CARACAS: Socialist President Hugo Chavez has said the $900bn being spent by the US government to bail out failing financial companies dwarfed his bill for nationalising a big chunk of Venezuela’s economy.
Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil, also found himself agreeing with Republican US presidential nominee John McCain, calling him “comrade” for criticising America’s financial system. McCain has called Chavez a dictator.
Chavez said the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression was the crash of “neo-liberal” capitalism, and showed his “21st Century Socialism” was the way forward.
In recent years, Chavez has nationalised a string of energy, telecoms, and heavy industry companies as part of a drive to turn the Opec nation into a socialist state, spending about $12bn from an oil boom in the process.
As part of its rescue plan to prevent the market turmoil infecting the wider economy, Washington this month announced it was seizing control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a cost of $200bn.
“They have criticised me, especially in the US, for nationalising a great (telecom) company, CANTV, that didn’t even cost $1.5bn,” Chavez said at a ceremony that included representatives of US oil company Chevron.
“The US has spent $900bn, four times what the Venezuela produces in a year, to try to boost the troubled finance system and housing market,” Chavez said. – Reuters |
