How’s that socialism working out for Venezuela? Well, things are booming these days. And by “things” I mean the national murder rate. It’s quadrupled since he took office in 1999.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Homicides in Venezuela have quadrupled during President Hugo Chavez’s 11 years in power, with two people murdered every hour, according to new figures from a non-governmental organization.

The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), whose data is widely followed in the absence of official statistics, said the South American nation has one of the highest crime rates on the continent, with 54 homicides per 100,000 citizens in 2009.

Actually, Venezuela’s homicide rate is second only to El Salvador. The current president of El Salvador is Mauricio Funes, who belongs to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. That’s a leftist party formed by five guerilla revolutionary groups. Actually, it’s an admitted socialist party. So the two South American countries with the highest murder rates are both socialist. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Crime repeatedly comes first on Venezuelans’ list of worries. It has also begun to drag on Chavez’s traditionally high approval ratings as well as scare tourists who come to Venezuela.

Two people getting murdered every hour in a socialist country with regular power outages scares away tourists? My mind is now officially blown.

Chavez says he is doing his best to combat crime, which he blames on wealth inequalities caused by former governments.

Blaming his predecessors for problems that have quadrupled in scale since his taking office. Ladies and gentlemen, the Barack Obama of South America.

He accuses foes of exaggerating the problem to foment fear, and has recently hiked pay for police officers, as well as launching a new national force.

The official Interior Ministry stopped issuing crime figures in 2004 and the most prominent NGO dealing with such matters says two people are murdered every hour. But yeah, those damn opponents exaggerating problems.

Or to put all of this in Reuters’ preferred perspective:

He collates his figures from police sources and media reports. When Chavez came to power in 1999 there were 4,550 homicides whereas in 2009 there were 16,047, the OVV said.

That means Venezuela experiences every month about as many deaths as occurred in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s early 2009 offensive, Briceno said.

Oddly enough, leftists scream and holler about Israel’s defensive maneuvers all while staunchly defending Hugo Chavez and his socialist policies. Funny that.

Oh: Yes, the picture at the top of this post is real. President Barack Obama met with and embraced Chavez back in 2009. You can find a bunch of related pictures here.