Venezuela, its Military and the Lavish Public Works.
The leftist dictatorship of Chavez and his followers,inaugurated a new, populist way of gaining humble people’s minds and votes in Venezuela, by giving away for free many daily staples (but with the oil above $ 100 per barrel) and also, exporting to other countries (with public funds) their so-called “socialist “ revolution.
That was the case of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, all of whom received funds from Chavez, supposedly for their electoral campaigns, plus the infamous case of Cuba, a country literally kept afloat for a long while by Venezuelan money, and to which Venezuela supposedly sends even today 100,000 barrels of oil per day, in an obscure (and illegal, as the deal didn’t pass through Venezuelan Congress) barter agreement subscribed between the dictators of the two countries (Raul Castro from Cuba, and Hugo Chavez “on behalf” of Venezuela).
With three different dollar prices at the official exchanges, the “Chavistas” only assigned the cheaper so-called “preferential” dollars to their cronies and friends, creating a new brand of millionaires : the so-called “boliburgueses,” and causing the bankruptcy of many firms, depending on the availability of such dollars to import their raw materials and other imported supplies.
They also imposed strict and impossible price controls in the country and destroyed many productive firms through massive expropriations, all of which caused major shortages of almost everything, from food items to toilet paper, creating in fact wide famine amongst the population, unknown in Venezuela beforehand, and affecting paradoxically more, at the poor members of society.
Is that the so much clucked about “21 Century Socialism”? — C’mon, give me a break!
Hospitals and drugstores were not free of the “socialist” fury, with public health institutions in ruins, and drugstores and private clinics reporting shortages of 80% or more, of medicines and other major healthcare supplies.
When the oil price fell, besides increasing the Venezuelan external debt to incredible levels, the Chavistas’ Government resorted to squander the country's international reserves, and to printing more local money, which caused terrible inflation, making most Venezuelans very poor.
Finally, in spite of having lost a Legislative election by ample margin on December 6, 2015, the Chavistas decided to continue following their own “socialist” agenda by force (supposedly with military backing), ignoring Venezuelan people’s will.
I’ve always asked myself why the Venezuelan judges condemned so lightly (only to 4 ½ years of jail time) the military dictator General Marcos Perez Jimenez (GMPJ), who as a dictator governed Venezuela until 1958, and later went to exile, who ordered tortured or killed many Venezuelans, and who allegedly stole some $ 200 million dollars of public funds.
In effect, following his hurried escape from Caracas in 1958, the dictator was extradited from the USA in 1963, remaining in jail (Carcel Modelo) in Venezuela, until when condemned by a judge to 4 ½ years in jail in 1968, he was immediately released as he’d already fulfilled his sentence.
Still young (he was 54 years old) and incredibly rich, supposedly with Venezuelan public funds, upon his release, GMPJ went with his family to Madrid, Spain, where he stayed until his death in 2001, at the age of 87 and from natural causes.
He lived in Madrid in a mansion with state-of-the-art security measures, amid the luxury and the opulence provided by money belonging to all Venezuelans.
The dictatorial Government of GMPJ was characterized by the construction of lavish public works (Paseo de Los Proceres, highway Caracas-La Guaira, Hotel and Funicular Humboldt, etc., all of them serving Caracas).
Will it be because of that, that Venezuelans condemned him so lightly?
Hugo Chavez, another military officer who raised in arms against a civil President of a Venezuelan Government, another dictator as he was, acclaimed, even justified the dictatorship of GMPJ.
As a matter of fact, it is highly possible that Hugo Chavez enjoyed popular support during the first years of his mandate, He won, after all, the Presidential election of 1998 in fair standing.
It is also highly possible, however, that all his successive electoral triumphs were rigged, as Chavez took good care of placing his followers at the command of most institutions, including of course the National Electoral Authority.
Ulterior and clear electoral frauds committed by the Chavistas, strongly sugesst that possibility, as Chavistas always follow the guidelines of their beloved dead leader.
