HE was lionised as a hero by the Western Left, of course, but it would be hard to find a leader in recent history who more comprehensively betrayed the wellbeing of his country than Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He was driven by an irrational, demagogic and self-defeating antagonism towards Washington that blinded him to his nation's best interests.
He was prepared to align oil-rich Venezuela and his socialist revolution with the most odious regimes on the planet, such as those of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim dynasty, Cuba's Castro family and, previously, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, both of whom he proclaimed "brothers".
Squandering Venezuela's vast oil wealth should have been challenging. But Mr Chavez was more than equal to the task -- his populist economics creating inflation now running at 22 per cent, massive corruption, a bloated public sector and a crippled private sector that has seen the number of private companies drop from 14,000 to 9000. Even China, which has lent Venezuela $US39 billion against future oil sales, gave up on him, sending his Foreign Minister scurrying back to Caracas empty-handed shortly before Mr Chavez's death.
More Here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/death-of-a-ruthless-autocrat/story-e6frg71x-1226591926532
No comments:
Post a Comment