I HAD to examine the AP pictures carefully just to make sure that I was looking at Venezuelans and not Filipinos. The faces in one photo were those of the rich and the pampered, their “good breeding” evident even as they scowled and shouted slogans against their democratically elected populist president. In the other photo were his supporters, apparently angrier, probably because they knew that they looked as if they were just plucked from a police line-up. But no, it was not Edsa. The flag they were waving was definitely not the Philippine red, white, yellow and blue, and their president was not Erap Estrada Ejercito but Hugo Chavez y Frias, a former colonel of the army, which in Spanish is called “ejercito.”
Like Erap, Chavez is a self-proclaimed champion of the masses whose only achievement so far is to royally piss off the rich and the Catholic Church. He is not a “jueteng” lord, but in the eyes of his country’s North American neighbor, he is much much worse because of his deplorable fondness for bear hugging Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein every time there is a CNN crew around.
And so on Friday, when Chavez supporters reportedly opened fire at anti-Chavez demonstrators, killing 10 or 15 people and sparking a coup, the White House could not contain its glee. The Bush administration hailed the undemocratic manner in which Chavez was removed from power even as Latin America—once the thriving laboratory for coup d’états—was unequivocally condemning the “alteration of constitutional order” in Venezuela.
Unfortunately for the White House, Chavez was a far better politico than the former Philippine president, and his buddies in the army proved to be more loyal than Erap’s. On Sunday, Chavez returned to the presidential palace clutching a crucifix on one hand and, on the other, a copy of the Venezuelan constitution. Two days later, the New York Times reported that Bush officials “met several times in recent months” with the same Venezuelans who were behind the attempted “golpe de estado” and “agreed with them” that Chavez had to go. That’s right. The Champion of Democracy abetted the subversion of the democratic process in another country and encouraged those who wanted to abolish Venezuela’s legislature, judiciary and constitution. When this attempt failed, Bush’s national security adviser, without batting an eyelash, advised Chavez to “respect democracy.” This is almost as astonishing as then Vice President George H.W. Bush’s praise for dictator Marcos’s “adherence to democratic principles.” But in fairness to Dubya’s dad, he did condemn the 1991 coup that overthrew the leftist, anti-American Aristide in Haiti. And under his presidency, as a former Clinton official noted, America consistently conformed to “the fundamental principle that problems of democracy are solved in democracy, not through resorting to unconstitutional means.” It was Bush Sr. who, in 1989, bluntly told the pro-American military rebels of the Philippines to stop their insurrection against President Cory Aquino.
His son’s administration, in contrast, has confused “the understandable dislike of a particular leader and his policies with the importance of supporting democracy.” According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, “the worst thing about this episode is the betrayal of our democratic principles: ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ isn’t supposed to be followed by the words ‘as long as it suits U.S. interests.’” He added, “Even if the coup had succeeded, our behavior would have been very stupid. We had a good thing going—a new hemispheric atmosphere of trust based on shared democratic values. How could we so casually throw it away?” The New York Times itself apologized for an editorial that welcomed Chavez’s ouster, saying it had “overlooked the undemocratic manner in which he was removed.” The Times said: “Forcibly unseating a democratically elected leader, no matter how badly he has performed, is never something to cheer.”
The Philippines, alas, still has to realize this truism, but the U.S., of all nations, has no excuse not to.
