Venezuela 101

[camberiu]

PLOT TWIST ALERT!!!!!!

COMMUNIST X COMMUNIST

 

[jeff1234]

Venezuela should be a very rich country....oil, gold, beaches, location.

It seems that oil riches can somehow destroy some countries (Venezuela, Nicaragua)

Can anyone explain to me why a country that should be rich and happy has become poor, ridden by inflation, sort of a dictatorship, and basically a poor and very unhappy country. How did this fall happen? I don't think it can be 1 person's fault.

Thanks, T/

I've said this elsewhere but it's worth repeating. Chavez waged war, driving out the middle class, the professionals, closing media outlets, making life unbearable for all but the immigrants he imported. I've seen him on Venezuelan tv, all day, tirelessly showing off the freebies he gave to the immigrants. Remarkably quickly Venezuela became a country of immigrant voters who voted for Chavez and shared as he looted the country. Under the heading of 'socialism' he nationalized the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., and put his cronies in charge. Once again the source of Venezuela's wealth was looted and all but destroyed. People who actually knew how to produce oil fled the country.
I've stayed at some of their beach resorts, the resorts were very nice but the beaches and water were as nice as anywhere in the Carribean. I've heard stories that beachfront resorts and condos were 'nationalized' and given to immigrants. Very soon they stopped being sources of tourist $ and were torn apart for the copper pipes, electric wire, appliances, etc.
Another story was about the scion of an old established family that produced Venezuelan rum and other beverages. One morning he looked out of his bedroom window and saw hundreds of immigrants camped on his lawn and throughout his estancia. He called the police but only was told that he would be held responsible if any harm came to the campers. Eventually he gave up and left the country and his business behind.
The newly elected mayor of Caracas opposed Chavez. He was locked out of his office and never allowed to function as mayor.
Venezuelan oil was traded for Cuban doctors and medicine. And also Cuban soldiers to protect Chavez and enforce his will.
While rampaging against the rich Chavez managed to siphon of alot of the countries wealth. Diario las Americas claims that Maria Gabriela Chavez, 35, has $4.2billion in assets held in American and Andorran banks.
That's how you destroy a country.

 

[TomAtAlki]

Where are all of the immigrants to Venezuela coming from? You say:

"Chavez waged war, driving out the middle class, the professionals, closing media outlets, making life unbearable for all but the immigrants he imported." "Remarkably quickly Venezuela became a country of immigrant voters who voted for Chavez"

Did Chavez become president before he imported the immigrants? How could there be enough immigrants to elect a president? Or are you talking about immigrants from the last hundreds of years ie the total population minus the native people(are there native people in Venezuela?)? Or are you using the word immigrant to mean the poor people of Venezuela? Obviously, I'm a little confused by your statement.

 

[Somewhereinba]

There has been mass migration of Venezuelans to Argentina recently. I run into them everywhere in Ubers, Shops, Restaurants in all corners of the country. That's how bad it has become... Very sad to see - all the well educated professionals are long gone and what's left is a disaster run by a dictator who's policys are some of the worst in the world. He was brainwashed so much by Chavez and the teachings he received he would rather the people starve and live in poverty than adapt to a modern democracy that could flourish with the right policies... Disgusting.. Even worse Kirchner continously used Venezueala as a great example of socialism and what to aspire too.. Unbelievable when you think about it. It does however show you how careful you need to be with young minds and what they are being taught - our resident lawyer Bajo is a perfect example of someone indoctrinated in the school of UBA and all the great benefits of Peronism (although he takes USD and lives a capitalist lifestyle).

 

[expat0tree]

Venezuela should be a very rich country....oil, gold, beaches, location.

It seems that oil riches can somehow destroy some countries (Venezuela, Nicaragua)

Can anyone explain to me why a country that should be rich and happy has become poor, ridden by inflation, sort of a dictatorship, and basically a poor and very unhappy country. How did this fall happen? I don't think it can be 1 person's fault.

Thanks, T/

The fault lies in the decision making of all Venezuelans over a prolonged period of time. A nation that cares does not sit idle when the entire economy hangs on a single volatile export commodity and does not vote for an individual with no sense of reality when the oil price had already been weakened and the country did absolutely nothing to safeguard its basic needs. Good governance is a collective all inclusive governance where the public tried to hold their own leaders accountable every time something hasn't been delivered.

