Venezuela's Chavez touts '21st Century Socialism'

[Regis Philbin]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/06/D8IMM11O0.html

Chavez Reinvents 'Socialism' in Venezuela

Jul 06 3:11 PM US/Eastern

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON
AP Business Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela

A landslide all but wiped out Wilfredo Rodriguez's small shoemaking business last year, entitling him to a loan from President Hugo Chavez's government _ money he says he never would've found elsewhere.

It came with strings attached _ his workers get limited co-ownership and he must make mandatory donations to community projects. But no matter: the factory is thriving. Its 14 workers produce 1,200 pairs of shoes per month and has begun selling sandals to Cuba.

Cooperatives and co-managed "social production" companies such as Rodriguez's shoe factory are the backbone of the new "21st century socialism" that Chavez is trying to create.

Venezuela's iconoclastic leader is fond of saying he's inventing a new sort of economy that won't just forever alter Venezuelan society but will also serve as an egalitarian model for the entire world.

Such claims may sound exaggerated for a country buoyed by oil wealth where capitalist businesses continue to drive the economy. But in little more than seven years, Chavez's powerful personality and ample petrodollars have transformed Venezuela's economy into a unique mishmash of public and private enterprise.

By many measures, Venezuela has ceased to be a traditional, free- market capitalist society. Billions of dollars are now diverted annually to state-directed social spending; cooperatives jointly owned and operated by workers are favored for government loans and contracts; and new state-owned companies challenge private sector heavyweights, producing everything from tractors to laptops for the poor.

[Richard Tafoya]

Looks like Rodriguez ended up in the right place at the right time to get his business back on track.