It is precisely because of this that there is such rot talked about him, and so many side-issues and trivialities raised by his foes.

what he accomplished for the poor in Venezuela.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/world/americas/for-good-or-ill-chavez-altered-how-venezuela-views-itself.html
... a small, well-run hospital in a nearby neighborhood called Macuto has become a symbol of rebirth after the 1999 flooding. A maternity hospital before the mudslides, it has expanded, with more than 200 babies born there each month and doctors performing hundreds of vital operations, including eye and breast cancer surgery. All of its services are free.

just how wrong the far right is when they oppose Social Programs in a country. He made them look bad, exposed them by proving it, as the liars and greedy, selfish morons they are.

He will be missed very much in his country. But with a more educated population now and with women now, thanks to him, very much engaged in the political process there, I think he did enough to ensure that the far right will not be able to undo all the work he did.

!

For better or worse. Oil's up, Venezuela is flush. Oil's down, not so much.

Bake

Last edited Wed Mar 6, 2013, 08:27 PM - Edit history (1)

just a small upper class - rising oil prices were not of much benefit toward the vast majority. It was Chavez who changed fundamentally how a already nationalized - already state owned oil company distributed the oil wealth.

resources, rather than, like here eg, all of the profits from OUR oil, going to Global Oil Cartels.

My observation was simply that Chavez put all his economic eggs in one basket, i.e., oil, and left the rest of the country's economy to flounder (according to NPR).

Bake

over, most of the country's wealth was in the hands of approx 20% of the population. 80% of the population was living in poverty and illiteracy was extremely high. So he had to devise a plan, where to begin when you have these kind of problems?

First, he paid off Venezueala's debt to the World Bank, which you think might be considered praise-worthy, assuming that anyone had the interests of that country at heart. He used oil revenues to begin the huge task of lifting his country out of poverty and as he made very clear, providing education to make sure the people could not be taken advantage of again due to a lack of education. Oil money was what he had and he used it well, for a change. But he was well aware that a country needs more than one source of income and he most definitely was working to bolster the natural resources Ven with other means of revenue.

I never read any western media when it comes to Ven. Unless it is independent. We know now, thanks to Wikileaks eg, that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to tell lies about Venezuela. We now recognize the 'reporters' better desc ribed as 'propagandists' whose 'work' is often published in the corporate MSM here. It's easy to mistake these 'articles' for legitimate reporting, which is the goal.

The 'story' that Chavez was neglecting other means of bolstering Ven economy and relying only on oil, is one of those 'stories' bought and paid for Global Corporations. It's best to avoid any western media when you want to learn about oil producing countries.

this to be true about every country. But especially if oil is a natural resource.

I find myself getting my news of the world more and more from Al Jazeera - English

http://www.aljazeera.com/

And more to your point:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201336845223249.html

The best journalists are no longer here, sadly. Even our own good ones are not free to report the facts and if they try to, they will not be hired by the Corporate media.

I read Al Jazeera also, and RT is another good source for international news absent the propaganda we get here.

Excellent observation from your link:

And is used as propaganda for Putin

TeleSur almost entirely financed by Venezuela, who also controls the content.

You won't find a single example of their writers (they never have a byline) disparaging Putin nor the extremist LA left.

Wasn't he?

.....they blew over 100 billion dollars of oil money and are approaching Mad Max civilization status now.

Wouldn't be that hard to turn around, get rid of the price controls and currency controls and the market would stabilize and they'd have food in the stores again.