Chávez should get credit for economic miracle

President Hugo Chávez (Internet photo)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s critics have taken advantage of his three-week absence for treatment of what was at first an undisclosed illness in Cuba to blame him for all kinds of misdeeds, but it’s time to give him credit for having performed a true economic miracle in his country.

I’m not kidding. What Chávez has done in Venezuela over the past 12 years is nothing short of an economic miracle: despite benefiting