The Devil's Excrement

The collapse of Parmalat is important for Venezuela. Some years ago, Parmalat came to Venezuela with a fat wallet and started buying properties related to the milk business including one of the largest milk producers in the country. In time, the company had many different brand names in milk (Parmalat, La Campina), Milk-based drinks (Riko Malt, El Chichero), Yogurt (Frigurt, Yoka), cheeses (Quenaca) and even fruits juices (Frika) and Tea. The company has about 15% of the liquid milk market in Venezuela and 40% of the powder milk market. I remember being in awe of the company as it came into Venezuela buying many milk producers, paying top dollar and gaining market share. I also remember their advertising of the “cheapest” liter of milk in the country, except the container had less than one litter (This is called Russian inflation). The company boasted when it began opening ice cream stores that each cost one million dollars and I wondered how they could make money selling such crummy ice cream in a country where there is fairly good ice cream (my favorite is called 4-D).  Clearly, it was part of the now crumbling Parmalat pyramid, where assets were invented in order to cover losses as the latter occurred and thus expansion with losses was possible as long as nobody discovered the rip-off.

The question now is what is the state of the local operations of Parmalat? There is a lot of confusion on the issue. The Head of local operations says that the company has sufficient cash flow and supplies to continue operating and that its operations in Venezuela were fairly independent of Italy. However, the Government says that it is ready to help the local company which has lost US$ 30 million in letters of credit for imports (mostly powdered milk). The Minister of Agriculture also has said that the Government may intervene the local Parmalat branches and participate financially in it, with a joint venture with the workers. Meanwhile, today’s El Nacional quotes members of a pro-Chavez union as saying that they will propose to the Government that the workers take over the company. The whole issue is further confused by the fact that one of the Parmalat executives reportedly involved with the fraud at the parent company was in charge of the Venezuelan subsidiary.

Obviously, this is all premature. It is clear in my mind that Parmalat was built on cheap capital (It is very cheap when you pay nothing for your capital!). If the company is self-sustaining in Venezuela, I would imagine Parmalat Italy would simply try to sell the unit or keep it until it comes out of bankruptcy if the operations are healthy. Reuters says the company was quite successful in Latin America, give me free capital and any business can be successful, so I am not sure what they are talking about.  Curiously no such noise was made when Enron went under. Enron had a unit in Venezuela called Vengas (previously Industrias Ventane) which distributed close to 50% of the bottled butane used mostly by poor people in Venezuela for cooking. Vengas remained healthy after Enron went into bankruptcy and is part of the new Enron which coincidentally may emerge from bankruptcy as soon as next week.

What is remarkable about the case is how rudimentary the fraud was. Reportedly, company executives had been creating assets for more than a decade in order to cover losses as they occurred. They did this by inventing the assets within shell companies in the Cayman Islands and apparently with the cooperation of their auditors. Truly incredible!

While I tend to agree with Tal Cual’s Editor Teodoro Petkoff on many economic issues, I disagree with most of the content of today’s editorial. Basically, Petkoff objects to the sale of the Ruhr refinery in which PDVSA owns 50% with Veba Oil. Petkoff argues that this is simply privatizing PDVSA, something that should not be done, even if the properties are abroad. I think that if PDVSA has something more profitable to invest in, there should be no problem in selling the refinery. What I object to, is that fact that the process being used to sell the refinery lacks transparency. It should be sold to whoever pays the most, not simply to the first group that comes around to offer something for it. Moreover, it does raise some suspicions when the second in command at the company is a former Executive of the company buying the refinery. I think PDVSA should become an international oil company, investing both in Venezuela and abroad, wherever good return on investment may be found. I also think that the Government should privatize 10-20% of it as a way of having the company respond to the shareholders and not the Government’s whims. But I do not believe any part of the company should be managed with nationalistic emotions.

The unbelievable political events of 2003 according to Tal Cual, which says they should be part of Ripley’s believe it or not.

1.-MVR Deputy Milagros Santana asks to participate in the debate of the National Assembly and sings “We want peace” to a nationally televised audience.

2.- In discussing the “Media Content Bill”, opposition Deputy Carlos Tablante asks Chavista Deputies:” ..in those countries there is no democracy, no free press, there is only one official media, one radio station, one newspaper, one leader. Is that what you want for your country?

The Chavista Deputies all answered in a chorus: Siiiiiiiiiii !!!

