Chavez Decrees Dry Holy Week

Ban on booze aimed at drink-fueled accidents, inspires secret imbibing
By Sarah Seltzer,  Newser User
Posted Apr 4, 2007 9:48 AM CDT
Chavez Decrees Dry Holy Week
Venezuela's Colorful Hugo Chavez talked to Barbara Walters last month. Now he's banning booze for Easter.    (Getty Images)

No Easter imbibing, decrees Venezuelan president and socialist icon Hugo Chavez. Chavez has instituted a Holy Week liquor ban in restaurants to combat the hundreds of drunk driving deaths that occur during holidays in Venezuala. While some citizens applaud his boldness, others say they cannot follow their fearless leader quite this far.

The ban enforces teetotaling after 5 p.m. and any time on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.  Meanwhile, the clandestine exchanges that have sprung up are reminiscent of prohibition-era speakeasies in the nation Chavez most abhors, the United States. (More Venezuela stories.)

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