Heinz....Venezuela is a mismanaged mess.....read in the Miami Herald that something like 22 Billion came onshore from Venezuela in the last few months...The intelligencia in Venezuela is still scared sh*tless of Chavez...
From 1999-2000, price of oil (oil being around 60% of exports) went from approx. $10 to $35.....and Venezuela couldn't even produce positive growth! Think about that! You have to be a real bungler of a leader to drop the ball on that economic gift...My grandmother could run a country and squeeze economic growth out with those odds! (But not Chavez!). Just think of the hit coming with a currency crisis and sub-$20 oil...sheesh....
Chavez is trying to eridicate the massive, widespread corruption...but is only producing a new corruption.....a corruption of Chavez (loyalists)..
Chavez admires guys like Ghaddafi, Fidel, and Hussein....problem is, he's not as smart or capable as they are....
Unfortunately, democrats and the rich/"doers" in Venezuela only has themselves to blame.....For decades- when they had a chance to better their country- they only cared about their cellphones, trips to Miami, and a full cabinent of Johnny Walker black, and never real reform.......heaven forbid, we actually pay our taxes, and pay for things like universal education.......
No hope for any real long-term solutions there....Latin America, in fact, in total, is extremely depressing...I really don't see things getting better in my lifetime....destined to be a continent of many different economic/social worlds, trying to peacefully co-exist......somehow, they do it.......don't know how...
There simply isn't the will to make the sacrifices necessary to really fix things.....everyone would rather just muddle by....American-style "can-do" thinking only makes one look silly down there.. |
