The Coming Oppression

(T)Hugo Chavez is busily forming armed groups of his supporters – and only his supporters – and telling them to implement his vision of a socialist revolution. If you are a Chavez opponent, you are not allowed into the little clubs and you don't get the guns and grenades.

On Mr Chávez's order, 17,000 communal councils have now been set up across the country, and an estimated £1 billion earmarked to fund them. As the official slogan, "Build power from below", proclaims, their stated purpose is to promote grass-roots democracy and hand power directly to the people – in particular the urban poor who make up the bulk of his most fervent supporters.

But as well as grappling with the grim conditions in slums such as Catia, members of these voluntary groups will constitute a nationwide militia, schooled in Cuban-style tactics for both guerrilla warfare and counter-insurgency.

Gen Alberto Mueller, an advisor to Mr Chávez, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Some communal groups have already received military training. They'll train in their own neighbourhoods and will be equipped with any arms – guns, grenades, knifes – the community can provide. We have a right to defend ourselves, like the UK has, and be sure we'll do it."

The move has caused alarm among Mr Chávez's critics, who claim the groups will be used to repress internal dissent. They point out that, unlike Venezuela's military reservists, the communal councils come under Mr Chávez's direct control, including the appointments of their oversight committees and allocation of funding.

They are being created in tandem with plans to expand Venezuela's military reserve fivefold, from about 200,000 people to one million – a move Mr Chávez has introduced in the belief that his sworn foe America is planning some kind of military intervention.

Tensions with Washington and the West are likely to escalate further next month, when the Chávez government plans to begin taking control of the main European and American-owned oil fields in Venezuela – a move ordered by presidential decree in February.

Those with the means to do so will be rushing to escape what is about to happen to Venezuela. Because these groups of armed Chavistas will shortly begin enforcing Chavez's decrees at gunpoint. Chavez's neighbors better start worrying, too. That big an army is meant to be used.