Silly Little Country

The Outgoing Miss Universe at the Miss Universe Contest

Investor's Business Daily explains something I certainly missed (I barely know what our flag looks like) during last week's Miss Universe show, as the outgoing Miss Universe and last year's Miss Venezuela sent a message perhaps received only by Venezuelans watching.  Stefania Fernandez is clearly enjoying showing what she thinks of Hugo Chavez; and no it's not the smile that says it, it's the pre-Chavez flag.  The smile says something else about what she thinks of Chavez.
While Chavez has done so much to destroy Venezuela, the IBD article focuses on the utter failure of public security.

Ever since Chavez became president in 1999, Venezuelan cities have become hellholes in which murder rates have more than quadrupled. At 233 per 100,000, or one murder every 90 minutes, the rate in Caracas now tops that of every war zone in the world, according to an official National Statistics Institute study released Wednesday.
In fact, crime is the defining fact of life in today's Venezuela. About 96% of all murder victims are poor and lower-middle class, the very people Chavez claims to represent. "Don't venture into barrios at any time of the day, let alone at night," warns the Lonely Planet guide to Venezuela to hardy adventure travelers.
By contrast, the murder rate in cartel-haunted Juarez, Mexico, is 133 per 100,000, with Mexico's overall rate 8 per 100,000, about the same as Wichita, Kan. Colombia, fighting a narcoterror war since 1964, has an overall rate of 37 per 100,000, slightly higher than Baltimore at 36.9. The overall U.S. rate is 5.4.
Make no mistake, a murder rate like Caracas' is a crime against humanity. The absence of personal security renders all other human rights moot. By coincidence, that's just what Chavez seeks to eliminate as he turns his country into a Cuba-style socialist state. Instead of Castroite firing squads or Stalinesque gulags, Chavez outsources the dirty work of socialism to criminals while throwing dissidents in jail and threatening to censor newspapers.

This represents a mere fraction of what is wrong with Venezuela's leader.  Those who have supported this clown and thug have much to answer for.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:23 PM