexican serviceman wasn't just any casualty from the drug war, many of whose dead do have links to the drug trade. What made him stand out was that he had become a national hero and a symbol of the uncorrupted side of Mexico.

He had been honored for his sacrifice by President Felipe Calderon>>>

Hugo's Public Option

Posted 12/24/2009 06:56 PM ET

Chavez: You will buy my arepas! AP View Enlarged Image

Politics: One might be tempted to think there's no comparison between Democrats' health care overhaul and Hugo Chavez's orgy of class warfare on Venezuela's private sector. But consider Chavez's new public eateries.

Last week, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez announced he would start a chain of government-run "areperas" to sell arepas — filled white-corn patties, similar to tacos — at state prices.

Slinging hash at a grand opening in Caracas, Chavez announced his new firm would be called Comerso, the "Socialist Corporation of Markets," to counter the private restaurants he claims are charging too much. With arepas selling for 20 bolivars at private eateries, Chavez was going to dish his out at five — to keep eateries "honest."

It's no different from the public option House Democrats are proposing in their 2,074-page bill now being reconciled in Congress.

Unlike the Democrats however, Chavez makes no bones about what he's up to: driving the private sector out of business with his "public option" for these taco stands.

"We'll show them what a real market is all about, not those speculative, money-grubbing markets, but a market for the people," the caudillo claimed. "Private individuals in sales can still sell, but they'll have to compete with us and with a people who are now fully aware."

It's remarkably similar to what Democrats have argued in their insistence on a "public option" of state-run health insurance for their health care overhaul bill now being reconciled in the Congress.

"One of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest," President Obama said just last October.

"If a vigorous public option is not included,>>>

Blundering In Brazil

Posted 07:28 PM ET

Secretary Clinton talked tough to Latin America, then did a 180. APView Enlarged Image

Diplomacy: With Iran growing more dangerous, it's bad enough to see Brazil cozy up to the mullahs. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made things worse with tactless remarks. Is there an ambassador in the house?

Brazil's on the rise economically and militarily. It also harbors a not-unreasonable desire to exert influence globally. But it has a bit of an inferiority complex and an exaggerated desire to differentiate itself from the U.S.

Not a big problem, but one that should be taken seriously because — like India and China — Brazil is important. And its dealings with Iran could undermine global efforts to check Tehran.

"I defend for Iran the same rights with respect to nuclear energy that I do for Brazil," President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said last month, embracing Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a visit.

Lula didn't have the same warm welcome for the U.S. this week when America's top Latin America policymaker, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela, came calling.

Against custom, Lula wouldn't even see him, sending out a low-level diplomat to greet Valenzuela on "minimalized" terms.

Brazil's snub was triggered by a clumsy statement>>>

Mexico Goes To Pot, And Then Some

Posted 08/21/2009 07:21 PM ET

Drug War: Mexico surprised everyone Thursday by "decriminalizing" drugs for "personal use" to refocus its resources. This may sound good to some, but it's waving a white flag at drug cartels that will now take advantage.

President Felipe Calderon's signing off on a law to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, LSD, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin for consumers was justified as a move to differentiate low-level addicts from powerful traffickers and direct enforcement resources to the latter. It may appeal to some who think legalization will end Mexico's violence, but it's more likely to undermine Mexico's fight against cartels.

The move will probably strengthen them, something that will prolong the war and weaken the will of the civilians in the middle to give up. If that happens, Mexico's small war will become a big one.

There are reasons why legalization won't work: Bitter historic experiences, like that of Alaska, Zurich and Amsterdam, which effectively legalized drugs for small users, all ended in a reversal of course. All found that consumption grows and addicts multiply.

After that, the state gets the near-futile task of treatment at high cost. Mexico's new law says all addicts shall be treated free of cost, but right now it has just 100 clinics and won't be able to deliver.

Meanwhile, new customers mean new cash for>>>