Socialism in Venezuela

London 15.02.05 | Recent news about floods in my country have preoccupied me, so this morning I picked up the phone and had a chat with a good friend who lives in Merida. He gave me a quick brief of the situation commenting that the disaster caused by heavy rains did not affect Merida that much; Santa Cruz de Mora on the other hand has been badly affected. The Mocoties river, converted, owing to the downpour know locally as "vaguada", into a very rapid and powerful mudslide, came rushing down the valley and destroyed very many houses, the bus terminal and other buildings located in the lower area of Santa Cruz. Access to Merida is only through the high Andean road for slides have blocked the highway that connects the city to El Vigia. Fortunately the area where my family lives wasn't affected.

My friend told me that he had been watching for a number of days, over at the weather channel, how the "vaguada" formed in the Amazon basin near Bolivia and Peru and moved slowly towards Venezuela. According to him the cloud formation is very similar to that of a hurricane, the difference between the two fronts being the velocity of the winds transporting the clouds of the cumulonimbus type. Given that in similar storm fronts associated with hurricanes heavy downpours are the norm, he was quite amazed that no one alerted about the consequences that would ensue in light of the much slower pace of the "vaguada" concluding "so much for the chavista socialism and care for the poor!"

Well that sums it up quite nicely, doesn't it? We have learned about the more than $1 billion allocated by the regime back in 1999 to reconstruct Vargas that to this day has no infrastructure; we have learned how efficient civil servants proposed coherent plans to avoid further tragedies in Vargas were dismissed; we know how Chavez decided, in detriment to the benefit of his much touted and 'loved' constituency, to reject US offers of help; we can count with the fingers of one hand the new developments that have been built for the thousands of victims of the 1999 tragedy; we can affirm that the international aid received has also been stolen or pilfered or let to expire; in sum we have seen a six year long movie of chavista socialism that keeps multiplying the number of poor people; we have witnessed how ring master of extortionists is buried as a revolutionary hero; we have seen the utter devaluation and destruction of our only profitable industry; we are yet to learn about the fate of Silvino Bustillos, emblem of the growing list of the missing, assassinated or illegally imprisoned by this regime; we saw the details of FARC narcoterrorist Rodrigo Granda in our electoral roll; we remember the capture of Wladimiro Montesinos, protected by the highest spheres of power, whilst we keep counting the victims of political violence; we are yet to see the regime arresting any of the terrorists that Colombia alleges live in Venezuela; we can all feel the hatred amongst ourselves and the deep division that has fractured our once happy go lucky society; we, Venezuelans, can now be taken to another country to face 'revolutionary justice' owing to the sick infatuation of a degenerated army man whose formation was meant to help guarantee our sovereignty; that and more is what is known as socialism in Venezuela.

Whoever is watching from afar should be best advised to be extremely wary of this type of socialism.