The normally loquacious President Chávez of Venezuela has fallen silent. He travelled to Cuba three weeks ago, apparently for surgery to deal with a pelvic abcess. There has been no official word of his condition or his whereabouts since, though much speculation that his illness might be more serious than initially assumed. In the meantime, Venezuela is a country that has gone from presidential misrule to a missing President. Mr Chávez has thereby inadvertently demonstrated the difference between mere talk and real transparency.
In the past generation many important Latin American states have, like Spain during Juan Carlos’s reign, emerged from military dictatorship to become stable constitutional democracies. Parties of the moderate Left have governed well for much of that time in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. They have respected the political rights of other parties and effectively managed their respective national economies.
Venezuela is the striking exception to the trend. Mr Chávez has presided over a bitter recession, an annual inflation rate of about 30 per cent and an unemployment rate of almost 10 per cent. At a time of buoyant global commodity prices, he has squandered the country’s oil revenues, which account for about 30 per cent of GDP. Real incomes have fallen precipitately.
The populace of a nation with abundant natural resources has grown used to power cuts, water shortages and crumbling roads. Corruption is endemic and crime is burgeoning. Caracas has the highest murder rate of any city in the world.
Mr Chávez has responded to criticism of this record of fecklessness by curtailing the freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary and harassing his political opponents. His authoritarianism is so blatant that even the unconfrontational Jimmy Carter has declared himself increasingly concerned by it. Human Rights Watch declared: “By broadening laws that punish disrespect for government authorities, the Venezuelan Government has flouted international human rights principles that protect free expression.” Credulous admirers of Mr Chávez tend to overlook his demonstrated contempt for constitutional politics and his leadership of a failed military coup in 1992.
Advertisement
Like many leaders who provoke domestic discontent, Mr Chávez has turned to declamations on foreign affairs to make his mark on office. They are singular and extravagant. He has praised Robert Mugabe and President Ahmadinejad of Iran as “brothers” and described Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, as a freedom fighter.
Venezuelans will next week be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence from Spain. Yet Mr Chávez has already cancelled a summit of Latin American and Caribbean heads of state called to coincide with it, and there is no official word whether he will return from Cuba to mark the anniversary.
Even were its head of state a competent administrator and a unifying presence, Venezuela could not be effectively governed with him lying in a hospital bed in a foreign country. The absence of information is an indication of how far Venezuela has travelled from the principles of constitutional government. A dispiritingly traditional military strongman turns out to be not a strong man — or even, any longer, a loud mouth.