This Venezuela thing was a great story when I first read it in Animal Farm.

Your last sentence can be put more boldly: if necessary, the rich can survive on Camembert, Argentine wine, and other such imports.

Is this a surprise to anyone? We all know what happens next:

1) More shortages and more repression
2) Chavez elects himself "President for Life"
3) People start fleeing the country
4) More shortages and repression
5) Chavez starts winning elections with 99.98% of the vote
5) Miami adds to its cultural diversity
6) More shortages and repression
7) Liberals express surprise/denial at these developments

How many more times does this have to happen?

Somwhere, Milton Friedman is sighing and shaking his head.

I can't decide whether Chavez is actually this stupid, or really WANTS the economy to enter a death spiral so he can declare an emergency, seize the few powers he doesn't already have, and crush the last vestiges of republican democracy. All hail King Hugo I?

Once the economy fails, the next step in the socialist script is the search for the traitors who are sabotaging true socialism. Chavez will start rounding up these "saboteurs of socialism" and shooting them. Once the reign of terror begins, it's a matter of time before the revolution consumes itself.

In the end, the ignorant Venezuelans will blame America.

Quien es John Galt?

Yes, indeed. So, the only thing to do now is start taking bets on how long it will take before it becomes necessary for Chavez to blame the economic problems on "American saboteurs, Bush and the CIA!!" At which point he will have carte blanche to begin the purges, and fire up the gulags.

And then, when a Democrat gets elected in '08, Chavez will announce that Venezuela needs nuclear power plants for "peaceful, domestic energy!!" sources. Then, President Hillary will achieve a huge victory for diplomacy when she convinces Chavez to "abandon" (wink, wink) nuclear weapons research in exchange for billions of dollars of US foreign aid (like, maybe, chicken and black beans? Thank you very much.)

History may not repeat itself, but it sure rhymes.

I smell sulfur!

A "tribune-of-the-poor" dictator needs an awful economy so he can have a large constituency. People who can make money without him in the loop are a threat to his power. This is Rule 1 of my Ten Step Guide to being a Dictator.

I didn't know we slapped an embargo on Venezuela. When did that happen? Because these conditions sound very much like those in Cuba. And we all know that the embargo created the economic hardship and oppression in that country. Or so I've been told....

The strangest rumor I've heard about Chavez - and I have not been able to verify it - is that he obsessively paints pictures of Winnie the Pooh. One Venezuelan told me that local TV down there did a "Cribs" style program of El Presidente's mansion, and his wife (playing at Jackie Kennedy) showed the TV crew Chavez's painting studio. It was filled with canvas after canvas of Winnie the Pooh.

When Chavez eventually gets bounced--Venezuela is not an island, I do hope that he will immigrate, say to Massachusetts, New York or Illinois, where he would fit in nicely with much of the Democratic Party. Just ask the Wal-Mart opposition in Chicago, for example.

Daniel, did you link to the wrong article?

It clearly states
"the decrease in poverty rates, from 42.8 percent when he took office in 1999 to 33.9 percent in 2006"

It then sets up a context in which he thinks it will be reversed, and thus not important, but the author doesn't say the progress is illusionary.

And regarding economic issues, it would be better to link to independent ecomic research, rather than a foreign policy article from a defected Venezuelan government employee.

The article is all the more reason for the Bush adminstartion to keep their mouths shut on both this and Iran as all their talk does is strengthen Chavez and Ahmadinejad.

Oh goodie. Does this mean we get to prop-up another boneheaded, decades-long embargo/war of words driven primarily by ex-pat lobbyists? Followed then by an equally idiotic covert military operation or outright military invasion that simultaneously undermines our foreign policy goals, makes us more ridiculed/despised in the world and does nothing more than line the pockets of contractors?

Given that its oil and not cane sugar this time, I would bet on it.

The "chorus of outrage" has that familiar manufactured look to it already.

You guys are hilarious - Chavez would make a great Democrat, liberals have no foresight, a nuclear bomb is the obvious consequence of a 3rd world leader and rabble-rouser with authoritarian instincts ...

Donde esta Pinochet?

I have to agree with all the Pro-Chavez guys who have posted here already.

You naysayers are totally naive and don't get the progress that is being made in Venezuela.

There was a problem: inflation was getting out of control. Then, Chavez solved the problem: the currency was made 1000 times less valuable. What don't you get?

All you Americans imperialists are just afraid that a successful socialist system will prove the illusory successes of capitalism over the past 90 years to be the fluke that they are.

Donde esta Pinochet?

En el inferno, su hogar.

What? Half-baked, unverifiable predictions with a side of snark and gratuitous mudslinging? On a blog? What have the intarwubs come to?

One of the saddest things about subjects like Chavez is the utter, navel gazing idiocy of the commentary dialogue. The Left obsessing about evil US interventionism, the Right engaging in truly childish and pin-headed claims that the Left dictator would fit with their domestic opposition (who anyone rational knows is not terribly left at all, if perhaps somewhat dimwitted nevertheless).

Navel gazing.

However, it does strike me that the US banging away in certain ways at people like Chavez and Ahmedinjad is indeed often counter-productive. Above all in the current political climate. Not that US objectives are per se wrong, but the optics are all wrong. But then, this goes back to be self-absorbed rather than knowing your market (other than domestic) and working it to your advantage.

What? Half-baked, unverifiable predictions with a side of snark and gratuitous mudslinging? On a blog? What have the intarwubs come to?

Call it by it's real name- UseNet 2.0.