Former Governor of Carabobo Touts the Power of Decentralization

"Controversy makes him stronger.  It's the same as an airplane that needs a headwind to take off."  This is how Henrique Salas Römer, former candidate for the presidency of Venezuela in 1998 and ex governor of the state of Carobobo, describes Chavez in a recent interview published in La Verdad and reprinted in Noticias24.  Mr. Römer's 1998 candidacy was predicated on the concept of "decentralization" as a way of enhancing local control and increasing accountability.  He sees the recent moves in the National Assembly to give the Executive power control over airports, sea-ports, and highways, as a symptom of the president's penchant for absolute control and as a method for generating conflicts with state and municipal elected leaders in anticipation of elections scheduled for November of this year.  Römer interprets these moves as a strategy for converting the regional elections into a national campaign with Chavez - as usual - in the center of his own controversy.

Mr. Römer believes that, in the same way that their was a "tacit agreement" among forces opposed to Chavez's constitutional referendum defeated last year, there should be an alignment of interests going into the regional elections this fall.  Römer considers Chavez's revolution to be at its lowest point in terms of popular support.  He considers decentralization to be the strongest antidote to Chavez's pretensions of dictatorial authority.  Beyond the ideology of chavism and anti-chavism, he believes that the self interest of governors and mayors all over Venezuela can - along with voters' desire for accountability - move the country toward greater pluralism.

Mr. Römer's advocacy of decentralization is based on the observation that local control means greater accountability.  The end result for Römer is to give people "the tools for empowerment, in order to augment the capacity of each person to self govern, thus increasing their potential to master their own destiny."