MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez’ new enemy: plastic surgeons pressing women to have breast implants

It is estimated that 30.000 to 40.000 have their breasts lifted every year in Venezuela

Venezuela's populist president has identified a new plague on his nation - boob jobs. Hugo Chavez, famous for his bombastic anti-US rants, blasted plastic surgeons for pressuring women into having surgery they can't afford.

Calling it a “monstrous thing,” Chavez said on state TV over the weekend that devious doctors are trying to “convince some women that if they don't have some big bosoms, they should feel bad.”

Poor women who can't afford to feed their families are busting the bank to get their busts done, Chavez fumed.

In beauty-conscious Venezuela, boobs are big business.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 women get their breasts lifted and enhanced every year. And speculating on which celebrity had theirs done, is a national pastime.
Chavez's strident opposition to breast surgery outraged the opposition newspaper El Nacional, which compared him to his buddy, embattled Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy.

“Now comes this antiquated, militaristic, coarse, repressive attitude on the freedom of women to do what they want with their bodies” the paper declared in an editorial.
Still, Chavez does appear to have point. There is a burgeoning black market plastic surgery racket operating under the surface in Venezuela. And there have also been lurid tales of poor women dying from surgical mistakes that transformed them into freaks.