Fausta's Blog

Chronic shortages of consumer goods are a trademark of socialist and communist regimes, so this comes as no surprise:
Venezuela to import 50M rolls of toilet paper after government claims it’s wiped out

Economists say Venezuela’s shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government’s controls on foreign currency.

“State-controlled prices — prices that are set below market-clearing price — always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union,” said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.

Then the government raised prices by 20%, which will eat up the 20% raise in minimum salary that went in effect on May 1st.

Carlos Eire posts on the Cubanization of Venezuela,

According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, the Maduro dictatorship is blaming its opponents for Caracastan’s toilet paper shortage.
…
“The Revolution will import around 50 million rolls of hygienic tissue… so our people can calm down and realize that they should not allow themselves to be manipulated by media campaigns that speak of shortages,” said Minister of Commerce Alejandro Fleming, through the state-run Venezuelan News Agency.
…
Minister Fleming cited facts and figures to prove that the production and importation of toilet paper was more than adequate in Caracastan, and then claimed that a “sobredemanda” — a sudden spike in demand — fiendishly orchestrated by the government’s opponents had caused the product to disappear from store shelves throughout the country.

Considering the disastrous state of what’s left of the Venezuelan economy, it’s no wonder people may have the runs,

Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said the government was also addressing the lack of foreign currency, which has resulted in the suspension of foreign supplies of raw materials, equipment and spare parts to Venezuelan companies, disrupting their production.
“We are making progress … we have to work very hard,” Merentes told reporters Wednesday.

Many factories operate at half capacity because the currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Speaking of runs, consumers who had spent hours waiting in line were stampeding in Caracas when they heard chicken parts and flour were finally available,

Nicolás Maduro tried to intimidate Empresas Polar president Lorenzo Mendoza,

accusing him of hoarding products as part of an “economic war” on the state by private business.

Mendoza, whose company is Venezuela’s biggest beer- and flour-maker, denied that and pointedly challenged the government to sell production plants nationalized under Chavez back to the private sector to boost efficiency.

Mendoza would not be intimidated, and at least for now, Maduro backed off.

Toilet paper buyers continue to wait in line,

Fleming, the commerce minister, said monthly consumption of toilet paper was normally 125 million rolls, but that current demand “leads us to think that 40 million more are required.”

“We will bring in 50 million to show those groups that they won’t make us bow down,” he said.

Hmmm… 125 + 40 – 50 still leaves you 115 million rolls short, Minister Flemimg.

Nicolás Maduro first said the yankis were going to kill Henrique Capriles, then he said the Salvadorans were plotting to kill Maduro, and now’s saying that Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe is plotting to kill him, too,

“Uribe is behind a plot to kill me,” Maduro said in a televised speech. “Uribe is a killer. I have enough evidence of who is conspiring, and there are sectors of the Venezuelan right that are involved.”

He did not provide details.

Maduro, as we know, talks to the birds, and placed an oath on anyone voting against him.

Yesterday Maduro also said he’d “willing to talk to the Devil for the peace of Venezuela”, while casting aspersions on the opposition (video in Spanish),

Rather than worrying about Uribe, Maduro ought to keep en eye on Diosdado, or he may get his wish sooner than he thinks.

Linked by Pirate’s Cove. Thank you!

This is what women in Cuba have to use since the country can’t produce paper goods, and doesn’t have money to import them: Pads made of fabric, that must be washed by hand since no one can afford washing machines,

Michael Moore and all of those touting “Cuban healthcare” probably don’t know about this detail of basic sanitation.

Now that there are shortages of tampons, pads, toothpaste, food, and paper goods in Venezuela, the chavistas have come up with a propaganda video extolling the pads made of fabric:

She claims it’s 100% biodegradable, reusable, and prevents you from participating in “savage capitalism.”

No mention of bacteria, stained clothes, or odors.

Meanwhile, someone else didn’t take well to this pre-industrial age idea (what am I saying? Pre-Roman times), and came up with snark,

“We couldn’t leave out [the] biodegradable Bolivarian tampons”

Abridged and available right now. Via Caracas Chronicle, who says

It’s a great chance to hear Rory’s book read by a professional, but hurry: they don’t leave these online forever.

