How to admit failure in Venezuela: by threatening further and blaming others

I have to start with my own admission: for the past few weeks I have watched no Venezuelan TV, I have read papers at best every three days, and besides a little bit internet, not much else...  But in all honesty I have also written less than usual and watched out on what to write. But Maduro gave me a pearl too good to pass on. The more so that it is in my field....

I have written several times already on how the regime has tried to control the distribution of ANY agricultural products through SADA, SICA and what not. In short, for those late in the show, in theory in Venezuela you cannot move a truck load of food, or ingredients needed to prepare food without a government permission that includes all, even the license driver of the trucker. For example, about a third of what I sell falls into that category and before we ship them we need to await for a government permit processed through Internet but that may take quite a few hours to be delivered. Sometimes forcing me to suspend shipment until the next day so I have to pay an extra day, and night, to the chauffeur forced to wait, notwithstanding the client having yet to suffer one more delay.... You get the picture.


Well, today Maduro admitted, unwillingly, that all of this system is not working, that contraband still takes place, that loopholes still do exist and people still traffic with goods and prices. Amen of also admitting unwillingly that prices controls do not work. Before I go into his solution, let me stress that unless you have contacts in the military that mans the roads and surveys the SADA and SICA, THERE IS NO WAY you can ship anything without being caught, without having a Nazional Guard on duty asking you for a large chunk of money, or goods, to let your truck pass. I know this as a fact, and an everyday fact, and those who do not need to go through the loops like I do, we know who they are. They can get away with it because 1. they are government companies or 2- they are in bed with corrupt bolishit companies (though that does not preserve them of the occasional "zealed" Nazional Guard on duty who only sees what he can bribe you out for, you know, like "my general is bigger than your general").

In other words, a decade of price controls and road supervisions and inspections, and fines and what not have not only not solved Venezuelan production problems, but scarcity must be at an all time high for Maduro to go on record even though the Central Bank has simply decided to stop publishing annoying numbers like inflation, scarcity index, etc...

So what does the genius of Maduro proposes?

- "some people did not understand the message of November and December" 2013: that is, sell at the price I tell you to say or you will be looted.  That is good for investment to boost production. Remember my warnings on the Daka affair?

- "whoever plays with the law will be in big trouble". Which law? What the private enterprise has asked is that either the law for "just" process is allowed, without price controls that are quickly outdated with high inflation, or that price controls remain but please, spare us the wasted time on fixing "just" prices that the regime does not respect anyway. I know as a fact that in many of recent reunions held between the regime and private enterprise they have reiterated that there is a contradiction in having both a law on "just" prices and a scheme on fixed prices that never get reviewed. Each time public officials seemed offended because, well, both laws are meant to milk private business, not to defend customer who in the end is suffering increasing scarcity of goods. It is always annoying when people rub your nose in your own shit and they are right....

- "Wednesday we are going to announce how to reach an equilibrium point in the distribution through Mercal of 50 products" 50? Why not 27 or 63? And what does equilibrium means? That only Mercal will have some stuff and no one else?  And how can you reach "equilibrium" in distribution when you cannot have regular production, due to the lack of dollars for raw material import, damming bureaucracy and what not??

- on April 25 a new wave of inspections will be made in the country's stores because they cannot "live like capitalistic parasites". Good for them! Bureaucrats will have an easy time for these inspections, even in Caracas shelves are emptying fast! I am a capitalist and boy, do I wish I could find a prey to hook upon like a parasite! Impossible today in Venezuela unless, of course, you are hooked upon government contracts though the support of people like, say, Diosdado Cabello.

- Jorge Roig, president of private sector organization, was termed of ill advice to distribution and commerce, that listening to his advice will land you in jail. So, why not put Roig in jail once and for all and close once and for all private sector? I have not read, nor have time to seek which particular declaration of Roig has so inflamed Maduro ire. But I am willing to bet that it was a very sensible declaration and that its main fault was to illustrate once again why the chavista system can only lead to repeated failures.  I will welcome any reader correcting me, proving that Roig is an agent of Obama and what not....

- "Just " prices will be now the benchmark to regulate prices AND fix them, "as it should be" says he. So the contradiction is solved: prices will be reevaluated, made them "just" and made them permanent though price fixing. No more inflation, no more scarcity, no more speculation. A Nobel for Maduro!!!!!! Il suffisait d'y penser!

- and as a conclusion for his radio address, not only he does not realize that his whole speech is an admission that the last decade has been a HUGE failure, but he forges ahead, says that his system is better than the capitalist system of 15 years ago defended by the opposition today. De Nile runs deep.....

Trust me, the worst is yet to come, unless miraculously the regime produces a wad of cash and import everything it needs for Mercal and that miraculously trucks and roads are operative........... On the other hand it may well be that Maduro is preparing the people for worse days ahead by bullshitting his way through, hanging high and dry Roig only to apply all of his recipes AFTER. All is possible these days, but I'aint holding my breath.