Venezuela’s autocrat Hugo Chavez has gone after the opposition, labor unions, media, term limits, courts, foreign businesses, domestic businesses and anything that hasn’t subdued itself to his “21st Century Socialism.” But even though the opposition and criticism have been marginalized, Chavez is not growing any popular. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: Chavez’s popularity is sinking from 60% earlier this year to 46% today. This disapproval rating has risen from 30% to 46% and 59% of Venezuelans rate the country’s path as negative.
That is because Chavez cannot ban perceptions and people see how his socialism has ruined the economy: rising inflation, declining productivity and development.
Chavez has squandered $800B in oil revenues since he has been in power. Crime is up throughout the capital. And Chavez has recently declared that water and power will be rationed from now on.
Chavez has responded like any other petty dictator: Seek more power:
El Universal, a Venezuelan daily, reports that Chávez has announced that he can expropriate private enterprises at will because he was given that power by the people. Why worry about the rule of law when you have the ability to interpret the will of the people?
And this aspiring Stalin sees himself as a savior king bestowing benign socialism on Venezuela:
Every day I’m more of a revolutionary, every day I’m more socialist… I’m going to take Venezuela toward socialism, with the people and the workers…The revolution is not negotiable, socialism is not negotiable, because every day I’m more convinced that socialism is the kingdom of God on earth. That is what Christ came to announce.
This is the extremist salvation rhetoric that leads to death camps as the leaders seeks to justify all measures necessary for his utopia.
“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven.” - European philosopher Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin.
