The Guardian Comments on Venezuela's Plight and I Respond

People dying in what were once well-equipped and efficient hospitals, killings every day in the streets, queues for everything outside the shops, angry demonstrations in the capital – that is Venezuela today. How has a rich and once promising country reached this pass?

President Nicolás Maduro last week

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Venezuelan Socialist Accuses Government

The following is an enhanced machine translation from the original Spanish to English of an interview of the Venezuelan political leader, Nicmer Evans.  It's been edited by me to make it more understandable to English speakers who are not familiar with the situation in Venezuela. While I am not a member of Marea Socialista or a follower, I find their emphasis on the embezzlement of hundreds of billions of dollars from Venezuela and opposition to the determination of both the government and the opposition to pay the external debt regardless of the harm done to Venezuela and legality of much of this debt to be the "missing link" in all discourse regarding the crisis in Venezuela. Understanding that hundreds of billions of dollars have been embezzled and shipped out leaving a crisis of material deprivation and an enormous foreign debt helps clarify the situation. 

http://www.larazon.net/2016/05/16/nicmer-evans-el-descontento-contra-la-mud-y-el-psuv-continua-incrementandose/

 Front  Nícmer Evans: "Maduro betrayed the legacy of Chavez"

Nícmer Evans: "Maduro betrayed the legacy of Chavez"By CarlosFacebook"There is more pandering and perfidious, perverse and miserable corruption," says Evans Nicmer, political scientist, social psychologist and leader of Marea Socialista Carlos Diaz 
"The economic, social and political crisis in Venezuela is the result of ineptitude, paralysis and lack of planning by the government of President Nicolas Maduro," said Nicmer Evans , political scientist, social psychologist and leader of Socialist Tide, in an interview with "The Reason".

"Urgent measures are needed to solve the main problems of the country. First, make a call to the countries that have benefited from the solidarity of Venezuela (countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and others that have received cheap oil from Venezuela - editor) to provide drugs while we solve the economic issue .Many people are dying from lacks there is no medicine for epilepsy, cancer or heart conditions. It is absurd that this happens in a country that has received billions of dollars of oil wealth , " he added.

The second proposal aims for greater public participation in executive decision making , said Evans. "Acts such as preventing Marea Socialista from participating in the electoral process while the governing Psuv requires multiple steps to collect the signatures of the recall are absurd and incoherent, situations especially when Chavez never resorted to methods such as these."  he said.

"MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE THERE ARE NO MEDICINES "

"Venezuela is paying an unpayable foreign debt and does so at a time when people die for lack of medicines. It is miserable for people to lose their lives for this situation, this is not socialism, this is a Kakistocracy or government of the worst and which is absolutely inept " he said.

"Maduro melted engines"

Is it necessary that Maduro Maduro leaves power?
All this poses the change of the government of President Maduro. In that sense, Marea Socialista is respectful of the call made for the recall referendum. However, we disagree with misleading the people by saying that the country's problems will end the day after Maduro leaves office. It is the same deception that took place during the elections of December 6 when they (the opposition- editor) promised people that the food queues would end the next day if the opposition won. We must overcome impunity, ie require sacrifice from those who robbed the country before asking those who live honestly by their own work.

Hasn't the government put in  measures such as the creation of the National Council of Productive Economy and Economic Emergency Decree?

They do not work because they respond to communications or propagandistic strategies that do not generate any results. It's just populism and does not produce any recovery in the economy.That is, the government has a socialist discourse that does not conform with its practice in reality. ( In words) Maduro is not implementing the actions from the right, but the bad actions of the government is far from their rhetoric and unfortunately end up doing most harm. (Maduro has proclaimed what he calls economic engines, such as tourism (!)- editor) Maduro melted these engines by calling the private sector to run the economy and the Council appointed an entrepreneur as economy minister (Miguel Perez Abad) in a supposedly socialist government.

They stole 457 billion dollars

In the last three years has there been a deterioration of the Venezuelan State?

