Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has often courted confusion, but even by his standards this has been a tumultuous week. Days after he was overthrown by a military coup and a successor government sworn in, the firebrand leader was restored to power by loyalists within his government and popular protests. Mr. Chavez has returned to the presidential palace appealing for calm and promising reconciliation. Venezuela, a rich country that has been badly mismanaged, needs both. Respect for law and the constitution is the best place to start.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the events of last week were inevitable. Mr. Chavez is a former army paratrooper who led his own unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992. After serving time in prison, he took a more conventional path to power: In 1998, he won the presidency by a landslide after promising to end corruption and share the country's oil wealth with its poorer citizens. His fiery populism -- he modeled himself after Simon Bolivar -- infuriated Venezuela's elites and much of the middle class, but endeared him to the masses.
Divisions within the country became more intense last November, when Mr. Chavez's government passed a package of 49 laws that struck at vested interests. Among the bills were measures that tightened government control of the state-owned oil company and allowed the expropriation of farmland. As part of his "Bolivarian revolution," the armed forces were politicized and made "active" participants in national development schemes. The enactment of laws by the equivalent of executive decree was as infuriating as their content.