[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chávez and the Limits of Democracy*** The 21st century was not supposed to engender a Latin American president with a red beret. Instead of obsessing about luring private capital, he scares it away. Rather than strengthening ties with the United States, he befriends Cuba. Such behavior was supposed to have been made obsolete by the democratization, economic deregulation and globalization of the 1990's.

Venezuela is an improbable country to have fallen into this political abyss. It is vast, wealthy, relatively modern and cosmopolitan, with a strong private sector and a homogeneous mixed-race population with little history of conflict. Democracy was supposed to have prevented its decline into a failed state. Yet once President Chávez gained control over the government, his rule became exclusionary and profoundly undemocratic. Under Mr. Chávez, Venezuela is a powerful reminder that elections are necessary but not sufficient for democracy, and that even longstanding democracies can unravel overnight.A government's legitimacy flows not only from the ballot box but also from the way it conducts itself. Accountability and institutional restraints and balances are needed. The international community became adept at monitoring elections and ensuring their legitimacy in the 1990's. The Venezuelan experience illustrates the urgency of setting up equally effective mechanisms to validate a government's practices.

The often stealthy transgressions of Mr. Chávez have unleashed a powerful expression of what is perhaps the only trend of the 1990's still visible in Venezuela: civil society. In today's Venezuela millions of once politically indifferent citizens stage almost daily marches and rallies larger than those that forced the early resignations of other democratically presidents around the world. This is not a traditional opposition movement. It is an inchoate network of people from all social classes and walks of life, who are organized in loosely coordinated units and who do not have any other ambition than to stop a president who has made their country unlivable. Two out of three Venezuelans living under the poverty line oppose President Chávez, according to a Venezuelan survey released in January.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuelan central bank director warns against denying dollars to newspapers *** CARACAS, Venezuela - A central bank director warned President Hugo Chavez's government Thursday against using a new foreign exchange system to deprive newspapers of dollars needed to buy newsprint. Domingo Maza Zavala said the government should consider the print media a priority when deciding who can buy dollars under the new system. Chavez, who accuses Venezuela's main newspapers of supporting efforts to overthrow him, has said priority will go to importers of basics like food and medicine. "Everything else will have to wait," he said last week.

Maza Zavala said "it would be irrational" to delay granting dollars to newspapers. "I think newspapers have the right to receive the material they need to function," he told local Union Radio. "Reading the daily press is a primary need for Venezuelans." Newspaper owners - most of whom gave supportive coverage to a failed two-month strike to force early elections - have expressed concern that Chavez will use the exchange controls system to restrict freedom of the press, as past governments have done. ***