3.- Opposition leader Timoteo Zambrano called some reporters to go to the Red Cross to denounce that the President’s wife was missing. The press found her in Barquisimieto shopping for shoes as he was holding a press conference on the topic.

4.- Reporter Marta Colomina asked the President of Movimiento al Socialismo Felipe Mujica on live  TV what he thought of Chávez’ comment the previous day that his party was an empty shell. Mujica with a straight face replied: “I would tell the President that he is a son of a bitch”

5.- The US Ambassador to Venezuela held a cocktail for the media in May and hired a comedian to entertain his guests. The comedian proceeded to imitate Hugo Chávez red beret and everything in what was certainly politically incorrect for an Ambassador from any country.

6.- The Minister of Foreign Relations, who is extremely white, gave a lecture at the OAS about media that is dictatorial and racist. Claiming there are no non-white broadcasters in Venezuela, the Minister followed up by blasting Christians for its acts throughout history and proceeded to rescue his Muslims brothers. According to him, this conspiracy is also promoted by the media.

7.- Pro-Chavez Deputy Ismael Garcia called for a session outside Congress in order block the “sabotage” of opposition Deputies. When addressing the Deputies he said: We are telling the world that this process goes along with a very strong duo: The National Assembly together with President Perez…..I am sorry, President Chávez. (Garcia was once a pro-Perez Deputy too).

8. – President Hugo Chávez defended his versatility and said on TV that he could be a pitcher, a Sunday TV announcer and why not an educator. He got up on the blackboard teaching reading to some kids and proceeded to misspell a word. Trying to save the day he also used the wrong word when saying when in doubt use the dictionary. The worst part was that the ass kissers spent the next few days arguing that Chavez had used a medieval form of the word he had misspelled.

9.- Deputy Rafael Simon Jimenez was so wishy washy politically that both the pro-Chavez and opposition groups included him in their list of Deputies to be recalled. The issue was decided with a coin toss as both sides could not promote his recall. The Chavistas won the coin toss.

10.-Opposition Deputy Cesar Perez Vivas kicked pro-Chávez Deputy Iris Varela. Ms. Varela offended, started punching him in unlady-like manner, scratching his face live on National TV.

11.- The Minister of the Interior (the same one that said that Chavez had resigned on April 2002) held a press conference to explain how the opposition was ready to cause a tragedy during the “Petarazo” demonstration. Rincon showed a big blade as the “weapon” confiscated by his intelligence forces.

12.- Two MVR Deputies presented in October their ”proof” of a coup plot by the CIA in which a gringo Colonel is planning terrorist acts teaching local municipal police how to create terror. Showing one film, the Deputies revealed the second and third films, which we are still waiting for in which Wackenhut employees with the US Ambassador discuss their plan. (Still waiting….)

The unbelievable political events of 2003 according to Tal Cual, which says they should be part of Ripley’s believe it or not.

1.-MVR Deputy Milagros Santana asks to participate in the debate of the National Assembly and sings “We want peace” to a nationally televised audience.

2.- In discussing the “Media Content Bill”, opposition Deputy Carlos Tablante asks Chavista Deputies:” ..in those countries there is no democracy, no free press, there is only one official media, one radio station, one newspaper, one leader. Is that what you want for your country?

The Chavista Deputies all answered in a chorus: Siiiiiiiiiii !!!

3.- Opposition leader Timoteo Zambrano called some reporters to go to the Red Cross to denounce that the President’s wife was missing. The press found her in Barquisimieto shopping for shoes as he was holding a press conference on the topic.

4.- Reporter Marta Colomina asked the President of Movimiento al Socialismo Felipe Mujica on live  TV what he thought of Chávez’ comment the previous day that his party was an empty shell. Mujica with a straight face replied: “I would tell the President that he is a son of a bitch”

5.- The US Ambassador to Venezuela held a cocktail for the media in May and hired a comedian to entertain his guests. The comedian proceeded to imitate Hugo Chávez red beret and everything in what was certainly politically incorrect for an Ambassador from any country.

6.- The Minister of Foreign Relations, who is extremely white, gave a lecture at the OAS about media that is dictatorial and racist. Claiming there are no non-white broadcasters in Venezuela, the Minister followed up by blasting Christians for its acts throughout history and proceeded to rescue his Muslims brothers. According to him, this conspiracy is also promoted by the media.

