No surprise. Massive inflation to confiscate savings and destroy the middle class was one of the many evil things Lenin and the Bolsheviks did to consolidate their hold on Russia after the October Revolution. Chavez is just following the Bolshevik blue print. Mass starvation will come shortly thereafter. We can look forward to the same kind of thing if the DemonRats win here.
I think one of the reasons for the cancellation of the contract with Spain for the supply of jets and other military equipment was concern on Spain's part over the stability of the VZ economy and its ability to pay. Ostensibly, it was because the price was too high from the VZ point of view, since we would not let Spain sell them our technology and the French and Israelis, who were willing to sell them similar technology, were going to charge a lot more for it. However, even though Zapatero and his merry Socialist band are big supporters of Chavez, they didn't sound exactly devastated by the collapse of the contract, and there was mention of some concern about the future solvency of VZ.
We ain't seen nothin yet. Any bets on where the Venezuelan inflation rate goes? Over 25% anyone?