January 20, 2007
As Venezuela’s economy sputters, Chavez turns on the bluster
This morning’s news carried more reports of investors ditching their Venezuelan stocks. The reason? Hugo Chavez. Venezuela’s Castro wannabe has been enacting the sorts of policies that Eastern European countries discarded nearly twenty years ago. President Chavez is nationalizing Venezuelan industries, and prattling about the foundation of a new socialist utopia based in Caracas.
Global investors aren’t impressed, which explains the recent flight of capital from the South American capital of Patria, socialismo, o muerte! (“Country, socialism, or death!”----one of Chavez’s pet sayings.)
So as his economy stumbles, Chavez is resorting to two formulaic tactics: a.) he is ratcheting up class warfare within Venezuela, and b.) he is blaming the gringos.
Chavez spoke for five hours on Venezuelan television over the weekend. (Since he has recently been closing down opposition television networks, there probably isn’t much else to watch on Venezuelan TV.) During his speech, he spoke about the need to increase taxes on gasoline and other luxury goods, with vague references to sticking it to Venezuelan citizens who “fill up their BMWs.” He also peppered his speech with his now standard praise for Fidel Castro, and exhaustive attacks on U.S. foreign policy. (If Hugo Chavez’s assessments are anywhere near the truth, the United States is responsible for every problem in world from the wars in the Middle East to the recent outbreaks of contagious foot rash in southern Albania.)
Chavez had an especially large bee in his sombrero over Washington’s critiques of the new executive powers that he has appropriated for himself. Chavez cronies in Venezuela’s National Assembly have granted him the authority to rule by decree for a period of 18 months. (This means that Chavez will have even more opportunities to wreck the national economy, and bore Venezuelans with long-winded tributes to dead and dying communist dictators.)
In response to U.S. State Department concerns over the scope his new powers, Chavez had the following to say: “Go to hell, gringos!”
Once again, Mr. Chavez proves that he is every bit the statesman we expect him to be.
Notes:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/21/chavez.ap/index.html