Is Venezuela About to Boil Over For Good This Time?

There has been a shortage of news coverage in the US media regarding the goings-on in Venezuela. Things are getting dicey and on the current trajectory Hugo Chavez's days could be numbered. At the least he is going to have to survive another intense period of danger for his regime. Bolivarian Socialism is caput, finito. It's all over but the crying for this doomed experiment, and all that remains is for the final act to be written (does our protagonist join his buddy Manny Zelaya on the beach in the DR or does he get Ceausescu'd?). Oil revenues, the life-blood of the regime, are declining because he destroyed the country's oil infrastructure through neglect and he's driven away all the international oil service companies by stiffing them on their bills and stealing their capital assets. Food shortages are escalating because he's nationalized farmland and food processing businesses. Imports are difficult to get because he got his country put on the maritime insurance industry's black list. Crime has soared. All old news. But now things are coming to a head. There are rolling blackouts because he's neglected the power grid and generation capacity. He's closing the last of the unfriendly media outlets, RCTV. He's devalued the bolivar, robbing citizens of their private savings and driven most of the country's private capital stock overseas. Finally, he is on the verge of calling out his goons to crush a newly-revived opposition movement, but both the police and the army are thought to be less inclined to put down the protests as willingly as they have in the past. Chavez is warning the police of a major restructuring of their ranks and warning citizens not to urge soldiers to join a rebellion. It's snowballing. Stay tuned. Hugo may not see year end.

A key variable will be the behavior of the Obama administration. Unfortunately, given their terrible performance in the Honduras crisis, there is a good chance that Obama will come to Chavez's aid. I pray that I am wrong for if he does, it will be a second mark of indelible shame upon the United States after our abandonment of the courageous Iranian people. I am sad to say that we could wipe out two centuries of leadership in the cause of liberty in just two years time. Two centuries of standing tall, two centuries of being a beacon, two centuries of growing into who we are as a nation...gone in two years, just like that. That'll be change alright...profound, regretable change.

UPDATE: Mary O'Grady weighs in. I think she is saying that a "boil over" is not yet clearly in the cards, but that it's going to get ugly starting...now.