Posted by Tina
** An emboldened Hugo Chvez vowed to speed up the construction of true socialism in Venezuela after winning the right to stand for reelection indefinitely a measure that opponents say puts the country on the path to dictatorship. **
** The President told ecstatic supporters that his decisive victory in a referendum on removing term limits had smashed the barriers to a permanent socialist revolution in Venezuela, one of the worlds largest oil producers. *** The President has said that he needs to stay in power until at least 2019 to complete his Bolivarian Revolution, a process whereby the State has taken control of the countrys vast oil wealth, expropriated private land-holdings and businesses and instituted a programme of social reforms. First elected in 1998, he has on occasions suggested that he might hold on to power until 2049, when he will be 95. *** . We are going to see Chvez taking advantage of this to do radical things very quickly, said Mr Len. He predicted that Mr Chvez would launch an assault on the private sector, saying: I think they are going to try and control the food industry, the financial and insurance sectors. **
This does not bode well for many people in Venezuela:
** Even critics of Hugo Chvez tend to concede that he has made helping the poor his top priority. But in fact, Chvez’s government has not done any more to fight poverty than past Venezuelan governments, and his much-heralded social programs have had little effect. A close look at the evidence reveals just how much Chvez’s “revolution” has hurt Venezuela’s economy — and that the poor are hurting most of all. *** His government, the thinking goes, has provided subsidized food to low-income families, redistributed land and wealth, and poured money from Venezuela’s booming oil industry into health and education programs. It should not be surprising, then, that in a country where politics was long dominated by rich elites, he has earned the lasting support of the Venezuelan poor. *** That story line may be compelling to many who are rightly outraged by Latin America’s deep social and economic inequalities. Unfortunately, it is wrong. Neither official statistics nor independent estimates show any evidence that Chvez has reoriented state priorities to benefit the poor. Most health and human development indicators have shown no significant improvement beyond that which is normal in the midst of an oil boom. Indeed, some have deteriorated worryingly, and official estimates indicate that income inequality has increased. The “Chvez is good for the poor” hypothesis is inconsistent with the facts. **