Venezuela's socialist Utopia

Erik over at No Pasaran cites an Investor's Business Daily column that may come as a shock to the likes of Sean Penn and Harry Belafonte. It seems that in the last third of 2007, Iraq was a safer place for Iraqi citizens than Venezuela was for Venezuelans.

Quick, which nation shows average civilian deaths at 33 a day in the last third of 2007? Now name the one where civilian deaths average 19 a day? If you guessed Iraq and Venezuela, you'd have it backward.

Shocking? Of course. But true. With even Venezuelan officials admitting their country clocked 12,249 murders in 2007, Hugo Chavez's socialist "sea of happiness" resembles a war zone. In December alone, Venezuela had 670 murders while Iraq had 476 — and that number is falling fast.

Dude...12,249 murders in 2007? That's over 1,000 a month. In 2006, the US had 17,034 homicides, with a population of around 300 million. Venezuela's population is only around 27 million...less than 10% of the US population. That puts Venezuela's murder rate -- number of murders per 100,000 people -- at 45.36. The US murder rate for 2006 was 5.7.

I won't hold my breath waiting for retractions from the idiot lefty celebrities who all said how wonderful Venezuela is under Comrade Hugo.