The Devil's Excrement

While Miguel is away swimming somewhere in the middle of the
Indian Ocean, your friendly ghost will be reporting
on-and-off. I am quite busy these days trying to start my tomato plants. You
see, bloggers grow orchids and ghost bloggers grow tomatoes. It is a fact of
life and an Internet law.  Actually, I
have been thinking that while Miguel is away on his extended vacation among
Polynesian sharks I should take advantage of his absence and open a new The
Devil’s Section devoted to growing tomatoes…  

So if you want me to keep ghosting as long as Chavez is in
power ( I’ve got the most secure job anyone can dream of!) please prepare your
messages of support for the new tomatoes Section  and keep them handy. I’ll let you know if I
need an outpour of spontaneous support when Miguel gets back.

As usual, there are many interesting news in the Chavista kingdom
of Venezuela:

•  a
  new Petrochemical
  company that we do not know how it differs from the previous one and that
  will develop Petrochemical technology in Venezuela
  (didn’t we already have one in place?);

•  the
  Minister of Interior calls
  for a corruption investigation against an ex National Assembly member and
  now Supreme Court judge;

•  an
  ex putchist;  Chavez 1992 coup
  comrade and  ex presidential
  candidate against Chavez is named Venezuela’s
  UN Ambassador.. .

 
but since I do not
have much time to keep you posted on everything, I will start with the one that
concerns me the most: the news that my tocayo, Jorge
Rodriguez, is not running for the CNE.

This is sad news for this ghost blogger since Jorge
Rodríguez is one of my favorite government characters, in particular because we
share the same name. So I would like to propose to the 20 people that are electing the
new CNE directive that the next President of the CNE is called Jorge as
well.

What? Do you think that that is a totally arbitrary
requirement? Why? If the new president is elected to follow strict Chavista
rules we may as well impose that he has at least a charming first name.  It should not be too difficult to find a good
number of devoted Chavistas called Jorge. I would even think that it could be
possible to find one called Jorge Miguel or Jorge Daniel but I do not want to
push too much.

Of course, of course, I know I am being too pessimistic.
Maybe the people that are electing the new CNE will find someone that is
competent and truly independent. The problem is that out of the 20 members, 11
are members of the National Assembly, that is 100% Chavista. BTW Sumate has
asked that those members have voice but would abstain from voting….In any case
I will forgive them for not imposing the Jorge name if they truly elect an
independent Council.

The interesting thing now is to know why Jorge Rodriguez is
really stepping down.  For weeks he was a
sure bet for the new CNE and, all of a sudden, he says that he does not want to
be a roadblock in the presidential elections. He does not want to be an excuse
for the opposition to decide not to run in the forthcoming election.

 You know what? I believe him. I think that Chavez is
desperate to get any opposition candidate against him in December to avoid the
international image that he is holding a plebiscite. So, in my humble ghost
opinion, the order probably came from Chavez himself.  

 There have also been rumors about Jorge Rodríguez being a
candidate to be the next
Vice president.

 Personally, I don’t believe those rumors. Chavez wants to
preserve the idea that the CNE that has been running the last elections and the
RR was fair and independent. If he nominates Rodríguez as a Vice president
there is no way he can say that.

 (Sorry Jorge, I know I just blew your possibilities for Vice
president. When the MINCI guys read this they will be so convinced by my ingenious
interpretation that, upon being informed, Chavez will change his mind on your
nomination. But do not despair, keep reading, I’ve got a better idea for you).

This ghost blogger also learned that before leaving, Jorge
Rodríguez  put in
place the list of all the Venezuelan voters by district in the web page of
the CNE. However, in  the VTV article cited
above it is said that the personal data of the voters will not be made
available in order NOT TO VIOLATE ARTICLE 60 OF THE CONSTUTUTION! So now, after
the Tascón list and the Maisanta Program where the personal information of
millions of Venezuelans voters was and is still used for blacklisting by the
government,  and is available from street
vendors in Caracas, the same government says that it cannot reveal the voters’
personal data. Funny that now they discover there is an article 60 in the
Constitution, which BTW is the same
article 60 mentioned in this post….  

