Contrary To What Jimmy Carter Says, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Was No Friend Of The Poor

March 7, 2013

Socialism: The left is out in force, bleating its praise for deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a champion of the poor. It's a big lie. Fact is, Chavez hurt the poor, not just in Venezuela, but all over the world.

Socialism: The left is out in force, bleating its praise for deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as somehow a champion of the poor. It's lies. Fact is, Chavez hurt the poor, not just in Venezuela, but all over the world.

Chavez's death from cancer Tuesday set off a chorus of wailing from the left's politicos, media and movie stars, hailing Chavez as a friend of the poor.

"President Chavez cared deeply about the poor," declared Citizens Energy President Joe Kennedy, who's made it his business to distribute Chavez's oil handouts to the poor to help the dictator's political ends.

"His legacy in his nation, and in the hemisphere," said Rep. Jose Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, will be "a better life for the poor and downtrodden."

Chavez's "positive legacies," said forever-naive ex-President Jimmy Carter, was for "the gains made for the poor and vulnerable."

The New York Times credited Chavez with "empowering and energizing millions of poor people" while Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson praised Chavez for providing (Cuban) medical care, saying "frankly, it was the first time in many decades that a leader paid that kind of attention to the poor majority in Venezuela."

The Nation sighed that Chavez wasn't dictator enough. "It wasn't too much control, but too little," pined longtime Chavez toady Greg Grandin.

"Poor people around the world have lost a champion," said Hollywood actor Sean Penn.

"He used the oil (money to) eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health care (and) education (for) all," tweeted filmmaker Michael Moore.

"A great hero," said director Oliver Stone.

It's the Left's Big Lie, writ loud, stupid and vulgar, like Chavez himself. The ugly reality is, Chavez's Castro-inspired socialist model, far from helping the poor, left them worse off than ever even as Venezuela's neighbors in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Chile have risen by embracing free markets.

Chavez's currency devaluation and capital controls made everything from toilet paper to tires expensive and scarce in Venezuela, harming the poor — who spend 80% of their income on necessities — most.

His wretched Cuban education and health care starved public institutions and chased competent doctors and educators abroad. His farm and business expropriations killed jobs. And he turned Venezuela into a crime hellhole, which the poor suffered from most.

His harm to the poor went beyond Venezuela. Starting in 2002, he worked to drive oil prices skyward by cutting production and monopolizing resources.

Higher oil prices hurt the world's poor at the pump. But they also raise the cost of food, and lead to factories being shut down. And this helps the poor?

The only proven way to lift the poor from poverty is to embrace free markets. Yet those who praise this odious, now-dead dictator don't seem to get that they served as Chavez's "useful idiots," as Vladimir Lenin called those naive Western socialists who aided his totalitarian rule.

Hopefully, Chavez's death will mean his Chavista model of socialist failure will be buried along with him.

IBD