The biggest thing is how far they have fallen. Venezuela used to be one of the most prosperous countries in South America. It now has the highest murder rate in the world and tons of corruption.
Well, they used to be free...since I still had the Freedom House spreadsheet open I looked 'em up. In 1972 they had a 2/2 (political rights/civil liberties...lower is better 1-7 range) rating. On par with Finland, Fiji and Lebanon. And not too far behind Ireland and Italy's 1/2 and Japan's 2/1. Way better than Spain and S.Korea (5/5) and Brazil (5/6). In '98 when Chavez came to power they still were pretty good at 2/3. By 2011 they had fallen to a 5/5. 5/6 last year, which would look fine if they were in Africa, but the numbers look out of place compared to the rest of the
western hemisphere (except Cuba of course 7/6).
