Word: venezuelan
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Zelaya had sought to address such problems in Honduras, where 70% of the population lives in poverty and the richest 10% owns more than 40% of the wealth. But measures like a minimum-wage hike irked the political and business élite who fear Zelaya's ties to firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Zelaya overreached in June when he defied a Supreme Court order not to hold a referendum asking if a constitutional-reform assembly should be held. But instead of trying him legally for that crime, Zelaya's foes committed their own - flying him off to exile...
...world should be used to the public declarations of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by now. He simply loves the spotlight so fiercely that serving his country as president, and as a larger-than-life president at that, cannot satisfy. Restless, he meets with celebrities—Sean Penn three times—but when that is not enough, he uses his country as a media pawn. And that is how an unacceptable number of lives repeatedly get jeopardized...
Chavez, however, ignores this obvious justification for the United States’s presence. No matter what Colombia says, or does, to placate his displeasure—short of submitting to his ludicrous demands—Colombia will be in danger as a country. And Colombian and Venezuelan lives will potentially pay the price...
Still, Venezuela's own migratory numbers suggest a different story than the one Chávez's "21st century socialism" promotes. While tens of thousands of poor Colombians might be flocking to Venezuela, just as many middle-class Venezuelans are leaving. A report by the Latin American & Caribbean Economic System, a multi-lateral organization based in Caracas, finds that from 1990 to 2007, Venezuelan emigration to developed countries rose 216%. Erick Castro, a Caracas-born engineer, left for Canada last month thanks in large part to the Venezuelan capital's out-of-control violent crime, 30% annual inflation and what...
...came out with the impression that they give priority to the lower strata," he says. It's admirable to boost the poor, who before Chávez were largely ignored by Venezuela's élite. But Flerida Rengifo, a demographics analyst at the Central University, says stories of the Venezuelan middle-class brain drain are getting more common. "There's no support for private industry," she says, "so people feel unsupported by the state in terms of their ability to invest in the country...