Taking On the President's Family

Legislator Accuses Chávez Relatives of Stealing From State

BARINAS, Venezuela -- Wilmer Azuaje is baby-faced, and his house here in this provincial capital is decorated with kitsch, including a giant painting of a voluptuous, naked blonde.

He could easily be mistaken for a party-going university student. The compound where his home is located includes a pool and a disco, and beer flows freely for friends who visit.

But the festive atmosphere belies Azuaje's seriousness, as well as the fact that he has become a political menace. The 31-year-old congressman, who is running for governor in this cattle-producing state, is taking on Venezuela's most famous family: that of President Hugo Chávez.

Azuaje has alleged that four of the president's brothers and their father, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, who is currently governor, have made a personal fiefdom of this state, which, like the capital, is called Barinas. The congressman is among a host of critics who say members of the Chávez family have been buying large farms and hiding their stakes in them, possibly because the properties were purchased with public funds.

"The president's brothers act like they're the owners of Barinas," said Azuaje, whose remarks have been particularly stinging because he is a member of the president's ruling party. "They act like this is a hacienda that belongs to them."

Such accusations have shined a light on what opposition groups and some government officials call a plague of graft tarnishing Chávez's self-styled revolution. Though the president has frequently railed against corruption in governments that preceded his, accusations of malfeasance are increasingly dogging those close to him.

Last week, the National Assembly approved an investigation into the farms and how they were acquired.

One of the main targets of the accusations is the president's brother Argenis, who is secretary of state in Barinas. Argenis has vigorously defended himself and his brothers against the allegations. He said they did not even own many of the farms that were singled out, let alone acquire them illegally.

"This mister has said he has lots of proof, but he has not presented it," Argenis Chávez said in an interview, referring to Azuaje. "We say investigate, investigate."

Transparency International, a group that classifies and combats corruption worldwide, lists Venezuela as among the world's most corrupt and least transparent countries. And inside Chávez's movement, officials say, there is an increasingly heated debate over the reach of corruption and what to do about it.

The best-known personage to speak out against corruption is Luis Tascón, who is notorious among opposition groups for having published the names of Venezuelans who voted against the president in a 2004 referendum. Tascón was recently ousted from the president's party after leveling corruption charges at the state oil company and against several officials in Chávez's inner circle.

"We've done the political revolution, but not an administrative revolution," said Tascón, sitting in his small apartment in Caracas, the nation's capital. "It's the same state as always, a state that is corrupt and without controls."