The Devil's Excrement

I just heard Chavez say that he will not negotiate, “the country is not negotiable”. I wonder what the OAS, Cesar Gaviria and the rest of the people think about this.

It reminds me of an article I read today in El Universal called “The word that ruins us” by Gerver Torres, where he relates that he was participating in negotiations in Costa Rica and the head of the union said they were pulling out of the negotiation because the President had said something different than what was being negotiated. He tried to tell her that maybe he had said that without knowing what he was talking about. She said: “Maybe that is in your country where the President says things whether they are true or not…here in Costa Rica when a President speaks we understand he is telling the truth”

What a different world, no?

The Minister of Energy and Mines said on TV that PDVSA would be reorganized as its costs were the highest in the world among oil companies. This presentation prepared by the people from Gente del Petroleo argues that the argument is incorrect as the US$ 7.5 per barrel of royalties charged by PDVSA was included in the calculation of what is the cost to produce a barrel of Venezuela’s oil. Gente del Petroleo should not be confused with Unapetrol. The former is a Civil Association of PDVSA’s employees to interact with society, the latter is the white-collar union formed at PDVSA after April 2002 tragic events.

Since we are on the PDVSA subject and I want this site to have a complete documentation of what is happening, here is the link to the interview with Harvard Professor Ricardo Haussman in NPR, it is long (almost an hour!), but worth listening to. Haussman was Minister of Planning in the early nineties and was Chief Economist at the Interamerican Development Bank.

President Hugo Chavez said today ” Governors and military commanders have to prepare plans to militarily take over food production plants, warehouses and silos”. Obviously he is referring to private ones.  What can I say, that is exactly how things began in Cuba.

Among other jewels he also said that the intervention of the Metropolitan Police, which the Supreme Court said should cease today, will continue. He also threatened, once again, the media, particularly TV stations.

From a recent presentation by the Democratic Coordinator, some numbers that show why Venezuelans are not too happy with the Hugo Chavez Government:

-Oil income in US$ in Chavez’s four years is 41% higher than in the previous four. Oil contribution to fiscal spending was also 39% higher.

-Public Debt as a percentage of GDP is up 28% from 1998, while spending is up by 46% in the last four years, compared to the previous four.

-Despite all of this, GDP per inhabitant in US$ is down 17% since Hugo Chavez took office.  

-Capital flight is up 950% over the last four years when compared to the previous four.

-The minimum salary in US$ is down 23% since Chavez took office despite the increase in oil income and spending. Meanwhile, unemployment is up 80% during the same period. Moreover, new workers have been unevenly incorporated into the work force.

-Finally, homicides have doubled in the last four years.