After ignoring the issue of crime for most of his Government, President Hugo Chavez appears to be ready to create a “Mision Crimen Cero” in an attempt to convince us that crime, the number one problem for Venezuelan voters according to pollsters, is not a problem. In fact, with a very straight face, Hugo Chavez told the world that crime in the US is much worse than that in Venezuela, despite the fact that there are more murders in Venezuela every year than in the US. Never mind that the US has a population ten times larger than Venezuela’s, numbers for the Venezuelan President are meant to be ignored. (Chavez even had the nerve to say: “Look at the figures and statistics)
The problem is that it works. Last year the Government claimed to have built close to the 150,000 housing units it promised, while it is known that it built less than half that, but by including homes that were improved, the target was reached and that was that.
And too many voters seem to believe the smoke and mirrors. Witness this chart from the Consultores 21 poll:
The chart says that 52% of the families are registered or will be registered in Mision Vivienda. If each family is assumed to be composed of four members, that is over 3,.5 million families in the country, but the Government is unlikely to complete 100,000 units in 2012, less than 3% of those needed. The second chart says that 80% expect to get a housing unit from the Government. Given that no specific time frame is mentioned, the number is reasonable, it is hope springs eternal at its best. But it is the last chart that makes you wonder: Fully 48% of the same people believe they will receive their housing unit before the October election.
Thus, by election time you you would think the 45% that did not get a housing unit will be mad at the Venezuela President and will not vote for him.
Wrong!
Because by then Chavez or the Chavista candidate will be blaming the US, the opposition, obscure forces, boycotts, rains, the Gods (Catholic or not) and who knows what else, for the failure of the revolution to deliver on the housing units. We will be told not to worry, by next year they will be ready. Everyone will get one, Chavista or not.
And then they will launch “Mision Crimen Cero”, telling us that the 13,080 homicides, 3.429 deaths for resisting the authorities and 4,508 suspicious deaths which took place in 2010, are either not true or have been reduced to zero via the magic of the revolution.
And for the fourteenth year in a row, millions of people will believe it.
The Devil's Excrement 
April 2, 2012 at 10:02 am
[…] Chavez Ready To Work His Magic On The Crime Problem […]
March 29, 2012 at 9:29 pm
March 29, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Chávez: No estaría mal un decreto para expropiar empresas que apoyen a la oposición
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a law to expropriate any business that supports the opposition.”
ha, ha, ha
That just about says it all
March 31, 2012 at 7:57 pm
..and what has he been doing so far?
March 29, 2012 at 7:26 pm
For those of you who can read Spanish here are Twits from Globovision on the comments made by our president today.
If you can’t read Spanish just copy & paste them into Google translate here
http://www.google.com/language_tools?q=venezuela&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1
These statements are being made by the head of a country that is “supposed” to be democratic. The man is totally insane & extremely dangerous.
Chávez: Hoy somos un país absolutamente libre
Chávez: Me honra el odio de la burguesía
Chávez sobre la oposición: Ellos son los hijos del demonio, nosotros somos los hijos de Cristo
Chávez: El CNE es uno de los mejores sistemas electorales del mundo
Chávez: Cuando ganemos el próximo 7 de octubre, ellos van a denunciar fraude contra el CNE
Chávez: Nuestra responsabilidad está en neutralizarlos para garantizar la paz
Chávez: La oposición no tiene liderazgo, lo que tienen es odio contra el pueblo
Chávez: No podemos permitir que se repitan escenarios como el 11 de abril
Chávez: Somos millones de millones los que vamos a salir a la calle a evitar que desestabilicen el país
Chávez: No solo los vamos a derrotar sino que haremos que se arrepientan para siempre del intento violento
Chávez: En caso de que perdamos yo seré el primero en reconocerlo
Chávez: Cuidado señores los que están dirigiendo policías de estados de oposición
Chávez: Yo tengo información de algunos bancos que apoyan esos proyectos (desestabilizadores)
Chávez: Banco privados que no estarían mal pasarlos a la República
Chávez: No estaría mal un decreto para expropiar empresas que apoyen a la oposición
Chávez: La burguesía no podrá con nosotros
Chávez: Se está configurando un cuadro de agresión contra Venezuela
Chávez: Yo formo parte de los pobres de esta Tierra
March 31, 2012 at 10:59 am
And the truly sad part, is that the Chavistas are completely unable or unwilling to see the glaring internal contradictions in these statements.
