Venezuela: By the Numbers
12 LONG YEARS. When Hugo Chávez Frías took office in February 1999, he promised Venezuelans equality, opportunity, and prosperity. Twelve years later, the rich are still rich and the poor are poorer as they face higher food prices (due to shortages of basic goods), persistent blackouts, and a shrinking economy with the highest inflation in the Americas and soaring unemployment.
15 CANDLES. Fifteen out of the 23 states that comprise Venezuela have been affected by the rolling blackouts, including the oil-producing state of Zulia.
16 CLAIMS. Venezuela faces at least 16 claims before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Claimants include Mexico’s CEMEX, U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips, Switzerland’s Holcim, Canada’s Gold Reserve, and Britain’s Vestey Group. The Center is an autonomous international institution with over 140 member States. The primary purpose of ICSID is to provide facilities for conciliation and arbitration of international investment disputes.
17TH WORST DICTATOR. The July/August 2010 issue of Foreign Policy Magazine places Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the company of the most elitist and corrupt men in the world. In its “Worst of the Worst” issue, FPM ranked Mr. Chávez as the 17th worst dictator in the world. It gives him the dubious distinction of having been ranked lower than the Castro brothers of Cuba (#21), Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus (#18) – who still maintains a secret police force actually called the KGB – and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso (#22) – who ruthlessly murdered his predecessor in a 1987 coup.