Venezuelan Propaganda Machine now Working Overtime.

After Chavez's defeat at the polls in December, which saw his wide-sweeping socialist reforms struck down by Venezuelans, it was only to be expected that Chavez would lay the blame for many of Venezuela's problems on the United States (even though, ironically, US oil money contributes to a vast percentage of the Venezuelan economy, without which Chavez's socialist ideals would be entirely unsupportable). However, even die-hard chavistas must be shocked by the latest, and most ludicrous, claims in a long line of bizarre accusations- a Venezuelan scientist working in the University of Zulia has expressed her belief that American "biological warfare" is to blame for outbreaks of Dengue fever in Venezuela. Her argument seems to negate the fact that Dengue fever is spread naturally by mosquitos, and appears to be, frankly, a poor attempt to shift the blame for increasingly prevalent weaknesses in Chavez's flagship state healthcare system.

Whilst government attempts to openly manipulate public knowledge are not uncommon, attempting to inspire panic amongst Venezuelans is most certainly a step beyond the standard crimes attributed to "El Imperio" by Chavez- perhaps he now feels it is necessary to control through fear- the start of a downward spiral?