Venezuela + Chavez = Corruption?

Yesterday Transparency International released Corruption Perceptions Index 2005, ranking the countries of the world according to their ‘perceived’ degree of corruption. This isn’t science but it is an interesting project with plausible sounding conclusions. The USA comes in #17 least corrupt which is not bad considering the rest of the planet. South Korea shows improvement and Bangladesh and Chad remain the worst. The government of Venezuela immediately went on the defensive about their “poor rating”.

Vice President José Vicente Rangel hit back at a London-based group for giving Venezuela a very poor rating for corruption in official circles – but then went on to admit there was a problem.

I have written several posts about Hugo Chavez being a dictator in the making, so I believe America's Hugo Chavez, Not Ours by a self avowed socialist student in Quito, Ecuador is worth reading. He issues some general cautions for the North American left.

1. Your Hugo Chavez is not ours. … You see, the majority of us maintain a heavy and dreary mistrust of Hugo Chavez. Do you really think that we, the longstanding victims of oppressive US meddling, are in undying support of Mr Chavez, simply because he is openly in contention with US foreign policy? … What is more important is that the developing Chavez-US tension functions as another example of how the “American Left” blindly assumes that they articulate the views of South America.

2. The second problem can be pinpointed in the context of the American anti-war movement. Why is that when any leftist, with some credibility and power, opens his mouth against the US, he/she immediately becomes a source of unyielding praise among the American Left?

The American Left is truly an aggregate of various dissatisfactions, unified only by their selective dislike of rich Americans and a belief that the power of government is their only weapon against the power of wealth. There are philosophical socialists within the American Left but the bulk of the members are merely reflexive fans cheering for whatever person, place or thing they perceive is bad for the American Right. At least one South American socialist knows that just because Chavez is talking socialism doesn’t mean you automatically trust a potential dictator. I wonder if the people in the Che Guevera outfits are paying attention.