The government of President Chavez was  defined as having its subject: those living from their work and who were( previously) excluded from the system. Today, the government of President Maduro has defined an entirely different political subject: Living from the other's work. Unfortunately, the distribution of quotas in the power and economy to support his government has led to a serious deterioration. During the government of Venezuelan President Chavez each worker on average earned $ 600 a month and today does not exceed $ 15, and may reach $10 in the next three months. It is unworthy that most Venezuelans pay for the crisis that led those who stole more than 300 billion dollars, according to what Maduro admitted in February; although we estimate that it's 457 billion. This has been the world's largest scam and there was responsibility of the government teams Chavez and Maduro. the same of the Fourth Republic, (old regime) ie, capital flight and corruption are reproduced. There may be responsible for those who are not, because he's dead, but the culprit is alive and is called Nicolas Maduro.

From where will popular discontent come? Are there are conditions for another social explosion as the Caracazo? (A major uprising that the old regime drowned in blood-editor).

"THE OPPOSITION IS OFFERING WHAT WILL FAIL"

That depends largely on the position of the (opposition  ) Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). The MUD has called for rallies and marches to push out Maduro and has not held a well attended one. But when they called to sign the recall itself there were a lot of people, and that must be recognized. However, these people were deceived because they were told that if they replace Maduro it was going to end shortages of food and medicine. So said the leaders of the MUD put up signs that unfortunately was giving distorted information. The opposition is offering what it will not fulfill: because the solution not only is beyond Maduro leaving which is one of the steps. The opposition does not offer any alternative to exit the crisis.

MUD Ni, Ni Psuv (Neither the oppositionists nor the governing party).

What is your assessment of the new National Assembly (AN) ? Has it been as inoperative as when it was in the hands of Chavez?

Same or worse. Surveys say that AN has 20 points less in public approval because they did not fulfill their promise to end the queues, shortages and inflation. Discontent against the PSUV and MUD continues to increase, more than 50% of the Venezuelan population is not identified with any of both leaderships. This opens up possibilities to break the polarization and thus they are preventing the legalization of the Marea Socialista as an electoral party because they know that our choice would mean loss of votes for the PSUV and the MUD. The only agreement that exists in the country is the cosmic dust and sand beach Ramos Allup said in January 2015 when he referred to the different polarization electoral options.

If the recall referendum would be held tomorrow, do you think that Maduro would lose or would he be victorious?

I have no doubt, President Maduro has no chance of winning . He not betrayed the people win because he thought he would continue the legacy of President Chavez because he frustrated the expectation he generated with the Dakazo in December 2013. At that time it was thought that his government would be hard on price regulation, however today most prices are market based and his rhetoric is limited to only a fetish against Polar. ( The major food processing and distribution company - editor) addition, it has grown breed integrated military importers who benefit from government commissions.

No danger of military coup

Is Maduro hurting Chavismo?

"MADURO IS WHAT CHAVISMO WAS CANCER FOR PRESIDENT CHAVEZ"

Maduro is to Chavismo what cancer was for President Chavez. He is doing fatal damage that needs to be corrected. If President Chavez was alive, no doubt, would have different conditions for the evaluation of the national situation. There is a discontent with Maduro's Chavismo that should have electoral expression and, even, might win against the PSUV and the MUD.

Is there a danger of a military coup ?

No. There is a predominant sector that benefits from the government through corruption. There is another sector that seek to preserve the institutional balance. It is very difficult to have a military coup, however, who do speak of this possibility is Diosdado Cabello and Padrino López. Both have direct participation in this possibility or handle information not shared with society. And of course, all Venezuelans have the right to know what happens within the National Armed Forces.

Is socialism no longer viable in Venezuela?

No. Maduro's management portrayed the left as not being democratic and not trusting the people. The Venezuelan people do not believe in the right, or the possibility of a government that claims to be leftist and does not take the necessary measures.Maduro is not neoliberal but neither is left.

"There is a perverse corruption"

Who created the bachaqueo ?, What sectors are enriched with this distortion of the economy?(bachaqueros are people who buy subsidized price controlled goods and then sell them for higher prices -editor)

The product bachaqueo is an absolutely unworkable economic model in the country.

