V-Crisis has an outstanding post on the current conditions in Venezuela:
One of his (Chavez) cronies, Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, in an effort to defend the increasingly authoritarian nature of the regime, claims that Latin Americans, given to choose between democracy and the solution of their economic problems would choose the latter. What he says is true since a survey of UNDP suggests that slightly more than half of Latin Americans feel that way. But this is not what we are experiencing in Venezuela. In our poor country we are witnessing a tragic double whammy of lack of democracy combined with galloping poverty.
With petroleum levels at record levels it is sad to hear how conditions have declined under the self-proclaimed defender of the poor, Hugo Chávez.