The Devil's Excrement

Wal Street Journal Editorial today:

The Dictator in Caracas

After last week’s editorial about his oil-for-influence campaign
aimed at the U.S. Congress, several readers objected to our description of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a “dictator.” Let’s hope these forgiving
souls paid attention to Sunday’s congressional elections in that country.

Mr. Chávez’s party or parties sympathetic to his Bolivarian
revolution won all 167 seats in the country’s unicameral congress. Every single
seat. But that Saddam-like sweep was only possible because most Venezuelans
decided not to participate. Even the government admits to an abstention rate of
greater than 75%. While it’s true the opposition boycotted, it did so knowing
how the government had cheated to win the August 2004 recall referendum.

The Chávez transgressions in 2004 included the use of voting
machines in which software was not reviewed, refusal to allow auditing of the
voting registry, not guaranteeing the secrecy of the vote, and using the list of
Venezuelans who had signed the recall petition to threaten the livelihoods of
government employees and contractors. Overseeing it all was a
government-appointed electoral council, which did what it could to outlaw
competition. The European Union was so appalled that it refused even to monitor
the 2004 vote.The EU and Organization of American States did show up this
weekend. But suspicions were heightened before Sunday’s vote when a technician
showed foreign monitors that the fingerprint tracking machines used at the polls
could be used to identify how individuals voted. In a country where the
government owns the means of production (mostly oil), Venezuelans fear that
voting wrong could cost them their jobs.

The government agreed to pull the fingerprint scanners, but the
damage was done. Venezuelans went on electoral strike. Mr. Chávez demanded that
government workers go to the polls, but to little avail. Venezuelans seem to
think they live in a dictatorship. The only issue is whether the rest of the
world, especially the OAS, will have the nerve to admit it.

This entry was posted on December 7, 2005 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Venezuela.