In the last three years it has increased corruption in government?

"IT IS GREATER DISCRETION FOR RESOURCE ALLOCATION"

I think not,  because there is less money to steal. If more pandering than before, there is a more perverse and miserable most perfidious corruption. Today is greater discretion for the allocation of resources, there is no comptroller on the use of public resources.

Has the flight of capital from the country stopped?

Thete are no figures to measure that. We estimate that between 1999 and 2013  274 billion dollars were embezzled from the state and we have reported on a cash imbalance of PDVSA (The National Petroleum Company-editor) of 215 billion dollars. That is, we do not know where 457 billion dollars are, though surely out of the country. President Maduro urged that all that absconded money be reinvested in the country, although ihe did not recognize that it is ill-gotten capital. It is important that all this money is returned and reinvested in the country. Unfortunately, we do not see any political will in the government of Maduro.

"457 BILLION DOLLARS UNKNOWN  WHERE THEY ELOPED"

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"Lynching is a symptom of impunity"

Did the government lose control over the problem of crime?

That is part of an accumulation since the Fourth Republic and is related to impunity and the deterioration process. It is a very strong structural problem that is due to the absence of the (revolutionary- editor) transformation of the judiciary. This has meant that impunity is unstoppable and that only those with money can buy justice.

Why has there been increased lynchings?

Lynching is a symptom of impunity, which arises because of the absence of rule of law and justice. It has been micro major crises that have manifested themselves through looting and that sum diagnosed a serious problem but it is still not a like a Caracazo social upheaval.That means that there is a political consciousness in Venezuela, strengthened during the government of President Chavez and which is allowing overcoming this critical moment.

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Too bad to be true: Venezuelan Government Public Health Report Is So Alarming, It Must Be Typographical Errors!

Some of the figures are bad enough, but some are so off the chart it seems they just can't be real.

Maternal Mortality up five times in three years!?

♦

2. General Mortality

Official data of this index can not be defined but as creepy. So much so that we hardly believe that this value is true and prefer to think that this is a mistake.

Explain why: official data imply that in 2012 were dying patients 2.96 per 100 high. And according to data published in the 2015 Annual Report and Accounts of the Ministry of Popular Power for Health , up to 31%. That is, the data says that out of 100 patients discharged 31 die.

If these numbers are real , this would be one of the most notorious Venezuelan health debacles and probably in the entire history of the continent. However, as I said, it is possible that it is a mistake and that the number who have tried toreflect is 3.1 out of every 100 high. Hopefully, if so, and since it is such a significant error, the Ministry confirm the figures given in the Report and Accounts .

The embezzlement of hundreds of billions of dollars from Venezuela's National Petroleum Company must be undone.

I'm fairly certain that an incoming President Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are both thinking about a nation to invade and stomp on as a ritual proof of toughness. That's if President Obama doesn't already have invasion plans in motion. After all,  he's declared Venezuela to be a national security threat to the United States two years in a row.

Candidate Bernie Sanders has demonstrated an awareness and sensitivity to the history of United States bullying of Latin American countries.  I am hoping against hope that the Berner movement can succeed.  One very useful step that an incoming President Sanders could take would be an offer to assist Venezuela in recovering embezzled dollars. With even a substantial amount of the embezzled dollars Venezuela could be on a rapid recovery track.

Below is a machine translation from the Spanish which I have enhanced for clarity.

Embezzlement exceeds what Petrolero intended as Tax Revenue in 15 years

An unnamed country, a government in the shadows ...

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By Carlos Carcione

Monday, 05/09/2016 10:00 a.m.

The volume of capital flight and accounting maneuvers in  PDVSA, Venezuela's national oil company among other things not yet elucidated, is gigantic. Investigations so far made public, offer such a large amount of data for analysis it is necessary to disaggregate, to understand the dimension of Embezzlement operated.

It is not simple maneuvers of corruption. We are in the presence of a mobster pattern of accumulation of capital. In this paper we compare the embezzlement with income received as the state oil contribution to the national budget of Venezuela.

