Chavez: the fraud that keeps giving

I am not going to celebrate Chavez first croaking anniversary tomorrow. I genuinely wish he would be alive today and forced to deal with the mess he has left behind, one of the biggest historical frauds that will have been perpetrated once we can dig freely in what happened since 1992, and even before.

The society Chavez has left us: barbarians inside the gate

Women and men both trying to loot the truck. See all
the open boxes already spread around. They did not
come from a spray through the truck cabin....

For those idiotic enough to think that Chavez opened a new era and ushered in a new man: you are right but you are not going to like it.

This morning a truck broke the security barrier in a Caracas highway exchange and got stuck in the middle of the highway. The truck carried packs of frozen meat. It was 6 AM. Within minutes there were already people trying to loot the truck instead than trying to save the driver, who ended up dead later. The cops came and stopped for a while the actions. But since the Caracas main highway was paralyzed, motorbikes came from all around and started trying to rob all the unhappy drivers stuck in traffic.

At 9 AM about 300 bikers arrived and tried to overpower the police security people who had to call for reinforcement. Of course, the idea was to loot the truck...

The disaster blocked the whole city all the way until downtown (photo included in the link)

Venezuela everyday more like Cuba, will smell like it soon

RNV not even hinting at Polar as a target of Chavez wrath

Yesterday Chavez gave yet another cadena of 5 hours where he said his usual inane stuff and then some more.  I will pass on his usual provocations such as the armed forces being chavista.  What I think was the worst this time around was his latest discovery that taxes and mandatory employee payment are not business expenses.  True, it maybe a provocation also but in this case I am afraid that there is more to it: either he truly does not understand how a business is run, or worse, he wants to end all private business once and for all and is not even waiting for October 7.  I became twitterless under the shock.

In Venezuela businesses pay a lot of taxes and are constantly audited so fiscal evasion is rather difficult, no matter how much you bloat your expenses.  After all the SENIAT (our IRS) only accepts bills that are made at the business name and tax number, and under strict guidelines of presentation if not they are deemed not valid no matter the amount.  The only small exceptions are some tolls, and food bills for very small amounts, considered in the global travel allocation of a given employee.  So, from personal experience, I can tell you that one of Chavez accusations is an outright lie: it is nearly impossible to over-report sales tax (VAT).  It is true that the system allows you not to pay all the VAT on raw material and services but you still pay a significant portion of it.  Thus if it is also true that the final customer pays the bulk of it, it remains that intermediate VAT during the process are genuine business expense.

The agricultural sinkhole of Venezuela: my banker may call me tomorrow before he gets expropriated

Let's face it, Chavez agricultural policy has failed.  So he finds nothing better but to accuse the main three private banks of Venezuela of not financing the agricultural sector and threatens to nationalize the three of them.  The news went around fast, in Spain where BBVA headquarters are, and elsewhere, such as a misleading BBC snippet that makes the casual reader think that Chavez policies are working.

Handshake before the check?

Reality is complicated.  As a businessman making his livelihood in the agricultural sector I have indeed benefited from the credit policy of Venezuela which demands that 24% of bank loans go to finance agricultural activities.  This is great for me and my colleagues because the interest rate is fixed at 13%, 2 to 5 points below the other markers.  With an official inflation at around 30% and a real one maybe getting close to 40, this means that by the time we have paid our loan, in real money we may have made as much as 10% instead of paying interest.  As a matter of fact, even agricultural business that do not need to borrow to grow still borrow, if anything to buy dollars outside of Venezuela, or to enjoy an easy bonus because you could lend that money at a higher rate than you borrowed it.

Patente de corso para Chavez

Patente a Surcouf, siglo XVIII

El año empieza bien para Hugo: ahora sabe que puede nacionalizar y robarse lo que el da la gana.  En Venezuela con venezolanos ya no paga un carajo y con empresas extranjeras el costo va a ser bien bajo.  Como a el la plata no le duele, que le importa si le tiene que pagar unos 900 milloncejos de dolares a Exxon/Mobil cuando en algún momento el propio alcahuete-ladrón mayor en PDVSA decía que no iba a pagar mas de 2500 millones.  Si siguen así ni 1500 millones pagarán una vez que se juzgue lo de la Conoco, y eso si es que pagan porque una cosa es perder un juicio o arbitraje y otra es cumplirlo.  De este punto de vista a Hugo no le importa nada de nada, ni la corte Interamericana ni cualquier arbitraje comercial.

