Island Canuck sends us this video of what some people have to do to get something as simple as milk in the revolution.
Of course, there are no shortages, just absence of some products.
Got Milk? Yes, but some have to fight for it…
The Devil's Excrement
Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.
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The Devil's Excrement 
August 28, 2011 at 2:32 pm
captainccs:
Venezuelan milk is not worst than american milk. The fact is the ‘bottlers’ tricked the customer adding water to the original product. On the other hand, for a long time the powder milk factories and liquid milk bottlers paid the milk producers a “prime” for the excessive fat -over the regular 3% fat content- the venezuelan cows produced.
Many venezuelan customers are used to the powder milk taste that is very different from the liquid one and many times add much more powder milk to water than what is required and, therefore, obtain that extra creaminess or thickness.
It is true that venezuelan cows produce very little when compared to animals in temperate zones but at least we didn’t import all that was needed and the industry gave employment to lots of people.
I agree with you. Venezuelan beef is the best. “Nada que ver’ with the argentinean, brazilian or marbled american beef.
Mercedes
August 27, 2011 at 4:30 am
A “favorite” shortage memory that turned out o.k.: About 5 years ago there was a big shortage and the local Portuguese supermercado in Alta Florida was out of sugar. I asked the manager where I might find some and when seeing my pregnant wife, he returned with a giant bag of sugar packets from the then functioning CONVIASA. My wife and I sat for two hour cutting open packets and filling the canisters. Ahhhh the revolution.
August 26, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Is it just me -or is Chavez really getting some great “secret satisfaction”
from his visits to Cuba. What is his secret? Is it -Raul gives a
great massage? O believe CHavez is going to Cuba for
hoochie-coochie…
August 26, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Raul massages his “cocoliso.” That’s why he returns satisfied…
August 26, 2011 at 1:49 pm
If socialism can wreck an oil industry on top of the largest hydrocarbon deposit on Earth, it can wreck anything. It demonstrates my theory that bad government is the greatest thing preventing economic progress and wealth generation. Almost everywhere that people have honest, democratic government with the rule of law, they prosper. With all the natural resources in Venezuela, they should REALLY prosper.
August 26, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Incluyendo a Chavez, no hay pais como este, sin Chavez, infinitamente superior y te lo dice alguien que ha vivido media vida por alli….quizas sera por eso….
August 26, 2011 at 12:26 pm
MO, te envié por e-mail fotos de la propaganda que me sale en tu blog, al final de tus post, en la página para la introducción de comentarios.
Puede ser que no sea nada, yo no creo en brujas (pero de que vuelan, vuelan)
August 26, 2011 at 11:54 am
[…] fact is that food shortages are alive and well in Venezuela – as this video would seem to suggest – and food prices are going through the roof, rising by 4.8 per cent last […]
August 26, 2011 at 10:30 am
No, no era contigo Carolina, creo que se movio de casilla, Un saludo cordial.
August 26, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Tranquilo. No te imaginas cuantas veces me han dicho que me vaya para alla para saber mejor lo que pasa asi que me di por aludida…
August 26, 2011 at 9:53 am
Hollands cows are feed like chickens, get food 24/24 and inside the mouse, driven in house by computers, cows do not worry about the food, sleep well, it does not know about “garrapatas”. On the contrary, Venezuelan cows have to walk and run in the praderas to get the pasture. But I swear you, the milk is tasted, you get powered, jejeje. Meat it not too tender, but it taste better that argentinian/brasilian one.
August 26, 2011 at 10:23 am
Venezuelan whole milk tastes like American skimmed milk. My uncle, who used to manufacture butter, had to import cream or milkfat. I do prefer the taste of Venezuela meat to corn-fed (much to fat) beef except for American style roast beef with horseradish sauce. Now my mouth is watering… It depends on the cut, I guess.
August 25, 2011 at 9:14 pm
[…] port, Puerto Cabello. The fact is that food shortages are alive and well in Venezuela – as this video would seem to suggest – and food prices are going through the roof, rising by 4.8 per cent last […]
August 25, 2011 at 7:23 pm
They are correct to call it a revolution, going full circle back to how it all began…. nothing.
