Doing Business in Venezuela, RB - World Bank Group
It isn't comparing anything from year to year and especially from from 1980-1999. GDP would be up but all that extra monet would have left the country to send up in the pockets of BigOil shareholders
Venezuela crime soars amid declining poverty - Features - Al Jazeera English
With an average of 53 murders per day in 2011, according to the
Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, a watch-dog group, the country has a murder rate of about 67 per 100,000 inhabitants. Neighbouring Colombia, in contrast, has a murder rate of 38 per 100,000 while Mexico - where some regions are gripped by deadly drug violence - has a rate of about 15 per 100,000.
Those numbers are disputed and the NGO is no different and any other one funded by the US, they slant the numbers, that is why Russia kicked groups like that out.
Venezuela GDP Data & Country Report | Global Finance
Where are the numbers from before Hugo took power. Considering the sanctions the US instantly applied and the state of most of the population that spending is acceptable as it was done to improve the lives of the poor. He wasn't getting around like Obama so the data below isn't taking into account all the spending that was done to improve the lives of the least fortunate.
Venezuela’s Economy Under Chavez, by the Numbers - Real Time Economics - WSJ
Heavy government spending has fueled rampant inflation, which averaged an annual 22% during Mr. Chávez’s tenure. Its anticapitalist rhetoric and broad state intervention into the economy have led to a dearth of investment. Gross fixed capital formation declined to 18% of gross domestic product in 2011, from 24% in 1999, according to the
World Bank. Net inflows of foreign direct investment stood at 2.9% of GDP during that same year, his first in office, nearly double the 1.7% in 2011. Capital flight from Venezuela intensified as Mr. Chávez pursued more interventionist policies, including capital controls and a fixed official exchange rate that — if you can get it — offers dollars at a quarter of the exchange rate that the greenback fetches in the black market. Stock market capitalization of companies listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange has gone from a paltry 7.6% of GDP in 1999 to a minuscule 1.6%.
Fernando Espuelas: Hugo Chavez Is No Hero
Hugo Chavez lied to the people, convincing many that his magical powers would save them from misery.
There was no magic solution to resolve Venezuela's myriad social problems.
Now if the US was doing such a good job of helping run the country why didn't it look like Kuwait, answer is below, they were left dirt poor even after selling a lot of oil. Even with the downturn in income they had more cash to play with than what BigOil was leaving them and that only supported the elite that had favor with the US. Something like the way Israel orders Canada and the US around.
Greg Palast | Investigative Reporter
So what made Chavez suddenly "a dangerous enemy"? Here's the answer you won't find in
The New York Times:
Just after Bush's inauguration in 2001, Chavez' congress voted in a new "Law of Hydrocarbons." Henceforth, Exxon, British Petroleum, Shell Oil and Chevron would get to keep 70% of the sales revenues from the crude they sucked out of Venezuela. Not bad, considering the price of oil was rising toward $100 a barrel.
But to the oil companies, which had bitch-slapped Venezeula's prior government into giving them 84% of the sales price, a cut to 70% was "no bueno." Worse, Venezuela had been charging a joke of a royalty – just one percent – on "heavy" crude from the Orinoco Basin. Chavez told Exxon and friends they'd now have to pay 16.6%.