 
Before finishing the post, I read that Chavez had some nice
words for Jorge Rodriguez in today’s Alo Presidente, lamenting
that he had to step down because of the bad publicity that he has been unjustly
the object of and that was directed of course from the Empire…

So poor Jorge will have to step down with just a warm congratulation
from the President, no goodies, unless we quickly forget about him and
concentrate on the new CNE President. Maybe then, Chavez can give him more than
his heartfelt congratulations for a job well done.

BTW,  Jorge,  here is the tip: I heard that the Paris
embassy
is now available.

You know, discussing and tasting the virtues of Moet
Chandons, Foie Gras and Chateau Lafitte is much more interesting than dealing
day in and day out with Maria Corina, the oligarchic media and stubborn
bloggers and ghosts.

So go for it, tocayo, you deserve it!

Reporting from Cyberspace,

Jorge Arena
Distinguished Ghost.

http://arenaspace.blogspot.com

http://chavezfortheun.blogspot.com

I’m going to take an extended vacation as far away from Venezuela as I can. I may actually try to reach the antipodal point from Caracas. On the meantime, hopefully, the Ghostly friends will keep this updated. Something always happens in Venezuela while I’m away, hope this time is big and good.

Morals and
Lights by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

In the
revolution of upright men, the pot of corruption took its lid off

The septic
tank is overflowing and is running over. The corruption scandals follow each
other in a manner that is unstoppable. Of course, you would have to recognize
that for any reason that may be and no matter what the power game that you may
guess is behind the accusations and investigations of corruption cases, the
truth is that at least in the case of the sugar plant in Sabaneta and Justice
Luis Velasquez Alvaray the bull has been handled by the horns and there has
been action against those presumed to be involved in the corruption.  For now…However, we can’t but point out that
these cases were know long ago and for electoral reasons, that is, for a
political variation of corruption, they were only uncovered once the elections
were over with. Thus, until wee see the corresponding penal sanctions we can
not be sure that what has been taking place up to now was not a show, also with
electoral purposes, to simulate a “war against corruption”, but more of the
declaration and spectacle type than real

According
to the report attributed to the Inspector General of the Armed Forces, already
on January 5^th. 200h, the Chief of State had been informed by
General Delfin Gomez Parra of the administrative irregularities taking place in
the sugar plant. Nevertheless a year went by before the case was made public
and the former Minister revealed with candor that he had done nothing because
“it was not convenient to do it before the elections”

By the
way, Albarrran (the Minister) is going around like a lost soul begging for
access to the state media sources-which is a saying, they belong to the
party-to explain himself and in all of them they don’t allow him even to go
enter. Now we are seeing how the sector that backs Nicolas Maduro has proposed
the bizarre idea of creating in the National Assembly a “Comp trolling
committee” that would control the Comptrolling Committee against corruption
that heads Pedro Carreño, whose apparent diligence appears
to worry the warriors against corruption because it could air too many dirty
rags. It is thus obvious those with what they have taken the lid off, some
think it is already sufficient and that the “war” needs to have the limit of
the conveniences of the party and the Government.

In the
same way, the case of Justice Velásquez Alvaray (or should
we already say former Justice?) we knew about this in Tal Cual since last
October and obviously they let it run for alter the elections.

 In any case, the
accusations of Jesse Chacon (The Minister of the Interior), which ratify what
we said in this daily-without the numerical precision of the Minister-, take
the lid off a sewer whose rugged paths, if they were followed in depth, could
produce more than one surprise, given the ample ties who had-or had-the named
Justice in the highest circles of power.

To top it all off, the ineffable Comptroller of the Republic
has given us a “lesson in ethics” that joined with the foolish acts of the
Prosecutor in the Anderson case, leaves in a very bad place a power that it is
ironically named the Republican Moral Council, of which one of its members, the
Comptroller, never appeared to learn about what was happening under his nose.
Perhaps because he was too busy trying to float the truth about the Sierra Nevada case (A corruption case in the ‘70s)

Oscar Garcia Mendoza, President of Banco Venezolano de Credito, is always criticized for his dire forecasts, but he his predictions have been uncanningly on the money in the last two decades. His bank is the only commercial bank in Venezuela that refuses to buy Government paper. They may be losing money today with this policy (or making less), but in the long run it will pay off for them. This article was written for Correo del Caroni.

