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Behind Chavez’s Defeat in Venezuela
Peter Wilson, Business Week
Voters’ surprise rejection of the President’s constitutional reforms may mean more stability for business and the economy in the oil-rich nation
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After nearly 10 years of watching Venezuela move to the left under President Hugo Chavez, Victor Martinez, a 40-year-old pet store owner, finally has reason to cheer. On Dec. 2, voters rejected Chavez’s request to change the country’s constitution to give him greater powers and allow him to serve as President for life. “We had to reject his proposals,” says Martinez, who had worried about his business being taken over. “It was our only option.”
The defeat calls into question whether Chavez will be able to deepen his socialist revolution in the oil-rich country. He has been pushing for more government control over the economy, which is suffering from high inflation and shaky business confidence. In June, he forced international oil companies (BusinessWeek.com, 6/26/07), including Chevron (CVX) and BP (BP), to hand majority control of their local operations over to the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a move that prompted ExxonMobil (XOM) and ConocoPhillips (COP) to pull out of the country.
(3 December 2007)
The limits of 21st-century revolutions
Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune
An oil-rich country bent on humbling the United States is an instructive place from which to view the world, so here are eight rules of modern political life as seen from President Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela:
1) Trade trumps politics. …
2) Globalization breeds nationalism. Global financial flows and technology limit the real power of politicians, who compensate with what’s left: national identity. …
3) Oil centralizes power. …
5) Ideologies are now served à la carte. …
6) Democracy is devalued. …
8) TV trumps all. …
(2 December 2007)
Although critical of Chavez’s Venezuela (perhaps related to the U.S. addiction to oil?), the columns contains an excellent summary of contemporary political systems,
Almost all of Mr. Cohen’s main points apply just as well to the U.S., China, etc. Other characteristics of modern states: cars, consumerism and leadership by an economic/political elite. International conflicts increasingly are about energy resources, with little attention paid to ideology. -BA
Hugo
Duncan Black (Atrios), Eschaton
I always find Hugo Chavez to be a somewhat annoying subject because he’s neither the Satanic Hitler as reflected universally in our media (and it’s really creepy how much he’s distorted) nor the Great Savior Of The Left. He’s a left wing populist with an authoritarian streak, but no matter what they say it’s “left wing populist” which makes the Villagers [the Washinton DC in-group] froth, not the authoritarian part. There are plenty of dictators around the world which get respectful treatment from our media, and the anti-Democratic authoritarian actions of our own president disturb them not at all.
But, in any case, it seems the dictator lost an election. Strange dictatorship indeed.
Anyway, watching US media coverage of Venezuela makes me realize that US coverage of foreign affairs is utterly corrupted by something. Still paying the piper. Who can forget this Orwellian NYT editorial?
Published: April 13, 2002
With yesterday’s resignation of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chávez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader, Pedro Carmona. But democracy has not yet been restored, and won’t be until a new president is elected. That vote has been scheduled for next spring, with new Congressional elections to be held by this December. The prompt announcement of a timetable is welcome, but a year seems rather long to wait for a legitimately elected president.
After Chavez was elected in 1996 and re-elected in 2000, the New York Times cheers on a military coup which installed “a respected business leader” and hails it as a move signaling “democracy is no longer threatened.”
They backpedaled from this editorial after the fact, but likely only because the coup didn’t take and Chavez was returned to power.
(3 December 2007)
Tariq Ali: Venezuela After the Referendum (CounterPunch)
