As the parliamentary elections of December 6 draw near, Venezuela’s electoral climate has shown no few signs of institutional partiality, abuses of power and political violence, in a country that has regrettably been described as one of the world’s most dangerous.
The practice known as the acto de repudio (reprisals) in Cuba has a terrible range of anti-social implications that make it a perverse innovation within tropical Stalinism. The process has been endured by poets, journalists, community leaders and the wives of political prisoners.
The October 7 elections in Venezuela will reveal all of the strengthening and wearing down of a government anchored in power for 14 years, one whose success depends largely on the charismatic leadership of Hugo Chavez and the scope of his successful (yet deteriorated) social policies.