Hugo Chavez: An Authoritarian Regime

In this article, Javier Corrales looks at the topic of regimes; hybrid, autocratic, authoritarian, democratic etc. Corrales presents us with two major questions. “What are the mechanisms by which a competitive authoritarian regime turns more autocratic?” And “What were the causes of Venezuela’s rapid move toward greater authoritarianism, especially in the last five years of Chavismo?” This article mostly examines Venezuela at the turn of 1999, when Hugo Chavez took office. Corrales focuses on “use, abuse, and non-use of the rule of law.” (p. 70) Corrales presents readers with two arguments. One which looks at the domestic aspects and the other on foreign policy. Beginning in the late 2000’s, there was a decline in competitiveness with the

“Inconsistent and biased implementation of laws and regulations.” (p. 82) During Chavez ruling, the media world was prone to control. There was an increase in government-controlled media and a decrease in private independent media. This movement caused a decline in press media pluralism. Corrales recognized this shift as “communication hegemony.” (p. 83) Venezuela’s government-controlled medias displayed biases. While the private media was often heavily criticized. Noticeably this lead to the dwindling of private independent media. State funding was only given to those who were pro-government, certainly many other media channels followed and conformed to the state commands. More direct abuses of the law were the harassment of independent medias. Fines were imposed simply based on allegations and no solid evidences. State agencies might go as far as “pressuring editors to publish the ‘right’ stories’.” For example, there was an important march happening in Caracas, and no media outlet broadcasted the

This trade agreement allowed certain Caribbean and Central-American countries to buy subsidized oil from Venezuela, but for “favorable financial returns.” Chavez’s economic aid expansion also included forgiveness and tolerance for those countries struggling to make debt payments. This expansion aimed to make Venezuela a major importer of good and services. Also opening oil trade to allied countries. Lastly, this move was meant to expand international information services. Chavez ultimately won diplomatic support from foreign countries, even those that did not agree with his policies, for the flow of petroproducts, petrosubsidies, petrodollars, and petrocontracts from