IF THE DICTATOR STILL LIVED

Waiting for the flour to make the  "arepas"

When Elvis Presley died his former manager said, rather unkindly: “He made a good career move”. Politically, the death of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, was definitely a good career move. If he still lived he would be painfully confronted with the collapse of all his plans and dreams. For example, his pretensions of food self-sufficiency for Venezuela. In order to fulfill this objective he promoted the invasion of large farms by his followers, so that they could “work” them. In fact, they destroyed whatever had been built. He also went on to confiscate food companies in order to convert them into “socialist” enterprises. Today they are broke, inactive or their production has been dramatically reduced.

Last week his imposed successor, Nicolas Maduro, practically buried all remnants of the so-called “food sovereignty” plan that the dead dictator had advocated during 14 years, while using the wrong strategies to get to it. He signed a decree ordering the urgent acquisition of 3,6 million tons of food at a cost of some $4.7 billion, mainly from Colombia, to guarantee that Venezuelans could eat.   

This action by Maduro was baptized as the IX Exceptional Plan for the supply of basic foods . Obviously there have been eight other similar plans before this one in the recent past.  

The foods being imported on an emergency basis include chicken, rice, pasta, corn flour (the basic material for the Venezuelan “arepa”), sugar, coffee, different types of beans. This is, everything the country has stopped producing.

So much, then, for the failed dreams of the dictator. But the second chapter of this drama is even more tragic. The logistics of importing this enormous amount of food surpasses the capacity and efficiency of Venezuelan ports. As a result, during the last few weeks there were 27 ships waiting to discharge their cargo in the Port of Puerto Cabello, carrying over 330,000 tons of food, see http://www.notitarde.com/La-Costa/Mas-de-332-mil-toneladas-de-alimentos-esperan-en-la-bahia/2013/09/19/265470. 15 of those ships  carry grain, particularly 125,000 tons of corn, 3 carry wheat, 4 sugar,3 soy, 2 rice.

According daily newspaper NOTITARDE, see link above, food shortages are very acute at this moment. 17 staples are under the category of “severe shortage”, defined as 40% or worse. They include sugar (85%), Corn flour ((71%), wheat flour (67%) and corn oil (87%).  The report adds that these shortages are due to the poor planning of the company in charge of imports, CASA. Of course, the structural reason is the collapse of Venezuelan agriculture under the inept dictator.  

In the past this poor planning has led to much corruption. Food imports are of poor quality to start with, near their expiry dates, so that importers can pocket greater commissions. Much of this food rots while waiting to be discharged and is buried or hidden in deposits. One of the most severe cases of corruption in the oil company PDVSA is related to rotten food imports made by its affiliate PDVAL, affectionately called PUDREVAL (ROTTENVAL) by Venezuelans. This case cost Venezuela almost $2 billion.