Internal Conflict Among Supporters of Freedom

While attending a conference about education in early April in the beautiful city of Dubai, I met a Venezuelan student studying in Italy. On the subject of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, her comment was as follows: “I know what people say about him, but I support him. He was democratically elected seven times! He is doing great things for the poor people in our country.”

What was she thinking?

I quickly excused myself from the conversation before engaging in what could have very easily become the start of WW III…started in the Middle East not because of the “Clash of Civilizations” some would argue lies at the root of the student’s statement and my disagreement with it, but because of sheer short-sightedness and inadvertent ideological ignorance. You don’t have to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or otherwise to understand the problems inherent with this student’s misguided logic.

The damage President Chavez has done to personal freedom and liberty in Venezuela puts him in the same league as the military devils of Cuba, Argentina, Chile, and Peru that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own citizens…except that Chavez is doing harm in the name of Socialism.

Those opposed to neoliberal (free market) ideology in Latin America forget that it was the military officials, Fidel Castro, Augusto Pinochet, and Alberto Fujimori that organized death squads and killing sprees, not free market institutions. It was GOVERNMENT and PEOPLE that authorized the mass slaughter of innocent civilians, not entrepreneurship and voluntary association. It’s simply an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances that three of the four claimed to be doing so in the name of free market reforms. But this is why it is so utterly important that we understand the role of government and can distinguish between political and economic institutions!

Enter Hugo Chavez: squashing personal freedom and liberty in the name of defeating neo-liberalism and defending his imagined utopian state of Bolivarian idealism.

The only common thread among the fight between the neoliberals and the socialists of Latin America: BAD GOVERNMENTS, BAD GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS, AND BAD LEADERS. Both sides used and/or are using force to implement what they believe to be the solution to all of Latin America’s social, political, and economic institutional woes.

The Chavez regime is trying desperately to oust the only remaining private media firm (Globovision TV) in Venezuela. It will be a sad day in the battle against the Foes of Freedom if his efforts succeed.

Chavez supporters that cite alliance with indigenous rights and cultural viability in Latin America, be forewarned. It is you who will do nothing but propel one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the world, with arguably the most potential for economic growth, into a tailspin of unprecedented proportions. I don’t care if the man was democratically elected. All this justification does is further support arguments against representative democracy, but I'll leave that subject for a later discussion. Chavez has sent his country down a path that the U.S. is sure to follow if the Obama Administration starts supporting things like censorship of internet mapping devices. But the worst part about this has yet to be mentioned. If the last private media group in Venezuela goes under, Chavez is likely to be elected yet again, and again, and again…for there will be no public opposition to quash his egotistical power-groping. This is what happens in a world of state-run institutions - media, banks, car companies, take your pick. Stifling competition, whether it’s economic or political, does nothing but do HARM to the people of a country, poor or otherwise!

What were they thinking?

Unfortunately, Chavez isn’t the only Latin American government using irreprehensible force to deny its citizens of their freedom and liberties. Indigenous groups in Peru are fighting to prevent government control over their Amazonian lands. This is the kind of support indigenous freedom-fighters of the first world can, and should, get involved with – the defense of private property! Closely connected to this are the ridiculous agricultural export-taxes imposed by the Kirchner administration in Argentina.

What were they thinking?

Some people say there exists a fine line between political and economic control, but those people fail to understand that economic control doesn’t exist unless it’s supported by political institutions that deny individuals rights to private property, information, and economic activity. Government ownership of private property - whether it’s a media outlet, land, or a health care system - completely revokes individual rights of any kind. Individuals no longer have control of their own lives because they no longer have a choice – the institution is either government-controlled or it doesn’t exist. All those anti-neoliberal political activists that concern themselves with Latin America need to take a much harder look at what it means to be FREE before they decide whether or not someone like Chavez, or Evo Morales (Bolivia), or Rafael Correa (Ecuador) is the alternative they’re willing to succumb to under a fascist system of state-controlled bureaucracy.