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

Corruption at the National Electoral Council. The performance of the NEC under the political control of Chavez has led to widespread distrust among Venezuelans. The decisions of this body always have been biased in favor of the government, even during the recent referendum which the government lost by a margin of more than six points. Negotiations by Chavez with the president of the NEC led to official figures that showed a much narrower margin. Reports by international observers from the Organization of American States (OAS), European Union (EU), and Spanish Parliament during the electoral events of 2004 and 2005 state that the Council lacks transparency and that its members should be selected properly for impartiality.

Particularly grave is the situation of the electoral registry. It has grown by more than 2,000,000 voters in the last three years, a statistically improbable figure. Still worse, these voters have no proper addresses or reliable identifies, making them "virtual" voters that could be used by the government to swing any election unless there is very rigid monitoring by the opposition. Uruguayan analyst Adolfo Fabregat found 39,000 voters that were shown to be older than 100 years of age, and one was listed as being 175. A man called Jose Gregorio Gonzalez Rodriguez, born Aug. 4, 1962, is listed 62 times under different identity card numbers, and therefore is able to vote that many times. Examples like this number in the thousands and have been documented properly and presented to the OAS for analysis, so far without result.

High levels of mismanagement at the state-owned petroleum company, Petroleos de Venezuela. Corruption here takes many shapes. It includes the naming of six presidents and boards in seven years, in an effort to control the company politically. This finally was accomplished by naming the Minister of Energy and Petroleum president of the company, in violation of good management practice, since he now supervises himself. As a result, oil production has declined by some 800,000 barrels per day during the last decade. In a recent public heating, Luis Vienna, the firm's Vice President for Exploration and Production, admitted giving an oil well drilling contract for some $20,000,000 to a company with only three employees and no figs.

Systemic corruption, meanwhile, takes place when government bureaucrats and the private sector interact in a permissive environment where money flows abundantly and without controls. Examples include:

The emergence of a new, rich, "revolutionary bourgeoisie" that drives Hummers, sports Cartier and Rolex watches, and wears Ermenegildo Zegna suits. They buy luxury apartments in the U.S. and Europe, fly in private jets, and, salesmen say, always pay in cash. Wilmer Rupert was a minor associate of an international company a few years ago; today, he is quite rich, thanks to obtaining a large share of contracts from the state-owned oil company. Rupert has bought a television station and, as a present to the government, recently spent $1,600,000 to acquire two pistols that belonged to Simon Bolivar at auction at Christie's.