The latest from Hugo

Does Venezuela get it now? What more evidence do they need?

See Chavez's holy war By Samuel Gregg:

"There are three things all aspiring dictatorships seek to control or destroy.

The first is private property. Undermining this institution encourages economic dependency on the state while simultaneously stripping people of private resources they might use to support political opposition. Thus we see Mr. Chavez nationalizing various industries, confiscating land, and attempting to control private companies, especially in the oil industry.

A second target of dictatorships is the family. Most such regimes seek to weaken family loyalties by turning children and parents against each other and encouraging everyone to regard the state as an alternative parent. Here Mr. Chavez's moves have involved attempting to militarize as many young people as possible, and his education law which will, Cardinal Urosa Savino believes, result in the "politicization and ideologizing of education" and diminish parents' ability to control their children's education -- especially their religious education.

This brings us to the third objective of any dictatorship: suppression of religious liberty. The autonomy enjoyed by the church creates a sphere of activity independent of the state.

Invariably this results in dictators attempting to demolish religious faith, as one saw in the Soviet Union, or a Kulturkampf against churches, as occurred under the Nazi regime.

Mr. Chavez is undoubtedly aware that the Catholic Church is one of the few autonomous institutions left in Venezuela.

Thus far Mr. Chavez's Kulturkampf has manifested itself in publicly insulting any Catholic bishop questioning government policy (he once called Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara an "outlaw") and his efforts to diminish church influence upon education.

The latter earned him a public reprimand from Benedict XVI during Mr. Chavez's 2006 visit to the Vatican.

The other element of Mr. Chavez's strategy for neutralizing the Catholic Church is his self-immersion in Christian imagery. Mr. Chavez uses what Archbishop Jose Baltazar Porras of Merida calls the language of "Messianism" to try and persuade people that socialism is Christianity -- hence, Mr. Chavez's recent reference to Christ as "the greatest socialist in history." "The Kingdom of Christ," Mr. Chavez has stated, "is the kingdom of socialism."

Some people will say: Who cares? Let Venezuela worry about this.

Unfortunately, Hugo is hanging around with some very bad people.

The Wall Street Journal has a great editorial. See Hugo and Mahmoud:

"The Iranian President stopped by Caracas on Saturday as part of a four-day engagement with Latin America's new leftist governments. On Sunday, the Iranian communed with Nicaragua's new boss, Daniel Ortega, and then on Monday he hit the inauguration of Ecuador's new pro-Chávez President Rafael Correa."

This is a little too close for comfort. Hugo Chavez is a trouble maker. See Enemy in Our Back Yard:

"Until recently, Mr. Chavez and his fellow Latin American leftists were an annoyance for advocates of free trade and good governance. Now that they've allied themselves with Islamic extremists, however, they've become a great deal more dangerous."

Is Hugo Chavez stupid enough to get WMDs? I don't know. At the same time, I did not think that he would be stupid enough to create a dictatorship after winning an election.

The moral of the story? The world is a dangerous place and it does not matter how many times we look the other way.