Jackson Diehl: Chavez stays in power by canceling democracy - Wednesday, Jul. 2, 2008

DEFENDERS OF Hugo Chavez like to argue that there is no alternative to the Venezuelan caudillo other than the feckless and unpopular politicians who preceded him in the 1990s. The simple refutation of that canard is Leopoldo Lopez, the 37-year-old mayor of central Caracas, whose boyish good looks only underscore the fact that he represents a fresh generation. Lopez, a hyperarticulate graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard, is a pragmatic center-leftist, like most of the presidents elected in South America since the turn of the century. He won his last election in the Caracas district of Chacao with 80 percent of the vote. An opinion poll taken this year showed his popularity rating at 65 percent in greater Caracas, compared with 39 percent for Chavez; nationally, he beat Chavez 42 percent to 41. In the upcoming election for mayor of the capital district -- the most important elected post in the country after the presidency -- Lopez leads the Chavez-backed candidate by 30 points.