Saturday, December 18, 2010

Bad News for the Hemisphere

We believed we had mostly gotten past this sad stage in the political development of the hemisphere. It turns out we were wrong. Latin America once again has a caudillo, a military dictator.

Col. Hugo Chavez, who has been the elected president of Venezuela for several years, was just granted dictatorial powers by the nation's parliament. Go here for a Reuters article about this unfortunate retrogression.

It would appear that Chavez is getting his wish, becoming the next Fidel Castro. One wonders if this is the beginning of a new wave of junta rule; Chavez is much admired and emulated by Ortega of Nicaragua, Morales of Bolivia, and to some extent by Correa of Ecuador.