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3 <- This is where he puts the knife in.
• Episode 4
• Episode 5

You can also purchase the book through the Amazon link above.

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. The top story in our hemisphere this week: the announcement of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s death. While the government has announced a presidential election for April 14th, don’t expect chavismo to give up power anytime soon.

Mary O’Grady writes on Chávez ‘The Redeemer’
Even as his rule dimmed their future, Venezuela’s poor clung to the belief that he cared for them.

The cult of adoration is now under way, which fills a need peculiar to Latin America, as Enrique Krauze explains,

In Latin America the need to turn politicians into secular saints is due to the distrust many feel for the region’s weak institutions and a worship for so-called men on horseback—heroes who come to the nation’s rescue, said Mr. Krauze. The region’s deep Catholic tradition of anointing and then venerating saints is also an important factor, he said.

It could never happen here, could it?

ARGENTINA
Argentine court convicts ex-leader Menem
An appeals court in Buenos Aires convicts ex-President Carlos Menem of illegally selling 6,500 tonnes of arms to Croatia and Ecuador during the 1990s.

BRAZIL
Brazil, Where a Judge Made $361,500 in a Month, Fumes Over Pay
Exploiting generous benefits and loopholes, some public sector employees are earning more than $260,000 in a year.

When Congress finally decided in 2012 to allow people to obtain the salary information of its employees, it also required them to find the name of each employee and submit it online. In other words, if someone wanted the information on the legislature’s 25,000-strong work force, then that person had to independently identify them and submit 25,000 separate online requests.

If only it were that easy here in São Paulo. One clerk at the state’s high court, Ivete Sartório, was reportedly paid about $115,000 after convincing her superiors that she should be compensated for not taking leaves of absence. But when asked recently about her wages, a spokesman for the court, Rômulo Pordeus, said that Ms. Sartório’s “matriculation number” was needed to request the information.

When asked how any curious taxpayer could get that number, he replied that it was in Ms. Sartório’s possession, and that he did not want to bother her about it.

CHILE
World’s Largest Ground-Based Telescope Array Opens in Chile Soon: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

COLOMBIA
Colombian ELN rebels free held German Breuer brothers
Two German nationals held hostage in Colombia since early November have been freed, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

CUBA
Cuba dissident ‘forced off road’ to death

How Castro Defines Gender Equality

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Land Rovers and Airplanes Ready as Falklands Votes on U.K. Ties

HONDURAS
Central America
Out of control
In the first of two reports on the threat of rampant violence to Central America’s small republics, we look at the risk of Honduras becoming a failed state

LATIN AMERICA
WATCHING THE LINE
Long Border, Endless Struggle

MEXICO
Power in Mexico
“The Teacher” in detention
Enrique Peña Nieto’s government has arrested a powerful union leader. Is this the start of something?

MEMO FROM MEXICO CITY
Unabated Violence Poses Challenge to Mexico’s New Anticrime Program
Recent violence, including gang rapes and the killing of police officers, has put pressure on Mexico’s new leader as he rolls out a less militaristic crime prevention initiative.

PERU
Peru’s economy likely expanded 6-7 pct in January – cenbank

Peru Keeps 4.25% Rate as CPI Slows Amid Stable GrowthQ
Peru kept borrowing costs unchanged for a 22nd consecutive month as policy makers expect inflation to converge to the mid-point of their target and economic growth to exceed 6 percent.

PUERTO RICO
Ex-Governor of Puerto Rico: GOP Must Lead on Immigration Reform

VENEZUELA
What Is The U.S. Doing At Chavez’s Funeral?

Not playing nice with the dead: Chavez main crimes

The Post Chávez Era Begins

WSJ timeline: Hugo Chávez: From Coup Leader to President
Born Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías on July 28, 1954, in a small farming village in Sabaneta, he was first elected president in 1998, six years after engineering a failed military coup.

