Chavez's destructive legacy

To the left he was a hero, a democratically elected socialist who used the oil wealth of his country to lift the very poor out of poverty and give millions a chance, up against criticism by "vested interests" who continued to tout capitalism as the answer.

To some on the right he was a communist dictator, who seized power and was running Venezuela like Zimbabwe.

Chavez ever a friend of a despot

Well both are right.

Despite a skewed electoral system, monstrous control of the media and bullying and intimidation of the opposition, it would be churlish to deny that Hugo Chavez had many supporters.  He did get elected, and it isn't hard to see why many people, granted handouts from the state, wouldn't be grateful.  When oil prices were at their peak, he used the money to pay for medical centres, welfare benefits, creating civil service "jobs" and infrastructure in poorer neighbourhoods.  While it is easy to pour scorn on all of this as being vote buying, it really is little different from what leftwing parties do in Western democracies, except Chavez did have money flowing in from the state oil companies.  He didn't need to tax the wealthy.  In that respect, it's understandable why some would think he was relatively benign, bearing in mind that other oil rich countries either keep the money largely within a tight ruling elite (Saudi Arabia, Equatorial Guinea) or put it away into a rainy day fund to pay for pensions (Norway).

Yes he did spend the oil wealth of the country on massive welfare programmes, but he also spent it on subsidising Cuba's faltering economy, he spent it on arms and he even gave it to London, in the form of subsidised diesel for London buses, as part of a deal with then Mayor Ken Livingstone.   The moral compass of both men gets tested when money that should have been for Venezuelans is transferred to one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

His economic legacy was characterised by the most fundamental error common to almost the entire left - complete neglect of the creation of wealth and an obsession with spending it.

His social legacy is that of an authoritarian state increasingly based on obedience and deference, with violence used against those who dared oppose it.  It includes one of the highest murder and kidnapping rates in Latin America, with over 21,000 a year (an average of 75 per 100,000 people, compared to 4.8 in the USA), including 300 in the first half year in prisons alone.  It was 4450 in 1998, the year before Chavez gained power.  

How that matches with claims by the left that poverty causes murder is unclear.   The regime banned private purchases of firearms a few months ago, which of course has had no effect, which given the number of illegal firearms is estimated at between 1.6 and 4.1 million, is unsurprising.   However, if you were Venezuelan would you trust the state to protect your rights?

Don't sing in the shower says Chavez

He's calling on Venezuelans to wash quickly and not sing because it wastes water and electricity, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He called jacuzzi's "anti-communist" (so he is a communist then), and his solution to electricity shortages? Create a Ministry. He also demanded all government departments cut energy consumption by 20%.

Why is there a problem? Chronic underinvestment in new electricity generation.

Of course it should hardly be a surprise that with socialism, shortages appear, and the solution to the shortages is not to allow entrepreneurship, market prices and let private individuals find solutions, but to tell people to use less.

Who does that remind you of?

Venezuela inches further towards dictatorship

Nobody is surprised that the latest pinup of the far left - Hugo Chavez - is continuing to prove himself to be a thieving mobster. Anyone with delusions that he is some benevolent strongman helping the poor does need to reconsider this view.

Now he is seizing golf courses, because golf is a bourgeoisie sport.

Only a week ago he seized the Hilton Hotel on Margarita Island because of "the need to boost tourism", although Hilton had a concession to use it, it did not own the hotel.

It's becoming clear Venezuela is not a place where foreigners owning land can feel safe from theft. Previous nationalisations have been at taxpayer expense, spending a set price to buy the telecommunications and electricity sectors. Last year he took over the cement and steel sectors as well.

The inevitable outcome will be more poverty, and the ever creeping control over the media, as Chavez refuses to tolerate debate or dissension.

Chavez calls Merkel a Nazi

According to the BBC he has now effectively called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a Nazi saying "She is from the German right.... The same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism. That's the Chancellor of Germany today."

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so there are still people on the left who are sycophants to this lunatic? All she said was that he doesn't speak for Latin America, and unless Venezuela is some great new imperial power, she is right.

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Another thieving leftwing autocratic maniac.

Chavez - subsidiser of the rich

Those on the left whose collective tongues are felching the legacy of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's wannabe dictator should pause for thought with his latest venture - subsidising movies made by Hollywood stars who are also sycophants for authoritarian socialism. Danny Glover, Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn and Harry Belafonte are all receiving this. Chavez is spending £9 million on films made by Hollywood stars - five times the Venezuelan film sector's annual budget.

