Venezuela Christmas: President started blowout sales in November
CARACAS - Christmas came early to Caracas this year. “Today, Friday, November 1, we would like to declare that Christmas has arrived!” Venezuela’s new president, Nicolas Maduro, told a crowd of shrieking children in a downtown park last month.
The gift to the Venezuelan people was not exactly selfless. Maduro won the presidency in April in a very narrow election, amid opposition claims of fraud. In its aftermath, government and opposition supporters clashed in the streets. People died. By October, inflation had reached a decade-long high of 37 percent, and there were periodic shortages of basic goods. The government blamed the crisis on a conspiracy by capitalist opponents; economists and opponents pointed toward the more likely cause of government mismanagement, including pork-barrel spending and poor handling of the country’s oil reserves.