Contrary To What Jimmy Carter Says, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez Was No Friend Of The Poor

Rev. Jesse Jackson Attends Hugo Chavez Funeral

The wild card in Venezuela: Armed Chavistas

PARTE 2: ¿CHÁVEZ: LA MUERTE DE UN REVOLUCIONARIO, UN SOCIALISTA…UN DICTADOR?

Iran Leader Lambasted for Tribute to Chávez

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s lionization of his Venezuelan friend Hugo Chávez caused a political firestorm in the Islamic Republic, as doubts arose over whether the two countries could carry on their tight alliance now that Mr. Chávez is dead.

Chavez failed Venezuela: Column
Given the unqualified failure of his socialist experiment, dying young was probably the best thing Hugo Chavez could have done for his country.

Venezuela after Chávez
Now for the reckoning
After 14 years of oil-fuelled autocracy, Hugo Chávez’s successors will struggle to keep the Bolivarian revolution on the road

Venezuela Opposition Faces Hurdles
Chávez’s Heir Apparent Seen Riding Late Leader’s Coattails to Victory in Election Expected Next Month

The nature of Hugo Chávez’s appeal on the American left?

Chavez: Death of a tyrant

The week’s posts and podcast:
SNL Hugo’s Candle in the Wind

What’s left of Latin America’s Left?

Hugo Chavez’s funeral

Chavez aftermath

UPDATE: CHAVEZ IS DEAD

How Bob Menendez sponsored a bill that would have benefited his biggest political donor
Podcast:
US-Latin America this week: The death of Chavez

Carlos Eire translates from Spain’s ABC:

25%
Decline in the production of oil (measured in barrels) during the presidency of Hugo Chávez, due to lack of investments.

90%
of Venezuela’s total income comes from its oil industry. It has the largest oil reserves in the world.  Under Hugo Chávez, production and income have both declined.

100,000 [per day]
Barrels of oil sold to Cuba every day, at bargain prices way below market value. Venezuela produces 2.8 million barrels a day.

16,072
Homicides registered during 2012, a record that can also be measured as 56 murders per 100,000 Venezuelans. It is the second highest murder rate in the world. Number one is Honduras.

25%
Inflation in 2012. In the past seven years, Venezuela has had the highest inflation rates in Latin America, despite controls on prices and exchange rates.

32%
Devaluation of the national currency (Bolívar), decreed in February 2013. Economic analysts forecast even greater devaluations in the near future if Venezuela fails to invest in its oil industry.

50,000
Millions of dollars Venezuela has borrowed from China in the past five years.

1,100
Number of businesses seized by Hugo Chávez during his 14-year dictatorship. These expropriations and the resulting  growth of the government sector have not generated any wealth, but rather increased the overall poverty of Venezuela.

I’ll add another number:
$2 billion
Hugo Chavez’s estimated net worth at the time of his death.

Which brings us to the tweet of the week,

My greatest regret at the passing of America-hating strongman Hugo Chavez, is that he didn’t live long enough to party with Dennis Rodman.

— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) March 6, 2013

UPDATE:
Linked by Pirate’s Cove. Thank you!

Carlos Eire translates the latest from Spanish daily ABC

* A few days ago the medical team attending to Hugo Chavez at a military hospital in Caracas discovered a very large and fast-growing tumor in his left lung. The tumor covers about 35% of that lung.

* Chavez was immediately moved from the military hospital to the presidential residence on the remote island of La Orchila, about 100 miles north of  Caracas.

* This residence in La Orchila was outfitted with medical equipment months ago, as an alternative retreat from the public eye.

* This new tumor is a much more aggressive cancer than the one that affects his pelvic region.

* Chavez’s immune system is so weakened that he cannot fight off any infection, even with the aid of antibiotics. The move to La Orchila is an attempt to isolate him as much as possible.

* To prevent infection, Chavez was removed from the military hospital in a sterile plastic bubble.

* It seems that Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, was able to visit Chavez at La Orchila.

