Chavez blames capitalism for ending life on Mars

Hugo Chavez, the socialist firebrand and Venezuelan president who has blamed capitalism for most of the earth's ills in his time, has now pinned the responsibility for Mars's problems on the hated economic system.

During a speech to mark World Water Day, Chavez decided to move beyond his normal horizons to the parlous state of the Red Planet. "I have always said that it would not be strange to find out that there had been a civilisation on Mars," he said. "But maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet."

And Chavez had a warning for earthlings tempted to buy into the Martian version of capitalism and use water in an unsustainable way. "Beware! Here on planet earth, where centuries ago there were forests, now there are deserts. Where there were rivers, there are deserts."

Nasa confirmed back in 1971 that there was water on Mars via its Mariner 9 probe - a capitalist-funded spacecraft that beat the rival Soviet probe Mars 2 by a matter of days. ·