Under his proposal, whatever's left of the rule of law in Venezuela would
have gone, too. El Presidente has already packed that country's Supreme
Court by expanding its membership from 20 to 32. In comparison, FDR's
court-packing scheme back in 1937 was a modest proposal. And now Hugo Chavez
was going to give the state, that is, himself, power to seize property
without judicial review. It's a familiar pattern: The Man of the People has
this way of substituting his own rule for the people's.
And of course Hugo Chavez would have abolished any limits on his
presidential terms. Or as the prospective president-for-life put it, "If God
gives me life and help, I will be at the head of the government until 2050!"
He'd be 95 years old by then. But, what th' heck, an ailing Fidel Castro has
just been re-nominated to Cuba's national assembly at 81.
In both cases, God may have other plans. Venezuela's voters certainly did.
Hugo Chavez's proposal to build a bridge to "21st Century socialism" seems
to have run into a small obstacle, namely the will of the people, or at
least 51 percent of them. Which doesn't mean he won't keep trying to thwart
the popular will. But at least for now, democracy lives in Venezuela. In
large part that's because students and other "unreliable elements" attached
to democratic ideals weren't about to follow Comrade Chavez's orders.
Here's hoping another mouthy president of an oil-rich country, Iran's
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, takes note. The natives are growing restive.