Miami Herald: Help opposition to restore democracy

Chavez has a lot more to fear from the peaceful opposition than from any national-security threat. On May 22, his government disqualified some 400 individuals from running in the Nov. 23 elections for supposed ''administrative irregularities.'' Only more than 80 percent are opponents, and Chavista corruption is running rampant. The intelligence decree is, thus, likely to be applied against the opposition for simply exercising its civil liberties. A year ago, Chavez erred badly. Taking over RCTV, Venezuela's oldest commercial broadcaster, turned out to be an overreach: Polls showed an 80 percent disapproval of RCTV's shutdown, and hundreds of thousands of students flooded the streets in protest. One thing led to another, and Chavez lost the Dec. 2 referendum, which would have allowed his indefinite reelection. ''Dec. 2 put in evidence the incipient weakness of Chavez's charisma,'' says Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the daily newspaper Tal Cual and a democratic-Left opponent. He is cautiously upbeat about Nov. 23 if the opposition stays on the tracks of unity and democratic participation. Favoring a coup in 2002 and what he calls ''an acute abstentionitis'' after the recall referendum of 2004 cost the opposition dearly. Chavez gained control of almost all governorships and mayoralties as well as a full grip of the municipal councils and the National Assembly. A ''disastrous course of action,'' Petkoff notes.