Reply #28: I am cynical (hence my username) but there is more to it.

[Doctor Cynic]

Despite Chavez's anti-rich bluster, he tolerated certain oligarchs' corruption and ill-gotten wealth as long as they served a purpose for him. It's impossible Chavez was unaware of their activities. Hence, his tolerance of a tycoon who supplied his "mercales" during the 2002/03 oil strike. But something made him decide to turn against his friends. Perhaps discontent within his party and within the public is forcing him to show his populist credentials. Perhaps those oligarchs had become too powerful for comfort and he had to beat them down before they could become rivals.

In China, the Communist Party leadership occasionally purges any potential rivals to the bigwigs on the grounds that they were corrupt, even though the Party itself is corrupt from top to bottom and it's impossible that the bigwigs are unaware of corruption by lower level cadres. This is just another example.