If there is anything I learned from watching Frontline – THE HUGO CHAVEZ STORY on PBS it is this. When an elected leader is ultra-popular it pays to be ultra-diligent as a citizen. Hugo Chavez emerged from a failed coup attempt on the Venezuelan government to become the leader and voice of the Venezuelan people. He has declared the United States a mortal enemy, this, despite the fact that much of his country’s worth is tied to the oil he sells to none other than the United States. He has aligned himself with leaders like Putin, Ahmadinejad, and Castro most likely because he knows how much that pisses the US off. He runs a television show called Alo Presidente in which he brings in all of the members of his cabinet and in front of 22 million people, on live television; he grills them on their results or lack thereof. It’s the equivalent of a public hanging. Actually, it reminds me of when Saddam called a meeting of the entire Iraqi government when he first assumed power and one-by-one read the names those who he labeled traitors. Those persons who names he called were immediately shuffled out of the auditorium never to be heard from again. It was the most surreal sight I’ve ever witnessed, the equivalent of watching members of Congress shuffled out by the US Army. Unimaginable. He will ask questions like, “How many barrels of XYZ have we exported?” Lord help the official that does not have an acceptable answer, because they are not only publicly humiliated, but they must sit and be lectured to for hours. I’m not sure what the thinking is in Venezuela, but if I’m a citizen, I’m looking for change in a hurry.
What Chavez does in this country is practice a form of denial. He puts his officials on display to basically say “Look, it is their incompetence, not mine!” “I’m trying to make things happen.” In my opinion, his administration will go down as one of the great farcical governments of all-time. It saddens me a bit to see this, because for awhile, I almost thought he was a progressive. I had this idea that Chavez was the great Robin Hood leader that stuck it to all the elites of his country and would now show the world how to be the leader of the people. I thought he was a man of the people, clearly his people needed him to be just that. Instead, he’s presented domestic initiatives that haven’t worked. He’s had to take back his word on more than one occasion because of how reckless he can be verbally. He’s failed on so many fronts that he really is starting to remind me of a certain someone we have all grown to know and love (wink, wink) the last eight years. Like many dictators he treats his country like a hybrid of a military barrack and an ATM machine. Kidnappings, murder, unequal distribution of oil wealth, and food shortages are all at crisis-levels in Venezuela, this, as one interviewee stated, despite the fact that they are not a war. Having said all of this, you can imagine my joy at reading this on the front page of the New York Times this morning that many of his supporters suffered defeat the latest round of elections. His supporters still control the Supreme Court and all other state-run agencies. Change will indeed come slowly and painfully in Venezuela. However, today’s developments represent the latest in a series of set-backs for Chavez. Perhaps, the people are starting to realize they elected a lemon and now they are being forced to suck it everyday.
I am disappointed with Mr. Chavez. I’m not sure how much better he is than the former Mayor of Detroit. I expected better. I expected him to know how important he was in this time for his people. It baffles me how those with the most power to change, never seem to do so for the better. Apparently, it was more important to be popular, than to be a leader.
