Without exception, pre-election reports in the United Sates gave the impression that 40-year-old challenger Henrique Capriles was poised to dethrone Hugo Chávez on Sunday as president of Venezuela.
But I knew better; not least because here, in part, is what I wrote six years ago after Chávez fended off the challenge of Manuel Rosales – who ran on the same down-with-socialism platform back then that Capriles ran on this time:
With Chávez ruling his country like a truly benign despot – afflicting the comfortable (by, among other things, confiscating their land to redistribute amongst peasants as cooperative farms) and comforting the afflicted (by, among other things, using Venezuela’s oil wealth to provide comprehensive welfare programs) – Rosales did not have a chance.
(“Viva Chávez,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 4, 2006)
Frankly, given that he defeated Rosales by 27 percent, the only surprise to me is that Chávez defeated Capriles only by 10: 54 to 44 percent. For a little perspective, however, it might be helpful to know that the same news organizations that are belittling this victory as his “smallest yet” will be the ones declaring a landslide victory if Obama manages to win re-election by half that margin.
More important, though, Capriles conceded defeat without raising any of the questions about the legitimacy of the outcome that made Rosales a political martyr in the United States … but a sore loser in Venezuela. In fact, this election not only debunks the U.S.-propagated myth that socialism and democracy are incompatible, but also reaffirms Chávez as the premier democratic leader in all of South America.
Apropos of this, I’m on record expressing my dislike of his bombastic (Chavismo) leadership style. Nevertheless, here is how I acknowledged his democratic bona fides and recognized his political invincibility six years ago in the same above-referenced commentary:
Here’s to Hugo Chávez: the duly re-elected president (for life) of Venezuela, undisputed heir to Fidel Castro, and perennial pain in the ass to President George W. Bush and his successors….
Henceforth, I shall refrain from calling Chávez a ‘Castro wannabe.’ After all, his regional and international influence has already surpassed that which Castro exercised at the zenith of his reign. And, having won two democratic elections at home, Chávez has earned the right to be distinguished (as a benign demagogue) from Castro – who was never anything but a ruthless dictator for whom democratic elections were the plague.
Chávez now has another six-year mandate to continue his Bolivarian Revolution at home while fomenting it abroad. What’s more, I am now more convinced than ever that only death will end his reign:
Those who were dancing on his grave a year ago are probably mourning today. Because, in a wholly predictable redo of his earlier defeat, Chávez won a resounding victory on Sunday on a referendum that will allow him to serve now as president for life…
The Bolivarian Revolution is a process whereby Chávez seizes control of the country’s oil revenues and confiscates private homes and businesses to put them all ‘at the service of Venezuela.’ Concomitant with this, he institutes political and economic reforms to create his version of a socialist paradise … which he hopes to replicate throughout the Americas.
Now it seems only death by natural causes will prevent Chávez from emulating Castro; that is, by using Venezuela as a laboratory for quixotic socialist policies for more than 50 years … come what may.
(“Chávez’s Mortal Enemy Now Is Cancer, Not the CIA,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 11, 2011)
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the most galvanizing issue of this campaign: the state of Chávez’s health. Because nothing seemed to animate opposition forces (at home and abroad) quite like continual reports of his imminent demise from “terminal cancer.”
Yet, like his mentor Fidel Castro, he lives. More to the point, there can be no denying that his many, highly publicized trips to Cuba for medical treatment are responsible for making fools of those who would have bet their life savings that Chávez would be long dead by now. So think whatever you will of Cuba, its celebrated healthcare system clearly had as much to do with Chávez’s re-election as any political influence he wielded in Venezuela.
Viva Chávez!
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