Latin America is well-known for its volatile political history of caudillos, corruption, economic instability and popular uprisings. Since the late 1990s some stability has descended on the region but the authoritarian tendency has never disappeared entirely. Fidel Castro, the most notorious authoritarian in the region, has maintained firm control of the Cuban populace for the last forty-eight years.
Now many men who apparently wish to follow Castro's example are coming (or returning) to power, including Evo Morales in Bolivia, Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, the former Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Because of Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Chavez has become particularly prominent and powerful in the region. He has made no secret of his contempt for the United States and the free market or of his admiration for Castro. One of his stated goals is to bring "21st Century Socialism" to Venezuela, and to do so he has nationalized many of the private companies within the country.
The most recent event in the Chavez Socialist drama came on May 27 when the dictator forced the popular Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), one of the few remaining independent media outlets in the country, to close. RCTV operated for fifty-four years, but criticized some of Chavez's recent policies and openly supported a coup d'état against him in 2002. Thus, it was a threat to the Socialist Revolution and had to be closed. Not satisfied with eliminating one television station from the airwaves, Chavez went after Globovisión, one of the few remaining independent stations in the country and the only one to air footage of the large demonstrations against the government's control of the press in the wake of RCTV's closure. Chavez, in a characteristic example of his double-speak, accused Globovisión of implicitly calling for his murder.
Although I am deeply concerned about the growing threat Chavez poses to his country, the region and the Western Hemisphere, I also am angered by the portrayal of Chavez in the mainstream media here at home. It will come as no surprise that the American media generally favors the political left. One would think, though, that Chavez's blatant violation of freedom of the press with the closure of RCTV and threat to Globovisión would elicit great outrage among our own press corps. Unfortunately, one would be wrong.