Monday, June 15, 2020

Iran gasoline in Venezuela: tragedy or bad joke

This nice PDVSA worker, all dressed in red of course, cheers and waves the flag as Iranian tankers reach Venezuela to deliver gasoline.

What is wrong with this picture?

To begin with, the worker is a fraud, he represents a state oil company which once upon a time was a world class company and that the chavista revolution has run to the ground. It went exporting oil and gasoline eons ago to now being unable to supply the Venezuelan market, resorting to the lone country willing to sell gas to Venezuela: sanctioned Iran.

Let's continue. The bolivarian revolution, liberator of minds and spirit has sunk so low that it now glorifies a theocracy which among other things holds the death penalty, separates genders, prosecutes minorities and and tramples varied human rights. All is ABSOLUTELY against the original purposes of chavismo.  But then again, the "revolution" is long been gone, whatever that was. 

But they all wear masks and gloves, which I hear are missing in public hospitals. But I digress.

What matters beyond this cheap show of avowed failure is that the Iranian gasoline has been a failed show: nobody really cared.  No tanker was pirated or sunk in high seas. No problem. The US was coherent with its sanctions: food, medicine and stuff like gas can pass. period. End of propaganda.

In Venezuela the regime hoped for a confrontation, and so did part of the opposition desperate for the Marines to land. But on May 22 I was tweeting, in Spanish, sorry, that nothing would happen, no matter the cheap escort show the Venezuelan army planned and did when the tankers reached Venezuelan waters. Nobody apparently thought that if the US of A was going to sink a tanker it would have done so in high seas. But I digress again.



So gasoline from Iran made it.  Nobody knows how it will be paid for, though we all suspect it will be from the scarce gold reserves left and the Blood Gold from the devastated Bolivar state.

The opposition could not do a thing but at least it announced that were they in charge, the would find the credits to buy 40+  tankers a month, regularize gas supply within two weeks and fix in a short time whatever can be fixed of the Venezuelan refineries.  

Of course, this way the opposition did score a point indicating that 5 Iranian tankers are not enough to cover the needs, which we can see from day one of the tankers arrival. Corruption and extended gas lines were kept. The price of gas was jacked up from 0,00000... USD to 50 a cents a liter, little bit less than 2 $ a gallon. Plus of course what you pay the Nazional Guard to let you access the gas station and other miscellaneous expenses.

Because yes, without a doubt, the gas distribution scheme was designed to favor corruption, directed mostly to the army that can get pretty much what it wants and resell it at any price it wants (I was told by some friends that they paid as much as 4$ a liter at the peak crisis time).

When we will be able to write real history books, t4his Iran gas thing will mark one of the low points. But a high point in corruption, certainl.






6 comments:

  1. Island Canuck1:37 PM

    "The price of gas was jacked up from 0,00000... USD to 50 a cents a liter, little bit less than 2 $ a gallon. Plus of course what you pay the Nazional Guard to let you access the gas station and other miscellaneous expenses."

    Here in Margarita we have not seen any corruption in terms of actually getting gasoline. You have to line up on your assigned day (based on your plate number). In the first week there was a lot of confusion and little gasoline. They were selling the reserves that we had on the Island which quickly ran out. But as Irian gasoline arrived things gradually leveled out.

    The price is subsidized at US$0.05 per litre however many stations do not have working POSs so you have to pay in cash for up to 30 litres per day and 120 litres per month. If you want more than that or you want on an unscheduled day there are 4 stations out of 26 that sell at the US$0.50 per litre price and there are no limits on amount or which day you go.

    As there is little or no cash in BsS most pay in US$ cash.
    US$1 for up to 30 litres of subsidized gas.

    My wife just left at 6.30 AM to get our allotment at the local station. It will take about 3+ hours. But then we are good for a long time. Can't go very far in Margarita.
    We also take some out after every fill up to store in case of future problems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for covering this sorry show.

    Sadness is deep when one thinks of what PDVSA was back in the day ( pre 2000). It was a world class player competing for the no 2 spot on PIW rankings and the organization was mean and lean running on all cylinders. Those of us who had the honor and privilege of working at PDV or any of its several affiliates can only feel a piercing sadness at this and many other spectacles the red PDVSA has been embroiled in or at the horrendous destruction inflicted on its most prized assets ( the refineries), or the brain drain it was so cruelly subjected to by Chavez himself (and his whistle).

    ReplyDelete
  3. What matters beyond this cheap show of avowed failure is that the Iranian gasoline has been a failed show: nobody really cared. No tanker was pirated or sunk in high seas. No problem. The US was coherent with its sanctions: food, medicine and stuff like gas can pass. period.

    ReplyDelete
  4. well Daniel you made it try another post without trashing the USA ... congratulations.... by the way how is that Venezuelan space program doing? heres an article you might be interested in.... https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/07/10/trump-something-will-be-happening-with-venezuela-and-america-will-be-very-much-involved/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Of course the US isn't going to sink a tanker. The environmentalists would LOVE that, wouldn't they? /s

    Here's an idea, pay for the gasoline AT THE PUMP and there wouldn't ever be a shortage. Too radical, I know.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:39 AM

    Please recall that the American Nobel Prize winner in economic "science," Paul Stiglitz praised Hugo Chavez's policies.
    Like all American leftists, they are all for leftist tyrannies as long as they are not compelled to live in a leftist nation.
    Stiglitz probably blames Trump for the disaster that is now Venezuela.

    ReplyDelete

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