August 25, 2011 at 5:22 pm
let’s hope it is not the same milk contaminatd with melamine, but being the governmetn the main milk importer, and China one of the friends countries, there is every doubt, anyway.
August 25, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Is this the same milk that was infected with some Chinese carcinogens a few years back?
August 25, 2011 at 1:50 pm
[…] fact is that food shortages are alive and well in Venezuela – as this video would seem to suggest – and food prices are going through the roof, rising by 4.8 per cent last […]
August 25, 2011 at 1:32 pm
That it is interesting and tricky.
Why people “prefer” to buy powder, milk even though is paying more money than buying fresh milk?. You have a case here of some asymmetric information, not the book’s example (the markets for lemons, by Axelrod, by the way). Let us agree that generations of Venezuelans where feed with powder milk and the taste developed in some way that it affects demand (supply).
Milk powder arrived because of people living without refrigerator decades ago, however most Venezuelans prefer to drink caffe-late made with powder milk; they are looking the cream, even though the fresh milk –italian way- gives you the same and better sub product.
During decades, interest groups in the private sector very well protected by government and political interest groups decide to subsidies milk, since Venezuelan cows only gives no more of 7 litters daily, New Zealand’s, Danish and Holland’s cows give between 6 and 7 TIMES milk daily (42-49lt), so it will not matter if the milk comes from the other side of the world, the competitive advantages are ridiculous. Therefore, we have -in normal conditions, not in this communist environment- the aggregate demand requires about 40% of milk imported from nowhere. Recall that fresh milk requires some especial climate conditions to care, powder milk, not; you can make a glass of milk in the desert at 120 F degree. Both milk have prices frozen by government, it is the main powder milk importer, which it gives you some idea of por donde van los tiros. If you calculate relative prices between fresh milk and powder, you will have all the answers you are looking for. I did my best, even though there is more but it was going to be too long.
August 26, 2011 at 6:51 am
Thanks, Alexander, for explaining it all. It is amazing. I wish the Venezuelan public would hear about this…we know how corrupt the government is and was, we know a lot about distortions in the economy since 1498…
but to read about those details on such a specific area…
August 26, 2011 at 7:49 am
Thank you Alexander. I always thought that producing fresh milk was easier and cost effective than producing powder milk, but again, I guess the key word is “producing”. When it has to be imported it just doesn’t work that way.
Sad.
August 26, 2011 at 8:54 am
Alexander, just one detail: why do Venezuelan cows produce so little? Is it just something to do with the climate?
Venezuelan cows look much thinner than European ones. There are lots of subspecies, but: is that it? is it not part feeding?
August 26, 2011 at 9:01 am
Kepler:
Venezuelan cows rely on breast enhancement just like our Misses.It looks good but it is not productive. LOL
August 26, 2011 at 9:42 am
Is long, sorry.
Yes, it is the tropic, but it is not a fatality. There are some big economies when combining milk and meat production. For example is the tropic, in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and others centralamerican countries there is a breed called “double purpose” (doble proposito) which in terms of cost you can balance the costs in producing milk with costs in producing meat, let’s say there is a something like a scale here. Even though the economic here is a little bit complicated. Let me put it this way you can switch between milk and meat without incurring in some barrier costs in order to move to a different economy. These cows could produce up to 20 liters/day, which is very good in the tropics.
The technology makes the difference; “ranchers” have put a lot of money getting that kind of cattle, good for milk and good for meat. The only problem here is that production should be is a scale in order to reduce average costs, in the margin, you are ok. Therefore, the amount of capital invested increases risks, and it is impact could be devastating.
In Venezuela when talking on risks, we considered: week property rights environment, not only from third persons but also from the State/Government. In particular it affects the relationship with banks; control prices (which belongs to the first issue of property rights, you might agree with me that if a government intervene in the price process it is affecting property rights and profitability), and so on. I thing you agree that competing in this environment it is hard and increases transaction costs (Coase Theorem).
