Hugo Chavez has died

[Franknburger]

Let's have some look at what Chavez has achieved for his country, based on hard data:

• Economically, Venezuela fared anything but badly over the last ten years. The Gross National Income per capita has almost tripled between 2003 and 2011 from 3,500 to 11,000 $ (Atlas method). However, other countries in the region, such as Brazil and Uruguay, have achieved the same (Brazil actually even did better), and, unlike Venezuela, they don't posess huge oil reserves. Rating: Slightly below average.
• Poverty has been halved, from 62% to 31% of the population. Defenitely an achievement. But also not unique to Venezuela. Brazil and Uruguay, starting fron lower poverty levels, achieved similar reductions (Uruguay went down from 31% to 14%). And Peru, with a much weaker economic base than Venezuela, even cut down poverty from 60% to 28%. Rating: Slightly above average.
• Unemployment has been brought down from nearly 17% to 7.6% in 2009 (last available data). While Uruguay has achieved the same, and Peru (albeit starting from lower unemployment levels) even reduced unemployment to 6.2%, Brazil only went down from 9.7% to 8.3%. Rating: Slightly above average.
• Environment: Being an oil producer, CO2 emissions per capita have traditionally been high in Venezuela. They went down by 14% from 7.5 tons in 2003 to 6.5 tons in 2009, which is not bad at all. Nevertheless, per capita CO² emissions are still some 3-5 times as high as in Uruguay, Brazil or Peru, none of which, however, did reduce their emissions over the period in question. Looking for an appropriate benchmark, I came across Spain, which started out at the same emission level as Venezuela, but achieved slightly more reduction (from 7.6 to 6.3 t/ capita). China, OTOH, went up from 3.5 to 5-8 tons. Rating: Slightly above average.
• Life expectancy has increased from 72.8 to 74.1 years, Not bad. But Peru, which started with 71.8 years life expectancy, has now the same rate as Venezuela. Brazil went up from 71.0 to 73.5 years. And the three of them are still far behind Uruguay at 76.2 years (up from 74.9). Rating: Slightly below average.
• Reproductive health: While Venezuela's high maternal mortality rate has virtually remained unchanged at 94-92 deaths per 100,000 births, it went down from 90 to 67 in Peru, and from 67 to 57 in Brazil. Infant mortlity decreased from 1,7% to 1.3% in Venezuela, from 2.5% to 1.4% in Peru and Brazil, and from 1.3% to 0.9% in Uruguay. Rating: Below average.
• Education:The UNESCO Education for All (EFA) Index for Venezuela increased from 0.909 in 1999 to 0.951 in 2010, which is quite substantial, and has put Venezuela into the top group worldwide. My standard benchmark countries (Brazil, Uruguay, Peru) are unfortunately not covered by the EFA-index, so I have to switch benchmarks here: Ecuador improved from 0.913 to 0.924, Bolivia from 0.894 to 0.917, while Argentina has remained the South American top performer at 0.970 (up from 0.963). Rating: Above average.
• Corruption: Since Transparency international's Corruption Perception Index started to include Venezuela in 2005, the county has steadily steering further to the bottom of the list. Today, it stands out as the by far corruptest country on the subcontinent, with a TI score equalling that of Haiti and the Chad. Other countries in the region, such as Uruguay, which improved from a mediocre score of  51 in 2002 to 72 in 2012, have demonstrated that corruption can be contained in Latin America. Rating: Disastrous.

To summarise: Chavez has definitely not brought hardship over the Venzuelanan people. His government has been successful in cutting down poverty and unemployment, promoting education, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Economically, the country has performed well, albeit slightly below average when considering their oil reserves. In comparison to other South American countries, progress in the health sector has only been modest. While this is a decent track record, however, it is by far not exceptional in South America. People looking for models of socially balanced development  in Latin America might be well advised to also search for them elsewhere, e.g. in Brazil, Uruguay or Peru.

While I leave judgement on his human rights record to others, Chavez' record with respect to containing corruption is disastrous, which leaves more than just a stain on his "social reformer" image. He has left quite some unfinished tasks to his successors.

May he rest in peace.