7.- Pro-Chavez Deputy Ismael Garcia called for a session outside Congress in order block the “sabotage” of opposition Deputies. When addressing the Deputies he said: We are telling the world that this process goes along with a very strong duo: The National Assembly together with President Perez…..I am sorry, President Chávez. (Garcia was once a pro-Perez Deputy too).

8. – President Hugo Chávez defended his versatility and said on TV that he could be a pitcher, a Sunday TV announcer and why not an educator. He got up on the blackboard teaching reading to some kids and proceeded to misspell a word. Trying to save the day he also used the wrong word when saying when in doubt use the dictionary. The worst part was that the ass kissers spent the next few days arguing that Chavez had used a medieval form of the word he had misspelled.

9.- Deputy Rafael Simon Jimenez was so wishy washy politically that both the pro-Chavez and opposition groups included him in their list of Deputies to be recalled. The issue was decided with a coin toss as both sides could not promote his recall. The Chavistas won the coin toss.

10.-Opposition Deputy Cesar Perez Vivas kicked pro-Chávez Deputy Iris Varela. Ms. Varela offended, started punching him in unlady-like manner, scratching his face live on National TV.

11.- The Minister of the Interior (the same one that said that Chavez had resigned on April 2002) held a press conference to explain how the opposition was ready to cause a tragedy during the “Petarazo” demonstration. Rincon showed a big blade as the “weapon” confiscated by his intelligence forces.

12.- Two MVR Deputies presented in October their ”proof” of a coup plot by the CIA in which a gringo Colonel is planning terrorist acts teaching local municipal police how to create terror. Showing one film, the Deputies revealed the second and third films, which we are still waiting for in which Wackenhut employees with the US Ambassador discuss their plan. (Still waiting….)

The Minister of Planning is firing 26 workers from that Ministry for participating in the petition drive asking for Hugo Chavez’ recall. Currently, a decree issued by the Chavez administration prohibits firing of any career civil servant except for those that have positions qualified as “positions of trust”. However, the lawyer asking for an injunction in favor of the workers said none of those fired held such a position. The Ministry of Planning is fairly small when compared to most Ministries in the Venezuelan Government, thus the number is significant.

Humorist Claudio Nazoa wrote this Letter from the Devil to Chavez in today’s El Nacional. Since the paper is by subscription only and in Spanish and I found it so funny (if not tragic), that I took the trouble of translating it despite its length. In this blog you can also find an extremely funny letter to an Argentinean friend by Nazoa trying to explain what is going on in Venezuela.

Letter from the devil to Chavez by Claudio Nazoa

My Dear brother! The emotions I feel! Not even I could have done a better job. The other day I was talking to Fidel and in a very amusing way he told me about all your shit. Boy, I laughed my heart off!. By the way, in that unexpected meeting, I congratulated the old man for the successful shooting of the young Cubans that were trying to escape that Hell. Imagine that! Trying to escape the warm coals of Hell which are so cool…I will never understand human beings. By the way, did you notice what a great job he did with the sentence to the reporters and intellectuals that irreverently said that Hell should be softened? What blasphemy! What sacrilege! It is very important that artists and intellectuals don’t go around saying that the revolution is no good…It is one thing for people to feel it is not good and another for them to realize it isn’t.

By the way my dear brother, I am truly sorry about what happened to our buddy Hussein, the worst part is that I made a very bad deal with him, imagine that I was so dumb as to buy his soul at a time in which he was executing his worst atrocities, as they say, it was his best moment. What a huge rip off he was for me! I thought the guy was going to immolate himself, that he was going to fight until the end, that if they grabbed him it would be in the middle of a shoot out or that as a last resort, he would commit suicide like the German guy, because to do that you have to be courageous too, I even thought that he would kill more than one gringo soldier, but no way. They found him there, nervous, hiding in a rat hole with no dignity. The truth is that it shamed me the way he opened his big mouth to that American soldier.

I am going to tell you something but don’t get too full of yourself: down here we all agree that your revolution is truly pretty and we have discussed it in various opportunities with those that are part of the bad guys payroll and which have been living with me for years. That is why I laugh when I read some French reporters, or when I hear the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo or certain intellectuals, well travelled and well fed, that with money, luxury and passport selflessly defend the Cuban revolution and that inexplicable thing that you are doing in Venezuela. The point is that all revolutions are pretty from afar, the bad thing is when you have to forcefully live in one.

That is why my dear brother, I congratulate you.

