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He turning his country into one....He did'nt start out that way.
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Chavez to troops: Prepare for war with Colombia
- Thread starter kaya'08
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He turning his country into one....He did'nt start out that way.
Agnapostate
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If he's seeking to eliminate money, markets, and the state in Venezuela, I congratulate him. Considering his status as a republican official, however, I doubt that.
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It has been climbing pretty steadily. Again i refer you to the stats in the third world traveler article. Im not sure of your definition of communist but a self proclaimed communist won the last election in Cyprus. But what has this to do with Venuzuela if you dont dispute the election results?
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Lets take a closer look at the "Progress" Chavez has brought Venezuela-
Chavez's well runs dry
Political opponents and experts blame water and electricity shortages on communist leadership. Losing power: In Venezuela, communism is a cold shower
By THE ECONOMIST
Last update: November 9, 2009 - 7:38 PM
The economy is in recession but sales of at least two items are booming in Venezuela: water-storage tanks and portable generators. A country that has claimed the world's biggest oil reserves and is home to its fourth-mightiest river, the Orinoco, has recently been forced to ration both water and electricity.
Hugo Chavez, the leftist president, blames the profligacy of consumers and a drought caused by El Niño weather.
National blackouts
Certainly, lower rainfall has cut the flow to the country's main hydroelectric dam (which provides three-fifths of its electricity) by 10 percent. But the opposition, and several independent experts, say the underlying cause is the government's failure to plan, maintain and invest in the necessary infrastructure.
Only a quarter of the funds budgeted for power generation have in fact been spent on it, says Víctor Poleo, who was deputy minister for electricity early in Chavez's decade in power. In 2007 the president compounded the problem by nationalizing what remained of the private power industry. Since then there have been half-a-dozen national blackouts. Meanwhile, demand for electricity has grown by an annual average of 4.5 percent.
Power plants cannot be used to take up the slack. They have been neglected. Four out of five turbines at the biggest of them, Planta Centro on the Caribbean coast, are out of action.
Even José Vicente Rangel, an ultra-loyal chavista and the former vice president, was moved to ask: "What's going on? Why haven't urgent and drastic measures been taken?"
The perception that the government has bungled is contributing to a fall in Chavez's popularity rating, now put at 46 percent by Datanalisis, a pollster.
Chavez has called on Venezuelans to take quicker showers. "Some people sing in the bath for half an hour," he told a recent cabinet meeting, broadcast live. "What kind of communism is that? Three minutes is more than enough!"
Chavez's well runs dry
Political opponents and experts blame water and electricity shortages on communist leadership. Losing power: In Venezuela, communism is a cold shower
By THE ECONOMIST
Last update: November 9, 2009 - 7:38 PM
The economy is in recession but sales of at least two items are booming in Venezuela: water-storage tanks and portable generators. A country that has claimed the world's biggest oil reserves and is home to its fourth-mightiest river, the Orinoco, has recently been forced to ration both water and electricity.
Hugo Chavez, the leftist president, blames the profligacy of consumers and a drought caused by El Niño weather.
National blackouts
Certainly, lower rainfall has cut the flow to the country's main hydroelectric dam (which provides three-fifths of its electricity) by 10 percent. But the opposition, and several independent experts, say the underlying cause is the government's failure to plan, maintain and invest in the necessary infrastructure.
Only a quarter of the funds budgeted for power generation have in fact been spent on it, says Víctor Poleo, who was deputy minister for electricity early in Chavez's decade in power. In 2007 the president compounded the problem by nationalizing what remained of the private power industry. Since then there have been half-a-dozen national blackouts. Meanwhile, demand for electricity has grown by an annual average of 4.5 percent.
Power plants cannot be used to take up the slack. They have been neglected. Four out of five turbines at the biggest of them, Planta Centro on the Caribbean coast, are out of action.
Even José Vicente Rangel, an ultra-loyal chavista and the former vice president, was moved to ask: "What's going on? Why haven't urgent and drastic measures been taken?"
The perception that the government has bungled is contributing to a fall in Chavez's popularity rating, now put at 46 percent by Datanalisis, a pollster.
Chavez has called on Venezuelans to take quicker showers. "Some people sing in the bath for half an hour," he told a recent cabinet meeting, broadcast live. "What kind of communism is that? Three minutes is more than enough!"
