Venezuelans Rain on Hugo

Its voters have earned the U.S.'s attention--and its active support.

Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 12:01 a.m.

The stunning defeat Sunday of President Hugo Chávez's constitutional reform agenda is more than a setback for Venezuela's messianic strongman. It is a victory for the ideal of liberty across Latin America. What an affirmation of that ideal it would be if the U.S. Congress now did its part to keep it alive by voting to liberalize trade with Venezuela's neighbors. More on that in a moment. The kudos for now go to the people of Venezuela.

Mr. Chávez had at his disposal an almost limitless supply of petro-dollars to support--and to impose--what amounted to a personal coup against that nation's democracy. He tried to bully Venezuelans into voting for one-man rule and a hard model of socialism. They said no. Algimiro Polanco, a 56-year-old bus driver, told the Miami Herald, "I have always voted for Chávez, but he wants a dictatorship like Cuba. I don't want the government to take my small house. It's mine."

There were reports from Caracas as early as 8:30 p.m. Sunday night that the "No" vote against the Chávez proposals was victorious. Intriguingly, it took the Chávez-controlled National Electoral Council until 1:15 a.m. to announce the results. Apparently, Mr. Chávez was reluctant to accept the final count, but the military knew that the opposition students held the tally sheets from all the polling stations. When it became clear that there was no way to fudge the results, Mr. Chávez conceded defeat, though the margin of his loss is still being debated.


The Chávez opposition was celebrating its first electoral triumph in nine years yesterday and it must have tasted good. Venezuela's student opposition deserves special mention for the outcome. The fact that the Chávez program went down in flames is due in no small part to the courage of the country's university students, who persisted with few resources against the Chávez machine. For months they have braved tear gas and riot police in cities across the country and responded only with cries for liberty and the open palms that became the symbol of their movement.

The package of reforms that Mr. Chávez wanted the electorate to approve on Sunday would have eviscerated Venezuela's civil liberties. The reforms were yet another assault on economic rights in a country with few left. Mr. Chávez wanted to officially strip the central bank of its autonomy and to end guarantees of private property. These amendments seem to have most frightened people living at the far end of the spectrum from the country's elite. With inflation on food and non-alcoholic beverages clocking in at 7.1% for November alone, few Venezuelans were ready to hand over to Mr. Chávez the powers he sought over money creation.

So yes, the joy this defeat has produced is warranted. But all democrats in the region should be forewarned that Mr. Chávez isn't likely to stop his efforts at revolution inside or outside the country. The president still has control of all the country's political institutions. Indeed in the early hours Monday morning he warned the nation that his defeat is only "for now." He pledged that he will get his reforms accomplished without changing a single word of what he put before them on Sunday.

Mr. Chávez remains a threat to region. He is in a race against time to impose his will before his star fades, as it already has in Peru, Brazil and Mexico. His expansionist agenda has the potential to undermine Colombia's democracy, and has already destabilized Bolivia and Ecuador.


This brings us to the U.S. role. The Chávezes of the world rise below our border when people there see little hope. The U.S. Senate today is scheduled to vote to ratify a free-trade agreement with Peru. A similar pact to open the economy of Colombia, however, is bogged down in the pettiest politics of Democratic Presidential campaigning and in the House. Such a crabbed view of the Americas has bad consequences.

There is nothing better the U.S. could do to reward Venezuelans for their bravery than to kick-start that region's economy by enacting these agreements. After Sunday's performance, Venezuelans have rightly earned the U.S.'s attention and its support.