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 Out
of the Shadows
by
Luis Berrizbeitia
As the setting sun
disappeared over the horizon, the farmer wiped the sweat from his brow looking
at the irrigation system he built to water his oranges. He smiled with a note
of satisfaction. He had worked hard, for he wanted the best. The oranges were
growing well, the house was in good shape, and the land was very fertile. A perfect
inheritance to leave his children, he thought. Someone
had other plans. A communist mob invaded his property in the middle of the night.
They chopped down the orange grove and burned the trees. They then burned his
ranch house. In one night, they destroyed his whole life's work and what possessions
he was going to leave his children. Where did
this story take place? Was it some tragic tale from Cold War era? No, this is
a true story like many that are now happening in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. President
Hugo Chavez Frias is a former army lieutenant colonel that rose to fame by staging
a failed coup in 1992. Later he ran for president and after only three years in
office, he has succeeded in uprooting the foundations of South America's oldest
democracy. His reforms are called "Bolivarian,"
in honor of Simon Bolivar, the 19th century revolutionary who took Venezuela from
Spanish rule. Under this banner, he has targeted every traditional institutions
and centralized all power. His first victims were Congress and the Supreme Court,
which he labeled "corrupt" and "oligarchic." They were swiftly
dismantled and rebuilt according to his decrees and under his control. President
Chavez has also reformed educations and even questioned the very republican form
of government that put him in office. He insists Venezuela must give "birth
to a new political system, because representative democracy is not really good
for us."1 His "Bolivarian"
reform might more aptly be called Marxist. Embracing
Comrade Castro Indeed
President Chavez makes no secret of the fact that he thinks Venezuela should be
heading "toward the same sea as the Cuban people…a sea of happiness,
true social justice and peace."2 This relationship with the only
openly communist leader in the Americas has upset some in Washington. President
Chavez ruffled even more feathers there by implementing a "strategic alliance"
between Cuba, China, Venezuela and Russia to counterbalance American influence
worldwide.3 But the link between
Venezuela and Cuba goes much deeper. President Chavez recently signed a deal with
Cuba under which Havana will train Venezuelan teachers and provide educational
materials. Last year, Education Minister Hector Navarro approved and promoted
a nationwide essay contest on the life of Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto
"Che" Guevara.4 Furthermore, several hundred Cubans have
been sent to Venezuela to help in everything from public health services to athletic
training.5 But President Chavez's
enthusiasm for the aging Cuban despot knows no bounds. In his mentor's footsteps,
he has organized "Bolivarian Youth Brigades," much like Castro who set
up his "Young Pioneers." He has set up a committee to organize the population
into "Bolivarian circles" similar to Cuba's "Committees for the
Defense of the Revolution." Ironically,
one striking dissimilarity between the two is the fact that Castro worked at a
much slower pace in implementing communism. President Chavez seems to be in a
rush. Observers note he already has more leftists in his government that Castro
did after three years in office. Both his Foreign Minister and Interior Minister
(responsible for law enforcement) have communist or semi-communist backgrounds.6 Socio-economic
flip-flop In implementing his reforms, President Chavez
has shown his true colors. In the beginning of his term, President Chavez repeatedly
said, "We're not returning to statism nor are we headed toward socialism
or communism."7 Venezuela apparently is not headed for prosperity
either. Despite his claims that the economy
is resurrecting after decades of financial crises, the truth is that Venezuela,
after his election, fell into its worst recession in decades. The economy shrank
by 9.5% percent and unemployment increased to 18% by the end of 1999. His socio-economic
reforms were supposed to reduce the poverty level. Instead they have caused the
capital flight of $8 billion dollars to overseas accounts.8
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| Venezuela's
main export, oil, is the only bright spot in the national economy. When he came
into power in February of 1999, a barrel of oil sold for $7; now, the market price
is $31. This gave Venezuela $8 billion more in foreign reserves.9 Most
of the oil pumped from Venezuela's vast reserves goes into the U.S. This makes
President Chavez think he has economic leverage on the U.S. According to an MSNBC
Report, Venezuela currently ranks sixth in oil reserves, behind Iran and just
ahead of Russia, with enough to keep pumping for another 70 years. Venezuela is
the third-largest exporter - behind Saudi Arabia and Canada - to the U.S.10 The
dark spots in the Venezuela economy come from his proposed socio-economic revolutionary
laws. One of these will target owners of large farms and estates, "In Venezuela,
latifundia will end, or my name is not Hugo Chavez," he told listeners in
his weekly radio program, "Hello, President."11 His
