The corruption of democracy in Venezuela: under Pres. Hugo Chavez's regime the last nine years, corruption has reached heights undreamed of by even the greediest of despots, as the people of Venezuela have been fleeced out of billions of dollars

Social programs run by the military in 2000-02. Soon after becoming president, Chavez established programs called Bolivar 2000 and Central Social Fund run by the armed forces and designed to do social work. Journalist Agustin Beroes reports, however, that the execution of this program left much to be desired. It became a vehicle for the personal benefit of its managers--officers such as Victor Cruz Weffer and William Farinas. Some $700,000,000 was put into these programs and, at least half of it remains unaccounted for. The Central Social Fund, for instance, gave a $500,000 grant to an organization run by the wife of Horacio Perez, Commander Farina's personal driver.

Acquisition of the $65,000,000 presidential airplane. After visiting the Middle East and traveling in an Airbus owned by the royal family of Qatar, Chavez decided he wanted one just like it. In violation of article 314 of the Venezuelan constitution and the laws regulating government expenditures, he bought an A319-133X without budgetary provisions to acquire it and after saying in numerous public speeches that he would get rid of all government aircraft because there already were too many of them.

Corruption at the State of Barinas Sugar Mill. This Chavez pet project is run by the military and Cuban advisors. A group of about 17 officers and their advisors have been charged with pilfering or pocketing some $1,300,000 from the accounts of this project. Worse, the 62nd Army Engineers Unit has been charged with squandering $1,500,000,000 of the $2,600,000,000 appropriated for the project. The Minister of Agriculture admitted to malfeasance for not revealing these facts when he became aware of them. His explanation? "We were in the midst of parliamentary elections and did not want to create a scandal damaging to our government."

Bureaucratic corruption has the government involved in bribery, extortion, stealing of public funds, abuse of political power, nepotism, and other varieties of illegal or unethical use of public assets. Examples include:

Government contracting is done mostly without bidding. Although the law stipulates that all government contracting should follow bidding procedures, except in cases of national emergency properly defined as such, the Venezuelan chapter of Transparency International estimates that 95% of all known public contracts during the last decade have been awarded without bidding. This is a major source of personal enrichment for corrupt government officers. An example of this is what has taken place in the State of Carabobo, where Gov. Acosta Carlez publicly has stated that he has given some 800 no-bid contracts involving tens of millions of dollars. His argument? "We are 'always in an emergency here."

Corruption at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. In early 2006, a major scandal erupted when the Minister of the Interior accused one of the magistrates, Luis Velazquez Alvaray, of stealing public funds in the acquisition of a building for the Court. Alvaray counterattacked and accused Vice Pres. Rangel, as well as Interior Minister Jesse Chacon and National Assembly Pres. Nicolas Maduro, of running a gang of corrupt judges called "The Dwarves," specialized in protecting drug traffickers. All of these allegations came to naught. Alvaray left the country, and the bureaucrats he accused remained in their jobs.