Frum in Venezuela

Frum Challenges Chavez’s Venezuela, January 21, 2010

In a speech in Caracas Venezuela yesterday, Frum said: “The time for blaming shadowy international forces for your problems – bankers and imperialists; the Jews, the Jesuits or the Freemasons; British, the Spanish or the NorteAmericanos – has long past.” Venezuela’s future lies “in the labor of liberated people who are allowed to own for themselves what they create and invent, under accountable governments where power checks power.”

Class War in Venezuela, January 21, 2010

Venezuela is a country of 27 million, smaller than Canada. Yet it suffers more murders than all the United States.

Lights Out in Chavez Land, January 22, 2010

I’m in Maracaibo tonight, Venezuela’s second city. Huge blocks of the city are dark, a consequence of the rolling blackouts that strike for 2 hours per day. The blackouts are worst in cities and states where the opposition is strong, as here.

How Chavez Rules, January 22, 2010

President Chavez’s Bolivarian “missiones” are a highly personalized form of presidential largesse financed by the secret unaudited accounts of Venezuela’s oil revenues. But these “missiones” do not function like a social welfare program.

Is Chavez the Next Fidel Castro?, January 23, 2010

Hugo Chavez is not a killer – not yet anyway. Opposition Venezuelans express fear of the regime, but what they are afraid of is economic retaliation: they will be fired from their jobs, their property will be confiscated, they will be attacked with arbitrary tax assessments.

Chavez’s War on the Middle Class, January 23, 2010

Partly by design, partly by Ubu Rex incompetence, Hugo Chavez is immiserating Venezuela’s salaried professionals.

Venezuela Falls Back on a Reliable Scapegoat, January 23, 2010

The Chavez regime’s turn toward harshly anti-Jewish policies is part of an ominous self-radicalization.

Chavez Silences the Free Press, Again, January 25, 2010

This past Saturday, Venezuela’s most popular television station declined to broadcast one of Hugo Chavez’s rallies. In retribution, Chavez has ordered cable providers to stop carrying the channel.

Chavez Strike Out, January 26, 2010

A popular Venezuelan television station declined to broadcast a recent Hugo Chavez speech in full. For this offense, Venezuelan broadcast authorities ordered them banned from cable systems and authorized satellite networks. But in a sign of the democracy movement’s gathering strength, that action only prompted more protests Monday.