A Post-Chavez Venezuelan Odyssey

The armed gangs and Guardia nacional are going through the city shooting [in]to any house or building that sounds like there is someone protesting.

Eight months have passed since I read a post on a favorite forum of mine that sent chills up my spine. He called himself “Sender47” and that is the only name I have known him by. He says he lives in Venezuela and makes his way every day in a communist-ruled country. There is no free speech and opposition leaders mysteriously die or are imprisoned. Things have worsened since the death of Chavez. Under the current leadership of Arturo Madero, even as the store-shelves were bare and the Venezuelan currency so weak that no other countries except China would lend to them, the President raised wages for all workers. That first time Sender47 came into the site—he arrived with these chilling words:

Quote “I don’t know if there is anyone with any power or connections reading this, but they are killing us, media anything is good. We cannot trust our own A.F [Air Force]. The armed gangs and Guardia nacional are going through the city shooting to any house or building that sounds like there is someone protesting. [T]they are even entering the buildings by force and checking apartment by apartment. This is probably the darkest hour in Venezuela.

I really hope Chavez is burning in the last circle of hell.” Unquote

Since that day, Sender47 has posted articles and updates sporadically. Many regulars on our forum contemplate how we could help him leave the country. He has remained anonymous to protect himself and his family from the brutality of the government. He has often asked that we pass on this or that article letting others in our country and the western world know how his country is imploding under runaway inflation and scarcity.

I introduce you to him now, a young engineering professional, living and working in Venezuela. His knowledge of English is rudimentary, and we have presented his responses in an unedited fashion.

KH:  Sender, please tell us something about yourself. How old are you, and what is your profession?

Working a little of everything is common here, even if you have a main job, one normally is not enough to make a living. We call this “Matar tigrito”.

Sender47: 27 years old. As of work, sometimes I work in a small copies company per hour, small projects that appear in the area of ip telephony (I’m an engineer). [I] help friends or family with small works like, guide people with legalization of their academic records, degrees, basically, what you need to show their knowledge outside and get a job. I say guide, because there are strict controls about only the person or near relative can legalize their documents. Sometimes help selling snacks in events, and even helped a friend selling juice on an avenue.

Working a little of everything is common here, even if you have a main job, one normally is not enough to make a living. We call this “Matar tigrito”. I once worked as a project engineer in a big company, but I could make more by my own, and also had some projects in mind.

KH:  Where did you grow up? Tell us about your family.

Sender47: I live in a middle/middle-low neighbor called La Candelaria. Good family, never was with Chavez because they don’t trust in military.

KH: Who has been influential in shaping your worldview?

Sender47: Although I am quite akin with the philosophy of Ayn Rand, I only discovered her like 3-4 years ago.

My favorite novel [is] The Count of Monte Cristo, I just love it and have read it many times. And there is a lot of philosophy and internal struggle in Edmond between good and evil, right and wrong.

Maybe is laughable for some people but, I suppose it began like any children seeing and reading about comic heroes (comics, manga, anime), that defended justice but refused to impose over others although they could, and much times one always though that what the heroe[s] wanted was the right thing, and perfectly logical.

I think people tend to underestimate this stories, just because they don’t come in the form of a novel, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a message, and many times a very good one.

Then I think comes my favorite novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, I just love it and have read it many times. And there is a lot of philosophy and internal struggle in Edmond between good and evil, right and wrong.

Lastly I would have to go to Ayn Rand, and of course the main actor Atlas Shrugged. Sometimes I ask myself if it would have had the same impact if I weren’t living the hell she described… In fact I started reading it and… around 2 weeks later the fair price law was announced…talk about timing.

KH: Can you describe a typical day for the Venezuelan? How hard is it to obtain staple foods? How big a role does the black market play in getting basic goods? Are most goods imported?

Sender47: The typical day… it depends… if you are working for the state or on the everyday fewer private companies, get up probably 4 am and try to be by 8 at work, it depends on where you live, is cheaper if you live far from the city, but at the same time the transport is more and more expensive… there haven’t been many new avenues and the like, since the time of marcos perez Jimenez, so you can imagine that this routes are not enough for the population and number of cars 60 years later, and if to that we sum the bad state of the roads…well… the traffic can be horrible. And of course there is scarcity of automobile parts.