You have most of the people in Venezuela selling Cocosette (a candy) and doing pirouettes in traffic lights and highways. I don’t know how you did it, you shameless you, but you have no idea how much I enjoy , how much ill-felt pleasure I experience when I see hundreds of little kids sleeping in the streets under cardboard and over newspapers, pressed together just to stop the cold. The other day, at night, I walked nearby what you call “My palace”. Yeah, the one that is in Miraflores. It gave me great pleasure to see so many people sleeping on the ground in front of the gates to your office. They seem like souls in pain. Boy, do those people really believe you love them? And what do you do in exchange? You have them there, sleeping on the ground for a few days so that later you don’t even give them a handout. Brother, not even myself! You are great! That badness is so yours, so Creole, so Bolivarian…

Another thing I love is the godless way in which you treat the city of Caracas. What you are doing in Sabana Grande is really coming out cool. And downtown… that is pure genius. What I feel is envy, me, living here in Hell, and you, enjoying yourself with all that good you have managed to build. Sometimes the pupil does better than the teacher, and that seems to be your case, my dear boy.

And what about that airplane! That was wonderful, my compadre! I don’t know if I have told you, but I get excited visiting those hospitals where people die of neglect and when I visit those schools that have been destroyed. We don’t have to go too far, my friend: Vargas State. You left that shit in ruins! And it was very good for you to reject the aid of the gringos, if not, maybe the whole area would have recovered by now, but the best part is that while the country is sinking in hate and all types of misery, you travel proudly in that shameless airplane. I repeat: What I truly feel is envy for your creativity.

But with what really you topped yourself was with that shit of decapitating the mother of that thin guy that has been around for two thousand years, who goes around pitifully, nailed to a cross and has me bored with his queerness about love, forgiveness and tolerance between human beings.

In the end my big brother you are really doing well

Myself, here I am, waiting for you. I am going to give you a cauldron for yourself here! You are going to have a ball! Imagine that Nero, Herod, Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Franco, Mao Tse Tung and his wife, Pap Doc, Nicolae Ceasescu and his wife, Chapita (Trujillo) Juan Vicente Gomez, Perez Jimenez, Somoza, Mussolini, Boves and Idi Amin Dada, among others that believed they were the saviours of their people are boiling with envy because of the preparations for the huge party that I am organizing.

By the way, that day I would like to invite those that laugh and agree with their heads cowardly with everything that occurs to you…I prefer not bring them here, because I like bad people, not ass kissers who by the way, when you are no longer there, the punishment they will have for all of eternity will be to listen and watch a perpetual program with your speeches and songs, hour after hour for the rest of their days.

I am filled with emotions as I write to you. I warn you that you should be careful with the surprises that your noble people have for you this year, they are going around rising against everything and riding a white horse that was give to them by some guy called Bolivar, who by the way is really pissed at you. Remember, if by any chance in the next few months you have to hide in a cave; don’t start crying or calling priests. Be dignified. Stay calm that I will look for you in any nook and cranny.

And now, as farewell, say hello for me to Jose Vicente, but shit, tell him he really went overboard this time.

The Devil

Humorist Claudio Nazoa wrote this Letter from the Devil to Chavez in today’s El Nacional. Since the paper is by subscription only and in Spanish and I found it so funny (if not tragic), that I took the trouble of translating it despite its length. In this blog you can also find an extremely funny letter to an Argentinean friend by Nazoa trying to explain what is going on in Venezuela.

Letter from the devil to Chavez by Claudio Nazoa

My Dear brother! The emotions I feel! Not even I could have done a better job. The other day I was talking to Fidel and in a very amusing way he told me about all your shit. Boy, I laughed my heart off!. By the way, in that unexpected meeting, I congratulated the old man for the successful shooting of the young Cubans that were trying to escape that Hell. Imagine that! Trying to escape the warm coals of Hell which are so cool…I will never understand human beings. By the way, did you notice what a great job he did with the sentence to the reporters and intellectuals that irreverently said that Hell should be softened? What blasphemy! What sacrilege! It is very important that artists and intellectuals don’t go around saying that the revolution is no good…It is one thing for people to feel it is not good and another for them to realize it isn’t.

By the way my dear brother, I am truly sorry about what happened to our buddy Hussein, the worst part is that I made a very bad deal with him, imagine that I was so dumb as to buy his soul at a time in which he was executing his worst atrocities, as they say, it was his best moment. What a huge rip off he was for me! I thought the guy was going to immolate himself, that he was going to fight until the end, that if they grabbed him it would be in the middle of a shoot out or that as a last resort, he would commit suicide like the German guy, because to do that you have to be courageous too, I even thought that he would kill more than one gringo soldier, but no way. They found him there, nervous, hiding in a rat hole with no dignity. The truth is that it shamed me the way he opened his big mouth to that American soldier.

