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 Petróleos 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