Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Venezuela on wikileaks

As expected, wikileaks is not going to be good news for Chavez.  So far there is one cable that addresses Venezuela, at the very end of that cable.  It is a French assistant to Sarkozy and he says earlier that Iran is a Fascist regime (Duh!) and that:
--------------------------------
VENEZUELA
--------------------------------

13. (C) Levitte observed that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "crazy" and said that even Brazil wasn't able to support him anymore. Unfortunately, Chavez is taking one of the richest countries in Latin America and turning it into another Zimbabwe.
Any reader of this blog has known this for years....

And there is no surprise that the French officials also knew that even if they did not mention this in public.  Why would the French think that of Chavez, besides the obvious reasons?  Because the French have lost a lot of business and have been robbed blind and because they know very well that whatever has been taken from them is doing bad, really bad on occasion, and deteriorating fast in the other cases. A short list (note, I mention "sources" but they merely confirm what is now vox populi in papers like Tal Cual):
  • The jewel in the crown of French business in Venezuela was the once upon a time gleaming Caracas Metro system.  In spite of all the warnings made by the French the Chavez regime has not taken good care of the Caracas Metro, has refused to invest properly and has used the Metro  as a way to graft through the Brazilians who are now in charge of building the new metro stations.  Needless to say that the current catastrophic conditions are not a surprise.  Yet, wen finally the regime realized that something had to be done, early last year, it was an inexperienced Spanish company that got the deal for renovation, even though they had no access to French technology, and as far as we know, had not made any attempt at dealing with he French.  Sure enough, nothing much has been done, the Metro kept degrading and now my sources confirm that the Spaniards are trying to work out a deal with the French who are now setting their conditions (and asking for additional money to the one already spent by the Spaniards with no result on sight).
  • The French group Casino was establishing successfully a distribution network in Venezuela though hyper markets EXITO and lower sized neighborhood CADA.  When Mercal and PDVAL roved to be failures Chavez simply took over EXITO and CADA although there are efforts to retain some French management participation.  My sources told me that CASINO will not get air price, that corruption is already present, that efficiency is down, etc, etc....
  • The giant Lafarge group had cement factories in Venezuela.  Those were taken over two years ago.  Today there is a shortage of cement in Venezuela EVEN THOUGH we are in recession and construction is way down from two years ago.  You draw your own conclusions.  But another contact told me that the top of the line ovens left by the French are out of order because of reckless usage.
  • And let's not talk about all that France has lost in the oil business and how Venezuelan conditions are so bad that even the collaboration still attempted cannot prosper.  I have no sources there but we only need to read the oil entry numbers in the US and elsewhere to confirm that decline of Venezuelan oil exports.
The French, more than any other country KNOW that Venezuela is on its way to Zimbabwization.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:11 PM

    Que cosa tan fea de parte del asistente de Nicolás hablar mal de mi comandante jajajaja ! La Maga Lee

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael1:17 AM

    Here is an interesting link to action taken against some of Hugos buddies http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1132.htm

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think other cables will work to Hugito's advantage. They say there is going to be a big dump of cables from the embassies in Caracas and Bogota.

    He alleges everything from a toilet flush at the US embassy "proves" there is a CIA plot to assassinate him or an invasion of Venzuela is imminent. Its hard to believe anyone who take this moron seriously but obviously plenty of Chavistas still do, so in Eva Golinger fashion, they are going to emblish any negative commentary about Chavez from US diplomatic cables and there will be plenty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charly4:37 AM

    Some of this leaked stuff is just too good. Apparently Evo Morales has or had a severe nose tumor. Must have sniffed too much of his end product when he was president of los cocaleros.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Daniel, it is incorrect to say that thus far there's one cable addressing Venezuela. See my twitter line and you will find all instances of cables published thus far that mention Venezuela. Certainly more than one...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AB

    when i wrote that post that was the only cable talked about and it helped me make a point (not to mention that deliciously it was at the very end of that cable that chavez finally appeared). of course other cables will come, but "chaque chose en son temps et un temps pour chaque chose"

    ReplyDelete

Comments policy:

1) Comments are moderated after the sixth day of publication. It may take up to a day or two for your note to appear then.

2) Your post will appear if you follow the basic polite rules of discourse. I will be ruthless in erasing, as well as those who replied to any off rule comment.


Followers