The WSJ reports today that the Venezuelan leader recently stated, “we need foreign oil companies’ investment and expertise; we need them.” This stance contrasts sharply with his local audience statements aiming to attract international investors: “In the model I envision, state-owned companies won’t rely on their installed capacity, product quality, costs, or sales for survival; their continuity will be guaranteed by the State.”
How can a rational thinker reconcile these two positions: is Chávez a socialist or a capitalist? Furthermore, how can anyone take Chávez’s calm demeanor seriously when just last week he ordered the swift expropriation of private enterprises?
One thing is clear; Chávez’s twenty-first-century socialism is proving to be an even greater failure than that of his predecessors.