Freedom Brews In Venezuela

The ugly face of Venezuela’s authoritarian socialism finally took a beating at the polls on December 6—a beating that has been long overdue. I am personally overjoyed not only because I always appreciate a rebuke of the idiocy and cruelty of tyrants but also because I and my colleagues in the George W. Bush administration worked for years to support the young people that make up the bulk of the democratic opposition.

My colleagues at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) continued to support Venezuela’s democratic opposition during the Obama years even though this White House has been less interested in upsetting dictators. But whatever help the West has offered, this win for self-governance is due to the tenacity of young Venezuelans who for years have refused despite murderous attacks, imprisonment, torture, and economic deprivation to give in to dictators.

Freedom brings power

In legislative elections last week, the opposition’s years of grueling effort to stay united and organized paid off handsomely. They not only took control of the National Assembly but also achieved a supermajority that gives them the ability to vote amnesty for the many political prisoners who have been held in horrible conditions for years.

The power to free them is the most significant event that can come from this victory. If the first act in the re-democratization of Venezuela after 16 years of dictatorship, misrule, and economic foolishness was the legislative victory, the second act is freeing all political prisoners. Their unjust imprisonment and torture symbolized all that the late Hugo Chavez and his regime did to stifle democracy; their release would symbolize that tyrants can be thwarted.

How Venezuela Lost Self-Government

Chavez, a former army colonel who spent time in prison for launching a failed coup in 1992, finally won the presidency in 1998 in free and fair elections. I met him on Capitol Hill right after his election, when he was in the “I want to get along” phase of his first year in office.