Venezuela-Chavez

Jeff A. Gutierrez - The first week of Feburary 2009 marks ten years in power for Chavez - 2/15/09 Mr Chávez hopes to win a referendum that would remove all political term limits
 * __VENEZUELA - CHAVEZ__**
 * GENERAL:**
 * ambition to remain in power until at least 2030

- Around 60% of Venezuelan voters support Chavez ^ poorer and darker-skinned among its citizens - Social "Missions" -
 * PRO CHAVEZ:**
 * transformed his country for the better by empowering
 * improved the provision of health, education and vocational training
 * also provided free food

- Hard to assess the truth of Social "Missions" - Human Rights Watch says defining features of Chavez government include - Increased dependence on oil ^ run now as a political project ^ produces around a quarter less oil than it did a decade ago, while its debt almost doubled - The fall in the oil price, if sustained, thus threatens the country ^ because Mr Chávez has raided the reserves of the Central Bank - Signs that Venezuelans are starting to tire of their leader - Inflation rates of food and healthcare are around 65% - Chavez's economic mismanagement/price-fixing have also resulted in severe food shortages - Opec says Venezuela has shrunken oil production capacity
 * CON CHAVEZ:**
 * openness and accountability have no place in "21st-century socialism"
 * "discrimination on political grounds"
 * chavez government's takeover of the judiciary.
 * the fall in poverty owes everything to the surge in the oil price since 1999
 * millions more Venezuelans depend on the state for jobs and handouts than a decade ago
 * the motor of economic growth has been public spending
 * the state oil company
 * so far Venezuelans have not felt this
 * the haste with which he has organised the referendum speaks of desperation
 * 12-2007 they rejected his first attempt to abolish term limits
 * Chavez has crippled the economy
 * squandering the proceeds of the largest oil boom since the 1970s
 * staples such as milk, eggs, beans and rice
 * soviet-style queues when they are in stock
 * produces only three-quarters of its quota of 3.3 million barrels a day.