Venezuela Limits on Church Concerns Pope

Nicole Winfield’s May 11 article “Venezuela Limits on Church Concerns Pope” perhaps unintentionally illustrates Hugo Chavez’s political savvy. The meeting was arranged to allay any fears of the Pontiff over President Chavez’s efforts to secularize public education and legalize abortion. Yet the question here is basically about separation of Church and State, as the Venezuelan leader has been reluctant to relinquish the traditional veto power held by Venezuela presidents over the appointment of bishops. Chavez has cunningly used both sides of the religious card in his favor: in order to avoid losing backing from his primarily dissenting Catholic constituents who have been put off by the church’s sometimes infuriating policies, he defies the Vatican, while simultaneously utilizing Christian rhetoric and symbols to profess himself as a God-fearing Catholic penitent. It is this political and strategic mastery that helps explain the rise of South America’s latest hero and the extraordinary skill that he has developed which allows him to neutralize one sectoral foe after another.