The Venezuelan election is scheduled for next Sunday, December 3.
Last night I had the pleasure of talking to Daniel Duquenal of Venezuela News and Views about the upcoming elections. As soon as Pajamas Media posts the podcast, I’ll let you know.
The Beeb asks, “What kind of a leader is Chavez?”
The Beeb asked Daniel Duquenal of Venezuela News and Views “What kind of a leader is Chavez?”
Here’s 
what he had to say,
As a leader Chavez has been changing considerably over the years.
From your average military coupster in 1992, he evolved into a political leader able to unite a broad coalition from the right to the left for his 1998 election.
His military origins… make him view all political adversaries as enemies that must be crushed
But since then he has been drifting, becoming a leftist leader whose goal is to ensure the succession to Fidel Castro, to become the iconic image of the Latin America Left.
Chavez has revealed himself a purely political leader. The hands-on approach, monitoring whether the law and his orders, are fulfilled is not for him.
Chavez does not care much if the results are up to expectations or if they represent the will of the people. The only results that matter are those deriving from the politics of the “Bolivarian revolution” which aims to ensure its staying power over the decades, with Chavez in charge.
Chavez only worries about appearing as the only viable leader of the so-called revolution. His main concern has been to set the agenda alone, all the time, preferably every Sunday through his talk show Alo Presidente.
He has been very successful at this, even if along the way he has left a stupendous catalogue of promises made, but ignored.
In a country used to decades of populist governments, it has worked out quite well for Chavez who has simply outdone any previous Venezuelan leader’s promises, but with more charisma and much better contact with the masses.
His military origins also make him view all political adversaries as enemies that must be crushed.
And there lies his weakness as a leader: once victory is achieved he does not know what to do with it, and thus he looks for new adversaries at home or abroad.
Along the way, he exhausts the country.
At other links, Pajamas Media, one more article on Hezbollah in Venezuela
But terrorists within Venezuela need to keep a low profile. No one wanted a buffoon like Darnott drawing attention to Hezbollah’s presence. Chavez is drawing ever closer to Iran, Hezbollah’s chief sponsor, and before this story broke reporters had already begun to question the relationship between the Iranian embassy in Venezuela and Hezbollah’s activities there. Given a likely Iranian-embassy connection to Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing of a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, such scrutiny is quite justified. Darnott’s anti-Israel and anti-American activities stirred up resistance among the local synagogues, and attracted attention in the blogosphere and on Fox News.
Also, while Chavez frequently relies on a mythical impending U.S. invasion as an excuse for further tightening his control over his country, the last thing he wants is an actual U.S. invasion. A major strike against an American embassy or ambassador would have invited retaliation from the United States, especially since Darnott was able to recruit terrorists publicly and with impunity all summer long and Chavez had done nothing about him.
Louisiana Conservative has a post and round-up on the Smartmatic voting machines.
Read Alex Beech’s Final Thoughts Before the Elections
(technorati tags Politics Latin America Venezuela Hugo Chavez elections)