Then you have the informal side of the economy, which is around half of the economy, some is try to find cheaper goods, in other states, wholesalers or as for now, in the regulated market. And try to sell it in the streets. Also all the system around this, pay for someone in line, or bring the family to buy each person as the number of goods are regulated, that is why the g[o]v responded with more controls like the biometric system… have a taxi… moto taxi… run errands, whatever you need to survive. Is easy to follow what the gov says, think of the resellers as bad people, that they are the cause of scarcity, and that the[y] speculate with the prices of regulated goods. But of course nobody that supports the gov seems to ask themselves why this didn’t happen before. If this was an economic war, wouldn’t have been better to attack this way the symbol of the revolution Hugo Chavez when he was alive? Isn’t this a result of the controls that became even greater with Maduro? I don’t think the people that still believe in this will think otherwise, they are fanatics by now.

The black market… there are things that already doesn’t exist, but for scarce things, that can still be found, but is rare, and I don’t meant luxury, I meant things like whole milk, cooking oil, deodorant, razors (those two are damn difficult ones) etc, the place to find them is on the black market (Which the gov said it was going to stop them from selling basic goods, starting next week). In there you can find those products that are sold under the gov-scope (or truly speaking under the nose from a well bribed custom agent or National Guard) from importers or fabrics, or gotten through long hours in lines (lines that unless you are unemployed you cannot do) for buying at regulated price.  Yes, we import a lot, Many things that once were produced in the country are now brought from outside, rice from Brazil, milk from Nicaragua, meat from Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay are just examples.

KH: How do people plan for the inflation? Do you get to a point where you barter in goods and avoid trading with currency?

Sender47: How do we plan… i think we don’t plan anymore, and try to live to [by] the day. Each time more we depend of credit card to pay for basic goods, but that eventually will end blowing up. I have to say that we are starting to do that. First it was a thing of scarcity, you find cooking oil, another person find toilette paper, or corn flour (main ingredient in the Venezuelan diet), and you negotiate with those.

KH: How are Venezuelan businesses doing?

Sender47: Venezuelan business nowadays… Most already closed and went out of the country, some went to produce to another country and import to Venezuela, if they are still here, most have to import the raw material, which makes the only option to be dependent of the gov for USD to buy outside. But this arise some problems. The state regulates the price “according” (I use semicolon because it is really is whatever they thing right, whenever they think is right) to the costs, but this is taking that what you are importing was paid at one of the official exchange rates depending of what are you importing. Of course, the gov cannot give enough dollars to an all importing economy, so many go to the black market, and then their costs goe way beyond the numbers of the gov… So you have two option, bribe to evade being denounced (and hope you don’t get in the bad side of an inspector), or be one of the gov with friends in the right places which take part of the winnings.

KH: Do the majority of Venezuelans support President Maduro? Any differences from a Chavez rule? How much are Cuba and other countries involved on the political scene?

Sender47: Well that is complicated, the logical option would be to look at popularity surveys where he is around 30% from being 56% year and a half ago. But there are also a lot of political intrigues behind survey companies. In the street, you can find a lot of peple angry with the situation, the problem is who the blame, if you are with Maduro then the blame is of companies, the opposition, the economic war, the international right wing, USA, USA, USA … I know I said those are the ones that take the blame a lot, but they repeat it day after day after day, in all their media and also in mandatory radio and TV broadcasts, that depending on the mood (or a well prepared communicational strategy), they use without discrimination, for as long as they need.

The government is… making a joke with Bruce Lee words… the government is no-government, is formless, shapeless… and sluggish like oil. There is so much nonsense, they create new laws every day, reform them the next day, create ministries, vice ministries, then they fisionate them, eliminate them. I think this is part of the communicational strategy, keep making news, don’t let people remember promises you made, contradiction you said, errors you made, bad things that happen every day. I mentioned at the beginning waiting for something to become old news, well… this is how they do it. Is a complete chaotic show, you never know what will happen the next day, you only know things are getting worse.

The difference with Chavez government for me is simple, Maduro is not charismatic, he is not really good with words, in fact pretty clumsy, and is not good reading the moment as Chavez was, but this is a show so he has to talk a lot. And to compensate it he just went full radical, control everything.

Cuba…. They are so…so..so in this that is incredible, most of them are agents of espionage for the gov inside the army, the travels of high officilas including Maduro to Cuba are regular, and many advisors are from there. If Cuba is the political master, China definitely is the economic… we probably owe our souls to them by now, huge loans are made by China, as any international fund will ask for economic reforms. Is known that oil is part of the token for them, probably there is gold in there too. And one of the things China asks is that the money must be used to buy them, so chinese products are invading the market. Continued on page 2 >>>>>

Lastly, the international support to this madness comes from the gov that are getting benefits fron them, besides Cuba and China, any “friend” government (You hate the USA, ok, then you are a friend), Nicaragua, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, everyone in the association called ALBA, and little Caribbean governments that receive money and oil from Venezuela to buy they loyalties in the OAS [Organization of America States].

