On May 3d. 2009, President Chavez inaugurated the already existing generic pharmaceutical plant, which had been supposedly upgraded and refurbished since it was shut down in 2006.
Since I have a personal interest in that business, I paid attention, wondering how much real competition this generics plant would create for the private sector.
I worry too much.
Almost two years after Chavez’ bombastic ceremony, it turns out the plant, built and upgraded under Cuban advice, has yet to open, according to none other than the annual report of the Comptroller who controls almost nothing, Clodosvaldo Russian. (He seems to look for only small corruption cases)
Imagine how stinky the whole deal must be for Clodosvaldo to take notice. Five years have gone by and the plant has yet to reopen. The report questions the controls of the plant in its construction, as well as asking that those responsible for “planning, contracting and executing” the building of the plant be made responsible for their mismanagement.
Just think, when Hugo opened the plant two years ago, he said this was the only one in the country producing medicines for malaria and tuberculosis and then Minister of Health Montilla marveled at the fact that the plant was built in record time, faster than the private sector.
Just don’t get malaria, please, you will be out of luck.
Maybe Chavez should order this project frozen too, maybe nobody will notice.
The Devil's Excrement 
March 21, 2011 at 5:35 pm
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March 21, 2011 at 9:57 am
[…] Generic Revolutionary Mismanagement at Venezuela’s Government Generic Plant […]
March 20, 2011 at 11:24 pm
I seem to have read somewhere that they use cyanide in the manufacture of barbiturates. So if the plant ever gets up and running, you may want to steer clear of any of those made there. It might be the last tension headache, or sleeping pill, you ever take.
March 19, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Cuban capitalists rightwingers to boot!
March 19, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Just like capitalist stooge moctavio to over look the obvious rightdeviationist wreckers that were clearly at work in this instance trying to give glorious 21st Century Socialist a blackeye.
March 19, 2011 at 7:39 pm
They were probably Cubans that came and went.
March 19, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Those trained personnel probably never existed. What possible incentive and motivation could they give to bring in professionals?
And doesn’t the idea that some people are better suited for some jobs violate the ideology of Chavismo? Why anyone off the street should be able to get the job done, just random names from a phone book.
Of course Hugo’s World and the real world do not relate except during the Saturday Morning Cartoons.
March 19, 2011 at 5:21 pm
It takes trained personnel to run a plant like that. Assuming they ever existed, what have they been doing all these years? Or more to the point, where?
March 19, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Chavez is getting late to say that the CIA’s iguanas are the vectors of the flu AH1N1 virus.
March 19, 2011 at 4:31 pm
If ideology could run businesses as well as well as political machines … then an ideological litmus test would make sense. The fact is that successful people belong to all sorts of ideological walks of life. It might be that what makes success is just a bit too elusive to fit into any particular political ideology.
In my experience, risk taking and innovation are important ingredients to success, both of which could not survive in the Chavismo ideology. In fact, Chavismo rewards the opposite: conformity to avoid risks, and I believe this will consistently lead to failure.
India, on the other hand, has been very successful in developing and even bootlegging pharmaceuticals. It would probably make more sense for Venezuela to import pharmaceuticals from India. Funny, isn’t it, that India did not need a Bolivarian revolution.
I think it would make more sense to call Chavismo the “Bolivarian devolution.”
March 19, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Hugo realized that the plant was not really needed since malaria and tuberculosis are just fictional illnesses created by capitalism to increase profits for drug companies and doctors. To protect the peoples money he canceled the project, but since he is busy he forgot to tell anybody to announce the cancellation. Why else would it not be operational?
March 19, 2011 at 3:04 pm
IIRC, there has been no nationalization which has resulted in the nationalized company running at even 75% of previous efficiency. This is common knowledge. There is a video of Polar worker- a foreman I believe- who was talking about how all nationalizations resulted in failed companies. The record of Thugo’s nationalizations is part of folk knowledge these days.
This pharma plant can serve as the generic example, as M.O. says.