Food Is Now Being Used As A Weapon By Hugo Chavez In Venezuela

Several thousands tons of rotting meat was among 80,000 tons left to go bad at the Puerto Cabello seaport. Photo: REUTERS

Chavez Pushes Venezuela Into Food War -- The Telegraph

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has pushed his country into a perilous food war that has seen prices rocket amid shortages and scandal over shipments left rotting at the docks.

Venezuelan bishops gave warning yesterday that the consequences of President Chavez's drive to control the distribution of food would be to jeopardise supplies to ordinary citizens.

Church leaders said the failure of the state-owned PDVAL, a subsidiary of the national oil company, to distribute food imports that rotted at the shores was "a sin that Heaven is crying over."

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My Comment: I am a living witness to Russia's disastrous experiment on state control over food stocks. Standing for hours in line, scampering for the basics .... my head still hurts when I think about it. As a result, I can confidently say that 99.9999% of all Russians (the same can be said about the rest of Eastern Europe) know that state control over food production, management, and distribution .... this is all a recipe for corruption, shortages, high prices, and feeling like a pawn when you know that food is being used as a weapon to reward allies and punish dissenters.

The Venezuelans are now experiencing what I experienced when I was in Russia. Chavez is now trying to emulate the old Soviet system (as well as the present Cuban system) of using food as a tool to suppress dissent and to reward obedience. Will he succeed .... probably in the short term he will be successful .... but Venezuela is not Cuba or Russia, and if millions start to hurt (and millions are hurting right now) .... anything becomes possible.