Under two dictators

Friend of Fidel Hugo Chavez or his enemy Augusto Pinochet, under whom would you choose to live if you were a South American? From beyond the grave, in Venezuela;

The policies of the late Hugo Chávez have disappeared inside their own labyrinth — and they have yet to find the Ariadne’s thread to lead them out.

The Venezuelan government is aware of the shortage of basic products affecting the country, but it prefers to tell voters that is confronting — and winning — “an economic war of the bourgeoisie,” a conclusion it has reached after assessing the workings of the country’s privately owned supermarkets.

Last week, President Nicolás Maduro condemned the supermarkets for forming part of a plot that aims to generate social breakdown. He said store managers were ordering workers not to place products on the shelves and creating long lines by not assigning staff to man checkouts. The goal, he said, was to create the feeling of bigger shortages.

When the going gets tough, the toughs get military on you;

To alleviate the situation, Hebert García Plaza, chief of the Higher Authority for the Economy, has announced he will place members of the Bolivarian militia — groups of civilians enrolled by the government and usually armed — at the checkouts. But before their presence can be finalized the government first needs to liaise with supermarkets to ensure the militia men have adequate training to understand the product codes and necessary working methods. 

Armed check out clerks!  What about Chileans, who had their Hugo Chavez ousted by General Augusto Pinochet forty years ago. How's that working out for them;

The Allianz’s World Wealth Report 2013,  released Tuesday, places the country's per capita assets at US$14,800 and per capita debt at US$5,810 — both figures are the highest in the region.

 With Latin America’s highest ratio of per capita net financial assets — the wealth possessed by a country minus its debt — Chile and Mexico are the only countries in the region to have attained the status of Middle Wealth Country (MWC), defined as net financial assets of between approximately US$6,600 and US$39,400 per capita. And according to the report, the two will probably remain the only countries in the region to attain that category for the foreseeable future.

 You can bet Venezuela won't be there.