So you understand it by Oscar Garcia Mendoza in Correo
del Caroni

The
collapse of Viaduct #1 is the real, physical evidence of what this regime is.
It is the authentic proof of how those that hold power in Venezuela are
finishing it off.

Some
continue not understanding this. The reasons may be many and it is useless to analyze
it. But it is worth using this physical and thus evident destruction for
demonstration purposes.

The
Viaduct collapsed and we can all see it. We know it happened due to the chaotic
management of the Government. And we also know that there many more areas, I am
cutting myself short: in all of the areas where by the action or inaction of
the Government is physically destroying the country. But these sectors are not
as evident.

It is happening
with health, with education, with oil, with infrastructure, with public
finances, with agriculture, with everything with which the ominous hand of the
Government has something to do with. They cover everything up with lies and
disinformation. But the terrible consequences are there and we will all suffer
them.

The
hospitals that are now in chaos, soon they will be like Viaduct 1. The schools
and colleges, which are in chaos, soon will be like Viaduct #1. Pdvsa, which is
a chaos, will soon be like Viaduct #1. The roads, bridges, highways etc. which
are in chaos will soon be like Viaduct #1. Public Finances where corruption and
chaos rule, will soon be like Viaduct #1. The agricultural areas which the demagogical
policies are destroying will soon be like Viaduct #1.

These have
been years of destruction and corruption. There are some that don’t want to see
it. Open your eyes, your ears, clear your senses. The suffering, that mary are
subject to today, will be multiplied in the future. It hurts and maybe it is
cruel to say it, but that is the way it is.

There are
some who benefit. In this dance of ignorance and bad management, Government
officials and “clever” entrepreneurs and bankers take advantage of
circumstances and get rich harming the totality of the population. They are the
usual collaborators. They are there for all to see. .

It is time
to change this. Venezuela
has no time, nor do Venezuelans.

One of the
problems in Venezuela
that needs to be addressed is that of pensions. The country only has 26 million
people, but some three million are Government employees who may enjoy sometimes
easy pensions. To make matters even worse, these pensions are unfunded so that
payment comes out directly out of the regular budget of the institution where
the person was employed, as in the case of the Comptroller who retired from the
Libertador Municipality.

This is where politics usually comes in. It works into this perverse system in
two different ways. First, whenever a new Government is elected, the Government
becomes very generous in giving out early pensions to get rid of those that it
does not consider to be loyal. Second, many retirees get involved in politics
and hustle and lobby for positions that will have a higher salary than the
position they retired from. The reason? Once they leave the new position, they
will retire once again, but at the higher new salary.

The system is so absurd, that at the higher levels, the retirement pension is
equal to the salary of the position and if that salary goes up, so does the
pension. Thus, all former Central Bank Directors have a pension equal to the
salary of a current Director.

The system becomes particularly perverse when it comes to taking into account
the military or university Professors. First of all, they are not part of the
civil service, so that you can actually retire form one, go work for the other
and retire again and get twice the salary while you are still working. Despite
what double dipper Russian said today, this can
not be done in the civil service system. But to make matters even worse, both
the military and the universities have their own pension requirements, which
may be as low as 20 years of service in the military and 25 for Professor’s,
with the added benefit that many times university Professors are given credit
for their pensions for the years they were doing Graduate work, or even for the
years they were TA’s at the University.

Think about it, if you graduate at 22 with a Bachelors and become a TA and
enroll in the Graduate program, you can be retired by the time you are 47. Your
salary will come out of the University’s budget, requiring ever increasing
amounts of money from the budget and the Central Government.

In the long run, this is a recipe for disaster. No budget can support this
unless oil prices go up exponentially. Moreover, most of these people that
retire early go find another Government job, particularly the military and academics
who can retain their pension and their new salary.

Obviously this whole thing is ludicrous, more so when you think about the fact
that Venezuela
is a poor country with a GDP per capita just under US$ 4,000. Given the profile
of its population in terms of wealth, it makes no sense to have double dippers,
getting two salaries when under a more rational system they would be getting
only one salary and retiring later.

