In the last week there have been some good announcements on the part of the Government. What is remarkable is how the Government has spun these announcements as if it had not been the result of its own policies to begin with:
—After eight year’s of providing those that are better off with a gigantic subsidy, Hugo Chavez announced today that gasoline prices are going up (A gallon costs 16 US dollar cents today). This is great news as it did not make sense to give the middle class a subsidy five times that of the poor. However, Chavez held firm to not increasing the price of gas for eight long years of a senseless subsidy. Not only that, but it was his Government that ended the natural gas program for automobiles in 2000, which was recently revived. The size of the increase has not been announced, but I surely hope measures are taken to limit the impact on the poor. I have always argued (I posted on this in 2004) that the Government could pay for all public transportation to convert to natural gas with one year’s subsidy and thus prices would not have to go up for public transportation.
—The President also announced last week that he will cap Government salaries at $1,400 a month. A cap had always existed and under the second Caldera Government the “Ley de Emolumentos” was issued and has been largely ignored under the disorganization of this Government. People have been retiring with obscene salaries, in particular those at the Electoral Board, the Supreme Court and the Venezuelan Central Bank. Reportedly the Supreme Court Justices who make US$ 13,000 a month and get paid a bonus of six months at the end of the year have discussed the issue and decided this does not apply to them because they are an “independent” body. It’s almost funny for them to argue that now. Remember the case of the Vice Minister of Finance caught entering the US with US$ 45,000 in cash and telling the US Court that he made close to US$ 150,000 in 2002 alone? You have to love these revolutionaries.
—And despite the announcement that Chavez would nationalize everything that was privatized, he also said he would not revert the privatization of steel company Sidor, which is good news. Could it be because it is owned by an Argentinean consortium and his buddy Kirchner asked him not to do it?
I worry that they may be getting ideas from my blog…
The Devil's Excrement 
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