Word: venezuela
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...floods and mud slides that have devastated Venezuela--and that may have killed as many as 30,000 people--were an all too foreseeable tragedy. Millions of people inhabit Caracas' ranchos, the squalid shantytowns that cling to both sides of the 6,000-ft. mountains ringing the capital. And for decades those people have fought a Sisyphean battle to keep their rickety tin, cardboard and clay-block houses from tumbling down the washed-out slopes during heavy rains. Hundreds have died in past downpours, but as los ranchos kept swelling in size and population, it was only a matter...
...five days of relentless Caribbean storms left more than 150,000 people homeless amid billions of dollars in damage. Huge swaths of the northern coast, where Venezuela's chief ports and tourist resorts lie, are now uninhabitable. The devastation was doubly crushing because Venezuela is suffering one of its worst recessions ever. Decades of foul politics played just as large a role in this catastrophe as the week of foul weather. Venezuela has the hemisphere's largest oil reserves and is America's No. 1 foreign source of crude. But because a corrupt elite, los cogollos (slang for big shots...
...that he was doing more than his effete predecessors would probably have done--dispatching troops to set up relocation camps and touring the devastated areas in his trademark red beret. On Dec. 15, the day the flooding began, voters approved his new federal constitution, which is intended to make Venezuela a more equitable democracy...
...people would be forbidden from building in areas vulnerable to mudslides. And while the former paratrooper has earned top marks for his hands-on supervision of relief efforts, his approach to rebuilding the country in the wake of its worst disaster this century may dent his overwhelming popularity among Venezuela's underclass...
...President Fidel Castro, Chavez last week received a ringing endorsement from his electorate when 72 percent of voters supported his new constitution in a referendum. The constitution entrenches the president's power and allows him to potentially remain in office until 2012. It also affirms state ownership of Venezuela's oil industry, which Chavez hopes will fuel his "new economy" that redistributes wealth among the poor. While the flood is a win-win scenario for Chavez - he's rushed resources to the aid of those most in need, and any recriminations over the building practices that allowed for such...