Hyde to Bush: Support Pro-democratic Coalition in Venezuela

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

At the present time in Venezuela the leadership of all the pro-democracy elements of the society including the genuinely democratic political parties, the labor unions, business associations, and religious institutions have been gathered for two days in coalition with a group of active duty military officers of flag rank demanding that President Hugo Chavez resign and that new, free and open elections be held. Most of the Venezuelan media is overwhelmingly supportive of this endeavor, even though it has received little attention here.

This broad pro-democratic coalition seeks to rescue Venezuela from the grip of a president who, though democratically elected in December 1998, has since his inauguration done three things that have gravely harmed Venezuelan political democracy and which have threatened the well-being and security of people in neighboring democratic countries as well as to the United States.

1. Violated the constitution of Venezuela in force in 1999, his first year in office, in two fundamental ways: by having the Constituent Assembly, which had the sole legal function of writing a new constitution, usurp the powers of both the elected National Congress and the existing Supreme Court; further Chavez packed the Constituent Assembly with his supporters who, though winning only 42% of the votes, were mysteriously allocated 93% of the seats. The Clinton administration remained silent about this.

2. Forged public alliances with state sponsors of terrorism including Cuba, Iraq, and Iran, and provided since October 2000 subsidized oil to Cuba, enabling the Castro regime to obtain more than US $2 billion which it could use to support terrorism.

3. Supported terrorist organizations attacking nearby fragile democracies including the FARC in Colombia and radical anti-democratic groups seeking to destabilize Bolivia and Ecuador. This included clandestine support for Colonel Gutierrez and pro-Castro radicals who briefly overthrew the democratic government of Ecuador in January 2000. Colonel Gutierrez is now a leading candidate for the presidency in Ecuador and would likely follow in the pro-Castro path of Chavez.

The Clinton administration remained unconscionably silent about the antidemocratic actions of President Chavez. This is the time for the Bush administration to set the factual and historical record straight: the current regime of President Chavez is illegitimate because it is based upon the systematic violation of the Venezuelan constitution in force in 1999. The Bush administration should also declare itself in sympathy with the pro-democratic civil-military coalition in Venezuela which seeks to restore democracy and should do so at once.

It is noteworthy that the pro-democratic civil-military coalition in Venezuela has made the case that under Article 305 of the current Chavez constitution, the military actions of "legitimate disobedience" and the political association and assembly of parties, labor unions, business associations and other groups of Venezuelan civil society calling for the immediate resignation of Chavez is totally constitutional and proper.

In neighboring Brazil, there is a presidential runoff election that will be held on Sunday, October 27, 2002. At present, the leading candidate is Mr. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is a pro-Castro radical who for electoral purposes has posed as a moderate. Recently, many of my colleagues in the Congress wrote you a letter in which they expressed their concerns about the ten-year-long association of Mr. Lula da Silva with Latin American, European, and Middle Eastern terrorist organizations in a forum which he convened and organized in silent partnership with Castro. They also expressed their concern about Mr. Lula da Silva's recent statements indicating an interest in reviving Brazil's nuclear weapons program which from 1965-1994 not only wasted enormous resources that could have helped the poor, but also succeeded in designing a 30-kiloton nuclear bomb which could be quickly tested if the program were revived.

There is a real prospect that Castro, Chavez, and Lula da Siva could constitute an axis of evil in the Americas which might soon have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles (which Brazil had developed ended in 1990). This is the time to support the pro-democratic coalition in Venezuela and to help the people of Brazil understand the truth about Chavez so that they do not make a similar mistake and elect another pro-Castro radical who will neither help the poor, nor help their economy, nor live at peace with democratic neighbors.

Chavez has always been fond of likening himself to Simon Bolivar, even renaming Venezuala, The Bolivarian Republic of.... He's also claimed he isn't a communist. Though with the outlook and worldview of one, what's the difference?

He's brought this on himself. He's no Bolivar.

To Chavez, "Bolivarian" is a code word for South American Communist solidarity. They hope to plunge the whole continent into totalitarian Communism on the Cuban model.

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