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The Nebulous Heritage of Hugo Chvez

Written by Jerry Brewer

he death of Venezuelas President Hugo Chvez Frias, 58, was announced on

state television on March 5, 2013 in Caracas by Vice President Nicolas Maduro. After a reported two year battle with what had been described as an aggressive pelvic cancer, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard stated that Mr. Chvez died from a massive heart attack. Many throughout the world were quick to proclaim the irony of Mr. Chvez dying on the same date as Joseph Stalin, the de facto socialist leader of the former Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Stalin, a powerful Communist leader in the early years of the Soviet Union, was known as a ruthless dictator who terrorized the population and sent many people to prisons and labor camps. Historians have claimed that Stalin was poisoned with warfarin, a tasteless and colorless blood thinner often used as a rat killer. After Mr. Chvezs death, Vice President Maduro made claims that Mr. Chvez was poisoned "by dark forces that wanted him out of the way". Mr. Maduro had also made said allegation five hours before Mr. Chvezs death on March 5. Taking from a page of his hero and mentor, former Cuban President Fidel Castros frequent repertoire of being targeted for assassination by the US, Mr. Chvez made similar claims on more than one occasion. In 2011, he accused the US of poisoning

other Latin American leaders with cancer. And in 2005, Mr. Chvez announced that if the US succeeded in assassinating him, the name of the person responsible is George Bush. Mr. Chvez frequently took to the media airwaves to say that the US was planning to invade Venezuela. This might explain the seemingly reckless expenditures of more than US$15 billion for military arms and equipment, that included fighter aircraft, helicopters, and over 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles. Mass outlays that hurt the Venezuelan economy immeasurably. In death, the world media is starting to question the acquired wealth of Hugo Chvez and his family, especially since the nation has not been seeing the benefits of its once vast oil wealth and revenues. An estimate of at least US$1.8 billion has been attributed to Mr. Chvez during his presidency -- with current reports far exceeding those numbers. The true results of Mr. Chvez's leftist rule until death (1999-2013) have been some of the most devastating in Venezuela's history, with the poor continuing to live below the poverty line, in squalor, unsafe homes, with little food and rolling blackouts of electricity, among other issues that plague the poor. The facts are clear. A critical issue that Mr. Chvez refused to discuss, even during elections with political opponents let alone with the people of Venezuela, is the amount of money coming into the country versus the massive debt that became the highest in the nation's history during his rule. Billions of bolivars and US dollars have been squandered, as well as the disbursing of significant amounts of money to other leftist leaders in exchange for promises of political loyalty and support. A major concern for a once proud Venezuelan homeland was Mr. Chvez having taken up the banner of Fidel Castro as his own, along with Cuba's failed revolution of atrocities, human rights abuses and shameful misery. Mr. Chvez called his state takeover of Venezuelas dominate oil and natural gas company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), as one of his revolution's greatest successes. As Mr. Chvez took office in 1999, debt rose more than 10-fold -- since 2006 to more than US$34 billion. Petrodollars fueled Mr. Chvezs socialist spending with massive amounts of Venezuelan earned wealth unaccounted for. Oil and petroleum products had once accounted for about 95 percent of Venezuela's exports and contributed more than a third of its GDP. PDVSA was once considered one of the most efficient run oil companies in the Americas. Inefficiency and incompetence under Mr. Chvez's rule is now frequently reported. Gustavo Coronel, a former member of the Board of Directors of PDVSA (197679) and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida, was also the Venezuelan representative to Transparency International (19962000). Subsequently, Mr. Coronel wrote of the corruption, abuse, and mismanagement of Mr. Chvez in a CATO Institute report of November 27, 2006. Mr. Coronel reported, The windfall of oil revenues has encouraged the rise in corruption. In the approximately eight years Chvez has been in

power, his government has received between US$175 billion and US$225 billion from oil and new debt. Along with the increase in revenues has come a simultaneous reduction in transparency. For example, the state-owned oil company ceased publishing its consolidated annual financial statements in 2003, and Chvez has created new state-run financial institutions, whose operations are also opaque, that spend funds at the discretion of the executive. As the true legacy of Hugo Chavez unfolds, the desire to preserve his body -- as with Joseph Stalin -- in perpetuity has apparently already eroded. Communications minister Ernesto Villegas wrote recently, "We have ruled out the option of embalming the body of comandante Chvez after a Russian medical commission report." For now the late Venezuelan president has been laid to rest at a military museum. Even Stalin, who died in 1953, was eventually buried in 1961. (3/19/13) (photo courtesy Maxim Shemetov/Gallo Images) Note: This article was reprinted with permission of the author. It was originally published at MexiData.info. Jerry Brewer is the Chief Executive Officer of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org. TWITTER: CJIAUSA Jerry Brewer Published Archives