I am going to tell you something but don’t get too full of yourself: down here we all agree that your revolution is truly pretty and we have discussed it in various opportunities with those that are part of the bad guys payroll and which have been living with me for years. That is why I laugh when I read some French reporters, or when I hear the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo or certain intellectuals, well travelled and well fed, that with money, luxury and passport selflessly defend the Cuban revolution and that inexplicable thing that you are doing in Venezuela. The point is that all revolutions are pretty from afar, the bad thing is when you have to forcefully live in one.

That is why my dear brother, I congratulate you.

You have most of the people in Venezuela selling Cocosette (a candy) and doing pirouettes in traffic lights and highways. I don’t know how you did it, you shameless you, but you have no idea how much I enjoy , how much ill-felt pleasure I experience when I see hundreds of little kids sleeping in the streets under cardboard and over newspapers, pressed together just to stop the cold. The other day, at night, I walked nearby what you call “My palace”. Yeah, the one that is in Miraflores. It gave me great pleasure to see so many people sleeping on the ground in front of the gates to your office. They seem like souls in pain. Boy, do those people really believe you love them? And what do you do in exchange? You have them there, sleeping on the ground for a few days so that later you don’t even give them a handout. Brother, not even myself! You are great! That badness is so yours, so Creole, so Bolivarian…

Another thing I love is the godless way in which you treat the city of Caracas. What you are doing in Sabana Grande is really coming out cool. And downtown… that is pure genius. What I feel is envy, me, living here in Hell, and you, enjoying yourself with all that good you have managed to build. Sometimes the pupil does better than the teacher, and that seems to be your case, my dear boy.

And what about that airplane! That was wonderful, my compadre! I don’t know if I have told you, but I get excited visiting those hospitals where people die of neglect and when I visit those schools that have been destroyed. We don’t have to go too far, my friend: Vargas State. You left that shit in ruins! And it was very good for you to reject the aid of the gringos, if not, maybe the whole area would have recovered by now, but the best part is that while the country is sinking in hate and all types of misery, you travel proudly in that shameless airplane. I repeat: What I truly feel is envy for your creativity.

But with what really you topped yourself was with that shit of decapitating the mother of that thin guy that has been around for two thousand years, who goes around pitifully, nailed to a cross and has me bored with his queerness about love, forgiveness and tolerance between human beings.

In the end my big brother you are really doing well

Myself, here I am, waiting for you. I am going to give you a cauldron for yourself here! You are going to have a ball! Imagine that Nero, Herod, Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Franco, Mao Tse Tung and his wife, Pap Doc, Nicolae Ceasescu and his wife, Chapita (Trujillo) Juan Vicente Gomez, Perez Jimenez, Somoza, Mussolini, Boves and Idi Amin Dada, among others that believed they were the saviours of their people are boiling with envy because of the preparations for the huge party that I am organizing.

By the way, that day I would like to invite those that laugh and agree with their heads cowardly with everything that occurs to you…I prefer not bring them here, because I like bad people, not ass kissers who by the way, when you are no longer there, the punishment they will have for all of eternity will be to listen and watch a perpetual program with your speeches and songs, hour after hour for the rest of their days.

I am filled with emotions as I write to you. I warn you that you should be careful with the surprises that your noble people have for you this year, they are going around rising against everything and riding a white horse that was give to them by some guy called Bolivar, who by the way is really pissed at you. Remember, if by any chance in the next few months you have to hide in a cave; don’t start crying or calling priests. Be dignified. Stay calm that I will look for you in any nook and cranny.

And now, as farewell, say hello for me to Jose Vicente, but shit, tell him he really went overboard this time.

The Devil

The Venezuelan economy is truly full of surprises. The effect of the oil income is remarkable, introducing a number of artificialities that make the country a laboratory for economic concepts like no other one. I understand that the Japanese Government even has a full time economist just studying and attempting to understand the Venezuelan economy.