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Venezuela's empty revolution
By Francisco Rodríguez
Published: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
----------------
Although opinions differ on whether Chávez's rule should be characterized as authoritarian or democratic, just about everyone appears to agree that, in contrast to his predecessors, Chávez has made the welfare of the Venezuelan poor his top priority. His government, the thinking goes, has provided subsidized food to low-income families, redistributed land and wealth, and poured money from Venezuela's booming oil industry into health and education programs. As a result, he has earned the lasting support of the Venezuelan poor.
In fact, the "Chávez is good for the poor" hypothesis is wrong. Neither official statistics nor independent estimates show any evidence that Chávez has reoriented state priorities to benefit the poor. Most health and human development indicators have shown no significant improvement beyond that which is normal in the midst of an oil boom. Indeed, some have deteriorated, and official estimates indicate that income inequality has increased. What last December's voting really showed is that Venezuelans are starting to glimpse the consequences of Chávez's economic policies - and they do not like what they see.
The percentage of underweight babies born in Venezuela, for example, increased from 8.4 percent to 9.1 percent between 1999 and 2006. During the same period, the percentage of households without access to running water rose from 7.2 percent to 9.4 percent, and the percentage of families living in dwellings with earthen floors multiplied almost threefold, from 2.5 percent to 6.8 percent. The average share of the budget devoted to health, education and housing under Chávez in his first eight years in office, meanwhile, was 25.12 percent, essentially identical to the average share (25.08 percent) in the previous eight years. And it is lower today than it was in 1992, the last year in office of the "neo-liberal" administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez - the leader whom Chávez, then a lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Army, tried to overthrow in a coup, purportedly on behalf of Venezuela's neglected poor majority.
Most Venezuelans, according to opinion surveys, have given Chávez credit for the nation's strong economic growth. In polls, an overwhelming majority have expressed support for his stewardship of the economy and reported that their personal situation was improving. This is not surprising: Buoyed by surging oil profits, Venezuela had enjoyed three consecutive years of double-digit growth by 2006.
But by late 2007, Chávez's economic model had begun to unravel. For the first time since early 2004, a majority of voters claimed that both their personal situation and the country's situation had worsened during the preceding year. Scarcities in basic foodstuffs, such as milk, black beans, and sardines, were chronic, and the difference between the official and the black-market exchange rate reached 215 percent.
This growing crisis is the predictable result of the gross mismanagement of the economy by Chávez's team. During the past five years, the Venezuelan government has pursued strongly expansionary fiscal and economic policies, increasing real spending by 137 percent and real liquidity by 218 percent. This splurge has outstripped even the expansion in oil revenues: The Chávez administration has managed the admirable feat of running a budget deficit in the midst of an oil boom.
------------------
How has the Venezuelan government been able to convince so many people of the success of its antipoverty efforts despite the complete absence of real evidence of their effectiveness? Partly because of the Chávez administration's high-profile public relations campaigns together with well-placed loans, subsidized oil sales and political contributions. But even more importantly, because so many intellectuals and politicians in developed countries see Latin America's problems as simply the exploitation of the poor masses by wealthy privileged elites. Such stereotypes reinforce the view that Latin American underdevelopment is due to the vices of its predatory governing classes rather than anything more mundane such as misguided policies - and once one buys into them, it is easy to forget about the need to craft real-world initiatives that could actually help Latin America grow.
Francisco Rodríguez, assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University, was chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly from 2000 to 2004. This article is drawn from an essay in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.
By Francisco Rodríguez
Published: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
----------------
Although opinions differ on whether Chávez's rule should be characterized as authoritarian or democratic, just about everyone appears to agree that, in contrast to his predecessors, Chávez has made the welfare of the Venezuelan poor his top priority. His government, the thinking goes, has provided subsidized food to low-income families, redistributed land and wealth, and poured money from Venezuela's booming oil industry into health and education programs. As a result, he has earned the lasting support of the Venezuelan poor.
In fact, the "Chávez is good for the poor" hypothesis is wrong. Neither official statistics nor independent estimates show any evidence that Chávez has reoriented state priorities to benefit the poor. Most health and human development indicators have shown no significant improvement beyond that which is normal in the midst of an oil boom. Indeed, some have deteriorated, and official estimates indicate that income inequality has increased. What last December's voting really showed is that Venezuelans are starting to glimpse the consequences of Chávez's economic policies - and they do not like what they see.
