Hugo Chavez is slightly misinformed about Mars...

Hugo Chavez has been known to be a bit of a nut case. Every so often he comes out and says something that makes the sane members of our species utter a collective "WTF?". This time he may have outdone himself with the crazy. During a speech for World Water Day he stated:

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet."

...blink...

...What? Did he stumble across a copy of Percivil Lowell's Mars and Its Canals and think "There couldn't possibly have been any credible research done on Mars since the 18th century"?

Or perhaps he is just another one of those morons who think science is just about taking wild guesses at things and passing it off as knowledge. Whatever the reason, this quote of his deserves to be kept for posterity, just so people will know what kind of moron he really is.