DURING a turbulent decade in power, Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, has been greatly helped by his own remarkable ability to inspire loyalty among ordinary Venezuelans on the one hand, and the sharp rise in the price of oil, the country’s only significant export, on the other. But the world price of oil has fallen from a peak of $147 last July to $40. And popular discontent with Mr Chávez’s corrupt and autocratic regime is mounting. So 2009 looks like being a difficult year for Mr Chávez and his “Bolivarian revolution”.
Not for the first time in Venezuela, a sudden fall in the oil price will reveal the economy’s structural flaws. Despite the government’s insistence that it will maintain social spending, the poor will once again bear the brunt of the downturn. According to José Manuel González, president of the main employers’ organisation, Fedecamaras, 75% of food is now imported. Unemployment, which stands at 6% by the official count, is being held down by government grants to educational “missions” and unprofitable co-operatives. Under Mr Chávez, too, the number of public employees has roughly doubled, to well over 2m, without taking into account over 1m public-sector pensioners. Just paying the wage bill, let alone subsidies and food imports, may soon become problematic.
He's now seizing gold mines to fund the revolution. That scent emanating from Venezuela isn't sulfur, it's the quickly rotting corpse of the Chávez regime.
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