The Devil's Excrement

Brutal Power by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

It is curious, but the person that is going out of his mind the most with the case of TV station RCTV is Chavez himself. His reaction to the proposal by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, besides the brutal and unacceptably inconsiderate on the personal level, speaks about his psychological impossibility of carrying out a debate in a civilized tone.

The President does not tolerate the smallest disagreement. At the first sign of one, his fuses blow up.

Insulza, who should be congratulated for the pertinence of his words, made a moderate statement, alerting about the political repercussions (which he did not even qualify) that a measure like that of canceling the concession of RCTV would have. Obviously, it is not a threat; it is the ratification of a fact. Only the paranoid interpretation of Chavez can conceptualize it that way.

Or is it that Chavez imagines that liquidating a TV channel is not an action full of consequences? Chavez who meddles in everyone’s affairs, who gives opinions without blinking and on occasions, with lots of ignorance, about the policies of others countries, immediately covers himself with the national flag and thunders against a supposed interference of Insulza in our internal affairs. The person who made the statement was not Bush but someone of whom Chavez said in April of last year that “we have powerful reasons” to back him to be Secretary General of the OAS.

The Venezuelan Government lobbied for a “viceroy of the Empire” as he now qualifies the man that he voted fro? Insulza called for reflection and to review the decision. An understandable proposal which did not even enter into the legal or judicial aspects of the matter, but it simply stopped at the political consideration of the matter, and which, nevertheless, was responded to with a personal offense and with it the well-known “pseudo patriotic” argument. Chavez, of whom it is said understands that he put his foot in his mouth at the UN, will surely perceive soon how counterproductive his insults against Insulza will result. Give time to time.

The RCTV matter is not simply an “internal” matter, The repercussions of shutting down a TV channel go much further than our borders and pertain to all countries. It is not a matter only of defending a TV channel but of rejecting an authoritarian style, autocratic and brutal in its exercise of power. If the Secretary general of the OAS did not give his opinion on that, that would be out of the ordinary.

A Government like Chavez’ which is advancing an international policy as interventionist as the current one, can’t go later and rent its clothing when from the outside someone criticizes it or comments on its actions. If the Secretary General of the OAS of today, which is not the one of the sixties, could not “interfere” in matters as grave as the closing of an important TV station in any of our countries, then we certainly would have to dissolve the interamerican organization.

Integration and multilateralism have a cost, which all countries pay, of a relative reduction of their national sovereignty. Now, all countries have something to do with all countries. Even if Chavez is not pleased with this, he has to respect the rules of the game.

This entry was posted on January 9, 2007 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Venezuela.