March 29, 2012 at 6:29 pm
I never knew we,Venezuelans were so stupid. I left a while ago but never thought it would come to this. So many blind followers. President Chavez messed up the entire education sytem because he knows knows the uneducated will believe him.
March 29, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Miguel, did you see how the regime has allowed itself to get more into debt with a new presidential decree? Imagine that at $118 a barrel!
March 29, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Chavez is offering a LOTO? he know that everyone knows that, millions play every week, with practically no chance, but slim and none.
With Capriles you don’t have a ticket, If he doesn’t come up with something people can put in their pocket he’s finished.
A quick answer would be prefabricated houses, bring down a couple of units or, be photographed with one, and say how many you would be able to give out in your first year, have people register on-line for one. If he doesn’t fight bricks with bricks it’s all over.
March 29, 2012 at 4:07 pm
The opposition has to play smarter. Take the facts that Miguel (the polls) present and use them. How?
RAISE EXPECTATIONS! If 48% think that they will have a new government home by election time, then, some 47.5% are going to be sorely disappointed.
The key is to make sure that they realize that they’re NEVER going to see that home with Chavez. That these are just more empty promises.
That Chavez ALWAYS has an excuse at the ready.
Perhaps that might make a good slogan: NO MORE EXCUSES. I fondly remember the “three strikes” campaign. How about a “Game Over” one?
March 29, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I thought he already nationalized it?
Usually when things are nationalized by Chavez output goes down.
Maybe it’ll work this time.
March 29, 2012 at 2:16 pm
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”-Winston Churchill said.
March 29, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Churchill spoke of a lie, this is an unthinkable amount of lies, and on top of that repeated ad nauseam.
March 31, 2012 at 10:50 am
This is a basic principle of propaganda used by Hermann Goebbels of the Nazis. It is called “The Big Lie”. Basically, it says that colossal lie, repeated enough times is more likely to be believed than a small lie.
March 29, 2012 at 12:36 pm
The way it’s going he’ll win by a landslide.
March 29, 2012 at 2:39 pm
If he has a pulse by Oct. 7 (Big IF).
March 30, 2012 at 11:04 am
If Chavez dies, the government will delay confirmation for at least a year and maybe for all 6 years.
March 29, 2012 at 12:35 pm
I am constantly amazed by the amount of people willing to believe anything Chavez says no matter how absurd. ” Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes” applies completely.
March 29, 2012 at 2:28 pm
That quote is a misquote from a scene in the movie “Duck Soup” from the Marx Brothers. The actual exchange is this:
Mrs. Teasdale: Your excellency, I thought you left!
Chico: Oh no, I no leave.
Mrs. Teasdale: But I saw you with my own eyes!
Chico: Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?
And yes, it applies perfectly to everything Chavez says and does. Just like this pic:
http://thechive.com/2012/01/03/a-little-inspiration-goes-a-long-way-30-photos/inspire-others-12-3/
It perfectly represents Venezuela under the Bolibanana robolution.
By the way, Duck Soup is in public domain and readily available in its entirety on Youtube.
March 29, 2012 at 11:06 am
yup Miguel, to say it in vernacular… un pueblo ignorante es victima de cualquier farsante…an the campaign ‘lies’ just ahead…
March 29, 2012 at 9:58 am
As Capriles says, all Chavez can offer is promises not accomplishments. I guess everyone trusts in Tio Rico Hugo and they cannot figure out why they are not in a home. Maybe a free home is so much more valuable than one you might have to work and pay to own. It is a giant lotteria.