Chavez: Just say no to whiskey

Tue16Oct2007

Chavez: Just say no to whiskey

Hugo Chavez doesn't like Alejandro Sanz. He also doesn't like alcoholic beverages, and is urging his people to come off the sauce. The Venezuelan president says that booze isn't revolutionary and is raising the price of alcohol in an effort to make his compatriots into "new men":

It's all part of Chavez's efforts to encourage Venezuelans to adopt the psyche of the "New Man," a socialist revolutionary with a monk-like purity of purpose. Chavez often cites the life of Cuba's iconic hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara as an ideal example — and complains that many Venezuelans' values are not up to par.

"We're one of the countries that consumes the most whisky per capita in the world. We should be ashamed," Chavez said recently on national television. "I'm not willing to continue offering dollars to import whisky in these quantities. What kind of revolution is this? The Whisky Revolution? The Hummer Revolution? No, this is a real revolution!"

According to AP, Chavez is also tired of people boozing it up on beer in the streets, and is threatening to seize beer trucks that "sell beer like ice cream".

Along with alcohol, Chavez is also looking to raise prices on tobacco and luxury cars.

Via / Yahoo! News

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Jennifer

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1. Ramón ~ Tuesday, Oct 16 2007 | 22:59H:

An excellent idea that's guaranteed to fail.

2. Julia ~ Thursday, Oct 18 2007 | 14:53H:

While I can often appreciate some of what Chavez is trying to do in Venezuela, this type of zeal is at best off-putting. I hate to say it, but it fits the "dry-drunk" kind of moral purity that is so dangerous in other world leaders. This is not a left/right bias; it reminds me of the quote that "For every problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong".

3. Ramón ~ Friday, Oct 26 2007 | 22:17H:

I think that his "revolución" should start at a grassroots level, as well as in the educational system; start with the children so that a new generation of Venezuelans will understand the ramifications of high alcohol consumption. He certainly has the money to do it, and it would be money well spent. It can also be a model for other Latin American countries; virtually all of them need to address the problem.
High taxes will make Venezuelans, probably mostly men, continue to buy alcohol at whatever cost at the expense of the well-being of their families, and that's not revolutionary thinking.

VivirLatino