VENEZUELA'S president, Hugo Chavez, is on a moral crusade. He has been preaching against vices ranging from alcohol to cholesterol, vowing to curb whisky imports and ordering beer trucks off the street.
His government yesterday announced increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco, and Mr Chavez also plans steep new levies on luxury items such as expensive cars and artwork.
It's all part of his effort to encourage Venezuelans to adopt the psyche of t
he "New Man" - a socialist revolutionary with a monk-like purity of purpose.
The president often cites the life of Cuba's iconic hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara as an ideal example - and complains that many Venezuelans' values are not up to par.
"We're one of the countries that consumes the most whisky per capita in the world. We should be ashamed," Mr Chavez said recently on national television.
"I'm not willing to continue offering dollars to import whisky in these quantities. What kind of revolution is this? The Whisky Revolution? The Hummer Revolution? No, this is a real revolution."
Sales of both premium whisky and Hummer vehicles are booming, however, and a good number of Venezuelans are unapologetic about it. It won't be easy for Mr Chavez to persuade his people to shed their shopping-mall materialism and hard-drinking ways.
"If I drink my bottle of whisky, it's because I worked for it. I made the sacrifice and, therefore, I can drink whatever I want," said shopkeeper Ernesto Gonzalez, 49, as he looked at American-made Humvees and other luxury vehicles at a motor display in the capital, Caracas, where people sipped draught beer and pina coladas on the showroom floor.
Mr Chavez, however, has other plans. On Monday, Jose Vielma Mora, Venezuela's head of taxation, said the government was tightening restrictions on granting dollars to firms importing liquor, especially whisky. That will force many companies to buy black-market dollars - currently trading at more than twice the official rate - to import Chivas Regal, for instance, raising the price considerably.
The government also plans tax increases next week of up to 50 per cent on a range of alcoholic beverages, while cigarette taxes will rise to 70 per cent, from 52 per cent.
Mr Chavez is also concerned that too many Venezuelans drink beer on street corners. Annoyed by unregulated beer sales in the slums, he has warned that beer trucks selling alcohol directly on the streets would be seized.
Anyone wanting to booze can do so in the privacy of their own homes, he said.
"I've told the National Guard to stop and seize any truck going around selling beer in the street as if it were ice-cream," he said. "This cannot be permitted."
The president has a long list of other "New Man" recommendations: don't cover foods with too much hot sauce, exercise regularly, eat low-cholesterol foods, respect speed limits. He also wants parents to stop buying Barbie dolls - and breast surgery - for their daughters.
"Now some say, 'When my daughter turns 15 years old, we're going to give her phoney breasts'. What a horrible thing. It's the latest degeneration," Mr Chavez told one packed auditorium.
"Am I exaggerating?" he asked. "No!" the crowd responded.
The president sees his nation's culture being corrupted by US-style capitalist values. He says a new, humanist moral code is in order.
Naturally, Venezuelans are watching Mr Chavez to see what kind of an example he sets. The former paratroop commander says he steers clear of alcohol and would never smoke - in public.
"I really don't drink. Occasionally, I smoke a cigarette, but I'll never do it in public because it's a bad example," he said in a recent interview. "It's very sporadic. I did it during some periods."
All of his sermonising about vices and virtues might make Mr Chavez seem like a prudish sourpuss to some, but he also likes to party - in his own clean way.
He says he unwinds with pick-up baseball games or outdoor bowling matches known as "bolas criollas". And during marathon speeches, he breaks into song frequently - so often, in fact, that one aide compiled recordings of him singing on an "All Time Hits" CD, which has yet to be released to the public. "There I am singing, but it's terrible," the president said.
As a former tank squadron leader, Mr Chavez enjoys getting behind the wheel of a Venezuelan-made Tiuna jeep, which he did in August, with Hollywood star Sean Penn in tow.
But he says he has no interest in Hummers or other material belongings.
BLOW TO SCOTTISH ECONOMY?
PRESIDENT Chavez's move to make imported whisky more expensive could be bad news for Scotland.
Venezuelans consume more whisky than any other Latin American people - and the trade is worth a lot to the Scottish economy, with 38.4 million bottles exported there in 2006. The people drink whisky in golf clubs and slums alike, despite Venezuela making excellent cheaper rum. Whisky has become a sign of distinction, equivalent to owning a car or a TV set, with a good bottle costing 100,000 Bolivares (£24) - about a quarter of the monthly minimum pay.
And the impact of higher taxes on demand could be limited, as the oil boom helped the economy to grow almost 10 per cent last year.
