Venezuela: last on property rights

Hugo Chavez, who expropriated millions of acres of farmland (along with private properties and businesses) left an enduring legacy:
Venezuela ranks last in Property Rights Index
Lorenzo Montanari, the executive director of the Property Rights Alliance (PRA), said the survey measured the “consistency of property rights in 97 countries” and assessed three aspects: political legal environment, physical property rights and intellectual property rights
The IPRI study, which you can read here, corroborates the fact that

there is a positive, strong, and significant relationship between the strength of property rights protections and a country’s economic performance as measured by GDP per capita.

Mike Birds writes that Venezuela’s Decision To Import Oil Is The Perfect Example Of Just How Screwed The Country Is

In other Venezuelan news, Leopoldo López refused to appear before a court hearing on Tuesday, demanding the government respond to a UN resolution calling for his release.

Judge Susana Barreiros scheduled the hearing while the court was not in session, having suspended proceedings indefinitely on October 14. López’s lawyers regarded the suspension as an attempt to delay the court’s response to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, which requested López’s immediate release on October 8.

After Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called on the Venezuelan government to free Lopez, Venezuela recalled its ambassador to Spain.

Lilian Tintori, the wife of opposition leader Leopoldo López, learned that he could be transferred from Ramo Verde military prison to another jail.