This year was no different in having the economy exhibit quirks. The country exhibited what may be the largest percentage difference between wholesale and retail inflation ever anywhere. According to the Venezuelan Central Bank, wholesale inflation was 48.9% while consumer inflation was 27.1% a whopping difference over 80%! I have certainly never heard of such a huge difference anywhere. The explanation is apparently quite simple, with the economy shrinking by 11% for the year, the contraction in demand has been so strong that price increases can simply not be transferred to the consumer. This is the second year in a row that this happens. In 2002, wholesale inflation was 37.9% while the CPI went up by a smaller 31.2%. This would appear to indicate that there is a dangerous potential for inflation to increase as price increases are passed on to consumers as the economy recovers a little in 2004.

A second phenomenon worth mentioning is the fact that most months, regulated and unregulated prices went up by similar amounts. This is simply a reflection of the fact that the Government has been quite lax about enforcing price controls as it was clear that they would result in shortages. While I am strongly opposed to price controls, it seems like the lax enforcement is somewhat ridiculous. As examples, pork is being sold at Bs. 7,000 per kilogram, but is regulated at Bs. 4,000. Meat is being sold at Bs. 7,000 per kilogram, but sold at Bs. 5,000. Chicken is being sold at Bs. 3,500 per kilo, while it is regulated at Bs. 2,000 per kilo. Eggs are regulated at 4,200, sold at Bs. 6,000 per dozen. The products where controls are being followed are exactly those that exhibit shortages regularly. Even with the artificialities, all this proves is that the laws of economics work no matter how artificial the environment.

The Venezuelan economy is truly full of surprises. The effect of the oil income is remarkable, introducing a number of artificialities that make the country a laboratory for economic concepts like no other one. I understand that the Japanese Government even has a full time economist just studying and attempting to understand the Venezuelan economy.

This year was no different in having the economy exhibit quirks. The country exhibited what may be the largest percentage difference between wholesale and retail inflation ever anywhere. According to the Venezuelan Central Bank, wholesale inflation was 48.9% while consumer inflation was 27.1% a whopping difference over 80%! I have certainly never heard of such a huge difference anywhere. The explanation is apparently quite simple, with the economy shrinking by 11% for the year, the contraction in demand has been so strong that price increases can simply not be transferred to the consumer. This is the second year in a row that this happens. In 2002, wholesale inflation was 37.9% while the CPI went up by a smaller 31.2%. This would appear to indicate that there is a dangerous potential for inflation to increase as price increases are passed on to consumers as the economy recovers a little in 2004.

A second phenomenon worth mentioning is the fact that most months, regulated and unregulated prices went up by similar amounts. This is simply a reflection of the fact that the Government has been quite lax about enforcing price controls as it was clear that they would result in shortages. While I am strongly opposed to price controls, it seems like the lax enforcement is somewhat ridiculous. As examples, pork is being sold at Bs. 7,000 per kilogram, but is regulated at Bs. 4,000. Meat is being sold at Bs. 7,000 per kilogram, but sold at Bs. 5,000. Chicken is being sold at Bs. 3,500 per kilo, while it is regulated at Bs. 2,000 per kilo. Eggs are regulated at 4,200, sold at Bs. 6,000 per dozen. The products where controls are being followed are exactly those that exhibit shortages regularly. Even with the artificialities, all this proves is that the laws of economics work no matter how artificial the environment.

Politicians can be truly blind, if not stupid. The Secretary General of the party Patria Para Todos (PPT) says in today’s El Nacional that the party will “consolidate”  its regional power in the upcoming regional elections which will take place in June. PPT backed Hugo Chávez for the Presidency in 1998 giving him 142,859 or 2.19% of the vote, gaining at the time 7 Deputies of the National Assembly, 4 elected nominally, 2 by part slate and one by electoral percentage. However, the party got zero (Yes, none!) votes despite being in the ballot to support Hugo Chavez in 2000, getting exactly one Deputy to the National Assembly. Thus, they lost ground by backing Chavez in those two years. Six months later, the party had two regional figures elected; both of them were supported by Chavez’ MVR in their respective elections. I understand that from polls, one of them  Gov. Manuitt from Guarico state, may be the only candidate who would win any Governorship for the parties that currently support Chavez, if the opposition fields a single candidate in each state. Now, PPT has been the only party that has supported Chavez throughout his Presidency. The party has managed to have two or three of its members in the Cabinet all these years and one of its members is President of PDVSA. But as a party, they have lost their identity, which already showed in the 2000 election, so it is really hard to believe that they would “consolidate” what they simply don’t have. Moreover, the party may even feel a backlash for its unquestionable support of Chavez