From the Editors of VenEconomy

Of the 12 long and terrible years that Hugo Chávez has been building communism in Venezuela, 2010 has been the worst.

This year, the terrible consequences of the wrongheaded political, social, and economic vision espoused by the Castro-Chavista revolution began to be felt and, as happens in any dictatorial communist regime, Chávez’s uncontrollable desire to achieve hegemonic power has ridden roughshod over all the democratic institutions and left the Venezuelan Constitution in tatters.

As never before, in 2010, the branches of government, castrated by the Executive, have done their best to please the “Commander-in-Chief,” regardless of whether, in doing so, they were violating laws or the human, social, political, and economic rights of the country’s inhabitants.

The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice have allowed their functions to come under the control of the oppressor, who neither accepts nor tolerates dissidence nor criticism, and have become instruments for wreaking vengeance (the long list of the government’s political prisoners continues to grow and today there are dozens of innocent people either awaiting trial or serving prison terms after being convicted on spurious charges), and they also execute the snatching of property and assets in response to orders issued from any Aló Presidente.

The National Assembly, where the “reds” predominate, has become a machine for doing away with old laws and fabricating new in order to provide the Castro-Chavista revolution with legal armor-plating and institutionalize communism in Venezuela. This year these parliamentarians have paved the way for expropriating right and left in any of the country’s productive sectors; land, industries, stores, housing, nothing escapes Chavismo’s predatory cravings. They have created communes and people’s power. Freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and information have been severely restricted. University autonomy runs the risk of being “legally” violated and the institutions that are supposed to defend political rights are no more than utopias. The local currency is becoming daily more devalued, inflation is spiraling out of control, and, as the year comes to a close, there is the threat of a law being passed that will do away with private banks.

Chávez’s Comptroller General’s Office brazenly ignores the rampant corruption and inefficiency of a government that has consumed a large slice of the resources that should have been used to develop the country. It has not demanded accountability for the collapse of the electricity system, the drop in PDVSA’s production, PDVAL’s tons of rotting food, the collapse of the country’s road system or hospital infrastructure, or for the reemergence of diseases that had already been controlled, much less has it demanded that the government explain why, after handling huge sums in revenues for more than ten years, there is a mammoth housing deficit of more than two million housing units.

This year, there have been innumerable scandals implicating the government in cases of corruption at home and abroad involving international narco-terrorism. The shadow of ETA, the FARC, Arturo Cubillas, and Walid Makled will be unwelcome companions of a Chávez who has been unconstitutionally empowered to legislate at discretion throughout 2011.

If 2010 has been a terrible year, 2011 could be worse.

But with the determination of all, with everyone united and rowing in the same direction, headed for the sea of justice, 2011 could be the gateway that will give on to a new and strengthened democracy. A Happy Christmas to you all and a 2011 of successful struggle for recovering democracy.

VenEconomy has been a leading provider of consultancy on financial, political and economic data in Venezuela since 1982.