¿Sera que nos alegraremos que Venezuela vaya a pagar menos por las fechorías de Hugo?  ¡Para nada!  Eso es mas plata que ellos se van a poder robar, o repartir para comprar votos (después de cobrar la comisión adecuada por comprar y repartir linea blanca).

When everything else fails try a little bit of class war

HOARDING!

Chavez's drugs must be working, at least good enough to give him the energy to remind us that he is the big honcho around.  But what to do?  No governmental plan is working, unless you believe the propaganda claims that 100,000 houses have been built and that the jobless rate of Venezuela dropped nothing less than 0,8%.  Take that capitalism!

Fortunately there is something that always tickles the lumpen hoi polloi: confiscate goods and give them away at "popular markets".  The hoi polloi does not care whether these are state stolen goods, they are now used to help themselves by ransacking trucks stopped in traffic jams.  The hoi polloi does not care whether these seized goods are a retribution to hoarders: the hoi polloi has learned long ago to pillage and hoard their loot to resell it at good price to their neighbors.  After all, we have no news of anyone looting a truck of goods being punished for that. Why should they not keep pillaging, or even better, applaud Chavez when he does that for them?

Free gas for the rich

Hint, hint: move to Venezuela

El Universal carries a piece of news which is simply hair raising: the governemt has started delivering gas to service stations and stopped charging for it.  That is right, service stations now get a full truck of gas and do not pay for it.  And what is best, the sales prices of that full truck of gasoline is barely enough to cover their expenses for "selling" that gas to customers.

Wrap your mind around that for a minute...

Systemic pillaging in Venezuela: it could have been me

Starting pillaging of a cooking oil truck

UPDATED  In yet another notable "fait-divers", a whole bunch of trucks were pillaged Tuesday night along a few private cars.  This hit home really hard because it happened on a road that I use at least 4 times a month, and that I used last Tuesday afternoon at the same time as it all happened Wednesday late afternoon.

The road I take most of the time between Caracas and San Felipe is the one that goes through Morón, a godawful joint that we call Mojón (turd).  Moron was "founded" at the crossing of the road from Puerto Cabello to Coro, where the branch to Barquisimeto and the Andes start.  It grew with all sorts of squatters (invasores) since the oil industry created a few complexes in the area.  All anarchic of course, over the decades.  Sure enough, it is one of the districts where chavismo gets some of its highest percentages (often above 80%).  The current mayor, a certain Matson Caldera, looks like the kind of guy you would not want to meet in a dark alley.  Yet his personality cult is well advanced, next to Chavez in all sorts of billboards.

Chavez croaking? For the record I think not

With the lengthening Chavez absence all sorts of rumors are starting to fly.  So for the record I wish to state that I do not believe that Chavez is about to go to the great beyond, that there is no way Cuba is working at replacing him, etc, etc, etc...  So, take a deep breath, do not succumb to hysterical fits, and try to think about other more realistic scenarios: Chavez has been the perfect Manchurian candidate for too long to make much of a difference whether he stays in Cuba a few more weeks.

This being said, of course it is possible that Chavez is croaking but considering the current state of the country it is dicey to guess as to what outcome from Cuba would be best for us.  The more the reason to focus on what might actually be taking place.

That colonial feel from Viceroy Chavez

I do not know about you but never have I felt as much a Cuban colony as I am feeling this week, and it is only Tuesday.  Not only now our orders come directly from Cuba where Chavez prefers receive treatment that he could perfectly receive at home, and probably of a much better quality, but his latest decisions reek of old style colonialism.

Who are you going to believe: the Faculty of Agronomy or Loyo, the INTI thug?

More on La Carolina.  The agronomy faculty of the UCV, the most reputed one in Venezuela, has sent a letter to La Carolina (ex?)owner Diego Arria a letter where they state that the farm was good enough, technical enough, productive enough that they will be sorry they will not be able to send their students anymore to finish their training courses before graduation.  You can find the full text of the picture on the right in the blog Notas Agropecuarias Venezuela which carries interesting reports such as the destruction of the country side in Yaracuy, or the lack of control in animal sanitation in Venezuela today when for the sake of expediency in looking for what we are not allowed to produce anymore we import anything from anywhere.  The letter is signed by all the main directors of the Agronomy School of the UCV who appreciates fully the havoc Chavez has brought to the country side in the name of politics.

