Hugo Chavez is a larger-than-life figure In Venezuela. He has used the country’s oil wealth to defy the US and EU. He has made friends with Iran and Cuba, two countries which are anti-US. His popularity at home is not due to these factors alone. He has introduced measures that have made life easier for the poor in the country, like free medical facilities (with Cuban doctors), subsidized food and cheap credit for the weaker sections of society.
They form the backbone of his support base in the country. But there are emerging threats to him. Last year he tried to change the Constitution to enable him to be president for life, but the referendum on the matter went against him. The opposition has found a dynamic leader in Leopoldo Lopez, a pragmatic center-leftist politician, whose increasing popularity is giving Chavez cause for alarm.
He has tried to deal with the threat by framing most of the opposition leaders in some flimsy charges (which are not proved in the courts. But since Chavez has the Supreme Court in his pocket that would not be too difficult) and thus disqualifying them from the upcoming state elections.
It is quite possible that the opposition could sweep the elections. Resentment against Chavez is on the rise. Inflation is galloping at 35%. Venezuela has the highest murder-rate in the whole world. People are tired of the rising crime rate.
The opposition is determined to take the fight to the streets. They have tasted blood after the referendum that Chavez lost last year. Many of his former men have turned against him, like General Raul Salazar, Chavez’s former defence minister. He believes Chavez is showing signs of megalomania; that he is close to thinking that he is God.
But it must be said in Chavez’s defence that he has come to power through elections. The fact that he lost the referendum last year shows he has not started rigging polls. But the framing of opposition leaders is a sign of his growing insecurity. That increases more and he would go the ‘Robert Mugabe’ way.
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Source: Telegraph
Comments
Wow what alot of generalisations and untruths to say it nicely. I live in Venezuela, read the news every day (in English and Spanish), am heavily involved in politics and activism here, and have never heard of this Lopez person who is apparently becoming very popular.
Inflation here is bad, but it is NOT 35%, and it is LOWER than all the previous governments, when it was around 46%.
The crime in Caracas is pretty high, it is also a serious problem, one that goes back decades. Unfortunately one can’t change the world in a day, or even a decade, and I think there are few people here who blame Chavez for the crime. Most of the opposition are simply big business and the upper classes. Perhaps you should get your sources from somewhere else apart from big business newspapers, in order to better understand what is going on here.