I s Chavez Really That Dumb?

I've been living in Venezuela for all the Chavez years and then some and I have to say its been interesting but also very sad.

Venezuela enjoyed 40 years of democracy before Chavez but it wasn't exactly a shinning example of democracy. It was a democracy where the "haves" continually got more and the "have nots" stayed in their place. The "haves" believed that although the "have nots" were an 80% majority in the country, most of them didn't vote so they , the "haves", didn't have to worry about them, the "have nots". Well, the "haves" should have been worried because a man by the name of Hugo Chavez Frias had plans for the "have nots". Chavez came upon the political scene in 1998, fresh out of prison after having been pardoned by president Caldera for leading an attempted military coup in 1992 against, then president, Carlos Andreas Perez. He decides that because he wasn't able to take power by force, he would try his luck at doing it democratically. So what does he do? Well, what he doesn't do is waste one minute campaigning to the economic power base of the country, the "haves", the oligarchs as he likes to call them, but instead spends all of time talking to the poor majority, the "have nots", and he tells them it is time for a change, it's time that Venezuela had a government that governed for the majority, the "have nots", and not for the minority, the "haves", the rich, the oligarchs. I'm here to tell you, it was an easy sell and, as they say, the rest is history. I don't have the energy to explain here all that Chavez has done to destroy the economic base of the country, of its institutions, and of the basic human rights of freedom of speech and and the right to descent.

In the approximately 12 years that Chavez has been in office, he hasn't actually done much of anything to improve the quality of live for the poor the "have nots" still have nothing. However, he has been successful, for the most part, of convincing the "have nots", that he and his revolutionary government have done a lot for them. This was able to do, in part because he has thrown them a few crumbs but, mostly because he is consummate con artist; and that is a fact. Over the years, what has been, for lack of a better word, entertaining is all the really dumb things he has said and done, and I mean seriously dumb. I want to share with you his latest dumb plan; a real cake taker if there's ever been one.

Earlier this week Chavez announced a plan to combat capitalism from the bottom up; his words not mine. His plan is that the "have nots" should use the system of "trueque" between themselves and, also, in certain state owned food markets. What is "trueque"? Trueque is barter. Believe me, he is serious about this. Folks, barter is humans exchanged what they had for what they needed back before money was invented. Monet isn't something that was invented by capitalism; it was invented by humans to make commerce among themselves easier, to make their lives easier. Money was invented before Moses was born. Is trueque how Chavez sees Venezuela progressing? Is this what Chavez means when he talks about his vision of "Socialism for the Twenty First Century"? Maybe he means twenty first century B.C.

Try to picture this. Your a poor Venezuelan living in the country side where you have a little patch of land where you grow corn. One day your wife says that she wants to cook some beef stew for the family for that afternoon. So, dutiful husband that you are, you throw 30 pounds of corn into a sack and you hump it around to various neighbors or into the village market looking for someone that has meat and is willing to trade some for corn. And when you finally find someone willing to make a trade, you have to fight it out over how many pounds of corn equate to a pound of meat. Yes sir, this is progress. NOT!!! So, is Chavez really that dumb or is this just one more con against the "have nots" in a long line of cons? Stay tuned.