Strong Arming In Venezuela

Well, I suspected this all along, but we now have more substantial proof that [T]hugo Chavez tried to steal the election referendum that would have amended the Venezuelan constitution and enabled him to run as el presidente for life. Apparently, the military and a former confidant told Chavez in no uncertain terms that if he tried to steal the election, he would face a coup d'etat.

Most of Latin America's leaders breathed a sigh of relief earlier this week, after Venezuelan voters rejected President Hugo Chávez's constitutional amendment referendum. In private they were undoubtedly relieved that Chávez lost, and in public they expressed delight that he accepted defeat and did not steal the election. But by midweek enough information had emerged to conclude that Chávez did, in fact, try to overturn the results. As reported in El Nacional, and confirmed to me by an intelligence source, the Venezuelan military high command virtually threatened him with a coup d'état if he insisted on doing so. Finally, after a late-night phone call from Raúl Isaías Baduel, a budding opposition leader and former Chávez comrade in arms, the president conceded—but with one condition: he demanded his margin of defeat be reduced to a bare minimum in official tallies, so he could save face and appear as a magnanimous democrat in the eyes of the world. So after this purportedly narrow loss Chávez did not even request a recount, and nearly every Latin American colleague of Chávez's congratulated him for his "democratic" behavior. Why did these leaders not speak out? Surely they knew of Chávez's machinations, and with the exception of Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Bolivia's Evo Morales and, to a large extent, the Argentine Kirchner duo, none of the region's heads of state sympathizes with the Venezuelan revolutionary.

The head spins at the nonsensical statements cast about by leaders around the world congratulating him on acting democratically in accepting the loss.

Did they not know or not care that Chavez tried to throw the election and the close election was a sap to Chavez's oversized ego? Or, are they worried about a fifth column in their own countries that Chavez has cultivated over the past few years that would give those leaders trouble that they're not able to face?

Do they not know that Chavez will try again, after he's thoroughly prepped the battlefield? He's going to move against the opposition media outlets and his opponents directly to prevent them from organizing against his agenda.

Chavez remains extremely dangerous to the Venezuelan people, and it appears that they're beginning to understand what's going on. More importantly, it appears that there are cooler heads prevailing in the military that would speak out in defense of the Venezuelan people.