Gustavo Coronel publishes this morning (but without links, only his sources) that the owners of Daka are not in jail, that they were in Panama where they enjoy the benefits of a diplomatic passport. There they opened with the money earned in Venezuela a mega store of appliances and as such, well, they do not need to come back to Venezuela, ever.
In short, what Coronel hints at or seems to believe was that the whole thing was an arrangement between the regime and the owners, where the looting of one store was planned and where the first people to show up to loot, or those that are in line first to buy at discount prices when a given store is not looted, are organized chavistas groups that were on short notice, and that the regime needs to satisfy and cannot these days, as it is short of cash. Let's remember that the Chines have refused the easy 5 billion in cash bail out Maduro desperately needed to buy his way through the December vote.
It is possible. After all there are pictures circulating on the Internet where the faces of the owners of Daka and Ivoo appear cozy with Arreaza, the current vice president, an antisemite. These Muslims, well, I am sorry but there is no polite figure of speech that I can find to sound PC, were in bed with Chavez since 2003 at least, as a majority of the Muslim population of Venezuela who could not believe their luck at such an idiotic anti Israel president for Venezuela. Let's not forget that this radical Muslim stance is deeply espoused inside the regime where a PSUV representative went to Syria to "fight" next to the Assad troops.
Why not believe that Daka owners, who have secured a few millions for their future, who are probably hard workers any way, regardless of any cultural chip they may have on their shoulder, did not accept that request from the regime? A slow burning looting accompanied of obscene discount that at least recover the non speculative costs, all compensated at least in part by insurance companies and the loss of Daka in Venezuela may not be as big as one may think, and a small price to pay for your liberty to own one of the major electronic stores in Panana with the capital to expand it fast, away of the cesspool that Venezuela has become, even for them.
Thus the regime sensing a social problem did get a short term patch to satisfy its hard core followers who are nothing less but criminals, used over the last decade and a half to a life of crime and larceny and free gifts in exchange of electoral cheating, violence against the opposition, attending each Chavez rally, etc.... A controlled looting is certainly better than a generalized one, the more so when the losses are diluted courtesy of the arbitration in currency. That is, the real losses of the Daka episode will be borne by the people, the losses of Daka and its cronies in the regime being duly minimized by further looting of the state coffers.
The question is, will the looting of Daka Valencia be enough?
PS: of course, the reputation of Maduro as a pathological liar is confirmed since he claims that the owners of Daka have been arrested. Not only they have not, but their silence at the loss of their commercial empire in Venezuela seems to confirm all that is written above. Venezuela is indeed a narco-laundering state.....
PS2: this, of course, does not change an iota that the order of Maduro to loot stores, that throwing to the wolves business people to pay for his own mismanagement is absolutely reprehensible and will get him one day a jail sentence.
bottom line is perfectly said:
ReplyDelete"Venezuela is indeed a narco-laundering state....."
and might I add that it was planned that way from the start.
firepigette
But the problem is that the looting has not stopped with Daka, and is spreading like a virus with everyone wanting what is "due" them. License to steal...direct from the president (sic).
ReplyDeleteconcerned
Concerned,
DeleteWhat do you expect from a people who have primed themselves, together with the help of unscrupulous politicians to feel undeservedly entitled ? Add resentment towards the rich, habit of blaming others for problems, Envy , and the Idealization of materialism...need I say more?
f pigette
It would not surprise me that this was planned. But how many people will benefit from the looting or discount purchasing? Off the top of my head I don't see any more than 50 thousand people "benefiting." If so this points to the desperation of the regime.
ReplyDeleteBoludo Tejano,
DeleteI think the people are a lot more desperate than the regime....firepigette
I think the mental damage is done here. The outsider view is that this is just another reason not to invest, loan (without high interest) or visit.
ReplyDeleteThe regime is weak and it is only going to get worst. Whatever benefits come of this will be temporary at best. I am so sad for the people of Venezuela. I do believe that the end is coming, but we will probably see a lot more of this before it does.
Anon Dave
If only history could repeat itself. But in Venezuelan style, the banging of pots and pans instead of keys.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution
These people are ENTITLED to LOOT in Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteOld Karl Marx had it right all along, the second time around it really is farcical. As for Maduro, definitely a Marxist but of the Groucho variety, even got the whiskers to prove it.
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad to see how the government is manipulating people to make sure they are not thinking about the real problems in Venezuela: 1. lack of food, 2. inflation and 3) crime. This is a "mission mareo" that may explode in Maduro's face ( I hope!). HOwever there is a couple of details about your post that I am not sure are entirely true:
ReplyDelete1. I did not listen to Maduro's cadena, but I have read that the managers of the stores were in jail not the owners. However we know that who can distinguish "penes" and "panes" may have also said "dueños" instead of "gerentes". After all they just need a "chinito de recadi" to blame.
