Hugo Chavez has made another friend on his international tour - none other than Aleksandr Lukashenko, president of Belarus. The latter is widely credited as "Europe's last dictator", his regime suppressing the press, rigging elections and using death squads against its opponents.
Lukashenko has been in power for the last 12 years, keeping in power much of the old Stalinist bureaucracy. He held a "referendum" in which 80% of the population "voted" to abolish presidential term limits. His broadly "state interventionist" economic structures are riddled with corruption, and the cornerstone of most of his policy is to try and bring Belarus into closer orbit with the Kremlin.
Given the lack of press opposition and workers' rights, coupled with economic policy of keeping the bureaucracy in power while allowing some privatisation, you wouldn't say that Belarus is on the road to socialism. But Hugo Chavez said today "Here we feel ourselves to be among our brothers... We see here a model social state like the one we are beginning to create".
If the personality cult, misery and poverty of Belarus are the aim of the Bolivarian Revolution, then Venezuela's workers should be afraid.
Chavez's relations with Belarus and Russia involve ever-increasing arms deals - a bizarre anti-American alliance. Perhaps he just likes the kitsch Stalinist nostalgia/austerity of Belarus - today he's been visiting Soviet fortresses, and wants to build a Kalashnikov factory in Venezuela.
Unemployment in Belarus is relatively low, as is inequality of income - but this does not excuse the total lack of democracy, or indeed of economic growth! Of course, Chavez's main ally Fidel Castro is no friend of working-class democracy, so we shouldn't be too surprised that Chavez has lined up behind an authoritarian (anti-semitic) regime. Chavez's populist "man of the people" act has no focus on class, simply making rhetoric about anti-Americanism rather than overthrowing the bourgeois state. Bush attacked Belarus as an outpost of tyranny, so Chavez sees Belarus as an ally.
It is hard to see how anyone could think that one benevolent president could "save the people" through this kind of populist crap. But, as Lukashenko once said
"The history of Germany is somehow a copy of Belarus's history at some point. At the time Germany was raised from the ruins thanks to a firm hand. Not everything that was connected to a certain Adolf Hitler in Germany was bad. Remember his rule in Germany. The German order had grown over centuries. Under Hitler this process reached its culmination. This is perfectly in line with our understanding of a presidential republic and of the role of its president. I want to emphasize that one man cannot be all black or all white. There are positive sides as well. Germany was once built up out of the ruins with the help of a strong presidential force. Germany was raised thanks to this strong force, thanks to the fact that the whole nation united around its leader. Today we are going through a similar period, when we have to unite around one person or group of people in order to survive, hold out and get back on our feet again"