Historical revisionist. International imperialist. Socialist dictator.

All three apply to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez based upon news in the last 24 hours.

Let's start with the first, most amusing, piece of news.

History books record that Simón Bolívar, the liberator of South America, died of tuberculosis in 1830: a banal end to a magnificent life. Now Bolívar is depicted as the victim of a perfect murder, a crime so deft that for almost two centuries nobody suspected a thing.

In the absence of any evidence to support the allegation, the amateur sleuth who made it would normally command little attention. But Hugo Chávez is difficult to ignore.

Venezuela's president elicited gasps when he told a press conference in Caracas that Bolívar did not succumb to disease. "He was assassinated - they wanted him dead."

The socialist leader said he had conducted his own investigation and concluded there was a conspiracy and cover-up. He asked scientists and historians to open an inquiry and promised "to move heaven and earth" to confirm the conclusion.

Chavez, of course, fails to actually disclose any of the evidence he used to reach this conclusion, one which contradicts every contemporary source and which conveniently leaves out the little detail of who "they" were. Indeed, the argument amounts to the claim that since many people wanted him dead, he must have been murdered. That there is no evidence to support the theory is evidence of just how perfect and successful the crime was. He ranks right up there with 9/11 Truthers and JFK conspiracy theorists in his disregard logic and the historical record.

And then there is his attack on a peaceful neighbor -- an act of war that the world seems intent upon ignoring.

Venezuela has denied destroying two gold-mining dredges on Guyanese territory following a strong protest from Guyana's government.

Guyana says 36 Venezuelan soldiers used helicopters and Compostion-4 (C-4), a type of plastic explosive, to blow up the two dredges on Thursday.

It has summoned Venezuela's ambassador to explain the incident.

Venezuela denies using force and said the army was removing illegal miners inside its own territory.

Given the history of lying and misrepresenting the truth engaged in by the Venezuelan leader, I'll accept the Guyanese version of the events. Somehow, though, I suspect that the cinema socialist set will rush to the support of their hero Hugo if there ever is an uproar over the violation of Guyanese sovereignty.

But what the heck -- Chavez has already shut down much of the opposition media, and is preparing to set himself up as, effectively, President-for-Life in a move denounced even by former allies.

In two weeks, Venezuela seems likely to start an extraordinary experiment in centralized, oil-fueled socialism. By law, the workday would be cut to six hours. Street vendors, homemakers and maids would have state-mandated pensions. And President Hugo Chávez would have significantly enhanced powers and be eligible for re-election for the rest of his life.

A sweeping revision of the Constitution, expected to be approved by referendum on Dec. 2, is both bolstering Mr. Chávez’s popularity here among people who would benefit and stirring contempt from economists who declare it demagogy. Signaling new instability here, dissent is also emerging among his former lieutenants, one of whom says the president is carrying out a populist coup.

“There is a perverse subversion of our existing Constitution under way,” said Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, a retired defense minister and former confidant of Mr. Chávez who broke with him in a stunning defection this month to the political opposition. “This is not a reform,” General Baduel said in an interview here this week. “I categorize it as a coup d’état.”

Chávez loyalists already control the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, almost every state government, the entire federal bureaucracy and newly nationalized companies in the telephone, electricity and oil industries. Soon they could control even more.

For my entire life, I have watched as the people of Cuba have suffered under the yoke of oppression in a "workers paradise". I fear that I may spend the rest of my life watching just such oppression crush the people of Venezuela as well. And if the imperialistic policy demonstrated by his attack on Guyana is any indication, Venezuela's neighbors need to be fearful of what is yet to come, and prepare themselves to fight off future attempts by Chavez to expand his power by expanding the borders of his country.

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