Chavezism Failing?

Really interesting article in the Washington Post about a strong backlash that is brewing through many areas of Latin America against Hugo Chavez and his heavy-handed attempts to spread his political philosophy around the area. It sounds like his strategy may be backfiring.

FOR YEARS Hugo Chavez's steady dismantlement of Venezuela's democracy and his embrace of dictators and terrorists around the world — from Fidel Castro to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — prompted next to no reaction from Latin America's democratic governments. The silence was shameful, partly because Venezuela's former leaders fought for human rights in countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina during the 1980s and '90s, but also because the quiet was in part purchased by Mr. Chavez, who lavished subsidized oil and lucrative trade deals on governments around the region.

Now at last, Mr. Chavez is the object of a growing backlash from leaders around Latin America — from Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua, among other countries. In part, the politicians are responding to foolish overreaching by Mr. Chavez, who has been busy trying to turn Bolivia into a satellite state while suggesting he has similar plans for much of the rest of the continent. Latin Americans don't like imperialism, whether it comes from Washington or Caracas. And even leftist leaders, like those who rule in Brazil and elsewhere in South America, find it hard to imagine themselves prospering in a Venezuela-led economic bloc that includes Cuba but shuns the United States.

It should be obvious to everyone that Cuba under Castro is a nightmarish failure. Economically, they are in the toilet and have been for decades. Why in the world would anyone want to spread that economic model? Politically, they are even worse, horrible repression of dissent is obvious. Yet Chavez admires the bearded one. The WaPo even praises the Bush administration in a roundabout way for the way it has been handling Chavez.

The Bush administration, which has haplessly allowed Mr. Chavez to exploit the U.S. president as a political foil for years, has hit on just the right response as it has watched Peruvians and Mexicans turn the tables on the Venezuelan: It has kept quiet. The sight of Latin Americans rising up in defense of democratic values, and against the attempt of a would-be regional hegemonist to subvert them, is inspiring — and it requires nothing from Washington save discreet applause.

Maybe it wasn't hapless at all. Maybe it was following the practical method of giving someone enough rope.

UPDATE: Flopping Aces has a lot more information as well.