Remarkably enough, this structural problem had actually been solved by none
other than Teodoro Petkoff in the last two years of the Caldera administration.
As Planning Minister Petkoff got together with unions, the private sector and
the Government and created a consensus that this could not go on, that pensions
had to be funded and rational. Basically, there would be a new system after a
transition, whereby you could only retire at 60 years of age, if you had worked
for 35 years for the Government or the private sector and 65 years of age if
you had worked less than 35 years.

When Hugo
Chavez became President he held off applying the new law under the excuse that
the new Government had objections to the fact that the law allowed the private
sector to manage the pensions. Chavez gave a committee of his supporters six
months to rewrite the law. Then another six months. Then another six months and
that was the last we heard on this issue. Nothing has been done in seven years
on a problem that had been essentially solved.

The real
problem was not who would manage the funds. The real problem became the
academics who were both in the Chavez appointed committee and the Chavez
administration… They would be the ones most affected by the law, because most
of them would not be able to retire after 25 years, but would instead have to
wait until either 60 or 65 years of age. In fact, many of those that worked on
this problem left the Chavez administration in order not to lose their tenure
at their respective universities and be able to retire after 25 years of work. So
seven years have been wasted on a problem that was essentially solved.

I have
always been interested in this problem because the math never made much sense
to me and I saw how it undermined not only the budget of some of the institutions
where I worked in Venezuela,
but it would undermine their heart and soul also. I had friends in their mid-thirties
making plans for retirement at 45 so they could get another job. Their careers
became secondary to this sort of chess game of finding the shortest path to retirement
and legal double dipping.

However,
as so many things in Venezuela,
it is always difficult to get hard numbers of the situation at any Government
institution or university because of the ways the budget is revealed. However,
the Universidad Central de Venezuela, actually gave out the information to researchers
from Unesco and El
Nacional published a brief summary of the data.

The
results are indeed scary. Universidad Central de Venezuela currently has some
50,000 students and seven thousand professors. At first glance this would
suggest there are seven students for each Professor. However, of the seven
thousand Professors, 41.9% are retired! Almost 3,000 of them get a pension that
comes straight from the ordinary budget of the university. This is unfunded and
whenever the active Professors get an increase, so do the retired ones,
including my father’s widow, who will get his pension until her death. He has
been dead for over a decade.

Clearly
this is no way to run a country. It is problems like this that need to be addressed
for the good of all Venezuelans. The current system only benefits the ones that
already have a job, at the expense of those that have very little. It does
sound indeed perverse to have people getting double salaries in a country with
so much poverty. To make matters even worse, the Chavze administration has
increased salaries at the top two or three jobs at most Government institutions
by factors of ten. When this happens, every single retired person, be it
Deputies of the National Assembly, Directors of the Central Bank, Directors of the
Electoral Board or Supreme Court Justices all have their pensions adjusted to
the new levels. The cost is enormous, at the expense of the needy. But at the
political level the silence on the issue is almost deafening, as those that
benefit from this perverse system, stay quiet in order to protect their potential
future and juicy pensions.

The Venezuelan political system has, as part of its checks and balances, the figure of the Comptroller, the man in charge of controlling, supervising and watching over how the Government’s money and property are used. The General Comptroller supervises in turn all comptroller’s at the State and Municipal level and has independence to intervene and supervise any institution that is considered to be part of the Government. (Even if the Government contributes nothing to it).When he finds cases of corruption, he brings goes to the Proecutor’s office with the evidence to prosecute. He can also penalize those that violate procedures with fines and suspensions from holding public office.

There is also the “Citizen’s Power” exercized according to the Constitution via the “Republican Moral Council” of which the General Comptroller is one of its three members. Unfortunately, you need people who are not only politically independent in these positions, but they need to have high ethical and moral standards. The current General Comptroller Clodosvaldo Russian, has been a rather gray figure, almost non-existent, who has pursued very few corruption cases and in some cases has allowed the National Assembly to overtake his functions and mandate. He has been used by the Government to prosecute its enemies, the most recent case being that of succesful Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, who is being charged for “mismanagement” for using funds earmarked for one thing to pay the salary raises decreed by the Central Government. Lopez had asked the City Council to approve this, the municipal comptroller approved it and by law, he had to pay the raises. Despite this and the fact that dozens of Chavista Mayors followed the same procedure, Lopez is the only one being prosecuted for this. If succesfull, Lopez will not be able to hold political office for six years. Very convenient for the revolution, given Lopez’ win in the last election with 80% of the vote.

