The letter in the Guardian yesterday from trade unionist Ossie Warwick excusing the failures of the Chavista policies does no service either to this country or to those people who believe in the biblical injunction that "the truth shall set you free."
Mr Warwick conveniently ignores the real reasons why Venezuela is in the mess that it is in, while choosing instead to hark back to the ills in that unfortunate society before Chavez came to power. Put another way, two or even three wrongs do not make a right, and while it is true that there were many ills that needed to be corrected when Chavez came to power, Chavez simply "cured" them by other wrongs that sent the country spinning into the terrible vortex that it is now in.
Things really started to "go south" in 2003 when Chavez introduced price controls on basic goods. The idea was to make the prices of items such as sugar, flour, milk, rice, corn flour and cooking oil more affordable. Producers complained that they couldn't produce these items at the new controlled prices because they would be doing so at a loss.
Many just sold their goods on a burgeoning nascent black market. Many just went out of business all together. The result was that Venezuela (whose import bill was already high) had to import even more basic items to feed its people. And this was in a country where already something like 95 per cent of its needs were being imported!
Put another way, the writing was on the wall for the country's eventual collapse more than a decade ago.
The government also put the "squeeze" on manufacturers denying them access to foreign exchange to replace ageing plant and equipment. The result was that when factories broke down the owners simply closed them down. They had become uneconomic to run.
In thinking typical of the 1960s Mr Warwick has signally failed to acknowledge that Messrs Castro, Chavez, Maduro et al, just might have had something to do with the fact that the wealthiest country in Latin America in terms of resources is now an economic basket case. Why? According to them, it is because of the evil capitalists in the world led by the United States! Their policies, of course, had nothing to do with the breakdown in economic order. There was no waste, no corruption, no profligacy. It is all other people's fault!
Mr Warwick quite correctly points out that the massive drop in oil prices have literally bankrupted Venezuela. But, wait a minute! Weren't we here in T&T also adversely affected by the drop in oil and gas prices?
But here in T&T, as bad as things are, our people still have toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, cooking oil, milk and a thousand other things that they don't have in Venezuela. Why? As bad as we have it here, we are still light years ahead of Venezuela. Why? Could it be because successive T&T governments on both sides of the political divide have always recognised that in order for a country to succeed the business class must be allowed to do what it does best ... conduct business?
Messrs Chavez and Maduro have made it clear that the business class in Venezuela are an anathema and to be treated like cockroaches in a kitchen. The economic insecticide that they have sprayed in Venezuela has all but annihilated the infestation of that country's business and entrepreneurial class. It is a little like spraying all the food in the kitchen heavily with insecticide. You will kill all the cockroaches, but you'll also either kill or make seriously ill all who try to eat the poisoned food.
Could it be that whatever the faults of our politicians on both sides that they have (whether grudgingly or not) always obeyed the democratic process? No T&T politician has been locked up the way Maduro has locked up his political opponents (eg, Leopoldo. The poor guy is in jail serving a 13-year sentence for encouraging Venezuelans to protest against Maduro and his policies.)
Mr Warwick boasts that the Chavistas have won all of the elections since 1998. Well, that's not exactly true. In Parliamentary elections in December the Opposition won control of the National Assembly. Since winning that election the Opposition have been trying to get a recall referendum under way that would end Maduro's term. But Vice-President Isturiz has said that the collected signatures were "fraudulent" and in a speech on May 17, Maduro said that the National Assembly had "lost political validity" and that it was "a matter of time before it disappears!"
Now, if that isn't a direct threat to the democratic process then I don't know what is! Can you imagine a T&T Prime Minister saying that about the Opposition here?
No, Mr Warwick. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a bus driver becoming President of a country. But there is something very wrong with a President who so obviously gets his ideas on how to govern from the back of a box of cornflakes and the Cartoon Network.
Robin Montano