As is clear from the study conducted by the research team of Marea Socialista, (a political party whose background is in the Chavista movement but which has been blocked by election authorities from participating in electoral politics) embezzlement to the Nation by capital flight added to the inconsistencies between revenues and expenses in foreign currency of  PDVSA between 1998 and 2014 exceeds the total fiscal revenue Petrolero (IFP) of the country in MM $ 126.888.- in the same period.

This emerges from a comparison between the amount contributed in dollars and IFP and the sum of capital flight that came under the national government, more inconsistencies in the reports of the management of dollars from the state oil company.

To explain it in more understandable for readers terms we can say as follows: It can be said, without equivocation, that during the period studied (1998-2014) funded the National Budget PDVSA two countries.

One, which is recorded in the numbers that the budget of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is built, to which the oil destination MM $ 348.743.-.

And the other, an unnamed country, with a government in the shadows, without public numbers or records of income and expenses. No known budget. A country that turned out to be larger from the point of view of its economic weight that the Bolivarian Venezuela, which ended up, as if 475.631.- Dollars were allocated a budget ghost were a bottomless barrel, $ MM whose investments and expenses were used, in fact, to fatten the accounts and assets of mafias dedicated to private capital accumulation of illegal or illegitimate at the expense of oil rents manner.

So progress has been stifled for our land and our people for at least a generation of Venezuelans.

However there is a way to recover that effort. If  we successfully put up a great national movement for the realization of a Public and Citizen's Audit, we may put a name on the shadow country, a face on the government and those mafias that seek to steal the future of our Venezuelan people. It will fight to recover the embezzled and punish criminals.

Venezuela is enduring a social, political, ethical, moral and economic crisis that has millions of citizens of an oil rich country that's been governed by people who call themselves socialist since 1998 living with hunger, shortages of almost every necessary item that one can name incuding water and electricity. By subsidizing imports the government helped destroy Venezuela's ability to feed itself as Venezuelan farmers could not compete with the very cheap subsidized imported goods.

The government has opposed United States policies like the Cuban trade embargo, the war against Iraq and Sanctions against Iran, notherwise to mention its closing of Israel's Embassy. These actions have earned the country the support and praises of leftists and opponents of globalization of all stripes. The country did also initiate social programs for the benefit of Venezuela's poor. In light of declining oil prices in part orchestrated by the United States and its Saudi allies Venezuela would have to fall back on what should have been a large reserve fund and domestic production to maintain the well being of its people.  Obviously there is no reserve fund, but a large and ethically questionable foreign debt. Putting upside down and inside out the recommended economic policy that has a developing country protect its own producers from foreign competition.

The ground is being laid for a US intervention in Venezuela

The Washington Post, once again, is urging an intervention in Venezuela.

Venezuela is officially a threat to the United States.  It's been so since February of 2015, when President Obama declared it to be so.

According to the Washington Post editorial opposition members of the National Assembly were in Washington lobbying for intervention.  Interestingly they are said to have cited the embezzlement of hundreds of billions of dollars from Venezuela.  The editorial asserts that the embezzlement is the work of the Chavistas. They are supposedly seeking US assistance in recovering the money. It's interesting , as  they haven't made the embezzlement and recovery much of an issue back in Venezuela.  The assumption that only Chavistas are responsible is not valid. For one thing not all government and central bank employees are Chavistas. The bureaucracy is heavily infiltrated by opponents as well as non political careerists.  The main avenue for embezzlement is the sale of United States dollars for extremely low insider prices to entrepreneurs and foreign businesses operating in Venezuela.  Polar Enterprises,  the major food processor and distributor in Venezuela has been both a target of fierce rhetoric from the government and a recipient of these cheap discount dollars. The dollars either end up sold on the illegal money market for over a hundred times the amount the entrepreneur purchased them from the government for or are used to import food that's supposed to be sold at steep discounts but ends up sold for what the market will bear,

most often in neighboring countries.  

The opposition has organized a popular  recall against President Maduro.  There is and will continue to be controversy over whether the recall is being conducted under the letter of the law and whether the government is unlawfully impeding it. I am not a legal expert who can decide this question but I would imagine that the government will do what it can to delay and derail the recall.  The opposition will angle for United States intervention in the name of democracy. 

