Venezuela is a very beautiful country that has a rich culture and a vast amount of petroleum fueling the nation’s economy. Currently, Venezuela is in a governmental crisis. The people are suffering because of the president Hugo Chavez. Understanding the idea of what Chavez is causing can be very misleading, but necessary because the results could affect even the U.S.

People around the world know that Chavez is a dictator that never really helps his country, but they don’t realize how bad things have gotten in Venezuela. At one point, there were food shortages on milk, rice, and flour. There were also energy shortages because of the unmaintained hydroelectric power plants. Chavez also wants to have complete governmental control over everything. As stated in a NYT article by Rockind “The countries economy is dominated by the oil industry. And the president has sought to counter American influence in the region, seizing control of oil assets of American and European energy companies, and in other ways consolidating state control over the economy nationalizing phone and electric companies”. In other words, the president wants to gain control over all economic and social Medias in the county. The president has already shut down one of the most popular TV channel in most of Venezuela because it complained a little about the government. This all happened years ago; the situation now is much worse.

The events that President Hugo Chavez has caused the past years lead to a increase of the poor in Venezuela’s population, and the hatred of many people. Chavez has been faced with hatred many times, but still refuses to change his ways. Some examples are when the king of Spain told him to shut up in front of the world leaders. And also, when he talked to the president of Iran about nuclear bombs in the United States; many people despised him even more. The U.S president has mentioned that Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran are insignificant and don’t really matter. As sateed in an article by Joel Brinkley, “Hugo Chavez, the peacock president of Venezuela, called President Obama a “clown” a few days ago and “an embarrassment”. My suggestion, President Chavez: if you want to look at an embarrassing clown then look in a mirror.” In other words, Chavez is trying to show his hatred toward the United States resulting with more hatred on him. He even took it further and said that the United States was causing South American leaders cancer. He keeps making statements like this all the time.

This hatred has caused the cities of Venezuela become poor. An example is when people are starving, but can’t get food because the mayor is against Chavez. Venezuela is also among the most urban countries in Latin America. The majority of the population is concentrated in the north, especially in the largest metropolis, Caracas. Other major cities include Maracay, Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, and Ciudad Guayana. Maracaibo and Valencia are part of the opposition and are being affected by not getting things maintained. Even though they should get help from the government by the law. The problems of Venezuela will get even worse if Chavez remains being the president. Hopefully the people of Venezuela will do something before it’s too late.