But it turns out that the man in charge of controlling corruption has no ethical values or principles as demonstarted by the voucher below. You see, Venezuelan law does not allow for double dipping. If you are a retired Government employee, you can not hold another Government job, unless your pension payments are temporarily suspended. Additionally, there is a decree that specifically says that you can not be a comptroller at any level, if you are a retired comptroller from any state or muncipality. But in the pretty revolution these things do not apply to the rulers. The voucher below is for the pension of Comptroller Russian, who retired as municipal comptroller of the Libertador District, corresponding to payment in January 2005 (He has held the position since 2000), clearly showing that the man in charge of upholding the law, one of the three members of the so called Moral Power is the first one to violate his own rules. Proof that he would not recognize a moral or ethical value if he ever saw one and providing further explanation as to the origin of the rampant corruption in the Chavez Government. Simple: Nobody is watching!

Proclamation:

The Chavez
administration:

-In a tribute
to the guiding principles that illuminate and guide its daily actions.

-As a reaffirmation
of the belief that there is only one true form of Government for all of the
people of Venezuela
and the world.

-As a way
of sending an unequivocal signal to the world as to where it stands on freedom,
democracy and human rights.

-In a demonstration
of the intelligence with which it handles it public relations as a way of
expressing its love for its fellow inhabitants of the Continent of Simon
Bolivar

-As evidence of its sensibility to the desires, dreams and ambitions of the people of Latin America

-And as an
expression of its desire to use the oil money of the people, for the people, by
the people as efficiently, productive and respectfully as possible, announces with pride that
it has decided that:

It will finance
the
costs of restoring the one time home of that illustrious fighter for
democracy, former Argentinean Dictator Juan Domingo Peron,
who patiently stood at the side of the leftwing forces of the world. Or was it
the right? Who stole from the people hands over fists, allowing him to live in
exile for decades in the best style that his people never came close to or ever
dreamed of. Who was the clearest expression of the militaristic, populistic and
fascist autocrat that Venezuelans should learn to admire and love (and get
accustomed to!). And as a tribute to, his up to now, unprecedented ability to
truly damage and undermine a country for decades with his type of divisive populism
and ignorant policies.

Hugo Chavez, Caracas March 18^th. 2006

Carlos Machado Allison is
an old friend who I had the pleasure of working with at one particularly
exciting part of my life when we believed we could move mountains with no
resources. Since then, he moved on to IESA, where he studies Venezuelan
agriculture. I have translated articles by him before; this one in today’s El Universal
is particularly sharp, especially in describing the contradictions in policy
within the Chávez administration.

Agriculture,
corruption and inefficiency by Carlos Machado Allison

Mister
President, the chain of events that is destroying the basis of agricultural
activity and the morale of the producers, is it part of the revolutionary
design? Or as they say in the streets, your subordinates don’t inform you?
Could it all be the fault of the executive Vice-President who leads the
Cabinet? A reporter in the back and forth of his profession, responded to a
Deputy indicating that what the Comptrolling Committee of the Assembly was
doing, referring to the case of the sugar plant, was not an act of heroics, but
was a natural obligation, but later, she evaded the answer when she found out
about the presidential responsibility in the scandal.

Violating
the laws, the properties and presidential promise, a certain celebrity has said
that the revolution is above the laws, but under them there is a systematic
destruction of values, principles, traditions and symbols. Now they will
initiate procedures and someone will be accused. The scandal is too evident.
Change prisoners for votes, a good electoral strategy. As a politician, twenty
points, as administrator you have flunked.

Wasn’t
it public knowledge that some trucks with food destined to the “mercales”
(Government food markets) were not arriving at their destination? Didn’t they
tell you about contaminated flour, lost grain and adultered milk? Don’t you
know that many loans ended up in phantom co-ops? Didn’t you know that the
tomato processing plant, the textile factory in Cojedes and the sugar plant
near Sabaneta, were not running? Can you really believe that you can create 100,000
cooperatives and that a fraction of them will not become a field for
corruption?

