More Silliness from Chavez
September 12th, 2008 Posted in General
If you were planning a trip to Venezuela this fall, you might want to phone up and reconfirm that seat. Or go somewhere that really wants you instead.
Latin American tourism numbers are increasing by double digits in nearly every country, but not in Venezuela, where overall leisure visitor numbers there are bucking the trend. Venezuela is becoming a pariah destination on par with Burma and North Korea—a place where your tourism dollars flow right into the hands of a crackpot regime that takes your money and insults you at the same time. A country where all the smart people with money and skills have taken a one-way flight out.
But that’s not enough. Flight capacity is about to get cut as well. Hugo Chavez must get uptight when he is out of the headlines for a week because like clockwork he’ll come through with some outlandish announcement that gets him in the news again. In this week’s version, his government has told U.S. airline companies to cut down the number of flights coming into Caracas because the same number of Venezuelan ones are not landing in the U.S. Never mind that it’s partly because a whole lot of people don’t feel as safe flying on Venezuelan carriers. The spat came about because the Venezuelan government refuses to let TSA safety inspectors in to access security, so the TSA announced that they “can’t vouch for the safety” of those traveling to Venezuela. So as it stands now, there will be a reduction of flights from Delta, American, and Continental.
The Kim Jong Il of of Latin America is making some interesting tourism moves within the country too, having the state take over privately owned tourism companies (we all know how nice those state-run hotels are) and putting out announcements like this one that sound eerily like the ones on the official North Korean news site. Here’s a choice excerpt:
The information is expressed on the recently modified Organic Act of Tourism, through its Statement of Motives, in which is clear the purpose of vindicating our history as part of an opportunity to educate us and build a new socialist society.
I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds like such fun—sign me up! I just hope there are lots of good statues and iconic murals to admire.
Another sure sign that someone is becoming a paranoid despot is when they start seeing everything as part of a grand plot. “I hold the government of the United States responsible for being behind all the conspiracies against our nations!” His Wackiness said yesterday. Apparently the current lame duck U.S. administration has so much extra time and military personnel on its hands that it is plotting coups in Bolivia and Venezuela. So the two countries have decided to send home the U.S. ambassador. I guess it’ll distract everyone from their own problems for a few days and get them rallied behind a common enemy.
May I suggest another destination for your South American travels? “Anywhere else” will do nicely. Meanwhile, can someone send these guys a copy of Jared Diamond’s book Collapse?
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