Chávez Dies, Leaving Venezuela a Divided Nation

See also http://able2know.org/topic/191379-1

and here http://able2know.org/topic/209779-1

Fidel outlived him, and -by age- Chávez could have easily been Castro's son.

Fidel is one tough cookie. Even CIA assassins can't kill him.

And the Dow closed at at all time high.

It's been a good day indeed.

It disturbs you when there are people who actually care about the poor, doesn't it, Finn. You are much more comfortable with people who steal from them, torture them, rape them, murder them, terrorize them, destroy their lives, ... .

Tells folks all they need to know about you as a human being - I know I know using that term in reference to you is oxymoronic.

Indeed!

And along comes one of your scumbag cohorts, Finn. You two should get together and have some drinks. You never know what you two could get up to.

How can a socialist who has stolen about 1 billion dollars for his country be considered as "caring for the poor".

Closer to 2 billion $$

Because Useful Idiots like Sean Penn, Danny Glover and Oliver Stone want to include him in their fantasy world.

Believe it or not but we have people in this very country who would swear that George W. Bush was the Devil incarnate while Hugo Chavez was a saint.

The extent of stupidity among otherwise intelligent people is a flabergasting.

True enough. However Venezuela is facing growing economic problems - the currency is in steady decline; domestic production of goods is down, and imports are more necessary, and now far more expensive. More ominous is that Venezuela's oil production is down significantly - evidently the cronies with which Chavez populated the nationalized company don't run it as well as their predecessors. Between these factors and the likely growing subsidies and payoffs needed to sustain their political support, Chavez' successors (even if they don't fall out with one another) are likely to have a hard go of it in terms of the natiuonal economy.

For the (so far) ever-surviving Fidel this may mean the Venezuelan gravy train may soon stop running or merely deliver less to Cuba.

Venezula has for a very long time been unfortunate in its governments. Authoritarians of the right and the left and kleptocracies of both persuasions have prevented its intelligent development, even despite the potential of its enormous wealth of natural resources.

Its intelligent developers now live in Miami.

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I know, this is amazing, is it not? One never knows. I wonder how Cuba will get along now since Chavez was sending so much aid with oil. I guess we'll see what happens next. Interesting.

As I wrote on another thread:

There are two groups of chavistas.

The nationalist military, whose most important face is general Diosdado Cabello, head of Congress and the pro-Cuban civilians, whose figurehead is Vice-president (or President-in-charge) Nicolás Maduro, a former union leader.

A clash of sorts will come. And I personally distrust the nationalist military even more than the pro-Cuban civilians. Why? Because of corruption and a huge possibility of drug-traffic involvement.

Will the democratic opposition be able to thrive while the clash is in course? I don't know. So far, they have dissapointed me over and over. Chavismo is a complex phenomenon.

I gather the oil industry is a mess - who to fix it?

Chavez's legacy for Venezuela is a mixed damnation.

Venezuela has now less social inequality and less extreme poverty than before Chávez -due mostly to subsidies and giveaways-. Economic growth hasn't stalled, mostly due to oil prices.
On the other hand, violence has multiplied, inflation is high, corruption is rampant, the Bolívar needs a strong devaluation (which will push inflation even higher) and, most importantly, democracy has faltered not only in the institutions, but in the culture of the people.

I suspect the Castro brothers are very worried about that right now. I understand that brother Raul recently indicated he will retire from at least some of his offices within a year or so. The Cuban economy is still in bad shape and the expectations of the Cuban people may be rising, given the very limited reforms that have occurred so far. (History shows that authoritarian regimes often face serious instability when the reins are loosened, even a little.) Now, with a transition of government planned within a year, the prospect of even a small reduction in the relatively very large Venezulan subsidies, is very likely very unnerving to them.

For their part, The Venezuelans may also be facing some economic challenges while they too are facing a regime change. A bad combination for both.