What Chavez opponents don’t want to read

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A new survey of Venezuelans by Latinobarometro, a nonprofit organization in Chile, shows that 59% of respondents are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. That figure is far above the 37% norm for all of Latin America and second only to Uruguay among individual countries polled.

Venezuela ranked even higher when respondents were asked whether they approved of their government. Sixty-six percent responded yes, the highest ratio on the continent, which averaged 39%. Asked whether their country’s economic situation was good, 52% of Venezuelans responded positively, more than twice the 21% average among Latin Americans.

The poll results might come as a surprise, even to Venezuelans, who are fed up with rising scarcities of basic food items, as reported in Caracas’ El Nacional newspaper.

Those scarcities have led to hoarding by black marketeers, many of them functionaries of the government-run Mercal retail chain, who sell them in the growing contraband market or export to Colombia. Government officials in western Zulia state on Wednesday seized tons of rice, sugar, toothpaste, toilet paper and other basics that police said were to be sold into the cross-border black market. Shown in the picture is the van of a seized tractor trailer carrying 60 tons of sugar.

The poll results would seem to show that despite hardships, Venezuelans by and large see their lives as having improved under the leadership of fiery President Hugo Chavez, who early next month begins his 10th year in office.

-- Chris Kraul in Bogota