Douglas Mackinnon, former aide to Sen. Bob Dole, is watching today's recall election in Venezuela with a worried eye.
On any given day, Venezuela is the No. 1 to No. 4 supplier of gasoline and oil to the United States. Its internal politics and stability are of great importance and concern to our national security. All in our government who follow this issue are holding their breath, crossing their fingers, and hoping that the opposition in Venezuela succeeds in ousting Chavez.Why? The reasons are many and simple. Since his election in 1998, Hugo Chavez has become a dictator in all but title. He has: openly courted and visited terrorist leaders around the world; he has aligned himself with Fidel Castro; he has imported thousands of intelligence operatives from Cuba to spy on his own people; he has used the vilest language to attack President Bush and our nation; he has openly tried to destabilize the government of Colombia; he has exported revolution throughout the region; and he has allowed members of al-Qaida to operate within the borders of Venezuela. By any rational definition, this man is a threat to our nation and to the entire Western Hemisphere.
Just a few months ago, all of the polls showed that the vast majority of Venezuelans would like to recall Chavez. Today, thanks to a disorganized, egotistical and a myopic opposition, record prices for a barrel of oil and the street-wise cunning of Chavez, the polls are basically even or show Chavez running ahead. When the last vote is counted or stolen in the late hours of Sunday, there is a very real chance that Hugo Chavez will not only survive this latest attempt to oust him from power, but emerge stronger.
Along with many others, I have long maintained that Chavez would not have approved this recall referendum in the first place if he hadn't already devised several ways to defeat it.
It is all or nothing for him, and he does not intend to relinquish a corrupt presidency that has allowed him and his supporters to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars out of the treasury.
Wall Street Journal author Mary Anastasia O'Grady says Chavez is well on his way to becoming "Fidel's Mini-Me."
If passions among Venezuela's opposition seem extreme in the run-up to today's recall referendum on President Hugo Chavez, it is not without good reason. From his presidential bully pulpit, Mr. Chavez virulently rails against the U.S. as an international menace, sympathizes with Middle Eastern militancy and, most frightening for Venezuelans, dreams of making his country into another Cuba.The process of Cubanizing Venezuela is well underway.
It's hard to be optimistic.
UPDATE: Apparently voters are turning out in record numbers.
Summoned by bugle calls and firecrackers, millions of Venezuelans turned out in unprecedented numbers Sunday to vote on whether to force leftist President Hugo Chavez from office.Lines snaked for blocks in upscale neighborhoods, where suspicion is high that the leftist leader plans a Cuba-style dictatorship, and in the slums, where support for his "revolution for the poor" is fervent. A seven-hour wait to vote was common.
The first-ever recall referendum for a president in Venezuela's history was aimed at putting a lid on years of often violent political unrest and came after a lengthy and complicated process of mass signings of petitions.
Election officials decided to keep polls open at least four hours longer than scheduled and assured voters that polling stations would be kept open until everyone in line cast their ballots.
UPDATE: Some violence is also breaking out.
A gunman in Venezuela's capital killed one person and injured 12 as they stood in line to vote on whether to recall President Hugo Chavez, the city's fire chief said.Posted by Alan at August 15, 2004 10:10 AMBullets sprayed from a vehicle passing near a line of voters in the eastern Petare neighborhood of Caracas at about 5 p.m. in Caracas, Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno said in an interview.