2. The relationship with Syria may not be related to religious believes. In Syria the rebels are mostly muslims but the government supporters are not. I am assuming that the PSUV representative is not muslim since he went to "support" the government. I know that a lot of the people in Venezuela from Syria and Lebanon are christians, well that was the pattern in the 60-80 when I lived in Venezuela.
too bad about the lack of sources for Coronel's article. But I do believe the plot about which he writes, as I earlier commented that 'it all smacks of pre-planning on a larger scale...'. For me, the electrodomesticonacht developments smelled inorganic. The only question I have is, was Maduro's anger an act, or was there something he didn't know that took him by surprise, as in the owners of Daka fleeing to Panama, without, say, paying -- what -- the last quarterly taxes, or some such issue?
ReplyDeleteInteresting youtube clip shows the new Daka store in Panama with Falles Mahmoud as one of its directors. Mr. Mahmoud's Venezuelan accent is unmistakable, even in a country that shares a similar intonation, grosso modo, as the Spanish spoken in Vzla.
The same comment about Syria, the one who went there to support Assad was probably no muslim, the muslims are the ones on the other side...
ReplyDeleteAnd as a present to the Chavistas a few stores are not enough, lets see what happens next. The Warehouses of Polar?
My bet is this was a test! Not so much the event itself, but this was a test to see what the public reaction to will be. Chavismo has always been incremental. The loss of freedoms, the economic grip, etc. has always been gradual and refined. Most of the imports are now through public entities, and more serious than that, more public services are being conducted through shadow entities selected and controlled by central government. The question is can central government financed only by oil revenues be able to provide for all the public needs? Because, that's where things seem to be going!
ReplyDeleteThe business association of venezuela is demanding that the list of recipients of CADIVI dollars be made public. Good, but only if the government does not alter the list to include whatever enemies is needs to destroy.
ReplyDeleteThe news about this does not say that the owners of the Daka stores were arrested. Only that some of the managers of the stores were arrested. I doubt that there is the conspiracy between the Daka store owners and Maduro. I would not be surprised though if he didn't reach out to the owners saying essentially it is too bad that you had these bad managers. Maduro and handlers would be hoping to get the Daka owners to understand that they could reopen in Venezuela at some future point. Insurance companies will pay exactly zero for this type of loss to the Daka chain. Were it simply theft, flood or fire, they would pay. But insurance companies get an out when the government is the one doing the looting. In other words, if the theft is lawful in Venezuela because Maduro ordered it, then insurance won't pay.
ReplyDeleteI can comment that in May of this year, the Max Center store of la Trinidad was empty, but tha Daka at Bello Monte was full with inventory of TVs, DVD Players, etc. A 42" LDC Sony was around 12.000 Bsf.
ReplyDeleteSee PDF with Cadivi List of 2004 -2012:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cadivi.gob.ve/images/stories/pdfs/Asistencia_al_Usuario/Listas_Empresas_Divisas_Aprobadas/empresas_diciembre2012.pdf
Moslems are on both sides as the main players of the Syrian civil war, Sunni moslems as rebels and Shiite moslems the regime. Christians tend to support the Shiite moslem regime, which has protected them, but would prefer to be neutral and are peripheral to the war, like the Kurds and the Druze, two other minority groups in Syria.
ReplyDeleteThat there are so many Christians from Syria in Venezuela speaks loudly as to how inhospitable Syria was for them, even with protection from Assad.
Maduro's latest actions are a play to the Chavista base but will offend many Chavista's imo. And extremely destructive to whatever remains of the private sector. No shopowner, importer or distributor will want to have more than minimum inventory for fear of government seizure. Like the Daka's owners, they'll put whatever capital they can squeeze out of their Venezuelan business into something offshore, or if not reasonable given exchange rates, buy gold, precious stones....something that will hold value and can be either hidden or moved abroad.
ReplyDeleteFeels like this long term political drama is moving into a new phase. I remember way back there was much written about the 'ni ni's ', or somesuch, the group of voters who were sitting on the fence as to Chavez. I doubt there are many 'ni ni's' left; this latest confiscation is at the retail level which everyone understands more than people understand the real meaning of confiscating a steel company or other industrial enterprise.
The joint venture between the government and Samsung is another sign that his has been in the works. I'm not down there but assume Daka was a big Samsung retailer. I checked out Samsung Venezuela website for linecard and read the announcements and press releases regarding the JV. Still trying to digest the JV news. Samsung in bed with the regime competes against everyone else all the way to Cupertino. A very interesting move and model.
ReplyDeleteWanna add that under the Samsung-BRoV joint venture, electronics are imported and some white goods may get assembled locally. Phones could get packaged and configured locally but TVs, computers and tablets are imported ready to sell. A factory may assemble washers. Nothing too complicated. The JV has an advantage over competitors importing products. The JV can sell direct to public or become the importer/assembler-manufacturer-/distributor. This model would be the preferred model taking the government out of direct competition. The JV buys the product from Samsung and marks it up to account for costs and profit. The government provides the land and building and Samsung the factory innards. Basically, the regime is putting itself at the top of the chain. Very Capitalistic BTW.
ReplyDelete