However fresh milk was formed free from several years before Chavez imposed his rigid price controls, even though prices are moving a little bit, since government is involved not only in regulating but in producing, importing, so it benefits when prices are moved, at least spasmodic.
The powder milk producers that are/were more or less the same as fresh milk producers, acquired from past government all benefits of government intervention, so, they produced fresh milk without problem. This engagement between private producer and Estate, you know is perverse, but there are some rents to capture by both rent-seekers coalitions, politicians and producers.
Chavez destroyed “this particular social economy peace” cultivated by both class of rent seekers, since he claims the land property to be Estate, all policies applied to the agriculture and agro industrial sector are looking for this objective. A democratic government in the near future it is going to have many problems revering laws, regulations, etc., but will not be impossible.
Now I hope you have some elements in hand to understand why when you go in Venezuela to a supermarket, you will find 20 meters of shelves with all types of yogurt, which let imagine you that competence in this yogurt market it looks to be ferocious. No, nothing at all, because of price regulation, the fresh milk comes to the market “transformed” in yoghurt. Allow me to remark, that make yogurt you do not need fresh milk, yoghurt is like water, it is a business like coca cola, and it is the more expensive way to drink milk, when you do not have fresh milk on the shelves.
August 25, 2011 at 11:28 am
It is comprehensible what you say, it is not easy to follow what is going on in here. However, if you want to know why lot of people is still supporting Chavez, and why are even more trying to end this nightmare, it is not bad idea to come down and stay for a while, it does not matter if you are not born here.
August 26, 2011 at 9:42 am
Alexander (assuming you are talking to me), I was born and raised in Venezuela. I know how things work. I left the country just before Chavez when I realized, among other things) that if the only options were going to be an ex-miss and an ex-golpista, it was for sure that things were going to get much worse, so I had to decide if I wanted to gamble the future of my family there or here. I chose here simply because if things didn’t work, I could always go back to my roots.
Sadly to say, I don’t think I could ever go back…
August 25, 2011 at 8:41 am
Just to brighten up everyone’s morning. His highness has just committed Venezuela to another $4 BILLION in loans to by more Russian arms.
Just what we need. I feel safer now.
August 25, 2011 at 8:41 am
That should be to BUY arms.
August 25, 2011 at 7:53 am
Kepler, interviewing oneself is a way of saying knowing oneself.We all have the same basic tendencies in different degrees- Only usually we deny this.
I, for example am more independent than dependent, but there is a part of me that is dependent, but if my ego is involved in my not seeing this , then I won’t.However if I open my mind to observing it then I can understand the other, because I have understood it in myself.
August 25, 2011 at 7:36 am
That’s disgusting!
CharlesC has the answer to your problems. “If we want to change things- we have to do something…”
The people have have to decide and act to change things. Look what the Libyans accomplished. You cannot rely on your politicians, they are helpless.
VPP – Venezuelan People Power
August 25, 2011 at 7:29 am
interview required to oneself, What are you talking about?
As I said about Belarus in a private email to you: people started to muke up there just when they saw their own purse started to have less coins.
La gente es puta o puto, throughout history, thoughout ages. Some open debate and transparency helps to prevent things getting too bad. Else, people just sell themselves. That goes beyond ideologies.
August 25, 2011 at 7:24 am
Guys,
These people are not the enemy, and to understand psychology one only has to understand oneself first, something that most people do not care to do.
Just think guys.
If people see that a system that does not work,but believe it will work in the future, then you know for sure that these people are basing their faith on their emotional connections and not on objective thought.
This is quite true in all politics but most especially and doubly true when it comes to the left, because the left makes all of its claims based on sympathy for the downtrodden and the belief in victimization as a cause for the poor to be where they are today.They also have a strong need to come across as having the popular and more compassionate viewpoint( lack of independent spirit).
There is no interview required, other than an interview with ones own self.
Also:
Los pueblos toleran sus tiranias en la medida de que su indolencia y temor las permiten.!!!!!!!!!!!
