Blurring the line between military and civilian life.

last updated 8 January 2015

Venezuela

Tulio Hernandez

Venezuela has “sold its soul to the military,” said Tulio Hernandez in Caracas’ El Nacional. We shouldn’t be surprised. President Hugo Chavez, after all, first tried to take power through a military coup, in 1992. After a brief stint in prison, he ultimately chose a different path to power, winning elections in 1998, 2000, and 2006. But he never renounced the coup attempt. Instead, he celebrated it as a “heroic act” and “the beginning of the revolutionary process.” Since he became president, he has torn down the wall between civil and military institutions and all but invited the generals to run the country under him. Most state governors and interior ministers have been retired military officers. Active-duty officers are routinely sent out on missions in the cities, to accustom the people “to the sight of red berets among them.” The distinction between soldier and civilian has been eroding ever since last year, when Chavez pledged to ensure that “every Venezuelan has a gun and sufficient training to defend the motherland.” Even the language of democracy has been militarized. Political campaigns are now called “battles” in which “troops” are “mobilized” to “patrol the polls.” Welcome to “the authoritarianism of the 21st century.”