Hugo Chavez: a false Venezuelan democracy
by Aimee Kligman
Link to ArticleDiego Arria is a distinguished diplomat, who served as Venezuela’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in the 90’s, and as the President of the UN Security Council (1992-1993). Prior to that, he served as the Governor of Caracas and the Minister of Information and Tourism. Mr. Arria is currently involved in supporting and organizing opposition movements challenging the regime of Hugo Chávez.Mr. Arria wrote an oped for the European Courier detailing Chávez' rise to power, and as little as our politicians know about him, it is likely that they know even less than Mr. Arria is willing to reveal. Chávez likes to refer to Venezuela as a socialist democracy; after all, people will remember that he 'won' an election, people voted, and now he also has his referendum, whereby he can run for president till he drops. The people's choice? Hardly. Arria describes Chávez as a criminal who has not yet received his due. He is definitely not repentent about the way he got where he is, which was marked with the death of over 100 people. In 1992, Carlos Andrés Pérez was still president of the Republic of Venezuela. In February of that year, Chávez attempted a coup during which he nearly killed Andrés and his family, as Chávez had ordered the attack on the presidential palace with mortars. Though Andrés survived, others didn't.There was a demonstration against Chávez in 2002, and though it was peaceful, it frightened him enough to order police to use tanks against the unarmed civilians. As a result of snipers and police 'brutality", 19 people died. That debt has still not been repaid. How did Chávez get away with it? He decided that this had been an attempted coup against his presidency, thus vindicating the criminals who killed the innocent civilians. On April 11, 2002, Commander Francisco Arias Cardenas said: 'We are facing a murderer, Hugo Chávez, author and intellectual leader of this band of criminals who ordered the snipers to fire on protesting crowds. The President, who is a murderer, (is) spotted with the blood of the Venezuelans' Arria defines Chávez, as many others have, as a megalomaniac, who has often compared himself with Simon Bolivar. That said, this makes him immune to any kind of recrimination for unlawful behavior. However, Arria is certain that sooner or later, justice will catch up with him. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. If you have accounts on these bookmarking sites, you can post this story to share it with others.
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