Venezuela, Catholics, and Jews

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/07/venezuela-catholics-and-jews

One of the points we've been making around here is that attitudes toward religion and toward capitalism often go together, or, to put a finer point on it, anti-Semitism and anti-capitalism often go hand in hand. The latest example: Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, whose state-owned press is described in a Miami Herald op-ed as: "On official TV or radio in Caracas, the anchor rants about boycotting companies allegedly owned by Zionists, such as Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson."

Not that it's any picnic for Venezuelan Catholics, either; the newspaper El Universal reports from Caracas that Jorge Cardinal Urosa Savino

said in a statement that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his government are disregarding the Constitution and "want to impose a Socialist-Marxist system in the country to control all sectors. This system is totalitarian and is leading to dictatorship; not to proletarian dictatorship but to dictatorship led by the elite who is ruling the country"...

He criticized government attempts to "control all production means through gradual monopolization of imports, distribution and marketing of foodstuffs." He said that this position is "in line with the purpose of dismantling the domestic production system. The aim is to make people depend on the government to eat."

Kudos to the cardinal for standing up against this, and for the reminder that religious liberty and economic liberty are so often intertwined.

by Ira Stoll  |  Jul 11, 2010 at 12:28 pm Related Topics:  Press, Religion receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list