At the Public Choice Society meetings last weekend, I had an interesting chat with Francisco Rodriguez, former Chief Economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly and currently Assistant Professor of Economics and Latin American Studies at Wesleyan University (which just hired my grad school friend Pao-Lin Tien). We discussed Hugo Chavez, and he sent me his recent contribution to Foreign Affairs. The punchline: Hugo Chavez isn't good for Venezuela's poor. In Rodriguez's words:

Neither official statistics nor independent estimates show any evidence that Chavez has reoriented state priorities to benefit the poor. Most health and human development indicators have shown no significant improvement beyond that which is normal in the midst of an oil boom. Indeed, some have deteriorated worryingly, and official estimates that income inequality has increased. The "Chavez is good for the poor" hypothesis is inconsistent with the facts.

ATSRTWT.