goal is to apply a law, "so that every Venezuelan peasant without exception
has enough land to sow crops and produce. We are proposing and agrarian revolution."12
According to Stratfor, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based Internet provider of global
intelligence, private investors also fear that President Chavez's announced land
redistribution project will only target private property instead of privatizing
millions of acres of fallow undeveloped land owned by the State.13
Education In
education, President Chavez eschews conservative principles and forces teachers
to adopt Marxist-oriented ones. Most of his education proposals come from Carlos
Lanz, a former leftist guerilla who spent time in jail for the confessed kidnapping
of an American. He is now a sociologist and director of the National Education
Project. A typical example of these proposals
is President Chavez's Decree 1011, a measure that was not well received by parents
and teachers. The decree states that "itinerant inspectors" would travel
the country making sure that "Bolivarian principles" were taught in
schools. It further grants the government the right to dismiss teachers and administrators
based on the reports of these inspectors. The parents responded by staging a massive
protest holding signs saying "Our Children are not Cubans" and "We
don't want a communist or Chavista education."14 Cuba
is also supplying Venezuela with teachers in return for cheap oil. But it is not
just the parents or the teachers that suffer from the reforms. Fourth and sixth
grade textbooks published last year routinely praise the failed coup and present
the two political parties that ruled Venezuela for over 40 years as "corrupt
oligarchs."15 Laying the Cards
Down President Chavez no longer needs to hide behind
a façade of democracy. He recently thanked the Communist Party in Venezuela
for its service to the country and invited it to form part of a new political
movement. In his trip to China, he was quoted as saying Venezuela is "finally
lifting itself up…just as China, 50 years ago, lifted itself up by the hand
of Mao Tse-Tung."16 President Chavez described himself a "Maoist"
and China's communist regime "the big sister of the Venezuelan Revolution."17
President Chavez has also adopted a notably
anti-American attitude. In the recent debates in the UN, Venezuela backed both
China and Cuba when they were cited by against the U.S. Human Rights condemnations.
Chavez turned a blind eye to thse massive human rights violations by claiming
no country in the world has the right to condemn another.18 At the
same time, President Chavez said the world needs several strong countries, including
China, to serve as global policemen.19 President
Chavez also does not allow the U.S. to fly over Venezuela when carrying out anti-drug
reconnaissance flights into Colombia, severely hampering the effort. On its part,
the U.S. has shied away from Venezuela's security agencies since it is commonly
believed that whatever is given to Caracas is passed on to Havana.20 In
the disastrous mudslides of December of 1999, the U.S. offered relief aid to the
stricken nation. President Chavez refused. When asked about the American "Plan
Colombia," Chavez replied that the solution could be found in dialogue not
in the implements of war. Maybe that is why he offered himself as a broker between
the Marxist guerillas and Colombia's government. Maybe that is why he has sent
a top aide to visit the base camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC). Maybe that is why he invited two guerilla leaders to speak on the floor
of the National Assembly.
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Like Cuba,
Venezuela is exporting its own brand of communism. Observers note that "there
are indications of Chavez government support for violent indigenous movements
in Bolivia."21 From January 1998 to July 2000, the Colombian military
reported seizing 470 FAL rifles bearing the seals of the Venezuelan armed forces,
or those of CAVIM, the Venezuelan military's arms industry from rebels.22
The Swiss government has refused the sale of weapons to Venezuela for fear they
may fall into the hands of Colombian guerillas. Ecuador, Bolivia and El Salvador
have all filed formal complaints with the Venezuela government for sending agents
to meet secretly with violent opposition groups.23 The
Future What lies in store for this nation on the northern
rim of South America? Will it bend to President Chavez's communist ideology and
suffer the fate of Russia, Cuba and China? Fortunately, President Chavez has unmasked
himself for what he really is: a leftist ideologue who is willing to use any means
to carry out his revolution. He has even said: "I am convinced that if for
some reason this attempt to forge a revolution without arms fails, what would
come next would be a revolution with arms."24 Indeed,
Hugo Chavez has come out of the shadows and into the light. He is aligning himself
with similar leaders and movements worldwide. While post-Cold War politicians
optimistically celebrated the end of communism, Marxists slowly regrouped and
entered into what has been called a "complicated metamorphosis."25
Today, Marxists like Hugo Chavez are no longer considered pariahs but are taking
power - a scenario that portends ill for America and the world.
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