August 25, 2011 at 2:54 am
There are rarely shortages of anything in a capitalist economy. Supply nearly always rises to meet demand. Of course, we all know this. And so does Chavez, although his base probably doesn’t.
This exploitation of the poor and poorly educated is how he’s managed to hang on to power this long. That and the apathy of the Ni-Ni’s. They mistaken cling to the idea that one side is as bad as the other. They aren’t. And the country is regressively proving this, day by day, month by month, year by year, and now, decade by decade.
Are there no patriots with proximity to power?
August 25, 2011 at 6:46 am
>>> Are there no patriots with proximity to power?
The problem is not a lack of patriots. The problem is a lack of capitalists and a surfeit of socialists as I said in my comment above:
http://devilsexcrement.com/2011/08/24/got-milk-yes-if-you-fight-for-it-in-maracaibo-venezuela/#comment-22216
To have a capitalist economy you need capitalist thinking. Even the Red Chinese have managed it. My upstairs neighbor (masista), who is a fine fellow, works for the government in some high ministerial position. During the April 11 events I asked him how he could support Chavez. I got a dilly of a reply:
Upstairs neighbor: “I don’t support Chavez.”
Me: “Then what the heck are you doing in a government job?”
Upstairs neighbor: “I believe in the system.”
That pretty much sums it up. In school they are brainwashed to become good communists. In later life they want to help mankind by applying a system that does not work.
August 25, 2011 at 6:54 am
Captain, ask him what he understands by the system. Without judging, try to get as much information as possible about what the system is. Please do it without being judgeamental, bite your tongue if need be. The reason:
it can be useful to analise that kind of behaviour and produce a strategy against it, not vis-a-vis this guy alone.
Know thy enemy.
August 25, 2011 at 7:10 am
Kepler:
He’s since moved so I can’t ask. He joined the government as a member of MAS but stayed on after MAS defected. MAS is (was?) an “Euro Communist” party — left of the socialists but independent of Russia. This puts his ideology to the left of AD-COPEI which are both socialist: social democrata and social cristiano.
August 25, 2011 at 7:25 am
Captain,
I think that in the end it comes to less than socialism or capitalism. With system I very much suspect he means the vaca gorda, the sweeties and so on, albeit he himself does not know it. And that is what’s interesting.
See…I had several Chavista aunts and uncles in 1999, a few were still faithul in 2004 and now only 1 is nini and all the other repentant, very repentant oppos. Now, when I hear that nini I see why she is not oppo: it’s just her fear to lose her pension. That’s how millions of people are. They don’t see more than their little selfish world.
I don’t know if COPEI is really socialist. For me, Venezuelan society is just feudal that came into the oil age. It is pre-capitalist.
August 24, 2011 at 10:25 pm
So here we are with our friends and the good devil talking about
milk and Chavez in the “land of grace”
Who would ever have believed we would be talking about this
in 2011? What the hey- let’s make soy milk or something-
why are people allowing Venezuela to fall so far, or pushed
down so far by this thugocracy?
If we want to change things- we have to do something…
August 24, 2011 at 10:00 pm
This is for sale
August 24, 2011 at 8:02 pm
So was this free milk being distributed to the poor, or reduced-price milk sold below the regular price, or is the desperation simply to get powdered milk at the msrket price?
August 24, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Expect more to come….at some point HC will make Venezolanos starving for a piece of bread….congratulations for creating milliong of beggers Hu
August 24, 2011 at 5:13 pm
[OT] Anonymous will hack in Venezuela
August 24, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I must concur, the big problem of Venezuela is not Chavez is the venezuelan people, is outrageous that even today Chavez have so many followers, is outrageous that the candidates of the opposition are mainly populist in different degrees but populist at the end of the day. The education and culture is so low at the moment in the country that could take 2 or 3 generations to build something decent. Any liberal idea or any real contribution to give (truly) power to the individuals and not to the government is almost a sin (even inside opposition). Venezuela today is just a fail country.
August 24, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Totally in agreement
August 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Well, getting FOOD STAMPS in the US empire is much better than this, isn’t it?
