President Barack Obama greeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Will President Obama’s handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez undermine the former standing? It is unlikely that Obama will suffer any negative perceptions state-side, at least not by those who do not already hate him.

But public image aside, it was wrong for the leader of the free world to publicly embrace a man who is quickly forming a dictatorship in the Americas. In the post-Cold War era, America stands for democratic and accountable government in the hemisphere.

Chavez, and his cohorts in Bolivia and Ecuador, are working to undermine the rule of law and replace it by Marxist dogmas. Chavez is by far the most autocratic.

His first foray into politics was as a general in the 1990s, Chavez attempt [unsuccessfully] to overthrow a democratic government. His anti-democratic instincts - his view that he is right so democracy be damned - stayed with him when he was elected president in a democratic election.

Since his election, Chavez has pursued a policy of nationalizations, price controls and akin policies strengthening the state’s hand in the economy. If only Chavez sought to control the economy, but, alas, as Hayek once wrote: the end of economic freedom bequeaths the end of political freedom.

Chavez has gotten rid of term limits so as to make him president for life. In his effort to get Venezuelans to pass the referendum, he forced state employees to become party organizers, used the state media as a megaphone, and denied the opposition protesting rights in Caracas three days prior to the referendum. During his campaign to end term limits, Chavez youth supporters held up equally young opposition activists at gun point. The Economist reported then:

Days earlier a group of armed chavista radicals had attacked the Ateneo de Caracas, one of the capital’s most important cultural centres. Complaining that it was being used for “ultra-rightist” activities, they hurled tear-gas grenades and fired shots. They held scores of people at gunpoint for hours, stole their mobile phones and vandalised the premises. The assault was lead by Lina Ron, a prominent member of Mr Chávez’s referendum campaign. None of the assailants has been arrested or questioned. As if to dispel any doubt that the invasion of the Ateneo had the government’s support, the next day the finance ministry ordered the eviction of the cultural centre from the state-owned buildings it has occupied since the 1980s.

Ironically, the Ateneo provided Mr Chávez with a platform when he entered politics after leading an unsuccessful military coup against a democratic government in the 1990s. The incident highlights his regime’s increasingly authoritarian bent.

Chavez has called the opposition treason and now is following those words with action. In recent weeks, opposition leaders have been arrested and convicted for years in jail on suspect chargers. And the opposition mayor of Caracas was recently arrested for having the temerity to deliver a letter to the parliament. Chavez’s Interior Minister stated that the mayor should have sought permission...to walk the states he is used to govern.

The courts are under Chavez’s control, he wants to indoctrinate students along Che Gueverra line, his supporters are holding up students at gun point, term limits have been ended, corruption if widespread, and he rejects the idea of a loyal opposition.

By shaking his hands Obama legitimizes such a tyrant. Chavez should be isolated until freedom returns to Venezuela. The annoying thing about Obama is that he is too impressed by his own star power and thinks that along will deliver the results he wants. Maybe it will. Maybe Chavez will see the folly. But the American president should not give a cruel tyrant, particularly in our hemisphere, the benefit of the doubt.

Obama should have said to the reached out hand. His embrace will at least undermine his image amongst those Venezuelans fighting to preserve a free society.