Winning Strategy

I know little about the internal dynamics of Venezuelan politics, and obviously Chávez has some formidable advantages built into the system, but it's always seemed to me that Chávez gallivanting abroad and lavishing foreign aid on other nations while the country's crime rate has gone through the roof should be a powerful case against his movement. Indeed, that's the argument Manuel Rosales attemped to make in 2006, though it didn't win him anything beyond a 25-point loss. The Washington Post's Juan Forero examines the same line of thinking in an article that appeared yesterday.