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# Posted 9:16 PM by Ariel David Adesnik

HUGO'S MISERABLES: Tomorrow, the people of Venezuela have a change to bring to an end the demagogic and increasingly authoritarian rule of Hugo Chavez. For a brief and damning account of Chavez's efforts to undermine Venezuelan democracy, see Bernard Aronson's column in today's NYT. Aronson writes that:

Two months ago, for example, the Chávez-controlled National Assembly added 11 justices to the Supreme Court, and changed the requirement for confirmation from two-thirds of legislators to a simple majority, guaranteeing Mr. Chávez control of the judiciary. As a result, should Mr. Chávez lose the referendum, the court is likely to ratify his stated intention to run for president in the election to fill his vacancy, even though a disinterested reading of the Venezuelan Constitution suggests that he would be ineligible.

Mr. Chávez's record of subverting democracy doesn't stop there. Though much of the Venezuelan media remains in private hands and is clearly allied with the opposition, it is slowly being strangled by regulations that deny it access to hard currency. And, whenever Mr. Chávez wishes, he decrees that all private television and radio stations, along with the state-owned news media, carry his speeches live.

What's more, his government has manipulated the criminal justice system to thwart political opponents. Henrique Capriles Radonski, a leader of Justice First, a reformist political party, and the elected mayor of the Baruta district of Caracas, languishes in jail on a clearly fraudulent charge of fomenting a riot. María Corina Machado, a director of Súmate, a civic group allied with the opposition, is being prosecuted on charges equivalent to treason because her organization accepted a grant of more than $50,000 from the National Endowment
for Democracy, which is financed in part by Congress, to educate Venezuelans about their voting rights. Yet only one Venezuelan has been arrested in the killings of more than 25 opposition emonstrators in clashes with supporters of Mr. Chávez over the last three years.

At the moment, Mr. Chavez is extremely confident that he will prevail in tomorrow's referendum. If he does prevail, one hopes that it will be a honest victory and not a product of fraud. Yet even a certifiable win for Mr. Chavez will reflect his profligate spending of state oil revenues for political purposes.

While Mr. Aronson and others despair that a victory for Mr. Chavez will usher in a new era of pseudo-democracy or even outright dictatorship in Latin America, I am not so concerned. Mr. Aronson writes that:

Like former President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, Mr. Chávez represents a new breed of Latin autocrat - a leader who is legitimately elected but then uses his office to undermine democratic checks and balances and intimidate political opponents.

Mr. Aronson avoids taking note of the fact that massive demonstrations by the people of Peru forced Mr. Fujimori to resign. Other impending dictators, such Carlos Menem of Argentina, ultimately found it impossible to extend their term office beyond its constitutionally-imposed limits. Seen from this perspective, Mr. Chavez is more of a talented dinosaur than he is a man of the future.

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