VENEZUELAN COUP

Chavez's ouster is no great loss; let's hope the new government abides by
the rule of law.

No one in the Bush administration will shed a tear for the ouster yesterday
of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the leftist firebrand who had been a
thorn in Washington's side since he was elected in a landslide three years ago.

Chavez was forced out of power by disenchanted senior military officers - a
lamentable Latin American tradition - and an interim government led by a
civilian was ushered in. It promised new elections within a year - and also
promptly announced plans to dissolve Congress and fire the supreme court.

But Pedro Carmona, the president of Venezuela's leading business
association, who was named to lead the country, pledged to maintain a
democratic, pluralist system and the rule of law. That would be a welcome
development.

Chavez's downfall came when the army turned against him, after growing
popular frustration with Chavez's mismanagement of Venezuela's economy
bubbled up in violent protests and a nationwide strike this week. Senior
army officers, who had originally supported Chavez, lost patience with his
confrontational leadership style and left-wing populist rhetoric.

The business community, alarmed by his attempt to nationalize key
industries, was also disenchanted with Chavez, especially when his promised
reforms failed to halt the country's slide toward recession despite its
massive oil revenues. Venezuela is the world's fourth largest oil exporter
and a top U.S. supplier.

Chavez openly flaunted his ideological differences with Washington. He made
his first state visits outside the hemisphere to Libya and Iraq - like
Venezuela, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -
and assured them of his support in any confrontation with the United
States. He advocated restricting oil supplies and jacking up prices, and he
openly sympathized with leftist drug-running guerrillas conducting a civil
war in Colombia. And after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he condemned the
U.S. campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan .

But what did him in was his incompetence as an executive. He was
mismanaging the nation's vast oil wealth with nothing to show for his
grandiose schemes for income and land redistribution. Let us hope the new
government turns out to be more competent than the past.