 

[GMXam]

The fault lies in the decision making of all Venezuelans over a prolonged period of time. A nation that cares does not sit idle when the entire economy hangs on a single volatile export commodity and does not vote for an individual with no sense of reality when the oil price had already been weakened and the country did absolutely nothing to safeguard its basic needs. Good governance is a collective all inclusive governance where the public tried to hold their own leaders accountable every time something hasn't been delivered.

That middle sentence is based on the assumption that people make choices solely based on what we care about. Decision-making appears to be a lot more primitive and subconscious than that. Not only that, the perceived choices are typically manufactured through propaganda generated by those with the greatest amount of power and resources that tell people what they need and should want. Having to research and think critically take an enormous amount of effort for the average person who is just scraping by and frequently are given lower priority when other stressors on security exist: food, shelter, safety, etc. The choice then becomes what do you need to care most about right now. Desperation is a powerful tool in the hands of leaders who don’t have both the general well-being of the people and the economic health of their nation as the highest priorities. People, in general, are terrible decision makers not because we don’t care, but because we are too easily influenced. There have been so many terrible leaders who came and will continue to come into power by capitalizing on that influence vulnerability.

 

[expat0tree]

That middle sentence is based on the assumption that people make choices solely based on what we care about. Decision-making appears to be a lot more primitive and subconscious than that. Not only that, the perceived choices are typically manufactured through propaganda generated by those with the greatest amount of power and resources that tell people what they need and should want. Having to research and think critically take an enormous amount of effort for the average person who is just scraping by and frequently are given lower priority when other stressors on security exist: food, shelter, safety, etc. The choice then becomes what do you need to care most about right now. Desperation is a powerful tool in the hands of leaders who don’t have both the general well-being of the people and the economic health of their nation as the highest priorities. People, in general, are terrible decision makers not because we don’t care, but because we are too easily influenced. There have been so many terrible leaders who came and will continue to come into power by capitalizing on that influence vulnerability.

I disagree with the idea that a bad leader can come and suddenly ruin an entire country, taking it from prosperity to ruins. People may not have the analytical capacity the examine their geopolitical long term agenda or understand some complex political situation meant for experts but when it comes to depending on 90% of all export revenue on a volatile commodity while knowing the consequences of shifting away from domestic manufacturing and relying heavily on government subsidies, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that without the government hand out there will be shortages in the country and a lot of pain and that corruption will eventually ruin the prospects of future social well-being. And I'm not only referring to an average Joe on the street who needs to know who to vote for and what to know in terms of news and progress in their own country but there is also the legislative branch with 165 national assembly seats, judicial branch with dozens of justices and a myriad of journalists, many of which are independent and free to communicate their knowledge via the internet these days.

Venezuelans were warned and well informed early enough to change the course of their own economic decline and to curb corruption when it was so evident across the board, now it's too late. The same holds for Argentines who were stupid enough to not demand judiciary re-shuffle and complete transparency (there are ways of doing this) as part of the plan for the newly elected Cambiamos in 2015. They could have marched against corruption and against the over-bloated size of their government instead of blocking shipping routes and complaining about tariff increases which sooner or later had to balance out without the years long subsidy that the government can no longer afford to pay out.

In a lot of these situations people often times do not want to think about changes in terms of investment and refuse paying taxes and fines thinking that all this is optional or only for the rich, Argentina has no respect for the rule of law, that alone should be the main red flag and something to tackle with an improved education system and better enforcement and transparency from both the government and citizenry. Perhaps deep down people just never mind the inefficient bureaucracy and the ongoing corruption is their new normal, don't you think? Otherwise Argentines would want to know the reasons to their current twin deficit in a country full of natural resources and a sprawling tourist industry.

 

[GMXam]

I disagree with the idea that a bad leader can come and suddenly ruin an entire country, taking it from prosperity to ruins.

Actually, we agree on that aspect...I used the plural form of the word leader (meaning more than one), and they don’t always come in the form of a president. They have more power over influence than just one figurehead.

 

[expat0tree]

Actually, we agree on that aspect...I used the plural form of the word leader (meaning more than one), and they don’t always come in the form of a president. They have more power over influence than just one figurehead.

Yes, democratically elected Venezuelan government ruined its own country and yet it was all preventable.