In Venezuela: A Gangster Regime

by Gustavo Coronel

What started in December 1998, as a Venezuelan democratic feast has now become a social and political nightmare. The presidency of Hugo Chávez, made possible by his legitimate electoral victory, has turned during the last eight years into an authoritarian regime. Checks and balances and accountability have disappeared and political power and financial resources of the Venezuelan nation are being used by a populist leader to pursue totalitarian dreams of hemispheric hegemony.

Venezuelans are not dealing with just a mediocre president. We have had our share of mediocre presidents and have managed to survive them in reasonably good form. Rarely have we been subjected in our history as an independent nation to such a destructive experience as the one we are currently having under President Chávez. I suspect that a significant component of U.S. public opinion might find this assertion either exaggerated or biased. This could be due to several reasones: one, the confusion that often exists in many minds between notoriety and positive character. In our global society the notorious is often perceived as important and outstanding. Hugo Chávez has certainly become a notorious person due to his unconventional public behavior, his rude language and his largesse with Venezuelan oil money, one that he distributes with abandon among his ideological friends. But notoriety is not a synonym for efficiency or trustworthiness. Bill Gates is efficient, Alan Greenspan is trustworthy, and Paris Hilton is notorious.

The other reason is, perhaps, more important: Hugo Chávez has become ingrained in the minds of many Americans as the opposite of President George Bush. In a country deeply and bitterly divided over major issues such as Iraq, immigration and public spending, there are many who might feel that, if Chávez is strongly opposed to Bush, he cannot be bad. The U.S. perception of Chávez has become an extension of its domestic political struggle, to the point that it would be almost impossible to find a republican sympathetic to Chávez, while most if not all of his strongest U.S. allies are democrats. It has taken major transgressions of civilized behavior by Chávez, such as his speech attacking Bush in the United Nations to be, at least temporarily, criticized by democrats.

In the U.S., therefore, Hugo Chávez is being evaluated on the basis of his ideological posture in relation to U.S. policy but not for his performance as president of Venezuela. His propaganda machine, located in Washington, D.C. and generously financed by the Venezuelan Embassy, has been modestly successful in portraying him as a modern Robin Hood, as a defender of the poor. His policy of handouts has had an impact both domestically and abroad since it creates an illusion of prosperity that, however, is only temporary and shallow. Chávez makes oil money rain on the poor, distributes subsidized food and allows free public transportation to the masses, creating in the process an ever stronger dependency of the average Venezuelan citizen in the welfare petrostate and promoting the inability of Venezuelans to become producers and self-starters. In the U.S. Chávez distributes subsidized fuel through Citgo, at a loss for the company and for the U.S. Treasury Department, with the support of organizations and individuals connected to the Democratic Party. This strategy is designed to create an image of generosity when in fact, the move is not driven by compassion but by the desire to antagonize the U.S. government and to establish an ideological beachhead in the country.

What has happened and is happening today in Venezuela under the regime of Hugo Chávez is little known outside of Venezuela. In a world plagued by epidemics, natural disasters and conflict, the Venezuelan tragedy appears as minor. Being rather silent and quiet, without bombs going off and with no major violent clashes between the armies of repression and the population, the process of destruction of Venezuelan democracy, the progressive elimination of its middle class and the creation of a totalitarian regime in the mold of Cuba or Iran is proceeding rather unnoticed by the outside world.

However, this does not mean that the tragedy is less real. The process of social and economic destruction that is taking place in Venezuela is the more painful since the country had already acquired a reasonable level of development. Venezuela was not a new state, was not starting from scratch. In 1975, for example, the Venezuelan Human Development Index, as measured by the United Nations, was significantly higher than Chile, South Korea, Mexico or Colombia and nearly identical to Singapore's. Today, Venezuela badly lags these countries in the rankings. There has been a process of social and economic involution that has greatly accelerated during the last eight years, during the tenure of Hugo Chávez. In this period Venezuela has fallen about 30 places in this ranking of nations, a dramatic decrease in relative quality of life, in spite of an enormous oil income estimated at some US$200 billion.

1. Hunger has increased in the last eight years.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has presented the latest statistics for Venezuela. According to these stats, undernourishment in Venezuela affects 18% of the population, as compared to 4% in the period 1974-1981 and 11% during 1990-92. This percentage is twice the South American average of 9%. According to the report "most countries in South America have advanced towards the target, but a significant increase in hunger was recorded in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela." This number has increased from 2.3 million people in 1990-92 to 4.5 million people in 2001-03, while the average daily caloric intake has decreased from 2,460 to 2,340 calories during the same period. This is a tragedy, of course, but where is the crime?

The crime is that this involution has taken place during years of record petroleum revenue for the nation. While the oil windfall has been gigantic, poverty and hunger have increased. This has no other plausible explanation than waste and inefficiency on the part of the government that is handling the money and "managing" the country. The crime also has to do with the obstinate refusal of the government to accept this reality and correct its errors. Food Minister Erika Farías (no resume or training - activist turned political hack), has just gone on record to say, "We do not agree with the statistics of FAO. These statistics do not conform to the times of our revolution…. We are going to establish our own indices." In fact, they are already using "new methodologies" to calculate poverty and other social indices. It is easy to predict that those methodologies will place Venezuela as a "leader" in social progress but no international organization will accept them. UNESCO has rejected Chávez's claim that he has eliminated illiteracy in the country.

