The Devil's Excrement

But somehow, every single case I brought up for
corruption, from Argentinean bonds, to structured notes to the lack of
separation of State and party did not seem to convince them.

But evidence mounted and what the Devil had been saying
became the standard in corruption cases in Venezuela. Then, Maletagate happened
and it seemed to link all of the cases, as the principals of Maletagate seemed
to have participated in a most of the corrupt shenanigans of the robolution.

And a funny thing happened: The cheerleaders went on the
blink, no comments, no defense. They were dumb, but not THAT dumb. Even worse,
the Venezuelan Government simply blamed the “Empire” claiming the infamous
Antonini suitcase full of cash was just a combined CIA/FBI plot to embarrass Hugo Chavez.
Only Evo has a bigger conspiracy theory than this.

But the robolution, can hide, but it can’t run. It is here
to stay and today a certain German company by the name of Siemens agreed
to pay US$ 1.34 billion in fines for a criminal investigation on bribery
payments around the world and the robolution was very much at the center of it.

According to
the SEC complaint, between 2001 and 2007, Siemens paid bribes in Venezuela
to the tune of US$ 16.7 million to Government officials in order to obtain
contracts for the subway systems of Valencia and Maracaibo. Using schemes that
you can read about in the complaint, Siemens paid a “consultant” or “fixer” US$
6.8 million dollars to funnel the money to Venezuelan Government officials.

While no names are given out, the money went into the bank
accounts of Venezuelan “government officials’ and “politically connected individuals”
including:

-A high ranking member of the Central Government

-A former Venezuelan Minister of Defense and diplomat

-Two prominent Venezuelan Attorneys

-A relative of a local politician

who, according to the complaint “all had influence in these
and other Siemens contracts”

This consultant, a former “advisor to former Presidents”
got some US$ 6.8 millions to steer these contracts in the right direction.

So, once again the robolution finds itself at the center
of one of the biggest corruptions scandals in the world, this time a corporate
scandal. Much like the other cases, we learn about it not because the
supposedly “clean” revolution finds out about it, but more because somewhere else
the checks and balances that that have been obliterated by the robolution in
Venezuela have revealed the intimacies of the cesspool of people surrounding
Hugo Chavez and his robolution and how he allows it to happen and continue day after day.

Because tomorrow we will hear the same tiring tune that
this is simply another attempt by the oligarchs and the empire and the CIA and
the FBI to discredit Hugo and those that closely surround him.

And don’t even dream of an investigation, the General
Prosecutor and the Comptroller and the Courts are just too busy studying the intricacies
of any laws the leading members of the opposition may have violated while
running their states and municipalities, so they can ban them from running.

They are after all the real enemy of the “process” not
these small hoodlums that rip off a few million dollars at a time. 

And the cheerleaders of the robolution?

Sinking in their own lies, defending the few things they can talk about, before they are also shown to be lies.

Take Venezuela’s oil production for example,, while PDVSA
claims to be producing 3.2 millions of barrels of oil a day, more reputable
organizations in terms of honesty and transparency like OPEC or the IEA,
claim the number is about 800,000 barrels a day less.  I mean, these are not fly-b- night operations, these are
well=respected organizations. In fact, Venezuela happens to be a member of OPEC
and you can hardly accuse OPEC of being a tool of imperialism or anything like
that. In fact, Minister of Oil and Energy and President of PDVSA once announced
Venezuela had requested that OPEC “fix” those numbers.

Which never happened…

OPEC actually lowered its quotas for Venezuela at some
point in order to adjust it to the lies of the Venezuelan Government.

And locally, if you happen to talk to someone at PDVSA,
they tell you that indeed, the country’s oil production is down (mostly
production down in the West of the country) and well below that official number
that only the cheerleaders of the robolution seem to believe in.

Well, this week the World Bank joined the chorus, when it
reported that Venezuela’s oil production had fallen 19% since 2000. Given that
the Venezuelan Government has not been able to alter all of the numbers, then
we can go to the website of
the Ministry of Energy and Oil and look up the oldest annual report with all
the details about the country and its oil. And there under PODE (Petroleo y Otros
Datos Estadisticos) on
page 39 for the 2003 report, you find indeed that Venezuela produced in
2000 a total of 1,151,436 millions of barrel of oil, which happens to be 3.15
millions of barrels of oil per day and you get 2.55 million barrels of oil per
day using the 19% number. This is above OPEC and the IEA, but below my high estimate
the other day. So, while the World Bank does not tell us where it got its
number, it certainly was not from OPEC, IEA or the Venezuelan Government.

And while PDVSA claims that we are using 520,000 barrels
of oil a day, in
the same webpage we see that in 2002, the country was using 560,000 barrels
of oil a day, which would make it very difficult to reconcile with the “new”
number which is simply part of the “fudging” going on today, except they can’t
change all of the sources. Even if Ramirez holds both positions, it requires
too much work to change history Soviet style like that.

But in Spanish, there is a saying that says that that “Mas
sabe el Diablo por Viejo que por Diablo” loosely translated as “The Devil knows
more because he is old more than because he is the Devil”. Which in my case, it
fits very well, as this Devil can never forget when Venezuela began using more
than 500,000 barrels of oil a day, which happened in the year 2001 and the
country used 517,000 barrels per day and I happened to be covering the oil
industry for job-related functions.

Thus, we are expected to believe that after a huge
increase in GDP (Thanks to high oil prices, not Hugo Chavez) and a huge
increase in the number of cars on the road (Thanks to absurd subsidies in the
price of cars and gasoline), consumption actually went down.

