Hugo Chavez, the mentally unstable head of Venezuela, has suggested that Latin American countries take that money out of US banks.

”We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chavez said. ”Why does that money have to be in the north? … You can’t put all your eggs in one basket," tha AP quotes him as saying.

Chavez and some of his friends who run other Latin American countries plan to start their own bank.

In a region known for occasional hyper-inflation and financial instability, the new bank may not be the safest place to put capital. Perhaps the fraud that has plagued many of the countries there can also be kept out of the bank’s operations.

The nations of Latin America are better off putting their money in a mattress. At least there Mr. Chavez will not have access to it.

Douglas A. McIntyre