Late Night With Hugo Chavez
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A21
I'm not sure whether Pat Robertson has lost his tenuous grip on reality or
is just trying to boost "The 700 Club" in the Nielsens. If it's ratings
he's after, he'll probably get them: It's not every day that you hear a
brand-name evangelist call for murdering a foreign leader in cold blood. I
thought the bumper-sticker slogan was "Jesus Is My Co-Pilot," not "Jesus
Is My Hit Man."
Robertson called his target, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a
"dictator" -- which is more than slightly ironic. You will recall that the
preacher showed his love of freedom by supporting such murderous thugs as
Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Charles Taylor of Liberia. You'll also
recall that, coincidentally, Robertson's companies ended up with valuable
concessions to mine for gold and diamonds in those countries.
Say goodnight, Pat; it's time to sign off.
Chavez, on the other hand, is just beginning his run in prime time, and
his show promises to be must-see TV. I'm not just flogging a metaphor:
Chavez has his own Sunday night talk show -- translated, the title is
"Hello, President!" -- and it can only be described as a unique exercise
in stream-of-presidential-consciousness.
One evening in June, for example, he brought out the head of the
Venezuelan navy and proceeded to talk sports with him, then predicted that
the Venezuelan national volleyball team would beat the Cuban squad,
taunting his friend Fidel Castro with his assessment that the result would
be a "knockout." He then abruptly turned to chat with a group of peasants
who now occupy land that Chavez's government had seized from its wealthy
owners in a program of land reform. That was all in the first few minutes.
Sometimes Chavez just delivers a long, rambling monologue. Occasionally he
will break into song.
It's a mistake, though, to think of Chavez as a buffoon. For one thing,
Venezuela is a charter member of OPEC and ranks as the world's
fifth-largest exporter of oil, which automatically lends its leader a
certain gravitas. And with support and guidance from a shrewd mentor --
that would be Castro, who knows a bit about U.S. assassination attempts --
Chavez is emerging as the most significant challenger to U.S. dominance in
the hemisphere.
In broad strokes, Chavez is a character out of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's
magical-realist novels. As a charismatic army colonel, he led two failed
coup attempts -- the second from a jail cell -- before coming to power the
old-fashioned way, through the ballot box, in 1998. His ideology was
obscure until he turned decisively left, donning the mantle of Venezuela's
favorite son, independence leader Simon Bolivar, to provide historical
legitimacy.
He so enraged the Venezuelan upper classes that they tried to oust him
with demonstrations, strikes, a short-lived coup and a recall election.
But his support among the poor majority only solidified as he flooded the
slums with petrodollars to pay for desperately needed social services that
previous regimes had neglected.
Castro sent his protégé thousands of well-trained Cuban physicians -- the
joke in Havana these days is that you can't find a good doctor, they're
all in Caracas. He also sent advisers who are helping Chavez reorganize
the slums on what looks remarkably like the Cuban model. In Havana, it's
said that Castro also sent an experienced team to guarantee Chavez's
personal security. In return, Castro is receiving an ample supply of oil
for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed.
Chavez's ascent has come at a time when other major Latin American
governments have been shifting to the left -- Argentina, Brazil, perhaps
Mexico next year. Sometimes Chavez goes off the reservation, as he did
recently by musing about a joint nuclear program with Iran; he drew quick
rebukes from his neighbors. But with all that Venezuelan oil, and with the
price at more than $60 a barrel, Chavez could sing a lullaby in Farsi on
his television show and still be a major player.
The Bush administration chafes at Chavez's frequent rhetorical jabs and
worries about his attempt to lead the region away from free-market
orthodoxy. But the United States continues to buy more than half of the
oil
that Venezuela produces. Business is
business.
But when Robertson called for his assassination, Chavez was in Cuba on one
of his frequent visits -- and that relationship is what really drives the
White House nuts. On the nightly state-run newscast in Cuba, the coverage
of Chavez is almost as reverent and hagiographic as the coverage of Castro
himself. At 79, Castro finally has a formidable successor to play the role
of stubborn burr under the yanquí saddle.
The author will answer questions today at 2 p.m.
onhttp://www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail iseugenerobinson@washpost.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501618.html
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