Hugo Chávez's Venezuela

A coup against the constitution

Rather than share power with the opposition, Hugo Chávez castrates the newly elected legislature

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Readers' comments


luke weyland

autocratic rulers do not go to the polls
Venezuela's DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT, Hugo Chavez Frias personally has been to the polls three times.
His party has been to the polls many more times.


I agree with the post of Peter Grynch - Chavez is like most other socialists and will bleed the country to poverty as he enriches himself and his followers. There will be much suffering and bloodshed before Chavez leaves feet first.


Why Venezuela is on this situation?

Because USA supported Chavez state coup against the oldest stable democracy on the region.

It's nothing new. is the same history repeated many times, but USA didn't learnt anything.


Hugo is a dictator.

No if's, but's or maybe's about it.

He has squandered inmense wealth that was not his to squander, has allowed rampant corruption and all health, education and economic indicators are to low Africa levels. He actually makes Mr Mugabe look good.

But then again, all these socialists that don't live inVenezuela don't have to suffer the idiot.

PS: This comment in Venezuela could bring me 5 to 8 years of prison time!!


For a newspaper that strongly and openly supports free-market capitalism and civil rights, it seems to have a surprising amount of socialist and populist readers.


Chavez is a puppet of vested interests who managed to waste billions of petrodollars in the recent years. Venezula could have been the reachest country in both Americas, instead it is a third world country. This is the reason why Chavez was put in power to keep us underdeveloped and to waste the huge inflow of money coming from the petrol.


What about the dictatorial measures taken by Carlos Andres Perez, who died recently, like gunning down hundreds of protesters, or the even higher inflation and poverty that was in that country during the 80s and 90s? It's not like Venezuela was some democratic, stable, capitalist haven until 1998 and "Dictator Chavez" came along to make it a poor autocracy.


I would suggest reading 'The Silence and the Scorpion' to learn more about the 2002 'coup'. It wasn't really a coup for one thing, it was a power vacuum in the wake of mass protests that included general strikes. Some generals refused an (unconstitutional) order to put down a peaceful protest with force, and there was a report that Chavez had resigned. A junta of generals quickly assembled a transitional government that was to include labor and business leaders with military leaders. When the business leader Pedro Carmona overextended his authority, the generals quickly pulled their support for the 'coup' and Chavez was assisted back to power. If it was a coup, it was one of the worst-organized coups in history. The US had essentially nothing to do with it.

Top Hat 001

Dear Totel:

You are right that Chavez has recently been nationalizing industries and this would not make "The Economist" happy (after all, it admits it is a pro business newspaper). However, that normally implies that there will be biased articles about the nationalizations. This one is solely political so don't try to denounce Mr. Chavez's bad apples with "The Economist's" soured oranges. And “The Economist” is only slightly soured because it acknowledges it’s not entirely impartial unlike Mr. Chavez who claims he is running a democracy.

Furthermore, as Venezuela becomes an increasingly one party state the money that may well meant to be going to the poor with almost inevitably end up in the hands of government officials. To be in government is now a right rather than a duty if you are in Mr. Chavez's party and that means the responsibilities are replaced by rewards.

No regrets
Top Hat 001


I am open to all forms of government, but it should be apparent by looking at the country's economic performance and changes in living standards that Hugo is digging Venezuela into its own grave. The threat of civil uprising grows every day, and Hugo doesn't have enough goodies to make the population happy. He should look south to Brazil for a model for running a large South American country.

Peter Grynch

The future of Venezuela can be seen in present day Zimbabwe. There is no difference between Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe, except that Hugo Chavez still has the support of the "Useful Idiots" that Kruschev once counted on. The collapse into starvation and desperation is a little slower because of the oil wealth, but the end result is inevitable. The only question is how much damage will Venezuela do to the world through support of terrorism and support for revolution before it collapses.