The recall is lawful in principle but there are procedures.  This is where the rub is and the cry for intervention under the Organization of American States  Democracy Charter will probably grow out of - a conflict over procedure. 

The Guri Dam and other important stuff.

I just finished talking with my friend who just returned from a visit to family in Venezuela. The purpose of the visit mainly was to bring vitamin supplements to her relatives,  two of whom are pregnant and were anemic. Personally delivering the supplements seemed wise as hunger and malnutrition are so widespread that one couldn't blame a carrier for stealing them for his own wife, kids and relatives.

She told me that in Cabimas,  a city near Maracaibo in Zulia State a three year old was trampled to death by an out of control crowd storming a supermarket for food. Things are grim.

Now, before I begin talking about the Guri Dam I want to make it clear that Venezuela is not unique in South America or in the world for having problems feeding it's people.  The mistakes made in Venezuela can at least be said to have come from a government that was trying to assure that the poorest Venezuelans got adequate alimentation.  In neighboring Colombia, for example, the supermarket shelves are full and there are no food riots. It's money that does the rationing and being that Colombia is a United States satellite nation, its.problems, including malnutrition and a skyrocketing production of cacaine in spite of (because of ?) the presence of US drug enforcement agents and elite semi clandestine military units don't get media attention. Venezuela does get the attention because it's been a diplomatic and financial obstacle to United States hegemony not only in Latin America but worldwide. 

I am aware that I could be accused of being a part of a campaign against Venezuela.  Please accept that my criticism is spurred by my personal connection with Venezuela, and out of love for its people,  a deep and hurting disappointment and sorrow over the current state of affairs there.

Also I want to preface my remarks about the Guri Dam by acknowledging that errors, even grave and costly ones can be motivated by a desire to do what's right, including a desire to avert or postpone or alleviate a severe power shortage.

In the United States bridges have collapsed due to right wing economic ideology that calls all taxation theft and all government action, even to maintain a bridge, as waste and tyrany. And so in Flint, Michigan the right wing governor who knowingly gambled with the city's health in order not to spend what he deems money stolen from the rich to provide free water to people marked as "useless eaters."

Venezuela is not Michigan and Guri is not Flint.

The people who posted this video say that an excavation that has taken place or is underway in the drought stricken Guri Dam is likely undermining the Dam and that when the rains ultimately return there could be calamitous floods. I cannot judge nor assess the accuracy of the claim but it frightened me enough to want the leaders of Venezuela to be aware of the alleged risk. They have access to expert opinions while I do not. I wish there were more discreet ways of going about this but let's face it, an email, or a tweet, or a phone call from a New York City taxi driver will not likely get a response or a respectful hearing.

God, please let the accusation  be wrong, I do not care about my reputation more than I care about the people of Venezuela. 

Jeff Bezos uses his Washington Post to attack Bernie Sanders, wants intervention in Venezuela

Two days ago the Washington Post called for intervention in Venezuela.

I would be the first one to urge the United States to help Venezuela through its current travails. The problem is that the United States tends to give the kind of help anyone could do without. Just look at Vietnam,  Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria.  So as much as I know that Venezuela could really use some help,  right now I'll have to be opposed to any idea of the United States "jumping in to help" Venezuela. I'm not going to post a list of Venezuela's problems here. Anyone can look them up.

Jeff Bezos ' Washington Post beats up on Bernie Sanders regularly and often. 

Jeff Bezos has big business dealings with both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the CIA.  When Jeff Bezos says he wants something to happen it's no joke. He's the nineteenth richest person on earth.

One problem Venezuela has I will talk about. Two really: Jeff Bezos and Hillary Clinton.  Jeff wants an intervention in Venezuela,  Hillary Clinton is great for destroying nations in order to save them and it appears that Hillary and Jeff are connected.

Jeff Bezos is an exploiter of cheap labor via his ownership of Amazon as well as a billion dollar stake in Uber. Hillary Clinton says she's proud of having been a member of the Board of Directors of Wallmart.