2. The Venezuelan oil industry is being destroyed.

During the eight years of Chávez rule the Venezuelan oil production has declined in about 600,000 barrels per day due to lack of proper investment in new facilities and insufficient maintenance. This dramatic loss has been masked by the high international prices of oil but the fact is that Venezuela keeps losing about US$6 billion per year due to this collapse in production. The state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), has been badly politicized and is being run as an appendix of the executive power. Oil income is being diverted from PdVSA and the Venezuelan Central Bank directly into the hands of the executive power, to be utilized for political ends. A recent video of a speech given by the Energy & Petroleum Minister cum President & CEO of PdVSA, Mr. Rafael Ramírez, to the managers of this company, proves how the company has been put to the exclusive use of Hugo Chávez. In this video Ramírez says that "it is obligatory to be a Chávez follower to work in the company," that the company is at the service of the "revolution." He also boasts of having expelled 19,000 employees of the company because "they were enemies of the revolution." This speech represents an impudent confession of the crimes committed against our petroleum industry and proves the violation of our constitution, of our laws and of the human rights of the Venezuelan petroleum workers. Responding to the protests of Venezuelans against this criminal speech, Chávez has said that he approves the speech and tells Ramírez to "repeat it 100 times a day," using the abusive tone that has become his trademark.

In addition to this systematic destruction of our petroleum industry, Chávez is giving away to Castro's Cuba 98,000 barrels a day at subsidies that amount to about US$2 billion per year. This represents an act of high treason since this contract violates all the commercial rules of Petroleos de Venezuela and gives away to a foreign country an immense amount of Venezuelan money that should be used in Venezuela, for Venezuelans.

3. Chávez is handing Venezuelan money to foreigners in order to buy political support.

It is estimated that up to 2005 some US$16 billion had been used by Hugo Chávez to give or promise money to foreign governments in exchange for their political support (PetroCaribe), to buy foreign bonds (Argentina) as a political strategy, to buy arms and weapons systems (Belarus, China, Russia, and Spain), to pave highways and build a sports and civic center (Jamaica), to build houses (Cuba), to build refineries (Paraguay), to finance presidential candidates in other countries (Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Bolivia and maybe Brazil) or simply to give the money away to his friends (Bolivia, Cuba). This arbitrary use of money, without accountability to the people of Venezuela, in order to serve Chávez's personal political objectives, represents a major crime against the nation.

4. The political indoctrination of children and adolescents.

In a terrifying video, Education Minister Aristóbulo Istúriz can be seen and heard explaining the educational philosophy of the Chávez regime. This education, he says, starts at the root, even before the child is born. The expecting mother will be "taken over" by the state. The unborn child will already become a Simoncito, the name given to the children of the revolution (after Simón Bolívar). This child has to be protected, he says, "to serve the revolution." The educational philosophy will promote the formation of a uniform citizen, one that will conform to the prevailing political model. In elementary school children will wear red, the color of the revolution. The school, says the minister, should be the mirror image of the political regime we desire, it should be a "revolutionary" school. "We will build the man we want," he asserts. We will feed them, giving them free breakfast, lunch and snacks. This is what we call the Bolivarian school. "We invented it," he claims. By coincidence, almost as he was talking, 100 children from the Bolivarian elementary school Las Agüitas VI in Los Guayos, State of Carabobo, had to be hospitalized with food poisoning, after eating cheese sandwiches provided by the school.

In a speech given in Caracas on November 3rd, Vice President José Vicente Rangel said "education is not neutral… it's a compromise with the revolution… it's a compromise with what Bush and Manuel Rosales represent, or with what Hugo Chávez Frias represents." This illustrates the myopic and irresponsible perspective that regime leaders have on education.

15,000 adolescent and young-adult members of the so-called Francisco de Miranda Front, have been sent to Cuba for indoctrination and training in insurgency tactics. They are being armed and converted into a paramilitary force reporting directly to Chávez.

5. The inclusion of Venezuela in the club of rogue states.

Venezuela had traditionally been a member of the global democratic community. Today this has changed. Chávez has aligned his regime with Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Hezbollah, the Colombian narcoterrorists, Zimbabwe and Belarus, all members of the club of tyrants and/or terrorists in the world. This is imposing new hardships on Venezuelans, who are seen today as suspicious elements. In a recent trip to Europe, passing through London's Gatwick, my wife and I were singled out for photos, search of baggage and, even, personal search with explosive detectors, as soon as we presented our Venezuelan passports. It did not help any that I had just been given, prior to my trip, a heart scan with use of radioactive isotopes. A "radioactive" Venezuelan in a London airport really became the prime suspect of the day!

The loss of Venezuelan international prestige has been immense, thanks to Chávez. At least four Venezuelan ambassadors have been expelled or asked to be removed by host governments (Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia) for their unacceptable behavior. Another one (Bolivia) is being considered as a persona non grata by the Bolivian Congress. The current Venezuelan ambassador to the U.N. Francisco Arias Cárdenas, in a very enlightening video speaks of Chávez as a "murderer." The speech given by Chávez in the United Nations became an instant podicide classic. Chávez has become l'enfant terrible of all international meetings, where he's eulogized in public but the subject of ridicule in private.

These are some of the reasons why I do not hesitate in defining the regime of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela as one of gangsters, using this term as defined in The American Heritage Dictionary. Never before in Venezuelan history had a man done so much harm to the material and spiritual well being of our country, to Venezuelan society. The fact that in the last weeks he has become progressively uninhibited in his vulgarity and aggressiveness suggests that he is losing control over the country. Those who know him well have said that the Chávez of the last days, since the U.N. fiasco and the significant progress of the presidential candidate of the opposition, Manuel Rosales, shows evident signs of loss of confidence and self-assurance.

His intuition tells him he is being abandoned.

Source: Venezuela Today