First it was the king of Spain who told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up,” and now it is the people of his own country who have told their leader “enough is enough.”

Chavez’s latest attempt to overhaul the constitution and take a giant leap into a socialist society was rejected by Venezuelan voters during a Dec. 2 referendum. It was rejected not only by the 40 percent who call themselves “the opposition,” but also by a good chunk of “Chavistas,” who up to now had given their leader and his “Bolivarian Revolution” carte blanche. A two-point difference in the result suggests that some of Chavez’s followers either voted against his proposed changes or tuned him out by not showing up at the polls.

Since 1998, the former leader of a military coup has been able to convince the majority of the country that he is the answer to their problems. Five times he has asked them to go to the polls, to either elect or re-elect him or to support constitutional amendments that have gradually allowed him to exert control over most of the country’s institutions.

Chavez has been successful in winning their support, as he promises financial incentives for the poor, a sense of control for those fed up with the corruption of previous traditional political parties, and a feeling of belonging to the disenfranchised. He has been able to reduce poverty levels by investing millions in oil revenues on social programs.

But while many Venezuelans have welcomed the changes, they are beginning to wake up to the reality that the so-called Socialism of the 21st Century could very well be a Cuban-style communist dictatorship. And that is where they draw the line.

In covering past elections in Venezuela, I often asked voters if they did not fear that their country could become a communist state and Hugo Chavez another Fidel Castro. In spite of the obvious presence of Cuban operatives in different sectors of Venezuelan society, the answer was, systematically, “No, that will not happen here.”

They believed that -- until they started taking a closer look at some of the new changes to the constitution that were approved by the National Assembly and that Chavez was asking them to ratify in the referendum.

Some of those changes sounded quite attractive to the working-class majority: reducing the workweek from 44 to 36 hours, creating a fund for the informally employed that would guarantee them social-security benefits such as vacation pay and a pension, extending the right to free education from high school to university, and requiring candidates for elected office to be set up in accordance with gender parity.

But voters were not allowed to pick and choose which amendments should be implemented and which ones should be blocked. Working less and having access to more benefits came along with creating a totalitarian government that would, among other things, allow Chavez to run for president indefinitely.

It also would give the president the power to replace elected officials with handpicked leaders in provinces and municipalities. It would give the head of state free reign over the country’s financial affairs by granting him total control of the Central Bank, which now is one of the few institutions that still has autonomy. And possibly, in one of the most dangerous provisions, it would give the president authority to declare a state of emergency, allowing him to suspend basic rights that, according to Human Rights Watch, are “untouchable under international law.”

One of the biggest surprises on election day was not that the constitutional reforms were defeated, since most polls predicted it, but rather that Chavez conceded defeat without putting up a fight. His supporters say this proves he is not a dictator, but a true democratic leader. But his opponents know better. Those who have followed his quest to revolutionize not only his country but the region as a whole know that he will stop at nothing. Unless, as the world witnessed on Dec. 2, the people of Venezuela decide themselves to put a stop to Chavez.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER’S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www
.mariaesalinas.com)
© 2007 by Maria Elena Salinas
Distributed by King Features Syndicate