So why have the students been so successful in getting under Chávez's skin? How have they been so effective in breaking through the noise of the sometimes repetitive and cacophonous complaints of the relatively unorganized opposition? The answer, at least in part, is because they have honed in specifically on the government's weakest and most vulnerable points - the myths of progressive policies and social inclusion. And they have done so in a way that the clumsy and faux-pas prone opposition has often been missing.
Read the full version at The Huffington Post
In a new article published by the political scientist Javier Corrales in Washington Quarterly, it is argued that Chávez has created an intimidating illusion of strong social programs, which in many minds seem to trump all other concerns or abuses of citizens' rights. Few other countries in the region can stand up for human rights in Venezuela, Corrales writes, because "they fear that picking a fight with the patron-saint of the poor will enervate radical left-wingers at home, potentially destabilizing their governments. Chávez has crafted a coalition of the silent, even among those he annoys, and that is not a trivial victory."
But the existence of more than 50 hunger striking students on the steps of the OAS headquarters blows the smoke off the myth that Chávez is still some sort of social democrat who cares about his people. The wider world was willing to ignore all the other aberrant signs that this regime is very different than what it claims to be, such as $2.2 billion in additional Russian arms, open cooperation with Iran on procuring uranium for their nuclear program, and building a deep friendship with the genocidal president of Sudan.
Throughout history it is shown that you can't be a revolutionary for very long without the support of the youth behind you, and what is happening in Venezuela this week is making this change painfully visible. It is something I noticed during my visit to the country earlier this year, when Chávez was boasting about giving the children of Venezuela "a good dose of the gas" to break up their demonstrations, and it has continued even further with the Education Law and the decision to throw an innocent 22-year-old deep to the wolves in a high-security prison. This is what separates a revolutionary from a caudillo.
The brave students on hunger strike have shown what can happen when Chávez goes too far, and the fact that they are having success is the best news they have had in years. Mr. Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS, the ball is now in your court.
Photo: Ivan Yanez, a student in hunger strike, is carried into an ambulance outside the offices of the Organization of American States, OAS, in Caracas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. Venezuela released Julio Rivas on Monday, a student activist whose imprisonment was cited as an example of politically motivated prosecutions by President Hugo Chavez's government. (Credit: AP Photo)
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