And the lies continue. As Russian officials suggest today
that the country is already in a recession, that leader of Chavista shameless
economic “thinking” Rodrigo Cabezas, joins
the cheerleading chorus, saying that growth in Venezuela in 2009 will be
3%. Certainly not with the country’ oil basket at US$ 31.36, as
reported on Friday by PDVSA. (A funny number in itself, as it sports the
widest difference all year with the five day WTI average, but I haven’t been
able to figure that one out yet)

And by the way, don’t be fooled by the headline in that
Bloomberg article “48% below the budget
plan”.  Because the lie about
the country’s oil production is not only used, but is given a Pincocchial
twist, by assuming the country will produce 3.6 millions of barrels of oil a
day at US$ 60 per barrel.

Thus, if the right numbers are used, it should really read
“65% below the budget plans” if one
considers the total amount.

Thus, one should not take Cabezas’ predictions too
seriously, recall he was the one that made up the 2008 budget with inflation at
12% and we will close the year at 31%-plus., an error only comparable to naming
Cabezas Minister again, which he is lobbying hard for.

But Chavez has
been clear, while the crisis will affect Venezuela, “we are shielded”.

Of course, this is from the same man who said oil prices
would stabilize at $100 per barrel, then at $90 and now he is talking about
surviving at $60.

Which reminds me, wasn’t it Hugo Chavez who rescued world oil
prices from oblivion, doing it again?

How come his magic is not working this time around?

The truth is that this is just a bunch of lies and liars
and they will twist and turn as the year progresses. Hugo Chavez was saved by
the “horrible” projects of the Orinoco oil belt, all planed in the terrible
days of the IVth. Republic. 
Without them the country’s oil production will be down 37% since 2000
and Hugo Chavez can’t say he has added a single new producing project in
his ten years in power.

Yes, not a single new oil producing project has been born under the
revolution.

Saying otherwise would be simply another lie.

“The lower oil prices could have been provoked to punish revolutionary
Governments such as Hugo Chavez’ and some oil producing Middle East countries”

“Sadly, the Empire knows how to use financial systems in
order to punish someone”

Ironically, the Bolivian President made the statement at a
speech celebrating the end of illiteracy at the Beni Department, which goes to
show how much you need education, it is not enough to learn how to read as
Morales himself proves.

Can you imagine the scene at the CIA?: Let’s screw Hugo
even if we send the US and world economy into the worst recession since the
Depression. Who cares, we just want to get back at the guy!

Yeah! Makes lots of sense Evo, I think you have qualified now
to for a top spot in the next version of the Guide
to the Prefect Latin American Idiot, with this brilliant idea, you have
taken the dependency theory to a new level of idiocy and stupidity. Which is
why under your leadership and that of Hugo Chavez, Bolivia and Venezuela will
sink deeper into underdevelopment.

—-And S&P has
downgraded Venezuela because it gets the inkling that Chavez may not do
much to attack the problems in the economy until things get worse. And they are
right, not only is the country in trouble, but now we have embarked in the
doubly illegal enmierda until at least March. At that time, no matter what the
outcome, the Government will begin deciding what to do, but by then things will
be much worse.

—-And for the fools that think things are ok in Venezuela,
overnight rates have shot up
to 50% from 5% on November 1^st.

The reason? Easy, the Government has begun withdrawing funds
from the private commercial banking system, not because it has a grandiose plan
to screw them or anything like that. The reason is much simpler. They
Government needs the money! Indeed, after using up all of the “dozavos”
(twelfths) the amount allocated monthly by the budget, in order to pay for the Government-mandated four salary Christmas bonuses for every worker, as well as spending as much as possible
ahead of the regional elections, most Ministries and Government institutions
ran out of cash to finish the year and began using their “savings”, deposited in
the commercial banks. This particularly affected smaller banking institutions
full of Government deposits which move according to who pays the highest
commission (i.e. graft!) and they had to go to the overnight market to be able to pay their
commitments.

—-And PDVSA seemed to have the same problem as it
continued selling US dollars like crazy into the parallel market so that the
Government could keep this pantomime that there is a single exchange rate in
Venezuela at Bs. 2.15 per US$, while the biggest supplier of foreign currency
in the country sells dollars at near Bs. 5 per Bs. (It is illegal to give the
quote for this market) so it can improve it s cash flow.  And PDVSA is doing this, not as a way
of intervening that market, but because it needs Bolivars.

Just think, on Sept. 28^th. the Venezuelan oil
basket stood at US$ 98 per barrel. Venezuela sells most of its oil with 90-day
payment. Thus, On Dec. 28^th. of this year Venezuela will still be
enjoying oil revenues at near US$ 100 per barrel, but PDVSA is having problems
with its cash flow. What will happen in March when we feel the equivalent of
around US$ 38 (my estimate) of today for the Venezuelan oil basket?

Certainly unnerving

—-And today, the National Assembly found
Manuel Rosales “politically guilty” for illegal acts in the hiring of the
company to run the Lottery of Zulia State where he was Governor.

So, after accusing Rosales for weeks for enrichment,
claiming he has farms and the like, they only find he is guilty of  “a violation
in the procedures followed to give a Government contract to a private company
which damaged the country’s equity”.

Wow, it is truly remarkable how in a country with no checks
and balances and in which 80% of the publicly held positions are in the hands
of Chavismo, violations of these technicalities are always found to be
committed by opposition Governors and Mayors, while Chavistas are so careful
and competent that they never violate the same laws. Of course, PDVSA does not
even follow those rules, but nothing is said. To say nothing of the way Chavez
and his Ministers use Government resources for the benefit of the PSUV party.
Or the corruption charges in the Miami trial. Or Jorge Rodriguez’ visible
wealth. Or Chavez’ family, according to him always poor and now owning large
chunks of the State of Barinas. I could go on, but why bother?

There you have it, almost caught up with the news from
Chavez’ revolutionary la-la land.