As long as politics has been alive, arguably since humans developed the ability to communicate, humans have competed for greater spheres of influence.
Venezuela’s controversial President Hugo Chavez is working overtime on growing his own sphere of influence in South America.
Everybody loves Santa Claus – don’t they ? The only catch is this – Santa doesn’t expect pay back.
Santa Chavez is handing out an oil refinery, a highway, and housing in Nicaragua, $1 billion credit to Ecuador, and all sorts of pretty packages to Bolivia and others as well.
A Washington Post article (below) draws attention to Chavez’ continued attempts to increase his allies in South America in part to revolt against the economic strategies of the USA, the IMF and others.
An interesting excerpt “Data from the Penn World Table, an analytical unit at the University of Pennsylvania, highlight the economic difficulties that are driving some of Latin America’s politics these days. In five Latin American countries that have allied themselves with Chávez — Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador and Nicaragua — the data show that from 1980 through 2003, economic output per person shrank by more than 10 percent, when adjusted for inflation and relative purchasing power. That’s a sharp contrast to the 40 percent economic growth those countries recorded from 1960 to 1979.”
I hope you get a chance to take a look : http://www.washingtonpost.com
Now playing: Eminem - Mockingbird
