Venezuelan President/dictator Hugo Chavez has been on a tear in the past few years of office.  He has been nationalizing industries, shutting down dissidents, and jailing all kinds of people he just does not like.  Now, he has turned his attention to golf.

The New York Times reports that Chavez has shut down two of the country's best-known courses after a tirade about the sport on national television.

"Let’s leave this clear," Mr. Chávez said during a live broadcast of his Sunday television program. "Golf is a bourgeois sport," he said, repeating the word "bourgeois" as if he were swallowing castor oil. Then he went on, mocking the use of golf carts as a practice illustrating the sport’s laziness.

He also said that he will not ban golf, but does not consider it to be a sport of the people.  I mean, he's kind of using the logic that Americans use to slam golf.  He just happens to have absolute power in a country with massive oil holdings, and despises the United States.

The background behind the course closures is sort of populist.  The region where the courses are - Maracay city - has a lot of slums and two very nice golf courses that stand out like a sore thumb.  Maracay is also an oil-heavy region.  The courses were built by Americans that fostered oil plundering there. 

Chavez views golf courses as land that can be used for houses for the poor.  Bobby Ginn viewed golf courses as a way to sell houses.  Ginn is not doing so well these days.  Perhaps Chavez's time is coming soon as well.

Hugo Chavez is a noted baseball fan - much like his idol in dictatorial rule, Fidel Castro.  The problem is that Castro's brother, Raul, has authorized around ten golf courses to be built on Cuba.  (Lift the embargo, Obama.  I want to go to Havana.)

So, maybe this provides some context for Camilo Villegas flipping the bird at Ian Poulter and capturing it on film.  Maybe Villegas has an interest in regional political affairs and was so upset by the news that he decided to use the gesture as symbolic protest.

If you want a more serious - and in depth - take on this subject (and Castro's efforts in the 60s), check out Old Man Par's post.