The feeblemindedness (oligophrenia) is staggering; a bit like the size of the mountains of food now going rotten. Less than
four weeks ago the Venezuelan "Minister for Food" denied that 30,000 tons of food had decomposed; now a total of
more than four times that amount has been discovered in various sites throughout the country. Chavez has been declaring '
economic war' on 'capitalist' retailers and blaming them for rising food prices; however, what began with a government investigation with the Bolivarian Intelligence Service searching for missing commodities in Venezuela's chief port Puerto Cabello, ended with them '
uncovering the stink of several containers'; since then
more and more rotten and out-of-date food is being discovered all over the country. Click on image for "A Scandal Hard To Hide": diagram of locations, dates and weights etc plus an indication of the size of the problem! More on Venezuela's "Agricultural Collapse" at
El Universal (Spanish); synopsis from
The Devil's Excrement.
Up to 2003, Venezuela was self-sufficient in meat, importing about 1% of its needs, but then the Chavez administration began regulating prices and local producers could not compete with the cheap Government imports.
Venezuela now imports 50% of it's meat and this is related in a way to the local butcher's woes reported in the 'economic wars' link above. Anyway, as someone who worked for several years in that industry I find this fact astounding, and sad.
Photo credit: Yunior Lugo
4 comments:
Span, getting your porky dagger out every Saturday night to frighten and amuse the ladies does not constitute working in that industry!
Being serious for a second what is Chavez endgame? It's very sinister isn't it as well as puzzling.
How did you know that! ;-)
Endgame...very unclear. What is clear is that the same steps down the classic road to shite are being trod. I haven't been posting much on Venezuela but the clamping down of opposition, often involving arrests on trumped up charges continues. As does the shutting down of any sort of critical press. Build up of arms, build up of ultra-loyal militias, control of imports and money exchange, control of transport and food supplies, almost total control of judiciary and government...three "c" options:
Coup
Civil war
Cuba 2
It's strange but until recently, apart from your posts, this was slipping under the radar but I think people are becoming more aware of it. I don't mean the general public I mean those with an interest in world affairs beyond the Isle of Wight.
I bet if the BBC news boards were still going you would have noticed!
;-)
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