NYTimes -- Power to the Privileged

A critical Yale opinion of Chavez combined with good advice to Bush to stay out.

After taking power, Mr. Chavez disbanded the "worm-eaten" mantuano-dominated Congress and Supreme Court. He suspended privatization, vowed to dismantle Venezuela's plantation system, and decreed scores of laws intended to soften what he called "savage capitalism." Predictably, all this had a devastating effect on Venezuela's economy.

The coup against Mr. Chavez last April was a classic effort by a market-dominant minority to retaliate against a democratically elected (if also blundering) government threatening its wealth and power. The interim president, Pedro Carmona Estanga, was a wealthy white businessman. Union representatives were excluded from positions of authority. To the dismay of the United States government, which initially hailed the coup as a victory for democracy, the high-handed actions of the Carmona regime, combined with Mr. Chavez's still-strong support among Venezuela's poor majority, returned Mr. Chavez to power with stunning speed.

What should the United States do now about Venezuela? Candor would be a good start. If we genuinely support democracy in developing countries, we cannot endorse coups, even pro-capitalist ones, against democratically elected presidents.