Now, you can chose to believe the people that signed that letter or you can believe the guy at the head of the La Carolina take over by the INTI, a certain Juan Carlos Loyo whose  recent tweeter account is quite revealing and whose Google search shows his distinguished career at stealing producing properties and turn them into agricultural graveyards.

Alimentos Polar replies to the lies of Chavez

The failed government of Chavez which has reached a pathological degree of chronic lies keeps attacking the Polar group. This one replies in an official communique which uses some of the points that I had mentioned earlier, obvious points for anyone in the field in Venezuela. Thus I thought that it would be worth translating it so people do understand better the unfounded attacks against the Polar Group, Alimentos Polar. I have included in brackets or notes some comments for readers to understand better. You can read the original here in Spanish.
-------------------------------

With the support of all employees (1)

Alimentos Polar rejects allegations and reaffirms that it will continue producing at maximum capacity and quality as always for all Venezuelans

La Carolina, 5 days after Chavez stole it

Workers of La Carolina defending their former job

Today I drove to Caracas for a week of work and in spite of my better judgment I decided to drive through Nirgua and thus drive in front of La Carolina. To tell you that it was a heart breaking moment would not be half of the story.

Update on La Carolina take over / looting

Plain old looting is the word that comes to mind when one reads this note from Tal Cual.  We read that they sent a helicopter, that is right, a helicopter, to load it with the stored cheeses, jams, hot sauces, etc...  that were for sale to the tourists stopping by.  Some fat military or chavista creep is going to dine well tonight, free of charge since of course he will not even have paid for the helicopter gas.

We also learn that the INTI has not been able to milk the cows because the employees refuse to work for the INTI.  Has not the INTI been able to bring milkmen from anywhere around? No wonder!  There is no other major milk farm around and all the other milk farms that the INTI has taken over have long stopped producing milk, and thus probably out of available milkmen or milkmaid, to be P.C.

And apparently they have already started distributing equipment, livestock and what not.  Even though no talks about even a token indemnification have started.

La Carolina take over is thus becoming fast the posterboy of the bullshit "social agrarian policies" of Chavez.  These are nothing more than the deliberate elimination of a productive agricultural class to be replaced by an unproductive one.  Exactly what happened to the Russian Kulaks except that it is spread over time and without significant bloodshed so far.  But the result will be the same: a country chronically unable to feed itself.

PS: to illustrate how political the whole charade is, a mere retaliation on Arria, Elias Jaua, currently the radical vice president of Chavez, went personally to announce that La Carolina will be transformed in a socialist clap trap.

The EXITO nullity debacle

Before I get into discussing the seizure of EXITO stores by chavista goons today I thought that it would be good to add a sense of perspective. The major stockholder of the CATIVEN group which holds EXITO and CADA is the Casino group of France. They declared today that losing the EXITO stores would simply not affect their balance sheets because the Venezuelan operation represents about 1% of its turnover and almost zero profit. So here, at home, we have been anguishing over the EXITO takeover, watching workers fighting it out among themselves, thinking for ourselves it was a big deal, wondering how it will affect our access to increasingly scarce and expensive items, when in fact EXITO is almost irrelevant for its owner.

I cannot think of a better example to illustrate how irrelevant Venezuela is becoming in a globalized economy. Imagine what we will represent in 5 years from now if Chavez does not leave office. No more than a mediocre occasional oil supplier?

A stealth devaluation for nothing with a cowardly display by Chavez

Tonight Chavez in a single address through VTV announced the long awaited devaluation.  I friend called me to tell me the news, I kept watching my movie unperturbed...

See, Chavez who calls for cadenas on the stupidest of motives this time was ashamed enough to announce devaluation sans cadena.  In his propaganda goals Chavez has no problem to force simultaneous transmission on ALL TV and radio outlets, for as long as he pleases, for as often as he pleases.  That is the cadena.  But to announce that we were losing half of our savings, half of our incomes, half of our property, he does that cowardly, at the end of the long Venezuelan holiday of late December early January, on a Friday night, only on the state networks.