* Chavez’s doctors have given up on saving his life, but are doing everything they can to prolong it, even if just for a few days or weeks.  At present he is only receiving palliative care, and no recovery is expected.

* Despite all dire reports and rumors, nearly 60% of Venezuelans expect Chavez to fully recover and assume his post as president.

Meanwhile, VP Maduro says that

Chavez has been undergoing “tougher” new treatment for cancer including chemotherapy at the military hospital where he has been for the last two weeks, his vice-president said.

Certainly not an optimistic report. Is Maduro paving the way for worse news?

The Future of ‘Cubazuela’
The ties between Castro and Chávez have kept the island nation afloat. What now? The ties, and a heck of a lot of money:

Cuba, ruled by the Castro brothers since 1959, has a lot to lose if Mr. Chávez dies. Since 2007, Venezuela has provided the Communist island nation about $10 billion a year in economic aid, mostly in the form of cut-rate oil and inflated payments for thousands of Cuban doctors and other professionals, according to the University of Miami’s Cuban-studies center. Total aid and investment from Venezuela now amount to about 22% of Cuba’s annual economic output, said Carmelo Mesa Lago, a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh.

If the relationship between Havana and Caracas were to end or falter, many Cubans fear that the island’s threadbare economy could be pushed into depression, as in the early 1990s, when Cuba lost Soviet aid and its economy plunged by about 40%. “It could lead to a social upheaval,” said Riordan Roett, the head of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University.

What now, indeed?

UPDATE:
Linked by Hot Air. Thank you!

Hugo Chavez has not been seen in public for a month, after departing for Cuba where supposedly he went for a fourth surgery. His Twitter account has been silent since November 1, 2012, when he used to Twitter frequently.

Rumors are being leaked, but by whom? The Cuban government? Someone close to Chavez? Apparently the doctors treating him are not allowed to leave the hospital grounds, and no one in their right mind would chance getting caught. . . unless approved by someone on high.

Keep that in mind as you read this, which was originally published in Spanish newspaper ABC and Carlos Eire now translates,

According to Univision and Spain’s ABC, Hugo Chavez is now in a “severe” condition.  New details leaked yesterday include the following:

* In the five weeks following his latest surgery, Chavez has lost around 20 kilos (44 pounds), and looks so emaciated that if photos were to be released, panic would ensue among his followers.

* During surgery, he suffered a heart attack.

* In addition to removing part of his intestines, surgeons removed his prostate.

* Contrary to a recent AP report, he is no longer at the elite CIMEQ hospital, but at an underground bunker hospital beneath the Plaza of the Revolution — a facility built for Fidel.  (If this is true, then the AP fluff piece featured here yesterday  must have been a clumsy smokescreen spun by the Ministry of Truth and obediently reproduced by AP).

At this rate, who ever is leaking this ought to be in an “underground command post, deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker, under the brick and steel of a non-descript building.”

Related, IN SPANISH:

Jaime Bayly talks to an exiled Cuban doctor who explains the treatment that may have been rendered to Chavez

Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding

David Frum exposes How Hugo Chavez brought Afghanistan to South America. Frum, who’s been to Afghanistan and Iraq, traveled to the world’s most dangerous city: Caracas, and found that

The violence in Venezuela isn’t political, exactly. It is more a reflection of the general breakdown of law in a society where every institution of state has been corrupted and degraded.

The police had long since given up patrolling the poor neighborhoods on the hills surrounding central Caracas. Now they had ceased patrolling the high-rent districts, too — that is, when they were not actively in cahoots with the criminals who committed “express kidnappings”: jumping out at a motorist as he punched the keypad to the locked garage beneath his apartment building, putting a gun to his head, and abducting him for two hours. The ransoms were typically relatively small, a few thousand dollars. The kidnappers made their money on volume.

Frum continues,

For all the talk about Chavez’s “socialist revolution,” his regime rests, caudillo-style, on the backing of corrupt, drug-dealing generals. Henry Silva Rangel, appointed minister of defense in January 2012, was one of four senior Chavez associates named by the U.S. government in 2008 as Foreign Narcotics Kingpins (yes, that’s the actual title). In a 2010 interview, Rangel warned that the army would not allow the Chavez “revolution” to be voted out of office. Rangel maintains a tight working relationship with another Chavez brother, Adnan, who succeeded Chavez’s father as governor of the family’s home state of Barinas.

