About those food shortages in Venezuela... "In the End, Awful Journalism"
One gets the opposite impression from much of the international media. Take a look at the following paragraph from last week’s article in the The Economist:
Behind the propaganda, the Bolivarian revolution was a corrupt, mismanaged affair. The economy became ever more dependent on oil and imports. State takeovers of farms cut agricultural output. Controls of prices and foreign exchange could not prevent persistent inflation and engendered shortages of staple goods. Infrastructure crumbled: most of the country has suffered frequent power cuts for years. Hospitals rotted: even many of the missions languished. Crime soared: Caracas is one of the world’s most violent capitals. Venezuela has become a conduit for the drug trade, with the involvement of segments of the security forces.
Amazingly, almost every sentence in the paragraph is false. Agricultural output did not drop, but rather grew by 2 to 3 percent per year,
and grain production,
which was the government’s major focus, grew by 140 percent. Inflation was considerably lower under Chavez than the previous two governments (http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuelan-economic-and-social-performance-under-hugo-chavez-in-graphs#.UTtL8fS2Mzs.facebook). Food shortages and power cuts were caused by the explosion in consumption among the poor, not a fall in production.
Both electricity production and food production have increased to all time highs. Thousands of new health clinics have been built around the country. However, it is true that many hospitals remain inadequate, that crime has soared, and that Venezuela is still a conduit for the drug trade, as it shares a large border with Colombia.
The claims of increased oil dependence are also not borne out by the facts. It is true that oil as a percentage of total exports has increased, but this is largely due to the fact that oil prices have increased nearly ten-fold since Chavez came to power, making it inevitable that their value in relation to total exports would also increase.
The critics say Chavez squandered the country’s oil wealth, which he could have used to transform it into a modern state. Indeed, the oil boom left Venezuela awash in oil money, a situation that Chavez’s policies had a hand in creating, as he united OPEC and increased royalties and taxes on the oil sector, giving the state vastly more funds to work with. If only this “awful manager” knew how to administer the funds, critics say, Venezuela could have been well on its way to becoming a modern, developed nation.
...
By CHRIS CARLSON - VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM, March 12th 2013
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/8197
last week's article in the Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/03/venezuela-after-ch%C3%A1vez
= new reply since forum marked as read
mass killings have there been over the past number of years?
So both Obama and Chavez are responsible for this? Okay, if you say so.
I tend to blame criminals rather than presidents for their acts.
Imagine though, how much more violence there would be in Venezuela had Chavez not cut poverty as much as he did? But yes, both he and Obama are responsible for violent crime in their countries. I will remember that the next time, which will probably sadly be tomorrow, I watch the news and read about the crimes in our major cities. I will remember who to blame! 
Seriously do you really think people buy this bought-and-paid-for propaganda? Lol! Maybe freepers and their ignorant ilk. But intelligent people? No one I know!
"tell people in Chicago, in DC that crime has gone down here."
Chicago and DC have had a rapid decline in violence (including murders).
"anti-leaders of oil producing countries who refuse to hand over their oil to the Western powers"
The US imports 50% of Venezuela's oil. 
"people are just way too smart to fall for it."
I agree that ignorant people would read Orwellian, double-speak, complete-opposite-of-reality posts like that one and indeed will fall for it. But I'm not one of those people and neither is the person you're responding to.
"blaming presidents for crime in their countries doesn't cut it."
This isn't about the President, it's about the policy.
Hm? And replaced them with chavistas? (...in, as you may know, what Jimmy Carter recently called "the best election system in the world."
If your monotonous point about crime in Venezuela, and all the miseries of life in Venezuela, is all that Capriles has in his campaign basket this time, he's gonna lose, big, just like he did a few months ago. You know that, don't you?
He'd better get working on something original (and not written by the former coupsters or the USAID), cuz, according to the Gallup Well-being poll, Venezuelans rate their own country FIFTH IN THE WORLD on their own sense of well-being and future prospects.
Why? Because they've had a "New Deal" government for three terms! And they know it.
5th in the world!
Better get off the crime gig.
Here's an idea: How about "trickle-down economics"?
And another: How about Exxon Mobil suck out all the oil profits and leave everybody but the rich oil elite poor--without health care, without educational opportunities, without good jobs?
Oh, here, here, here it is! Pass it along to Mr. Capriles. I got it from the Associated Press, those fabulous idea-people! How about Venezuela spending its oil profits on SKYSCRAPERS like they do in that slave labor camp/prostitution ring/Blackwater dirty ops headquarters called Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates--instead of wasting it on books and food and humble abodes?
Brilliant, no? Skyscrapers! Biggest frigging skyscrapers in the world! Sticking right up there into the sky like Towers of Babel! Like the Pyramids! Like the ...(oh, dear, no, I won't go there). Big! Grand! Big! Enough to make a people proud! Enough to turn people into...maids, housekeepers and janitors for the uber-rich!
The Associated Pukes know what's what. Capriles ought to take the cue--see how it goes over. Forget schools! Forget food in the belly! Forget your silly sense of well-being! Grow big, Big, BIG skyscrapers and just you wait, you'll see all that wealth trickle down, from way up in the sky, into your grubby brown hands!
Clean it up a bit! It's a sell!