Some will claim that whatever the excesses of El Ch√°vez, that he has been a good steward for Venezuela and its poor since he first was elected in 1998: improvements in health, education, etc. Consider these statistics before you accept that claim as gospel truth.
If El Ch√°vez has been such a good steward of Venezuela, then please explain the following. The murder rate in Venezuela nearly doubled from 1998 to 2005, from 22 to 42 per 100,000.
Housing units constructed per 1,000 population. This shows how good El Ch√°vez is at creating infrastructure.
1990-1998 3.2
1999-2006 1.2
Regards the superior progress of the health care system of Venezuela under the stewardship of El Ch√°vez , take a look at Infant Mortality, which is usually considered the benchmark for evaluating a country’s performance in public health.
% reduction in Infant Mortality, 2000-2005
Latin America 13.4%
Venezuela 12.6%
Consider the claims that El Ch√°vez has eliminated illiteracy.
In 2006, youth literacy (ages 15-24) for Latin American and the Caribbean was 96.0%; for Venezuela, 97.2%. The 2006 figures for adult literacy are 89.7% for Latin America and the Caribbean compared with 93% for Venezuela. From 1990-2006, Latin America and the Caribbean increased its youth literacy rate by 3.3%; Venezuela by 1.2%.
For all the oil money that El Ch√°vez has had, it doesn’t appear that with regards to health and education, he hasn’t done any more than the rest of Latin America has, and most of Latin America hasn’t had the oil revenue windfall ( from $10 to $90/bbl since 1998) that Venezuela has.
The shortages of milk and sugar are due to price controls. Castro “pays” for his oil mostly through sending medical and “security” personnel to Venezuela, not by sugar, which he wants to sell for hard currency.
One explanation given for Antonini’s $800,000 briefcase is that it involved PDVSA officials laundering drug money . At this stage I would consider this speculation, not proven fact, given the vast amount of money involved in the cited article. On the other hand, by all accounts, corruption has worsened since El Ch√°vez took power. This is ironic in light of the fact that one of El Ch√°vez’s 1998 campaign pledges was to clean up corruption.
Housing Sources:
a) http://www.cvc.com.ve/ , El déficit y la producción formal de viviendas. (05- 2006)
b) http://buscador.eluniversal.com/2007/01/15/eco_art_142150.shtml
Infant Mortality and Education: World Bank World Development Indicators, online.Access via a state library system.
