Hugo Chavez is offering to supply oil to low-income European families for cut-rates. His offer is similar to one he made to New Yorkers this winter, and is designed to make a 'point' about American-style capitalism and its 'inherent' inequities.
Maybe, seeing as his country has a per capita GDP is $6500.00 and sports a full 47% of the population below the poverty line, he should think about selling the oil for market prices and returning the profits to his countrymen instead of starving them. Just to give some perspective, Canada, whose oil wealth is probably close to Venezuela's, has a per capital GDP of $32,900.00, and 15% of its population is below the poverty line.
But, as Natan Sharansky will point out, Hugo is more interested in making an enemy out of the US that his citizens will fear and despise, than he is in their well-being. Why does that make sense? Because, making an external enemy for his people to hate will mask his socialism's failures, and also his dictatorial ambitions. It's a formula that's been well used throughout the last few decades, by many a dictator. Unfortunately, as Sharansky shows in his book The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, in order for Chavez to maintain the control that he seeks, one day he'll have to turn on his own people and create a climate of fear that is not centered on some other nation, but on his own government. He will eventually need to terrorize his own citizens in order to maintain control.
But hey. I mean, gotta love the guy for standing up to "The Great Satan" and the rest of the "Imperialistic Dogs", eh?
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