“Dangerous” is how top US officials Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld recently described Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The former lieutenant colonel, who calls President Bush “Mr Danger”, has bedevilled Washington since his election in 1998.
Once in office, Mr Chávez began dismantling Venezuela’s democratic infrastructure. Today he effectively controls all major public institutions and governs with virtually unchecked power. What makes him particularly menacing, however, is his regional, even international, ambitions – and vast oil revenues, which allow him to pursue them.
