Chavez; Venezuelan Mugabe

Riding a recent wave of popularity because of his involvement in securing the release of two hostages from terrorist Columbian narco-thugs FARC, and decked out in his finest finery and blingiest bling, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hinted that he’ll try to have term limits eradicated once again, according to the Miami Herald;

President Hugo Chávez said Friday he will try again to change Venezuela’s rules to allow unlimited presidential reelection — a proposal rejected by voters just last month.

Making his annual address to the legislature, Chávez said he would call a referendum in 2010 with two questions: Should the president be recalled and should the president be allowed “indefinite reelection?”

Kate at A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective writes that he had just finished one of his 4-hour rants (called a cadena) on one of his personal TV stations and he declared that FARC is a real Army;

However, what really got under my skin was Chavez’s declarations in the earlier part of the day. (At least feign to be surprised.) In a 4+ hour cadena, the Venezuelan president said, among other things, that the FARC and the ELN are not terrorists, but rather that they are true armies with a political Bolivarian project, and they should be recognized.

Yeah, cuz real armies always kidnap civilians and hold them ransom. FARC is currently holding about 700 hostages including three US Servicemen.

Daniel at Venezuela News and Views says it a little better than I could;

You read it right, Chavez has officially thrown his support behind the FARC, he supports their goals and find perfectly fine that an armed group makes war on a democratic government which is making serious efforts to become more democratic and improve the lot of the people. If the FARC had democratic convictions they would have at least a political arm running as a serious electoral contender. It does not, its objective is simply the overthrown of whoever rules at the Casa de Nariño to create a FARC dictatorship. That Chavez considers this a Bolivarian ideal simply blows the mind, goes against all what Bolivar said, wrote, tried.

But the really scary part of Chavez’ speechifying yesterday is his plan to slow last year’s 23% inflation rate in Venezuela – by seizing private property (from the Miami Herald article cited above);

Chávez also repeated previous threats to seize private property from businesses if they are caught hoarding products, even as Venezuela struggles with high inflation and shortages of some basic foods.

He warned that price speculation is occurring ”at all levels of society, from the big capitalists to the small shopkeepers,” and said his government could expropriate property from individuals or companies that purportedly sit on goods for months to sell them later at inflated prices.

Yeah, that’s the problem – people hoarding stuff is driving up the prices. Maybe people hoard stuff because they’re afraid of running out;

Some food staples covered by price controls — sugar, cooking oil, milk, black beans, eggs and chicken — are sporadically hard to find in supermarkets, and Chávez’s critics warn that shortages are likely to persist as long as the price controls are maintained.

In short, like Robert Mugabe did in Zimbabwe, Chavez has taken a developed nation and turned it into a third world backwater – and threatens to make it worse.

Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, Politics