Recent weeks have brought more depressing economic news from Venezuela, where populist leader Hugo Chávez seems intent on destroying not only democracy but also the last remaining vestiges of private enterprise.
On April 21, the Latin Business Chronicle predicted that Venezuela would post the world’s highest inflation rate in 2010, ahead of even the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
On May 5, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Venezuela dropped from $349 million in 2008 to negative $3.1 billion last year, “mainly as a result of nationalizations.” In other words, the Bolivarian Republic experienced a net FDI outflow of $3.1 billion in 2009.