Cancer has not dimmed the relish Hugo Chávez takes in blowing raspberries at the United States. It is election year, after all, and there is a real chance Venezuela’s president could lose October’s vote. His latest nationalist outburst came this week when he ordered Venezuela’s withdrawal from the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). This seemed to annul the $40bn claimed at ICSID by companies for the nationalisations of which Mr Chávez is so fond. But it also threw into doubt Venezuela’s ability to attract the billions of dollars its needs to develop its oil reserves. Did Mr Chávez blow a raspberry too far?
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