Venezuela Votes to Continue and Expand Dictatorship

Voters poised to re-elect Chavez in a landslide.

The opposition to Chavez's dictatorial rule had no chance. Chavez has a record of stifling all opposition, including sending his violent supporters to blockade media outlets that broadcast anything negative about the Dictator. It's gotten so bad that the free press in Venezuela is only free inasmuch as it supports President Chavez. The network brave enough to broadcast other opinions, Globovision, has had it's offices torched by Chavez supporters, and it's cameramen and anchors killed and brutally attacked. It's a shame that little of this is reported in the North.

Chavez, who doesn't give a darn about the poor people in his country, plays upon their poverty and fears to maintain a tyrannical hold on power. He buys their votes with subsidies the country cannot afford, and takes wealth and property away from the middle class using the power of the government. This is called the redistribution of resources and is a hallmark of communism - a despotic form of government that Chavez openly supports.

The system that Chavez is building cannot be supported on oil revenue alone, and I expect to see Venezuela doing a bit of expansion in the coming decade or so. Unfortunately for freedom's sake, it seems that his eventual takeover of Latin America will have been freely handed to him by the people based on the promise of "free stuff for all" at the expense of liberty and individuality.

So, given this kind of hostile atmosphere, it's still impressive that Chavez's opposition got any votes at all. Good for them, even if they failed in the end. Someone needs to stand up for freedom in that country.