King Richard: "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”.
William Shakespeare.
In Caracas long lines of people await eagerly the free ham or “hallacas”(the traditional Venezuelan Christmas food) they have been promised by the government of Hugo Chavez. They want to have something good to put on the table for Christmas. The mood is lively and the people at the line talk to each other. “The government is so kind to give us this…”says an old lady….. “Chavez is a very generous man”, says another.
When the person arrives to the table where the organizers are waiting, he or she is told to “sign here, and don’t forget your identity card number (cédula)”, in order to receive the gift. They sign, receive the ham and the “hallacas” and head home, one more day of escape from total poverty.
Few realize that, in exchange for the food, they have signed a petition to call for a referendum to keep Hugo Chavez being re-elected in the presidency indefinitely. What it boils down to is that the people are selling their endorsement to Chavez’s eternal presidency for a …. Ham. To exchange a horse for his kingdom did not help Richard the Third. He lost his life. To exchange democracy and freedom for a ham will not help the thousands of poor Venezuelans who are being duped into supporting Chavez’s pretensions of becoming a tropical monarch.
I am sure he will fail. But his strategies and stratagems to obtain the support of the Venezuelan poor and ignorant are as dirty as anything we have seen in Venezuelan politics. I know that they have an unholy technique called “pork” in the U.S. Congress but the Chavez variety of pork seems to be the "real thing".
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