No Eliot Ness, He
Otherwise Entitled "Venezuelan Punks Feel Lucky, And Well They Should"
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Remind me again why Hugo Chavez deserves another term as Venezuela's President:
Walk into an emergency room in many poor parts of this booming, oil-rich nation on a weekend night and you will be overwhelmed--victims of gunshot wounds and drunken clashes line the corridors. Homicides are up 67 percent since 1999, and violent crime is the top concern of Venezuela's voters as they head to the polls Sunday.
Yet the man in charge since then, President Hugo Chavez, rarely addresses the problem publicly and is sailing toward an easy election for a third time. Analysts say Chavez is able to ignore the issue by governing through a system of extensive handouts that eases the purchase of basic goods but does little to ensure public order.
[. . .]
Walk into an emergency room in many poor parts of this booming, oil-rich nation on a weekend night and you will be overwhelmed--victims of gunshot wounds and drunken clashes line the corridors. Homicides are up 67 percent since 1999, and violent crime is the top concern of Venezuela's voters as they head to the polls Sunday.
Yet the man in charge since then, President Hugo Chavez, rarely addresses the problem publicly and is sailing toward an easy election for a third time. Analysts say Chavez is able to ignore the issue by governing through a system of extensive handouts that eases the purchase of basic goods but does little to ensure public order.
Any "leader" who allows the domestic situation in his country to devolve to such an extraordinary degree is unworthy of the appellation. Maybe it is high time for even Chavez supporters to admit that their man has failed to achieve the minimum that would be required of anyone placed in a position of political responsibility in Venezuela.
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No Eliot Ness, He 5 Comments (0 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
It could be that this criminal activity is working in Chavez's favor by making it impossible for some of the more principled amongst the poor of his country to reach their conclusion that he wasn't the "White Knight" he passed himself off as being. I seem to recall reading that this was a practice of Russia's Soviet government, to allow petty criminals loose on the population as a means of keeping people in their place. Given his political alignment, I wouldn't be surprised if Hugo Chavez also does this.
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"Straight Talk Express"? My bum feet! -- Me, on Senator McCain and other "moderates"
What did that first century Roman politician say? "The poor have nothing, so anybody that promises to put something in their pocket sounds pretty good to them" or something like it.
That's been the secret of the Democratic Party's success in this country since forever. It's also one of Democracy's weak points, its Achilles Heel, so to speak.
Just recall the way Hugo solved the housing crisis in Caracas, the mobs running up and down the streets picking out the buildings they desired to squat in the most, then occupying them, leaving the building's owners with the only recourse open to them, to go to the city fathers, cap in hand, hoping to be compensated for their loss in some fashion.
Who knows, it could be an integral part of Hillary's '08 campaign platform here.
Instapundit is linking to reports that the election in Venezuela is going badly for Chavez, and so he's resorting to various additional, um, extralegal means to "win" the election. Telemundo has apparently been forced off the air by the Chavez administration.
Let's just hope that Carter doesn't fly down to give Chavez more political cover.