August 27, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Much more orderly
August 24, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Rise of the Planet of the Apes?
August 24, 2011 at 4:06 pm
“They’ve destroyed a country and they continue destroying it,” Chavez said. “How many Libyan children have died?”
With regards to Chavez’s statement regarding the freeing of the Libyan people I have just one question:
How many people including childern have you and your thugs killed?
One can only that one day very soon your people will also offer a reward for you dead or alive.
August 27, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Libya is not going to be “free”, its going to become a Shariah state
August 29, 2011 at 8:01 am
You are right, same as Egipt, Tunes, Siria if Sadat goes, and Palestina, Libano (Hezbola is already he larger party there), AS, K, all of them, it seems that Saudis are “investing” lot of money on it. I know it might sound “conspirative theory”!!!!..
August 24, 2011 at 1:57 pm
The reasons are many why we have to fight for basic necessities, but the first cause is philosophical ignorance. Socialism, as practiced by Castro and Chavez, has never really worked and never will. It’s all people can do to survive it.
I have always argued that Chavez’ original impulses to try and spread the wealth in Venezuela was a true and humane goal. Our crushing poverty was a national embarrassment. But the goal to bankrupt the rich only drove out the people with wherewithal, leaving a vast ocean of underqualified amateurs. We now live with the results.
The problem is that Chavez and Castro are zealots who don’t have the flexibility for course correction. There is no question that the Boliviarian Rebolution is a total bust, but believing otherwise, Chavez is left to do the very same thing, only harder. That’s called “insanity” by any measure.
I look at those videos of mi amigos fighting for leche and my heart sinks. I never thought I’d see the day . . . We ARE Cuba.
Juancho
August 24, 2011 at 1:49 pm
What do you expect from a Venezula goverment modeled after Cuba and Russia.
The people of Venezuela has let this happen and now they have to suffer and pay the price.
Perhaps one day they will also rise up and take back thier freedoms and end the suffering that Chavez and his thugs have forced upon them. Perhaps one day.
August 24, 2011 at 12:47 pm
No Milk this morning but by the metro La Hoyada this morning plenty of obviously stolen brand new Ipod Shuffles @ 100 bolo. The buhoneros were even selling them sticky-taped on the big pieces of polystrene as if they were plain old pirated movies for 5 bsf.
I wonder which Guardia is getting all the ‘profit’ on that shipment.
Gotta love that the luxury items are let in (and consequentially stolen) but I can’t make Toddy with milk for my sobrinitos.
August 24, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I understand the video was shot at a De Candido, (Local food chain), in Cabimas, not Maracaibo. I imagine the further away you move from the main urban centers, the worst it gets. Just a month ago one of my father’s must productive Plantain farms was “expropriated” south of lake Maracaibo, near Santa Barbara and El Vigia, (after more than 30 years of operation!). This farm and other similar ones, once produced exclusively for export, soon they won’t even produce for the local market any more. Prior to the expropriation the farm was actively occupied by the National Guard for more than 8 months and allowed operations….barely.
Who is the culprit, Chavez?. I think the real culprit is Venezuelan society that is slowly eroding into a herd of idiots because the word ignorant sound more like an excuse. I am truly sorry for the situation in Venezuela but if people are not willing to resolve it then they must accept the consequences in silence until they have no choice. The young generations are being done an enormous disservice by the examples their parents are setting, including scenes like the one in the video.
August 24, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Douglas,
I am sorry for that. Now, have you heard something about Russians there?
I have read repeatedly in the Russian media that Chávez promised the Russians last year 20 000 hectares of land for plantain. This year there were a couple of articles about a Russian fruit company getting half of that area and some reference, if I recall well, about that being in Zulia.
August 24, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Kepler,
I will ask my father about what you say. I have not heard him mention Russians. The farm is actually in Merida state, there is a tiny sliver of Merida state that reaches Maracaibo lake.
August 24, 2011 at 4:07 pm
You can use Google tools to check out this
http://lenta.ru/news/2011/01/18/banana/
if in doubt, you can ask me.