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This follows his earlier gifting of cheap diesel to Transport for London courtesy of Ken Livingstone to subsidise London buses.

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So socialism is about... subsidising the richest city in the world and the richest actors in the world.... great!

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Such a hero of the poor

Chavez continues the madness

What does a socialist do when he is concerned about poor people not being able to afford food, well he makes it illegal to sell food at the market price so they can afford it. It is a childlike response "price too high, make it low or else". Don't laugh too hard, Rob Muldoon wasn't much different for a few years. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the latest pinup boy of the "New Left", and mate of London Mayor Ken Livingstone did just that. What was the reaction? Well Venezuelan farmers weren't too impressed by having their livelihoods cut, so they started exporting their produce to neighbouring countries to get the prevailing market prices for what they grow. Venezuela is a net food importer as well, but then few want to sell to a country unwilling to pay market prices.

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So shortages have appeared, you know like bread queues in the former Soviet Union - shortages are the stock in trade of socialism, because incentives to produce are completely schewed by central planning and prices not being an equilibrium between demand and supply.

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So what is Hugo Chavez's response? According to the BBC, he has called for the nationalisation of farms that export their produce. He is willing to "call in the army" to do this. By saying this, he effectively is nationalising the farms, and the next thing you can be sure of is that the farmers will cut back spending on their farms. A low price means reduced production.

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Shortages will simply grow. He also threatens to nationalise banks that don't give low interest loans to farmers. Again though, this is something else he has meddled in. With inflation reportedly at 22.5%, interest rates are capped at 15% - so banks can only loan money at a loss. So maybe there will be loans available on paper, but in reality none will exist.

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Sadly for the Venezuelan people what we have now is a textbook example for all students of socialism at work. Pay close attention kids, watch what happens next and ask yourself how a country that is rich in oil, at a time of high oil prices, has shortages of basic commodities, and why it is led by a man whose response to those who don't do what they like is to steal their property.

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It goes a little something like this:

- I want to make poor people wealthy;

- I take money off of wealthier people, take a little for me and give the rest to the poor;

- They stop making money or working so hard, and complain;

- I take over the rich people's media so their complaints don't demoralise the poor;

- I get less produced by the wealthy, threaten them more;

- There are shortages;

- I blame the wealthy people and take more off of them;

- They try to leave or stop producing altogether;

- I stop them leaving, blame them for economic sabotage;

- Shortages get worse, starvation occurs, unrest develops;

- I use the nationalised media to calm people's fears and point out that poverty is being eradicated, everyone has jobs, and to show the hell that is life in the USA for the poor;

- I blame the USA, IMF, World Bank and international banking for impoverishing my poor hard working people;

- Further economic collapse.

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Zimbabwe is at the final stages of this... and you hear John Minto say what about Venezuela?

Maybe you might ask about those who are supporters of it? Like those who may promote this film, former Jim Anderton ally Matt Robson being one of them. What do they say to Venezuelans facing food shortages? Will they be prepared to admit their own economic illiteracy has been tested once again, and give up cheerleading bullies who keep wanting to repeat the failed experiment of socialism?

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Look at the list of failure:

- USSR

- Mongolia

- Yugoslavia

- Albania

- Czechoslovakia

- Hungary

- Poland

- Romania

- Bulgaria

- east Germany

- China (pre 1978 - can hardly be seen as socialism now)

- Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea)

- Laos

- North Korea

- Cuba

- Zimbabwe

- Angola

- Benin

- Congo (B)

- Mozambique

- Somalia

- Yemen

- Ethiopia

- Tanzania

- Afghanistan

- Myanmar

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or hasn't enough blood been spilled yet?

Chavez threatens to not sell oil to the USA

Go on you Marxist thug.

Given CNN reports "United States is Venezuela's biggest oil customer and one of the few countries that can refine its low-quality crude. Venezuela accounts for up to 15 percent of U.S. crude imports". I think it's fine for a socialist to say he's not going to sell to his biggest customer, especially since his product is hardly that well sought after.

He's looking to remove term limits and put the Central Bank under his control, as well as reduce working weeks (given that the work ethic there isn't high according to some reports that wont help). Nice little recipe for more authoritarianism, and more wasting of money following a grand vision for "the people".

Keep watching political science students and economic students - learn how a country can be wrecked by socialism, and pity the average Venezuelan, the welfare state that has been built is unsustainable.