Al Gore won the popular vote by 543,895 votes, but lost the electoral vote by a slim margin. This is legal and has happened before, such as when Samuel Tilden won the 1876 popular but lost the electoral vote to Rutherford B Hayes.
And here are the 2000 election results to back up my numbers

And Chavez seems to be going through the ever popular translation from Latin American reformer to Latin American autocrat. Happens a lot around these parts eh?


Has the world learned nothing from former Communist states or leaders such as Sadaam Hussein and Joseph Stalin. They all had so-called Democratic Institutions, only to abuse their powers. I wonder how many of the people posting on the economist are paid agents of the Venezuelan/Cuban secret services. For you see I lived in Eastern Europe during the Communist era, and some of these posts are earily reminiscent of their tactics.

Either way, I am not afraid, for you see global market forces will bring down Comrade Chavez. With inflation exceeding 20%, less than 50% productivity from nationalized companies, and a lack of access to foreign capital, Venezuela will become the pauper of South America (I am sure Simon Bolivar is turning in his grave). A recent report by the World Bank indicated that EVERY economy in South America grew except for Venezuela (the only reason that Bolivia did not contract is because the full range of "stealing" has not happened).

Given that the US economy is set to contract again (and the "gringos" are Venezuela's largest consumer), Venezuela's oil has a high sulfur contnet (making it very expensive to ship to China), and local restrictions on currency trading, Comrade Chavez will have to nationalize (steal) more in-efficient companies, and possibly devalue the currency- can anyone remember Zimbabwe and the 500 million percent inflation?

Therefore my dear comrades in Venezuela, do not fear. The big bad capitalist pig will come and get you. You will be lucky to surive, and not end up like Csaucescu in Romania (the last person who tried to work a capitalist and strictly communist system together).


Sorry EG, Bush won, even with the recount. Had St. Al won his home State we would not even be talking about this.

I hope the people of Venezuela can eventually overtake this rise by Chavez. Hopefully they will learn some lessons along the way to prevent this from happening again.

igualada dr

Chavistas have run out of reason and now wish to reach for an extreme situation in the USA to justify their manouvering? Chavez never intended to leave power once there. Unfortunately dear mazim me thinks that Hugo is there for the long haul and he will only be leaving feet-first, in the same manner the Castro brothers will relinquish their dictatorial dinasty. These "New Left" Latin American governments have pounced on the failures of their political and social leaders in order to gain power via elections and then establish dictatorial regimes with some degree of "populist" support; but as the Venezuela situation shows, in the long run there is not much difference between Hugo and Fidel (or Raul). May God have mercy on their respective people.


Enola Gay,

I am disappointed that your post was allowed to be published considering your quote is erroneous. I suggest that you change your quote. This forum is for honest debate and discussion.


No matter how Hugo Chavez manage to hold on power, it will not bode well to the Venezuelan people. Decree by military power is his only way to secure power and it seems that Hugo feels much threatened by the grassroot democratic movement that is shaping up to be. the pordinary people are threatened by his dictatorial stance to hold on power.

As I predicted many times in the past that Hugo's days are numbered as he is solidifying his power by virtue of unconstititional means inhibiting military intervention to hold on to power. It will not last long enough.


@Enola Gay:

You have a point. Bush didn't win the popular vote. He lost by some 0.6%. This is due to the electoral college.

In Venezuela the opposition wins more than 50% of the vote and they get less than 40% of the seats due to gerrymandering. That gerrymandering took place over the past few years


To Enola Gay - don't compare the farce that is Venezuelan democracy to a two hundred plus year functioning republic in America.

Bush won the election. The only reason there was any controversy is that the media jumped the gun and called Florida for Gore when people were still voting in the panhandle (Central Time Zone). In fact, the declaration for Gore was so early that many Republicans didn't bother to vote in western states (hence the Gore popular vote victory).

The Supreme Court declared the selective and arbitrary Florida recount to be unconstitutional by a vote of 7-2.



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