Venezuleans Finally Catching On to Chavez's Socialism

Hugo Chavez has been trying to turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship in his own image for years. His thugs have repeatedly taken to the streets to beat the opposition into submission, though he's not managed to cow the legislature into granting him dictatorial power just yet.

His efforts have stalled precisely because a combination of factors, including a stagnant economy despite high oil prices. Chavez continues to press for the kind of reform that would place still more power in his hands as part of "reform":

Riot police used tear gas Wednesday to block hundreds of Venezuelans protesting the latest moves by President Hugo Chavez to concentrate his power. The demonstrators said a blacklist of opposition candidates and a series of socialist decrees are destroying what's left of their democracy.

Though the protest of about 1,000 people chanting "freedom!" was small compared to past marches, there is a growing public outcry over the sidelining of key government opponents ahead of state and local elections in November.

Chavez opponents also are outraged by 26 laws the president just decreed, some of them mirroring the socialist measures voters rejected in a December referendum.

"We said in the referendum that we didn't want that, and now he's put it in the decrees," said protester Josefina Bravo, a 59-year-old who wore a sticker reading "No means no" on her baseball cap. "That's the problem we have: All the powers are concentrated in the president."

We've seen these tactics before, and the results are invariably the same - the people suffer tremendously as the dictatorship and his inner circle benefits. It's happened in Zimbabwe and it will happen here as well.