Seeds of Usurpation and Tyranny

From Andres Oppenheimer's column on the "re-election fever" currently plaguing Latin American democracies.

''This reelectionist fever is bad news for the region,'' Zovatto said. ``Latin America's fragile democracies won't get stronger with charismatic leaders, but with stronger institutions and a solid civic culture.''

My opinion: I agree. Latin American countries would do better copying the U.S. example, where former presidents spend a comfortable life on the lecture circuit, or the Mexican model, where reelection is prohibited, and where presidents go into self-imposed or forced exile abroad after their six-year terms.

One of them, Luis Echeverria, was appointed to a job that was officially described as ambassador to Australia ''and the Fiji islands,'' in case he didn't get the point that they wanted him as far away as possible.

Short of that, they should remember the famous words by South America's independence hero Simón Bolivar -- ironically, the man cited by Chávez as his ideological mentor -- who said in a Feb. 15, 1819, speech that, ``Nothing is so dangerous as allowing the same citizen to stay in power for too long: The people become used to obeying him, and he becomes used to giving them orders, which are the seeds of usurpation and tyranny.''