August 24, 2011 at 11:12 am
Some details about milk, red bellow.
Price controls, all kind of regulations, expropriation of private milk producers, about 45% of the milk market (fresh milk), government control over imported powder milk from Europe and New Zealand was a political measure to control import of powder milk and importing itself from Argentina and China (hopefully without melamine), in these countries there are several government associated cronies making lot of money, and many bolivarians bureaucrats charging it natural bribes.
Expropriation of cattle produced at the south of Maracaibo Lake and others part in the country had reduced the livestock in about 40%. So fresh milk despaired from the market (just cafeterias). What you find is a huge market distortion, with 90% of the fresh milk available in the supermarkets, bodegas y abastos in the most expensive way to drink milk: YOGOURT. Fresh milk producers have found this way out in order to compensate the losses for milk shortages and regulations.
Consider that the same economic distortion is found in the meat market. As you know Venezuelans in general “only” eat two types of meat, bovine and chicken, forget any other substitutes. Venezuelans had eaten during centuries daily fresh meat; because regulations, expropriations, price controls, etc., 45% of the meat (fresh) is now imported frozen from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nicaragua. You know what kind of meat you eat when the detailers unfroze meat!!. This country has always imported frozen meat but for industrial consumption, for processing.
Apply the same reasoning for many others goods
August 24, 2011 at 4:24 pm
I don’t know anything about the milk industry so please bear with me. On top of that, I have not lived in Venezuela for over 13 years now, so that makes it worse…
So my comment is regarding the shortage: you are the only one mentioning the shortage of fresh milk as well, and that called my attention because all I see in the news and what I hear from my family is about the shortage of powder milk only.
To this point, I thought that was the case and of course, all I could think was “so why they don’t buy fresh milk?” (yeah, I know…).
I live in a country where there is NO powder milk. There are just a couple of brands out there but is skim milk and it tastes so bad that no one buys it, so everybody buys a big jug or two for the week and that’s it. It was one of the big shocks when I first got here but I got used to it. To this point, I always thought that the consumption of powder milk in Venezuela was a cultural thing.
Now reading your comment and learning that the shortage goes beyond that, including fresh milk and I’m assuming other milk products, is evident that it’s much worse of what I thought.
August 24, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Alexander, powdered milk from New Zealand? Don’t tell me that Alberto ‘Beto’ Finol of Ilapeca fame… he’s in New Zealand doing powdered milk again. This guy plundered the country in the 70s and 80s
August 24, 2011 at 10:49 am
What is Kafkaesque and surreal is than in America it is the Wall Street FatCats who are groveling at King Bernanke’s feet asking for a handout (of taxpayer money).
They should have allowed the zombie banks to die in peace.
August 24, 2011 at 1:40 pm
What the hell does this have to do with food shortages in Venezuela? What a Fcking dumbass you can not blame Chavez on the US.
August 25, 2011 at 6:51 am
pol47:
I’m sorry that you miss the irony of it. It has nothing to do “directly” with food shortages in Venezuela.
>>>What a Fcking dumbass
Lo cortez no quita lo valiente. Courtesy is the better part of valor.
August 24, 2011 at 10:09 am
captainccs, there was plenty of that powdered stuff in Makro, near Petare yesterday!!! Whether it’s still there today I don’t know….
August 24, 2011 at 10:40 am
There’s always plenty of powdered stuff near Petare!
August 24, 2011 at 10:42 am
Dillis, thanks for the tip!
Supply is so bad that it pays to be a friend of the local grocer. Very often they will save the scare stuff for their good customers be it flour, corn oil, sugar, rice or whatever happens to be scarce this week.
The scarcity is the direct result of IDIOTS running the country. IDEOLOGICAL IDIOTS I might add. What I find scary is that all the MUD candidates seem to be socialists and populists as well. Social and Christian democracy (AD-COPEI) trained Venezuelans to be dependent on the government for their every need. They trained Venezuelans to be beggars instead of go-getters. Go to the metro station at Parque Miranda. That’s where students line up to grovel for cheap metro tickets.
