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President Hugo Chavez has suggested that Venezuelans should end the gift-giving "insanity" of Christmas and concentrate instead on reading children stories about independence hero Simon Bolivar.
"For the love of God, let's halt this, let's put the brakes on this consumerist, capitalist insanity, that leads us to lose our spiritual values," said Chavez.
"Let's sit with children and tell them stories of Bolivar, of the motherland," the firebrand leftist leader said, speaking at a public event late Wednesday broadcast on government television.
Chavez called on Venezuelans to reject buying toys "that as mothers and fathers we are practically forced" to buy.
"Why do we have to buy new clothes each December?" he asked. The sales do not benefit the small merchants, but "their owners, the wealthy, the big distributors that make a bundle squeezing people."
Chavez added: "I make this appeal from my heart to put aside these vices."
