Informant38

With the election in October of leftist Lula da Silva as president of Brazil, Ch�vez is not the only South American leader who worries Bush. But there's little doubt that after Iraq, Venezuela is the oil-rich country where the White House would most welcome "regime change." For now, most of Ch�vez's opponents have been careful not to advocate more violence, demanding instead an immediate vote to decide whether he should step down. They portray Ch�vez as a corrupt authoritarian who represses his own people. His government is but a bubble, they believe; touch it again and it will pop.

If Ch�vez is ousted, however, it will not be because he is a brutal dictator. He may enjoy sparring with the United States -- after the election of Lula, he declared that Brazil would join Cuba and Venezuela in forming "an axis of good" -- but in the four years since he took office, his "revolution" has had more to do with de Tocqueville than Marx. Efforts to redistribute wealth have been few. Opposition political parties, as well as the press, operate freely in Venezuela, and the federal police -- once among the most feared forces in South America -- have not hindered even those advocating outright rebellion. And for the first time in Venezuelan history, ordinary citizens are being encouraged to create and elect local councils, to work with local officials to improve their neighborhoods, to get directly involved in their government. Acting together, these are the people who have become the single most powerful group in Venezuela. These are the people who, in many ways, have made themselves the real sovereigns of Venezuela's oil.