For the populist politician it is, of course, wonderful. They use our petro-dollars to buy votes while destroying the will of the people to fend for themselves. Just look at Greece or France: riots when the government runs out of cake to feed the people. Socialism is nothing but an epidemic of dependece, worse that cigarettes or cocaine — and to boot, government approved, backed and funded. Disgusting!
August 24, 2011 at 10:06 am
For any of you who do not live in Venezuela these shortages, whether they be milk, margarine, cooking oil, cabillas, cement, car parts, medicine or any of the other hundreds of items we can’t find on a daily basis, are directly the result of exchange controls, price controls, import controls & government expropriations of basic industries.
One example that recently has affected us is car parts. We have a Terios assembled here in Venezuela by Toyota. We bought this car in 2005 because of a bad experience getting parts for an imported car. We have now been without the use of our car for 6 weeks because Toyota doesn’t have the part & has no idea when it will have it. The local dealer blames a lack of $$ for the inability of Toyota to have parts on hand.
We have now discovered that this part is a weak point with this car & that hundreds of Terios owners in Venezuela are desperately trying to find it.
We have now bought one from an enterprising parts dealer in western Venezuela who imported a bunch from Taiwan & put on it on MercadoLibre. The price for the imported one was 50% of the Toyota factory price (if they had any). Only time will tell if this part stands up to use.
Sharp operators are asking & getting prices higher than factory new for used parts which because this is a weak part are almost always not usable.
August 24, 2011 at 10:06 pm
canuck….im just curious…what are you still there? what holds you to such a looney place?
August 25, 2011 at 5:29 am
There are many of us in Venezuela who, for financial reasons, can’t leave. The real estate market is virtually dead so if you have all your savings in your business or property you’re trapped.
August 25, 2011 at 9:22 am
I had the same flawed logic when I lived in Houston in the early 80s when it ALL (oil, banking, real estate) went tits up and I supposedly couldnt sell my house…in hindsight I should have bailed and went on to California or somewhere else where the economy was booming and start over instead of wasting time like I did……hey…North Dakota and the oil sands area of Canada is kicking ass right now…. 😉 brrrr
August 24, 2011 at 9:59 am
Various forms of management:
Scientific management
Crisis management
Megalomania management a.k.a. chavismo!
You don’t have mobs when you have orderly supply of goods and services, just what chavismo cannot deliver.
I’m down to 1.75 Kgs of powdered milk and I have not seen any on the shelves for over a month. Time to find some and HOARD!
Hoarding, of course, is illegal under socialism but it’s the only cure, next to the black market, for the deficiency in supply. If hoarding is a crime, I’m going to be a criminal and screw you Chávez!
August 24, 2011 at 9:45 am
Meanwhile, la ranita se acostumbra a la temperatura del agua…
Shame on the regime! and souble shame on the opposition who is called to rise to the situation…
August 24, 2011 at 9:36 am
Definately need rationing cards to put some order at this stage of implementing communism.
August 24, 2011 at 9:25 am
Firepigette, the employees are just as bad, throwing the milk!
I was in the supermarket during a milk shortage, found some milk, and whilst my back was turned, a lady told her young son to take it out of the carrito. I caught them in the act fortunately!
At Supermercal, they get in line just after midnight sometimes to wait for morning opening in the hope that there is chicken!
August 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Remember that at the end of the road there is no welfare and no one left to tax anyway: North Korea.
August 24, 2011 at 9:16 am
reduced to groveling
where is their spirit of independence ?
lost in the dependence on what they can get, and not what they can give
shameful display of greed
August 24, 2011 at 9:05 am
This looks more like a “mini” food riot.
Watch this space for more to come. God help us.
August 24, 2011 at 8:41 am
It’s such a pity to see Venezuelans fighting for food like that….HC really is making a mess of VZ. It Reminds me of Cuba…so sad.
August 24, 2011 at 8:39 am
And those folks will probabaly still vote for Chavez in 2012. Unbelievable.
August 24, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Indeed!
There’s something rotten in the (now) Bolivarian (ex-)Republic of Venezuela.