The percentage of underweight babies born in Venezuela, for example, increased from 8.4 percent to 9.1 percent between 1999 and 2006. During the same period, the percentage of households without access to running water rose from 7.2 percent to 9.4 percent, and the percentage of families living in dwellings with earthen floors multiplied almost threefold, from 2.5 percent to 6.8 percent. The average share of the budget devoted to health, education and housing under Chávez in his first eight years in office, meanwhile, was 25.12 percent, essentially identical to the average share (25.08 percent) in the previous eight years. And it is lower today than it was in 1992, the last year in office of the "neo-liberal" administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez - the leader whom Chávez, then a lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Army, tried to overthrow in a coup, purportedly on behalf of Venezuela's neglected poor majority.
Most Venezuelans, according to opinion surveys, have given Chávez credit for the nation's strong economic growth. In polls, an overwhelming majority have expressed support for his stewardship of the economy and reported that their personal situation was improving. This is not surprising: Buoyed by surging oil profits, Venezuela had enjoyed three consecutive years of double-digit growth by 2006.
But by late 2007, Chávez's economic model had begun to unravel. For the first time since early 2004, a majority of voters claimed that both their personal situation and the country's situation had worsened during the preceding year. Scarcities in basic foodstuffs, such as milk, black beans, and sardines, were chronic, and the difference between the official and the black-market exchange rate reached 215 percent.
This growing crisis is the predictable result of the gross mismanagement of the economy by Chávez's team. During the past five years, the Venezuelan government has pursued strongly expansionary fiscal and economic policies, increasing real spending by 137 percent and real liquidity by 218 percent. This splurge has outstripped even the expansion in oil revenues: The Chávez administration has managed the admirable feat of running a budget deficit in the midst of an oil boom.
------------------
How has the Venezuelan government been able to convince so many people of the success of its antipoverty efforts despite the complete absence of real evidence of their effectiveness? Partly because of the Chávez administration's high-profile public relations campaigns together with well-placed loans, subsidized oil sales and political contributions. But even more importantly, because so many intellectuals and politicians in developed countries see Latin America's problems as simply the exploitation of the poor masses by wealthy privileged elites. Such stereotypes reinforce the view that Latin American underdevelopment is due to the vices of its predatory governing classes rather than anything more mundane such as misguided policies - and once one buys into them, it is easy to forget about the need to craft real-world initiatives that could actually help Latin America grow.
Francisco Rodríguez, assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University, was chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly from 2000 to 2004. This article is drawn from an essay in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.
Jackboot
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It has simply become much easier to follow, then to lead. To lead takes work, but to follow.....well, it doesn't take much effort at all. This is where the U.S is heading, so I expect many nations will follow suit, and why wouldn't they? The U.S is the last leader in the free world, and when we finally fall, the others will fall like dominoes. This current situation is just the rantings of a dictator, there is no reason to invade columbia, other then to try and drag the America in to that fight. As we all know, this current administration will not act, so there is really no point in all of this, other then Chavez convincing himself, of what he already knows.
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Chavez, like Castro, Kim Jong-Ill and Ahemdinijad are all talk and no action.
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Ild agree in the sence that a full scale war is unlikely, neither side would want to occupy the other due to the heavily armed poulation on both sides. Though a minor scirmish is possible
Crunch
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I would think that chavez would be more concerned with, keeping the power on, rather then considering a war with her neighbor?
A war is just what he needs to get the people's minds off no water and power.
Jackboot
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Hmmmm, good point.
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1. According to who?
2. The profits from oil exports probably accounts for the majority of Venezuela's supposed prosperity.
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You know what Teddy Roosevelt would have done don't you?
Crunch
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LOL... all you have to do is discount the lack of water and electricity.
Jackboot
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That is a good question, as I have been on forums such as these for many years now, and I have watched the support drop dramatically. Those who insisted this man was just standing up for his people, he only had these poor forgotten people in mind, now.....I don't see that anymore.
This is what always happens with communism, it sounds good....right up until the point that the bill comes to the table!
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1 The links i posted in poss 12. Espicially the thrid world travelers article.
2 If this was simply a case of natural resouces and not the economic model we would see the same thing happening in Peru. However Perus place in the human development index is sinking despite the rise the price of metals and mineral resources and Peru's abundance of both. Its certainly a true that its making part of the Peruvian population very rich but the trickle down effect isnt working. Hence why the economic model chavez promotes, flawed though it is, has an increasing level of appeal across the continent.
Strucky: "Chavez supporter" is a simplication but il look at the articles you posted when i have enough time to devote to it. In the mean time perhaps you would return the favor and respond to the article from "third world traveller" in post 12?