Don’t you know that the “Zamoran”
rural farms, promoted invaders and the like, produce next to nothing? It is difficult
to think that you were ignorant of the morosity of the Bank of the People or the
Bank for Women, that on top of everything published no financials. Or that the Industrial
Bank was not doing well. Even then, you approved the creation of an
Agricultural Bank and another for the communities that, for sure, will give out
loans that will never be repaid? Don’t you remember that, at the times of the
IVth., a number of times public agricultural banks were shut down because of
corruption and inefficiency?

Your Cabinet approved the
Caaez (sugar plant), designed and oriented by Cubans, despite the history of Government
owned sugar plants. Don’t you know that Cuba is the most inefficient
producer of sugarcane in the word? Don’t you know that the silos were
privatized for inefficiency and corruption when they belonged to the State?
Don’t you remember the scandals of Corpomercadeo and Mersifrica (predecessors
of Mercal)? Didn’t you win the elections promising to end corruption and to
make the country an agricultural emporium? Don’t you know that each point of
Governmental intervention in the agro-food chain is a focus for potential
corruption?

Did you know that
agricultural financing increased by 45% in 2005 and agricultural production
only by 3%? That agricultural exports reached their lowest historical point and
imports the highest one? Do you ignore that PDVSA, which belongs to all of us,
will inject Bs. 1.5 trillion to the agricultural sector (Bs. 55 thousand per
poor person in the country) so that part of it will have the same destiny as
that of the sugar plant? Have you been told about the inexistent supplies at
the agricultural schools?

The Ministers of Agriculture
and Foodstuffs have come face to face with each other because you ordered one
of them, to make the country self sustaining and the other one, to import
everything so that inflation in food prices does not go up. They will fail
because there is no logic, nor sense, in agro-food policy, repeating the errors
of the past: Exactly the same that at the end of the IVth. Republic.
Mr. President, I think
that you do know what is happening and are thus responsible.

Imagine a country with excess capacity for cement production. A Governor complains that no cement is reaching his state and this is limiting your ability to build public works. What do you do if you are President?:

a) Find out why this is happening
b) Call cement producers and talk to them as to why this is happening
c) Talk to the experts in your Government to understand the problem
d) Start importing cement

This is exactly what happened in Venezuela two weeks ago. The Governor of Vargas State complained to Chavez in his reality show Alo Presidente that there was not enough cement in his state to build housing and public works. Rather than find out why this was the case and understanding the dynamics of the cement industry in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez had his Minister talk to the Cubans and announced that Venezuela would import 500,000 Tons of Cuban cement to cover the shortage.

Except that there is no shortage. Venezuela produces more cement that it can use. Currently, the country is exporting cement, as Cemex takes advantage of its Pertigalete deep port to export its excess production at prices which are actually lower than those you can get in Venezuela. So, you may say, what is the problem? Well, essentially there are two problmes: One, cement is very expensive to move around, that is why regional companies dominate their markets and it is very difficult for one company in one region to compete with another one in a different region if you have to ship the cement by truck . The second problem is easy, the Government is not very good paying its bills, so companies prefer to export or not produce rather than selling to the Government and having to wait for months to get paid.

So, you may say, how can Cuba compete? The answer is that it does not. Cuba can not compete, but rather than selling or using the cement locally in Cuba to build housing or public works for Cubans, it will sell it to Venezuela for US dollars, hard currency, something that Cuba is in desperate need of. Thus, this is not a commercial transaction.

Meanwhile, Venezuela exports cement and its plants are 20% idle (not the 60% the Government claims). Is this any way to run an economy?

Another brilliantly stupid economic strategy improvised by the autocrat himself in another flash of ignorance.

Hugo Chavez trying to improve relations with the US:

“Mr. Danger (Bush) you started trouble with me again little bird… you don’t know much about history, you don’t know much about anything. You are a great ignorant, a burro. To say it in my bad english: You are a donkey, Mr. Bush”

“On top of that you are a coward, why don’t you go to Iraq to lead the troops over there. It is easier to command troops from afar…. you are an assasin, a genocidal person, an inmoral person, an alcoholic, a sickly person”

“You are the worst…you are killing children Mr. Danger.”

Definitely a good first step towards improving relations between the two countries and in the words of the Venezuelan Ambassador to the US last week: “relations between the two countries should be marked by respect and a technical and professional approach”

I agree, the English part by the President was a very good first step towards achieving this goal. Good job!