Hugo Chavez has died

It is true that poverty was reduced under Chavez. But the violent crime rate skyrocketed during his regime - and unlike wealthy people who can pay for personal security, high crime rates disproportionately impact poor and working class people.

In addition, due to price-fiddling, Chavez destroyed a lot of small businesses - he wanted to keep inflation down while spending like crazy, so he implemented price controls that only served to further distort prices...and again, disproportionately impact poor and working-class people.

Finally, Chavez was not a leader who was overly fond of democracy - for example, he used state-controlled media to bombard the population with his speeches and shut down stations that refused to carry them. That said, he benefitted from the fact that the opposition was fractured, and Venezuelan economic elites are some of the most venal, corrupt people in Latin America, and that's saying a lot.

I think there are too many people who reflexively applaud political leaders who thumb their nose at the US despite the fact that these leaders are not exactly paragons of democracy themselves (Castro is a perfect example). But if we look around Latin America over the last decade, the country that has made the most progress in terms of reducing poverty and expanding the middle class is Brazil, not Venezuela - and the Brazilians under Lula's leadership were able to do this without partially dismantling key democratic institutions.

Ultimately, I'm no fan of Chavez - I think he took his country backwards in a lot of ways at a time when other South American countries were reducing poverty without destabilizing other sectors of the economy or the political infrastructure. I'm not here to dance on his grave, but I don't think that he warrants much of the praise I've seen on this thread either.

losthorizon wrote: »

If you look at it all nations have failings although if we could get our treatment of women right we would have quite a good record. The UK doesnt look too hot either.

Of course all nations have failings but Ireland and the UK, even the US, are far better places in which to live than dictatorships. It's not comparing like with like to blanketly apply the "All nations have failings" reasoning. Ireland has failings, so have Burma and Saudi Arabia and North Korea and Zimbabwe, but obviously Ireland is paradise compared to the other four. Besides abortion, how is treatment of women here sub-standard?

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/ways-chavez-destroyed-venezuelan-economy/story?id=18239956

http://www.spiegel.de/international/german-press-dubs-chavez-election-in-venezuela-free-but-not-fair-a-860291.html

http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/chavez-tweet-your-denouncements-t5331.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Baduel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Maria_Lourdes_Afiuni

The biographer of the woman in the last link did an interview with Pat Kenny during the week, go listen to it.

Birds of a feather fly together, and Maddinnerjacket, Putin, and Mugabe all deserve each other, I sincerely hope there is a special place in hell reserved for all of them.

R.I.P.

While he was no way perfect, he did come to power with good intentions. His lasting legacy will be that he broke the hold that a small elite had on the nation that facilitated exploitation of the country.