I think this is the real news tonight, a reminder of what a coward Chavez is.The devaluation?  We were wondering how come it had not happened yet.

The home of Globovison owner searched

[UPDATED]

Mr. Zuloaga is a rich man with many business interests, besides being the main share holder of Globovision. One of his business seems to be Toyota dealer. As such he uses his own large garage as a temporary storage for cars in transit, cars with problems, cars with X. Apparently tonight he had 26 cars parked.

So the government, under the coward cover of yet another Chavez cadena, decided to search, at night what is basically a parking lot. I am not going into details or speculations as I am 99,99% sure that Mr. Zuloaga, a man targeted by chavismo for years, is very careful to avoid any personal business involvement that could be used against him. That is, long ago he has stopped doing any illegal activity that he might have ever done. To begin with he was already rich enough before Chavez came to power and he simply does not need to take additional chances for an extra buck under a regime willing to crucify him under any pretense. This is a non sequitur as already tonight all the proper documentation for the cars has been shown and he cannot be accused of hoarding 26 varied Toyota. I mean, please, give me a break.... If he were hoarding cars it would be a few hundreds in a far away parking.

No, the interesting stuff here is elsewhere.

This was done during a cadena and the cops arrived at the same time as VTV, the state propaganda TV. What a fortunate coincidence! I am sure they just happened to drive by Zuloaga house!

During the cadena Chavez announced yet a new wave of "nationalizations" which today mean basically robbery (see what happened with the oil industry contractors the last couple of weeks). Yes, that is right, for those of you that are a little bit dense Chavez was robbing folks just as he was trying to make Zuloaga look like a thief.

An extra hilarious detail for you: Marcel Granier went to court today to claim all the transmission equipment that was taken from RCTV two years ago when it was shut down. Then the government said that soon enough the equipment would be evaluated and paid to RCTV. Nothing ever happened of the sort, TVes shamelessly used the equipment free of charge and apparently did not keep it up the maintenance so there are reports of extensive damages that we can be sure will never be compensated by the thieves that run Miraflores. Mr. Granier also reminded public opinion that it had submitted ten documents to the high court and he is yet to receive a reply on any of his claim for justice 2 years after. That means in contemporary Venezuela that his claims are legit but the courts have not found a way yet to trump justice on his case, so they stall, violating the constitution by the way which requires speedy justice.

There are undoubtedly many thieves and crooks in Venezuela today, but the biggest ones are at Miraflores Palace and are protected by the harlot that presides over the High Court of Venezuela.

Update: Apparently the police took the cars away "for technical inspection". Technical inspection is unnecessary: if you have the papers it is easy to verify the serial number of the car. The police does that routinely on any Venezuelan highway on any truck or car they control in one the innumerable alcabalas (road blocks) set everywhere and which main objective is to skim the drivers' wallet. If indeed they detected something wrong, it was not necessary to get a dozen of tow trucks in the middle of the night: simply they would have taken with them the official papers, or put some seals or something. If the seals are broken Zuloaga goes to jail straight.

Now, the question is whehter Zuloaga will see the Toyoclub cars again. Judging from what happened RCTV I can bet anything that the cars he will eventually receive back will be missing something....

To its original note on the event Globovision has now added a video at the end where you can clearly see how the CICPC chief was present with VTV cameras to make a show of the event. I mean, with all the murders and other assorted crime in Caracas, the CICPC had to send its top brass to get a few cars? Gimme a break!!!!

Nationalizations: it must be bigger than what I thought at first because Miguel away on vacation found time to write an extensive post on it. Apparently it is YET another case of the government unable to fulfill is obligations that decides to take over its providers/clients. Gee, I wonder if I can take over my clients that I cannot provide with the services they require from me....

Now, what I saw last night late was the video of Chavez announcing the "nationalizations" and how the attendance danced and slapped each other hysterically as the robbery of private property was taking place in front of them, live. They might laugh today, we will see how they laugh in a few weeks from now. Ask the workers of SIDOR how they are laughing these days after having obtained the take over of Sidor..... In all fairness the room was rather small so it was easy for Chavez to pack it with hard core supporters and whip them into frenzy, even if they might be only political hacks and not actual employees of the stolen business. Still, it was extremely disturbing to see how class war was played and abetted by the regime. I will try to get that video, it is worth watching.

-The end-