Robert Plant Appointed Venezuelan Defense Secretary

David Weigel | April 20, 2007

At this point, Hugo Chavez is just wasting money for the sake of wasting money.

Venezuela launched a Zeppelin on Thursday to patrol Caracas, seeking to fight crime in one of Latin America's most dangerous cities but also raising fears that President Hugo Chavez could be turning into Big Brother.

Around the hot-dog stalls of the run-down suburb where the airship took its first flight, most people felt the unmanned eye-in-the-sky could help counter routine hold-ups, shootings and carjackings.

"It is a necessity," said street vendor Pedro Marin when asked about the 15-meter helium-filled blimp that had been looming silently over his stall beside a busy highway.

Someone else has probably suggested it already, but Chavez is less likely to evolve into a new Fidel Castro than he is a new Rufus T. Firefly.