Mugabe as harbinger

Michael Rowan - Special for El UniversalRobert Mugabe's rejection by the people of Zimbabwe is a harbinger of what awaits Chavez down the road. Mugabe was initially a liberator from white rule, racism and apartheid but in the last decade he sank deep into those same pits himself. His 2000 confiscation of white property was popular at first, but when it resulted in inflation, unemployment, malnutrition and misery, the people of Zimbabwe learned about Mugabe's tricks to stay in power. His tricks work magic no more in Zimbabwe. His early liberation of Zimbabwe from white minority rule is no longer his legacy. That legacy is one of death and destruction for which he shall be long remembered.It took a decade for Zimbabweans to realize how Mugabe migrated from the early dreams of liberation to later nightmares of despotism. And it has taken a decade for Venezuelans to realize the same about Chavez, who faces the same future as Mugabe but has 300 billion barrels of oil to convince the world it's not so. Some may remember the day in 1999 when Chavez delivered his inauguration speech about liberating Venezuela from poverty and corruption, when 90% of the people were happy to have him in Miraflores. But what shakes faith in the Chavez of 1999 is that in 2008, poverty is just as bad, inequality is worse, corruption is epidemic, inflation is the worst in the hemisphere and Venezuela has become the murder capitol of the world.With half a trillion dollars going through his hands in the last decade, it is unimaginable that Chavez could manage so terribly, but he has. He has gifted foreigners with $100 billion while in his Fatherland one family out of five is ill-housed, one third are desperately poor, and the standard of living of the Bolivarian Republic is a fraction of what it was in 1954. Here's what few Venezuelans recall: from 1920 to 1970, Venezuela had the lowest inflation and best growth rate in the world. It was prepared to join the first world of nations as an equal and dignified partner in progress. Yes, malfeasance in office by past politicians surely created the opportunity for Chavez to take power, but it did not give him the right to do to Venezuela what Mugabe did to Zimbabwe. And for that he will always be remembered, especially by those who supported him.
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