A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

But let us remember the kind of person he is:

It's been a pretty good week for Hugo Chávez. In the wake of televangelist Pat Robertson's ill-conceived call for the Venezuelan leader's assassination (or perhaps, on second thought, just kidnapping, or a dinner date), Jesse Jackson has flown down to offer his support, and at least some of the reports to emerge from the media flurry prompted by Robertson's gaffe leave the impression that Chávez is, all things considered, not such a bad guy.

As the Houston Chronicle notes, the populist Chávez—whose 1998 victory at the ballot box was preceded by a failed military coup in 1992—remains a kind of icon for many on the left. One Reuters report titled "Campaign to ring Chavez alarm fails to resonate" painted him as a benevolent, baby-hugging leader who's been the victim of "largely unsubstantiated Bush administration accusations." Even the American Enterprise Institute's staunchly anti-Chávez Marc Falcoff suggested that he was essentially a "nuisance," not so much a cause for serious concern as a character in "Latin America's latest opéra bouffe."

But one need not approve of murder as a diplomatic tactic to view Chávez—who's recently said he'd like to govern until 2030—with a wary eye. Though he came to power thanks to the appeal of a radical anti-corruption, anti-poverty platform, Venezuela still ranks near the bottom of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, and poverty has risen under his rule. (As Thor Halvorssen, recent founder of the Human Rights Foundation, quipped to me this weekend: "Chávez loves the poor so much, he wants to create as many of them as he can.")

At home, Chávez has been eager to clamp down on a privately-owned media, most recently by way of a controversial media law. In an interview first published late last year pro-Chávez National Assembly member William Lara explained that the new law "neither limits nor restricts freedom of information," is in fact "a profoundly democratic law that places in the hands of Venezuelan citizens the possibility of participating in the communications message in both radio and television," shortly before clarifying that under the new rules "any insult directed at the President of the Republic, or at any other citizen, constitutes slander, injury and vilification." The organization Reporters Without Borders has chronicled a campaign of both legal harassment and threats of physical violence, often at the hands of the Círculos Bolivarianos, effectively private militia groups that Chávistas euphemistically characterize as "community groups." Those who signed a petition calling for an unsuccessful 2004 recall of Chavez have been similarly targeted, denied access to government grants, jobs, and microloans.

If only that were all the article had on him. Unfortunately, it is not.