Word: venezuela
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...Chávez is a very Latin American problem. Like his hero Simón Bolívar, he thinks he is indispensable to Venezuela, an oil-rich country that has terrible internal problems, most notably a lack of durable democratic institutions and entrenched economic inequality. In fact, he was originally an army paratrooper who became famous in 1992 when he attempted to overthrow the constitutional government in a failed coup d’etat. Old habits die hard...
...which is why Rodríguez says she's conflicted about Venezuela's referendum on Feb. 15, over whether to eliminate presidential term limits. President Hugo Chavez wants to amend the constitution so that he can run for a third six-year term in 2012. On the hustings, the former paratrooper insists that only if he stays in Miraflores, the presidential palace, will "the people stay in power." He's taken to ending his rallies with a campaign slogan that anticipates the vote's outcome: "Oo-ah, Chávez no se va!" Chávez isn't leaving...
...programs and medical clinics Chávez has lavished on barrios like theirs. The potable water, power lines, subsidized grocery stores, community councils that give average people more political say - they had none of that 20 years ago. Since Chávez's leftist revolution began in 1999, though, Venezuela's oil wealth has been redirected into populist spending programs that keep the poor on side and Chávez in power...
...offer a viable political alternative. Its weakness is another reason Chavistas insist their hero should be able to run again. "Chávez is the only leader who can hold all the nation's poles together,' says Tarek William Saab, the pro-Chavez governor of Anzoategui state on Venezuela's eastern coast. "His opponents are panicked because they know they can't win if he's the candidate." Former Chávez Information Minister Andrés Izarra says fear that an opposition leader could win the next presidential race if Chávez isn't in the running will...
...immediate threat, though, is economic. Venezuela relies on oil and gas for 93% of its export revenues. López says Chávez is rushing the term-limits question to the polls again before the drop in oil prices hammers the economy and shrinks his checkbook. Inflation is more than 30%, and the country faces shortages of staples such as milk. Chávez insists his government has stored away reserves to cushion the looming pain and recently pledged that "even if the price of oil drops to zero," the social largesse will keep flowing...