Political Crossfire Forums

From what I understand Venezuela did pretty well under Chavez. It improved in alot of different areas.

And remember when Chavez offered heating oil assistance to american consumers who were having trouble paying their bills and the american companies told them to go freeze? That one caused a congressional hearing and forced US oil companies to finally offer assistance themselves.

All the hating on Chavez is ridiculous. While he wasn't perhaps the best leader in the hemisphere he did try to do some good. And the US's history of support for some of South Amereica's worst dictators, like Pinochet, justified his paranoia of DC IMO.

The lives of the poorest in Venezuela improved a hell of a lot under Chavez thanks to the Bolivarian missions.

infant mortality fell by 18%
poverty was cut by 50%, extreme poverty was cut from 21% to 10%
more than 1 million Venezuelans became literate

and of course, he was democratically elected and elections met all international standards.

The lives of the poorest in Venezuela could only have gone up. Yes, they went up under Chavez. But, would they have gone up more under a better leader? Probably.

Remember, Castro brought short-term improvements to Cuba, too. Now where are they?

I know quite a few Venezuelans living here in the states (guess why) that will find this news quite heartening.

Sorry, they don't fall into the poorest class, but they do fall into the educated class. Many in that category fled Chavez's nonsense.