KH: Can you give us more concrete examples about Cuba’s involvement in Venezuela?

Sender47: Sorry for the delay, the country this is a spiral of madness the currency lost 25% of its value just in this last week on the black market. Capture orders were released for three opposition leaders in a account of a suppossed “magnicide plot” (Since Chavez we have probably heard more tha 50 of those accusations), one of them is highly influencial Maria Corina Machado, the second Diego Arria former President of the Security Council of the UN in 1992, and Henrique Salas Römer former Governor of Carabobo State.

About the Cubans, there can be found many articles in the web. And it has its own wiki

Apart the Cuban doctors, brought by Chavez for its program “Barrio Adentro”, the government tried to deny the military involvement. Although it was vox populi. The first, that we can call a qualified voice (apart than anyone obviously in opposition to the gov) was Antonio Rivero.  We have even Cubans flags on military bases

From personal experience, in not rare to find someone with Cuban accent on ministries.

KH: Do you want to leave? If not, why not? If so, where would you look to go?

Sender47: Temporarily, to study and to have some savings, yes. But I want to get back.

Why… that is a question often asked here, people normally seek the way to stay outside, even if they are at first going to study abroad. The logical option is to stay away. The gov, [an uts] followers say that these people is gonna go to clean bathrooms in a Mcdonald, and that this traitors are not needed. (Of course when you count at least 6 dollars an hour for part time in Mcdonald, in ten hours you have the month minimum wage here, black market price -.-).

But I wanna come back for 2 reasons. One, I’m not gonna let them win (yeah I know, a lot of people say it is childish, but if not one, who? The childish desire of another person?). Second, Ther[e] are so much opportunities Venezuela, Is not only oil, and minerals. Enormous wi[de]ndy open fields, for Eolic energy, thousand of square miles for agriculture and cat[t]le r[a]ising. Thousand of kilometers of beautiful beaches, We have deserts, snowy peaks, forests, jungle, islands, tepuis… If you are gonna invest in some place, this is a sea of opportunities. Of course the markets think the same, anytime the actual gov seemed in peril the market reacted favorably .-. .

KH: Have you ever traveled outside Venezuela?

Sender47: Yes… although it has been more than ten years since the last time. The various countries from the American continent including USA and Argentina, and West Europe (Spain, Germany and so..)

KH:         Recently, the Obama Administration announced new sanctions against top politicos high in the Venezuelan government, ostensibly to support human rights and the democratic process. Maduro was quick to respond, encouraging the people to expect a US invasion soon. Even the Opposition forces against Maduro tried to calm fears.

“We appreciate and are grateful for the support of the international community, but we neither want nor accept that any of its members take on roles that are ours to assume.”

Sender47: “I have 3 places to sign vs the decree of Obama in a 50 meters radius of my house =-=. And almost everyday the gov does a demonstration and respective compulsive national broadcast versus that decree. Seemly they succeeded in avert the attention from… scarcity… lines… violence… inflation (Which we have no idea what it has been since the beginning of the year). And of course the leftist media now is on, poor dictator Maduro being bullied by big bad USA.”

***

The sanctions were announced one month (almost to the day) of the Summit of Americas, held in Panama City April 10. With almost 5 million Venezuelan protest signatures against the U.S., Maduro is riding a swell of approval. Brazil, Argentina, and Chile have been largely silent regarding the dire situation and rights violations in Venezuela. There is speculation that U.S. policy and major announcement was to push support away from the communist regime. There has also been speculation that the mixed politics of embracing Cuba recently as the US denounces Venezuela has been done in an attempt to distance the two countries from one another as Cuba is desperate resources and a new relationship with the US, despite some minor political set-backs. Reports are recently surfacing stating the Venezuelan government is forcing state employees to sign the petitions or lose their jobs. It is hard to fathom that these sanctions will have any meaningful effect on Venezuelan policies and will make the lives of ordinary people all the more miserable.

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About the Author: Kaila Geary Halling

Kaila Geary Halling is an entrepreneur and writer who loves to read. She is especially passionate about everyday heroes who advance technology, which lifts the standard of living and quality of life for all. You will often find her writing on the wild beaches of Baja. She is the co-author of Pendulum of Justice, published in August 2013, and a frequent contributor to www.galtsgulchonline.com, an Atlas Shrugged the Movie forum.