A Human Rights Watch report published last week reinforces the views of some commentators that President Hugo Chavez is slowly but surely turning Venezuela into an autocratic, highly centralised state.
The report particularly singled out the threat to judicial independence and freedom of the press posed by legislation in those sectors. President Chavez has always shown little or no tolerance for any media outlets within the temerity to be critical of his policies, but the current law contains a ban on transmitting or publishing events or statements that threaten "national security", with only vague definitions of what that means. Chavez and his supporters have defended their actions by claiming they simply want to raise broadcasting standards, but as we have seen in authoritarian regimes throughout history, for "national security" one can read "anything the ruling party and /or president doesn't happen to like".
In combination with the new restrictions on the media came a law allowing the ruling party to appoint Supreme Court judges with a simple majority and expand the number of judges from 20 to 32. While Government supporters claim the move is simply designed to weed out corrupt judges, critics see it as a blatant strategy to stack the judiciary with the Government's own tame supporters. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, stated unequivocally at a news conference in Washington: "There has been a continued consolidation of power on the part of Chavez."
On the same day Roth was launching the report, Venezuelan authorities announced that four opposition activists, including Sumate election rights group founder Maria Corina Machado, would go on trial for conspiracy. Five of the main opposition parties boycotted Venezuela's parliamentary elections last December. As a result a mere 25 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote, compared with 60 per cent in 2002.
Many commentators felt that the boycott was a flawed strategy as it would effectively allow Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement to gain the two-thirds majority necessary to change the constitution. This is precisely what happened, with the ruling party winning 114 of 167 seats and the remainder split fairly evenly between five other parties, including the Communist Party of Venezuela, so that there is now no opposition worthy of the name. It is only a matter of time before Chavez alters the constitution to allow him to continue as President well beyond his specified term.
Dictators throughout history have always shown no respect for the traditional institutions and symbols of their countries and Chavez is no exception. Having renamed Congress, the Supreme Court and even the country itself, which is now officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the regime is currently changing the flag and the coat of arms. Historian Manuel Caballero has declared: "The changes are a reflection of the whims of the President, who is determined to rewrite history his way". Indeed, rewriting history is one of the classic crimes of totalitarian regimes of all kinds and those that criticise such practices have a tendency to end up in prison. So congratulations for speaking up, Manuel Caballero, but watch your back!
In his economic policy to date Chavez has not moved towards total centralised control of the economy. In fact, to his credit, he has stuck by his promise to increase workers' ownership of the factors of production by using Venezuela's abundant oil revenues to fund the establishment of many workers' co-operatives. However, that all seems about to change. The President announced last Friday that 32 privately operated oil fields are to be brought under state ownership. This is expected to provide the regime with a windfall of US$1.5 billion in extra revenues this year.
Of course oil companies are not the most popular organisations in the world right now and many Australians contemplating the high price of petrol might be happy to see the likes of Shell and BP given a bloody nose now and again. However, in this case there are a couple of reasons for concern. Chavez has stated that he plans to make natural gas, of which Venezuela also possesses huge reserves, the country's main energy source. Oil would then be stockpiled solely for export, no doubt at the highest possible price. In a world where oil reserves are inevitably going to decline this could be an extremely powerful bargaining chip in future international relations.
The second factor that is setting alarm bells ringing in Washington and London is Venezuela's increasingly close relationship with fellow oil giant Iran. Chavez has made four visits to Iran in his six years as president and the two countries have signed nearly 50 documents for co-operation since 2004.
During their third Joint Economic Commission session last month Caracas and Tehran signed 21 documents for co-operation in various fields, including gas and petrochemicals. President Chavez stated that when it came to sharing technology Iran is his most important partner. This comes at a time when Iran is under suspicion of having a nuclear weapons programme and its president has publicly expressed a desire to wipe Israel from the map. An alliance between the likes of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is something the world can well do without.
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