Beauty queens are revered in Venezuela, none more so than those crowned "Miss Venezuela." So when a beloved former "Miss" named Mónica Spear and her ex-husband were murdered by highway bandits, the crime sparked national outrage -- touching off street protests, non-stop media coverage, and an ongoing national conversation about the socialist government's failure to a stop a runaway murder epidemic. Now, outrage over the murders is prompting many Venezuelans to confront the contradictions of Venezuela-style socialism. One of the biggest ironies: violent crime has exploded since President Hugo Chávez, a firebrand leftist, took office 15 years ago. This has happened, moreover, as capitalism has increasingly been dismantled -- supposedly replaced by more economic equality and "social justice" in the oil-rich yet impoverished South American nation. Chávez, who died last March of cancer, coined the term "21st Century socialism." He contended it would reverse corruption-riddled...(Read Full Post)