Despite vast oil wealth, the Venezuelan economy has tumbled into terrible straits. Inflation roars at 25%, unemployment exceeds 8%, the non-oil economy stagnates, electricity flickers on and off irregularly, and basic commodities such as rice and beans have become scarce in the marketplaces and must be obtained as rations from government-controlled stores.

Yet there remains enough cash on hand for the government to open the spending spigots in election years such as 2012, building showcase housing developments amid the slums, and distributing keys to its most proven supporters.

That would be the boliburguesía, the ” enriched inner circle that will attempt to sustain Chavez-style rule after Chavez’s demise.”

With the help of the Stasi-trained Cubans, that is. One needs a little muscle, after all. And kabuki diplomacy, too,

Cuba will not only be the ultimate enforcer of the Pacto de la Habana, but will also try to ensure Latin American diplomatic support for Venezuela’s government when Raúl Castro takes over the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) regional bloc at a ceremony in Chile late this month.

Here’s the situation: As Andres Oppenheimer points out,

Chávez has followed Castro’s model of creating a permanent “state of war” — creating confrontations with the church, the media, the business community or “imperial” powers — to justify his grab of absolute powers.

But Chávez didn’t limit himself to Venezuela; instead, he’s actively fomented a “state of war” by sending money to like-minded heads of state in Latin America – think of Cristina Fernandez’s Falklands saber-rattling – and cozying up to Iran and drug lords (Venezuela’s the #1 shipping point for drugs).

He calls it The War of All the People.

Hugo’s getting away with it because, as Carlos Eire eloquently points out,

covetousness is one key to understanding the pirate empires of Latrine America. The other key is impunity.

Who in the USA is paying attention?

Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding.

Now that Hugo Chávez doesn’t need to be sworn in to start his new six-year term, there’s this:
In Chavez’s absence, U.S. works to open communication with Venezuela

With cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez battling for his life, the Obama administration has embarked on a discreet but concerted weeks-long diplomatic initiative to open channels of communication with his sharply anti-American government.

The effort to break through a years-old deep freeze with one of the world’s top oil suppliers comes as Venezuela plunged deeper into an institutional crisis Wednesday over Chavez’s long absence since undergoing surgery Dec. 11 in Cuba.

But American officials have been preparing for a post-Chavez scenario, one in which they can engage Caracas on a variety of concerns the State Department has had about the Venezuelan government’s policies. They include the close alliance Venezuela has built with Iran, extensive narco-­trafficking through Venezuelan territory and prickly economic issues important to U.S. companies, such as their inability to repatriate earnings from here because of currency controls.

The premise is that Vice President Nicolas Maduro is “seen as a negotiator.”

How so?

Maduro is considered an ideologue close to Cuba’s Communist leadership and in lock step with Chavez’s long-standing policy of distancing Venezuela from the United States, which had been a close ally until his presidency began in 1999. As foreign minister, a position he still holds, Maduro has led Chavez’s campaign to forge closer ties with U.S. adversaries such as Iran.
…
On a practical level, the Venezuelan government stopped cooperating with Washington’s counter-drug operations and for years was accused of assisting guerrillas in neighboring Colombia, the closest U.S. ally in the region. Under Maduro’s watch as foreign minister, Venezuela became friendlier with pariah states such as Syria, Libya and Belarus.

That’s some negotiating, for a “pragmatist“,

What does “pragmatist” mean in this context? The functional definition is: those with whom the Obama administration wishes to “engage.” The substantive definition is: an anti-American who is willing to play the likes of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi for suckers as long as no action is required to do so.

Then there’s the question of how long would Maduro stay in power, considering Diosdado Cabello’s position as head of the National Assembly.

What can possibly go wrong?

Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding.

UPDATE
Jesus & Hugo: