You made a silly remark that suggested that ‘neoliberalism’ always involved death squads, THR. And now you’re pointing me to Central Asia as if that region has no history of political assassination, death squads, etc. It seems to me that the association of ‘neoliberalism’ and death squads is entirely spurious. BTW, as for patronizing tone, have you ever re-read your own remarks occasionally?

Acording to some reports Columbia is looking good right now, also it rates quite high on the Freedom Index. Venezuala ranks a little above the Sudan and Chad.

http://specpol.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/chavez_ahmadinejad.jpg

And here is a clip of him being put back into his monkey cage by the clearly exasperated Spanish Prime Minister (it didn’t work, because another low-IQ simian, this time from Nicaragua, broke loose and debased the summit even further).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Kzbo7tNLg&feature=fvw

Zero class.

Years ago when i was living in the US I met Venezuelan guy of German extraction who would spend the northern summer in the US. He had a manufacturing business making valves or some boring junk like that. The dude had around 200 employees and it was a family business. He was a really nice guy and told how he treated the employees like family.

He was so pessimistic about Chavez. I heard that he closed his business about 3 years ago and moved to the US with his family. Closed it down, not sold it, just closed it down.

Atlas really does shrug.

http://colombiareports.com/opinion/the-colombiamerican/6101-presidential-report-card-the-economy.html

But the reduction in violence has been particularly heartening. It’s a shame that just as Colombia has moved towards peace, Venezuela has become the murder capital of Latin America.

It wasn’t a coup at all. It was demanded by the Chilean supreme court.

Net oil exports in 1999 (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Venezuela/Oil.html) were over 2.5 million barrels/day. Let’s say the average crude oil price in 1999 was around $15 per barrel. This means they received at least $14 billion of oil revenue in 1999. In 2005, net oil exports were around 2.2 million b/d, and prices averaged around $50. Which means Chavez was getting about $40 billion of oil export revenue in 2005.

So, that’s an extra $26 billion per year / 26 million people in 2005, or $1,000 per person per year. This equalled about 30% of the average income in 2005 (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1206). So a country that enjoyed an economic rent windfall that could have increased incomes by 30%, achieved a very modest reduction in poverty over the same period. And now that oil prices have come back down again the economy is collapsing. It’s a bust.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende

“Allende established a Marxist regime in Chile.[2] His economic policy resulted in inflation hich exceeded 300 percent a year. He adopted the policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization. His policy of collectivization resulted in expropriation of lands and crop production dropped. Protests were held in Chile against Allende’s rule.[3] The Supreme Court criticized Allende for subordination of the judicial system to serve his own political needs and the Chamber of Deputies requested the military to restore laws in Chile. After this request by the Chamber of Deputies, General Augusto Pinochet removed Allende from office[4] in a U.S.-backed[5] coup d’état on September 11, 1973 and this ended the Popular Unity government.[6][7] During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his last speech where he vowed to stay in the presidential palace.[8] The cause of his death was officially declared suicide.”

As for the Deputies resolution:

“Specifically, the Socialist Government of President Allende was accused of:

* ruling by decree, thwarting the normal legislative system
* refusing to enforce judicial decisions against its partisans; not carrying out sentences and judicial resolutions that contravene its objectives
* ignoring the decrees of the independent General Comptroller’s Office
* sundry media offenses; usurping control of the National Television Network and applying … economic pressure against those media organizations that are not unconditional supporters of the government…
* allowing its socialist supporters to assemble armed, preventing the same by its right wing opponents
* . . . supporting more than 1,500 illegal ‘takings’ of farms…
* illegal repression of the El Teniente miners’ strike
* illegally limiting emigration

Finally, the resolution condemned the creation and development of government-protected [socialist] armed groups, which . . . are headed towards a confrontation with the armed forces. President Allende’s efforts to re-organize the military and the police forces were characterized as notorious attempts to use the armed and police forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks[51].”