2. CHAVEZ IS A HEAVY
PRIVATIZER. The left has denounced the right for wanting to privatize
the state. Hugo Chávez has undertaken the biggest privatization
to date in Latin America by expanding the number of military reservists
from 90,000 to one million. These reservists are not answerable
to the army's hierarchy. In effect, Chávez has created
a private militia that serves him directly. Let us not forget
that a number of killings by pro-Chavez snipers have taken place
over the years (most notably the murder of seventeen protesters
in April 2002.)
3. CHAVEZ CAN´T
HAVE ENOUGH OF U.S. BUSINESS. The left thinks the U.S. economy
thrives at the expense of the world's poorer economies, including
those of Latin America. It should be outraged at the fact that
Chávez venerates the U.S. economy to the point of providing
it with 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, the equivalent of
60 per cent of the his oil exports, which in turn represent 80
percent of the nation's total exports. He has not made the slightest
attempt to make good on the promise to start substituting China
for the U.S. as an oil trade partner because he knows that the
cost of transporting it to China is simply too expensive and that
the Panama pipeline through which he would need to take it in
order to deliver it to the Pacific is already busy taking oil
from other countries in the opposite direction!
4. CHAVEZ WANTS TO
BECOME A WORLD BANK. Few causes have impassioned the left more
in the last few decades than the foreign debt of underdeveloped
nations, which is attributed to a conspiracy on the part of big
banks and their government backers. Chávez is fast becoming
a creditor to many Latin American nations by buying their sovereign
bonds (which are issued only after he offers to buy them.). He
has become an IMF and a World Bank onto himself. Argentina and
Ecuador combined owe him a bit less than $2 billion so far.
5. CHAVEZ POLLUTES
THE ENVIRONMENT. The left has denounced industrial capitalism
as an assault on the environment and has called time and again
for the replacement of oil as a primary source of energy because
of its polluting effects. But Chávez´s government
owns scores of refineries and cashes in big time on the processing
of his sulphur-heavy crude. In the U.S. alone, Citgo, the affiliate
of Venezuela's state oil concern, owns eight refineries and pays
Chávez almost $500 million a year in dividends!
6. CHAVEZ ADOPTS THE
PINOCHET LINE ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The left has rightly
condemned Pinochet´s treatment of the Chilean press during
his 16-year dictatorship. Chávez has passed a Law of Social
Responsibility in Radio and Television that Human Rights Watch,
the organization usually touted by the left when it wants to give
weight to its criticism of press censorship under right-wing governments,
has called “a recipe for self-censorship.”
7. CHAVEZ HAS INCREASED
POVERTY. The left has criticized the 1990s as a decade in which
“neoliberalism” (meaning free-market policies) failed
to reduce poverty in Latin America. Poverty in Venezuela is still
above the 1998 level—the year Chávez was elected
president. In the first five years, poverty increased by 10 percent
according to the government body that puts out statistics (by
the time Chávez realized the information had been posted
it was too late!) In the past two years, even though the economy
has grown because of astronomical oil prices and a rebound effect,
poverty has been only slightly reduced and the overall figure
is still above the 1998 mark.
8. CHAVEZ INVITES
FOREIGN DOMINATION. The left has traditionally been nationalistic
in Latin America, decrying the military, political or economic
presence of foreign powers (Spain's and Portugal's in colonial
times, Britain's in the 19th century, that of the U.S. in the
20th century.) There are between 30,000 and 50,000 Cuban advisors
in Venezuela, helping with everything from building up the intelligence
system to lending “social” services in the government-funded
“missions” (one of them, “Misión Barrio
Adentro”, is entirely handled by Cubans.) That's between
one fifth and one third of the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq!
9. CHAVEZ SENDS MONEY
ABROAD THAT IS NEEDED AT HOME. For years the left has vehemently
decried the remittances sent home by foreign investors in Latin
America with the argument that the proceeds of Latin America's
resources should be kept at home. A few weeks ago, just as Venezuelans
were shocked to discover that the highway linking the country's
main airport to Caracas had collapsed, Chávez announced
he would give Bolivia 200,000 barrels of diesel oil per month
to help Evo Morales.
