The Devil and Mr. Chávez
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela got a big Bronx cheer in New York-the New York Daily News neatly captured the response in its front-page headline, "Big Apple to Big Mouth: Zip It!" But at the U.N. General Assembly, where anti-Americanism is the order of the day, Chávez was greeted by lusty applause. Referring to President Bush as "the devil," he described our government as "imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal," and "hypocritical." For good measure, he added that America is a threat to the survival of mankind. New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel, no fan of President Bush, reacted to Chávez's remarks as the alleged diplomats on the East River should have. "You don't come into my country," the congressman said, "and condemn my president."
But Chávez wasn't talking to Americans. His pitch is to the Latin America he is intent on leading inexorably leftward. And there is undoubtedly a shift in that direction following the failure of the meager economic, social, and political reforms of the 1980s. Today, the region is beset by poverty, the world's most extreme inequality of wealth and power, unemployment, and rampant corruption. Who can blame the impoverished masses from Caracas, Venezuela, to São Paulo, Brazil, for voting for politicians and policies they hope will finally improve their lives?
Chávez comes from a country where most are poor, and many feel neglected by the previous political and economic order. Chávez became the hero of the left by projecting a sincere concern for the poor while his opponents failed to put forth an alternative model. The result was a level of discontent that made the country vulnerable to Chávez's indictment of the old order.
"Disrespect." But authoritarian regimes come not only from the right. At home, Chávez has conducted himself in the long and storied tradition of the caudillo, the power-hungry autocrat, controlling all state institutions, limiting their ability to enforce accountability and to infringe on his presidential power and prerogatives. He gained legal protection through a law that allowed him to stack the Supreme Court with cronies. He quashes dissent with a new law permitting the state to imprison any citizen showing "disrespect" for government officials. Worse, Chávez has compiled lists of individual voters so as to intimidate them and deny opponents jobs and services. And now he's talking about a constitutional change that will let him remain in power indefinitely.
Besides controlling the Supreme Court, Chávez also holds an iron grip on the armed forces and the National Electoral Council, ensuring that voting irregularities are overlooked-a good thing for him since he has padded Venezuela's electoral rolls with the names of hundreds of thousands of phantom voters. He has also taken control of the gigantic state-controlled oil company, PDVSA, the only significant source of state revenue, giving him a blank check for spending.
Despite all this self-aggrandizement, Chávez's programs haven't worked. State patronage and violent crime have gotten worse. State spending has almost doubled as a percentage of the gross domestic product-despite the fact that oil prices went from $12 a barrel when he came into office to $60 today. For all the talk about fighting poverty and fixing education, low wages and lousy schools are still a fact of life for most Venezuelans.
Chávez has worked to establish himself on the cutting edge as a regional leader by exploiting the sentiment that Washington pushed Latin America around for too long. His speeches are rife with anti-American rhetoric. But his act is more than just talk. Chávez has visited America's enemies around the globe, expressing his support for Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who calls the Venezuelan a "brother and trench mate." Chávez's brash anti-American rhetoric and behavior are intended to purge American influence from the region, and he is not above using oil money to win political allies: He has bought over $2 billion in Argentine bonds.
As a result of all this, Chávez has given new life to the longtime Cuban effort to export a left-wing revolution throughout Latin America. His close friendship with his mentor, Fidel Castro, has been key to this effort. Cuba today provides 20,000 teachers and doctors to Venezuela, along with other support, while Chávez reciprocates with an estimated 90,000 barrels of oil a day for Cuba. Chávez's emergence has also helped other leaders-such as Evo Morales of Bolivia-to emerge in direct response to some of the same frustrations that gave rise to Chávez in Venezuela.
The Bush administration's ability to confront Chávez directly has been hobbled by its deep unpopularity in the region and by the fact that it has been focused so intently on the war against terrorism and war in Iraq. But Chavismo represents a major threat to American interests in the region, which we ignore at our peril. Chávez may sound like a joke, but it is a bad joke at the expense of his people-and, potentially, us.
This story appears in the October 9, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.