Venezuelan democracy ranks pretty low in a group of 100 countries

Mientras más azul, menos democrático es el país... En América Latina Venezuela y Bolivia están más azules que el resto.

**Venezuelan democracy is #76 among 100 countries

When you hear Hugo Chavez speak you might think Venezuela is a democratic showcase. The idea of democracy he and his followers have tried to impress upon the world is one of unlimited electoral events, total freedom of expression and an all-inclusive type of government that treats all Venezuelans alike.

As a Venezuelan I must warn you that such an idillyc picture is balloney. Electoral events are openly controlled by the regime. Freedom of expression is, at best, partial, and dissident journalists and media executives are being persecuted and their companies closed down. The benefits of the state only exist for Chavez’s followers, not for Venezuelans who oppose him.

Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, already eleven years in the makings, is an authoritarian, inept and discriminatory regime, an allied of rogue states such as Cuba, Iran, Libya and Zimbabwe and of terrorist groups such as FARC (Colombia), ETA (Spain) and Hizballah (Middle East).

In line with his best friend Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez is a sworn enemy of the United States, the European Union and the State of Israel.

A recent international ranking (http://www.democracyranking.org/downloads/method_ranking_outcome_2008-09_A4.pdf ) places Venezuela in place #76 in a group of 100 countries. The ranking is based on six components which are given differents weights, as follows: (1), Political system, 50%; (2), Gender equality, 10%; (3), economic system, 10%; (4), educational levels, 10%; (5), health system, 10%; and (6), quality of the environment, 10%.
In the middle group we can find most of Latin American countries:
28 Chile
29 Costa Rica
37 Panama
38 Argentina
41 Peru
43 Brazil
44 Trinidad and Tobago
45 El Salvador
46 Dominican Republic
48 Jamaica
49 Ecuador
51 Mexico
55 Colombia
Venezuela is placed between Senegal and Kuwait, very low in the ranking, while the 10 least democratic regimes are outlined in red at the bottom.
75 Senegal 46.
76 Venezuela, RB
77 Kuwait
78 Bangladesh
*****
91 Uganda
92 Kenya
93 Burkina Faso
94 Gambia,
95 Niger
96 Zambia
97 China*
98 Nigeria
99 Central African Republic
100 Ethiopia
The combination of international, global, indices such as the ones related to corruption, competitivity, governance, democracy and human development puts Venezuela very low in the global scale. Recently a Latinobarometro poll placed Hugo Chavez as the worst leader in the region after Fidel Castro, who was ranked last.
This international perception of Venezuela contrasts dramatically with the Chavez’s government propaganda disseminated abroad by fellow travellers such as mercenary Eva Golinger, "advisor" Mark Weisbrot, Roy Carson, "guru" Alan Woods, Richard Gott, Ignacio Ramonet, Jose Luis Monedero, Sean Penn, Joseph Kennedy, Danny Glover, Ken Livingstone and a cast of dozens. Some, like Heinz Dieterich, have given up on Chavez. Many Latin American and European leaders privately laugh about his clownish antics, although most, such as Spain’s and Russia’s do substantial business with him while others gladly receive his handouts. Wikileaks have revealed how French diplomats, U.S. ambassadors and , even his closest “allies” such as Argentina and Brazil, privately believe Hugo Chavez to be mentally unbalanced but will try to get maximum benefits from his irresponsible largesse with Venezuelan money.