Unfraternal
Squabbles in the ruling party
HUGO CHÁVEZ envisaged his Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) as a monolithic and obedient instrument of his socialist revolution. But it has not turned out that way. Weakened from its birth last year by defections (three allied parties refused to join, one of them moving into opposition), the party is now strained by squabbles that are partly about ambition and partly about ideology.
Mr Chávez promised that the party would be the “most democratic” in Venezuela's history. But there are complaints that power in the party is in the hands of 15 vice-presidents appointed directly by the president. The PSUV failed its first electoral test last December, when Mr Chávez's attempt to rewrite the constitution was defeated in a referendum. Many of the squabbles are over candidacies for local elections due in November. Some chavistas see the vice-presidents as Mr Chávez's choices for state governorships. Two outgoing chavista governors are being prosecuted on what they say are trumped-up charges aimed at curbing their influence.
Candidates are supposed to be chosen in mid-May. Few doubt that Mr Chávez will have the final say. “Rather than have an undisciplined governor in the future, I'd rather lose the governorship,” Mr Chávez declared recently. He has threatened anyone who launches a “premature” campaign with expulsion. But those orders are already being defied.
In Barinas, the president's home state where his father is the governor, Chávez family control is being challenged by Wilmer Azuaje, a member of the National Assembly. He accuses the first family of abusing its position to buy land in the state; he claims that two of his aides were murdered on April 27th on the orders of one of Mr Chávez's brothers. Mr Azuaje is one of half a dozen chavista legislators who have formed an autonomous group in the assembly. Luis Tascón, another member of this group, complains that the president has been “kidnapped” by reactionary, bureaucratic forces within the movement.
Direct criticism of the president remains muted. But he is less popular than he was. And the referendum defeat thwarted his plans to remain president indefinitely. “There are those who feel that Chávez's days are numbered, and that definitely weakens him” within his own movement, says Herbert Koeneke, a political scientist at Simón Bolívar University.
Squabbles in the ruling party
HUGO CHÁVEZ envisaged his Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) as a monolithic and obedient instrument of his socialist revolution. But it has not turned out that way. Weakened from its birth last year by defections (three allied parties refused to join, one of them moving into opposition), the party is now strained by squabbles that are partly about ambition and partly about ideology.
Mr Chávez promised that the party would be the “most democratic” in Venezuela's history. But there are complaints that power in the party is in the hands of 15 vice-presidents appointed directly by the president. The PSUV failed its first electoral test last December, when Mr Chávez's attempt to rewrite the constitution was defeated in a referendum. Many of the squabbles are over candidacies for local elections due in November. Some chavistas see the vice-presidents as Mr Chávez's choices for state governorships. Two outgoing chavista governors are being prosecuted on what they say are trumped-up charges aimed at curbing their influence.
Candidates are supposed to be chosen in mid-May. Few doubt that Mr Chávez will have the final say. “Rather than have an undisciplined governor in the future, I'd rather lose the governorship,” Mr Chávez declared recently. He has threatened anyone who launches a “premature” campaign with expulsion. But those orders are already being defied.
In Barinas, the president's home state where his father is the governor, Chávez family control is being challenged by Wilmer Azuaje, a member of the National Assembly. He accuses the first family of abusing its position to buy land in the state; he claims that two of his aides were murdered on April 27th on the orders of one of Mr Chávez's brothers. Mr Azuaje is one of half a dozen chavista legislators who have formed an autonomous group in the assembly. Luis Tascón, another member of this group, complains that the president has been “kidnapped” by reactionary, bureaucratic forces within the movement.
Direct criticism of the president remains muted. But he is less popular than he was. And the referendum defeat thwarted his plans to remain president indefinitely. “There are those who feel that Chávez's days are numbered, and that definitely weakens him” within his own movement, says Herbert Koeneke, a political scientist at Simón Bolívar University.
