By MARINA JIMENEZ, Toronto Globe and Mail

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have been the only leader of an oil-producing power in the world who believed -- or at least claimed to believe -- that his country was immune from the meteoric drop in the price of crude.
For weeks, he vowed that his brand of 21st-century socialism would triumph -- even if the price of oil plummeted to zero.

Lourdes Morales and two friends had just come out of a movie at 9 o'clock on a brisk fall evening when a beat-up grey Ford pulled up alongside them.
Five men piled out, pinned Morales and her entourage against a wall, pressed pistols to their stomachs, and patted them down for money and valuables.

On his darkest days, Jorge snorted 15 grams of cocaine and went through several packages of Delicados cigarettes. He stole from his parents to fuel his addiction, lost his job and most of his friends. Finally, he came to believe his life was "worth nothing."
"I always got high alone. I would call my dealer and he would bring me my dose," says Jorge, who is 38.

A record number of Mexicans are fleeing to Canada, claiming their own country cannot keep them safe as it struggles to contain a grisly narcotics war that is spilling into nightclubs and restaurants.