'Bourgeois' Golf Courses Tee Off Chávez

Hugo Chávez has gone after oil conglomerates and media companies, and now he's hitting the capitalist pigs where it hurts: at the golf course. The Venezuelan president is trying to shut down the country's best-known courses, which he believes are part of an anti-Marxist conspiracy, the Independent reports. "Let's leave this clear," he said on his long-running personal TV show, "golf is a bourgeois sport."

Since the campaign began, nine golf courses have been closed, and two more near Caracas are threatened. Perhaps it's not coincidental that the courses mostly lie in oil-producing regions, though Chávez insists his motivation is pure. "I respect all sports," the president said. "But do you mean to tell me this is a people's sport? It is not." (More Hugo Chavez stories.)