While the people of Venezuela die for lack of medicine, Argentinean Authorities Investigate Scam to Sell Medicine to Venezuela: Businessmen Linked to Kirchners Allegedly Sell Medicines to Maduro Regime for 10 Times the Cost (emphasis added),
Infobae points out that businessmen Pablo Rubio and Juan José Levy, who owns Farmamed and Esmer laboratories, are behind the illegal export business. They’ve had business with Venezuela for several years now due to deals between former president Cristina Kirchner’s government and the Chávez-Maduro regime involving Argentinean medicine for Venezuelan oil.
Rubio and Levy’s scam was simple enough: Using expired permits,
the shipment’s declared amount was USD $12.9 million, while the invoice for the shipment which Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A. issued to Farmamed S.R.L., an export business, amounted to USD $780,482,000.
Cristina always caterwauled about vulture funds, ignoring her vulture associates,
Infobae reports that Rubio and Levy obtained their contracts due to their close links with Julio de Vido, the former Minister of Planning under Kirchner. As a result of the deals, Venezuela bought medicine from Argentina at 10 times their real market value in the midst of the country’s worsening medicine shortage.
In other Argentina news, Lanata was back last Sunday on Periodismo Para Todos; here’s the show (in Spanish). He starts with the safes Cristina built to keep her money,
UPDATE,
Over in Venezuela, Starving Venezuelan Women Push Through Columbian Border Controls Looking for Food. “We’re desperate, we have nothing: no cooking oil, no sugar, no rice.”