Vzla: That great flushing sound you hear

Is the Venezuelan economy heading down the loo. Oil workers in western Venezuela threatened to go on strike to protest the Labor Ministry's dismissal of 83 union leaders "in a conflict over representation."

Alexander Vasquez, the ex-president of the Union of Workers and Oil Employees, remarked that "the dismissals were part of a government effort to undermine the oil union movement in the country, which is seeking to strengthen the collective contract."

Chavez is doing his best to make Venezuela another worker's paradise.