Cato Institute:
Chavez's Actions Eroding Venezuela's Credibility, Economy
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-29-2007/0004597509&EDATE=
WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This weekend, Hugo
Chavez clamped down on Venezuela's media, sparking protests in Caracas
that were quickly met with violence by the police. Cato scholars are
available to discuss Chavez's egregious centralization of power.
Gustavo Coronel, author of the recent Cato Institute study
"Corruption, Mismanagement, and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chavez's
Venezuela," comments:
"Hugo Chavez's recent actions -- including his increasing control over
the Orinoco oil fields without prompt or clear compensation to foreign
operators, the recent takeovers of CANTV, the Caracas Electricity
Company, and Venezuela's largest telephone company, the denial of a
government broadcasting permit to opposition TV station Radio Caracas
TV and concurrent confiscation of the station's equipment -- are clear
signs of Chavez's disdain for democracy and free enterprise and of the
emergence in Venezuela of a totalitarian political regime. Chavez's
actions have been taken against the wishes of over 80% of the
Venezuelan population and have received the overwhelming rejection of
international public opinion. At this moment thousands of Venezuelans
are in the streets protesting vigorously against this chain of
arbitrary actions."
He concludes: "As a result of Chavez's departure from democratic
principles, both the financial credibility and prestige of his
government have significantly weakened -- as evidenced by the fall of
Venezuelan bonds in the international financial markets and the
current losses suffered by the Caracas Stock Exchange."
Ian Vasquez, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Global
Liberty and Prosperity, comments:
"If there were any doubts about the intolerant nature of the Chavez
regime, the closing of RCTV should eliminate them once and for all.
That action follows a pattern in which Chavez has increasingly
concentrated power in his own hands and long ago abandoned the
substance of democracy. Unfortunately, the fact that the move against
RCTV was highly unpopular will probably have little effect. Power has
become so centralized in Venezuela that there are no checks and
balances in a government where the executive controls the congress,
the Supreme Court, the electoral committee, the military, vast amounts
of oil wealth, much of the private sector because of capital controls
and nationalizations, and, increasingly, the media. Under those
conditions, effective protest is extremely difficult."
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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