07-09-10- NY Daily News- Hugo Chavez belongs in the rogues’ gallery: Compare him to the world’s worst dictators

After 11 years in office, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has come to look much less like a democrat and far more like a dictator. A look at his approaches to governing – and holding onto power at all costs – reveals remarkable parallels with some of the modern world’s most ruthless and brutal tyrants. Just compare Chavez with the worst of the worst in recent memory: Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and Jean Kambanda of Rwanda.

Robert Mugabe. The plague of Zimbabwe, Mugabe has been in power for 30 years. In 2000, he began a radical policy of dispossessing white farmers of their farms – which brought about the collapse of what had been a very prosperous economy.

Chavez has been following essentially the same practice, capturing more than 6 million acres from private farmers he calls oligarchs – but who are really political dissidents. Today both Venezuela and Zimbabwe import about two-thirds of the food they consume.Chavez has shown that he does not need to envy anyone when it comes to promoting fear and death among his own people. He is a natural candidate to follow Bashir and be indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Like we say in Venezuela, “Chavez – see you at The Hague.”

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