Originally Posted by devine

errr... not to defend Chavez, but it's amazing how in 2 sentences you've shown you really need to read a newspaper or something. Venezuela was one of the few countries not hitted by the crisis, at least not an important hit, and registered economic growth on 2008. btw, is one of the few countries expected to grow in 2009 and 2010.

On a side note, Chavez was elected in open elections monitored by UN and OAS, and he was the one who faced a 'coup-d'etat', not otherwise, so really no clue what are you talking about