Bush's Betrayal of Democracy

By Arturo Valenzuela- Washington Post

Tuesday, April 16, 2002; Page A19

Had the armed forces and its allies succeeded in forcing Venezuela's democratically elected president and legislature out of office this past week, Latin America would have experienced its first outright military coup in 26 years, with the notable exception of the overthrow of Haiti's first-ever elected president in 1991. The collapse of democracy in Venezuela would have exacerbated the sharp social tensions in a bitterly divided country that is the United States' third-largest source of imported oil. It also would have seriously undermined hemispheric efforts championed by three previous American presidents to strengthen democracy and the rule of law and put an end to military in politics. A successful coup in Venezuela was averted when it became clear that President Hugo Chavez retained considerable support in the country and the military belatedly realized that the provisional government it had installed severely overreached in a misguided attempt to dismantle the elected legislature and dismiss the supreme court.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration did not seem to understand what was at stake in Venezuela. Deviating sharply from the policies of its predecessors, and confusing the understandable dislike of a particular leader and his policies with the importance of supporting democracy, it publicly countenanced the military action. The administration was visibly out of step with other hemispheric leaders who condemned the military coup. It also stood in sharp contrast to the policies of the first President Bush, who vigorously opposed the overthrow of the leftist, anti-American Aristide in Haiti, sending an unmistakable signal of the U.S. commitment to upholding democracy in the post-Cold War era. As a result, the United States now risks losing much of the considerable moral and political leadership it had rightly won over the last decade as the nations of the Americas sought to establish the fundamental principle that the problems of democracy are solved in democracy, not through resorting to unconstitutional means.

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