Wednesday, March 20, 2013

VENEZUELA TO ELECT A NEW PRESIDENT

March Caribbean Memo 2013

Date: 01-March-2013

From: News Center Publications

Dear Friends,

President Hugo Chavez is dead after 14 years in office and his successor will be elected April 14th.

Here is the basic decision to be made by voters in this northern South American country with a population of 28 million.

Elect Chavez’s vice president and currently appointed acting President Nicolas Maduro to continue current leftist and socialist programs.

Or elect Henrique Capriles, who would move to end leftist control of the nation. Chavez wanted Venezuela to be a Fidel Castro-type Cuba.  

A major problem, Capriles says, is crime. He claims daily murders, armed robberies and kidnappings have made the country one of the most dangerous in the world.

Maduro has pledged to continue providing free health care clinics and subsidized food stores for the poor.

Chavez paid for those programs with oil money earned by a state-owned oil and natural gas company, PDVSA or PetrĂ³leos de Venezuela, meaning Petroleum of Venezuela. As South America’s largest oil producer, it is the world's fifth largest oil exporter.
After Chavez took over PDVSA following a 2002-2003 oil strike, thousands of oil engineers emigrated to Canada, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

We talk about these matters because of our interest in the Caribbean, Latin American and its extension to other parts of the world.
As a result, we have six novels backing up the point and they can be found quickly. To find them, click News Center Publications after reaching the Web address ‘www.natcarnes.com.’ Once there click: Amazon.com.     

This Caribbean Memo and a Memo collection can also be found on the same site by clicking Caribbean Memo.

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The Editors