Last night, my wife and I enjoyed dinner and a movie with a Venezuelan couple from my wife’s workplace. Over Montana’s burgers we learned that Venezuela’s once-functional democracy has been turning into a full-blown dictatorship. Who knew? I’ve heard the name “Chavez” on the radio but I’ve never really tuned in: as it turns out, the President of Venezuela is on a major power trip, and is steadily ruining one of the most beautiful countries on earth.

“It’s complicated,” said Mario, the husband of my wife’s co-worker. “It’s hard to explain to people who do not live there.” But Mario tried, and here’s what I could remember and put together from our conversation.

CORRUPTION
Hugo Chavez is currently the President of Venezuela. Elected on a wave of a hopeful expectation, Chavez made promises of democracy, wealth and equality. But the democracy promised by Chavez has been slowly looking more like the rule of a tyrant. Here are the words and concerns I learned last night:

• Control: Chavez has been taking control of all privatized industries like oil and telecommunications, removing American and Venezuelan workers and replacing them with his own. The result is ridiculously high prices, decreasing product availability (as emphasized in this recent article from the Washington Post) and zero accountability. The telephones rarely work, and gas prices are through the roof. As reported by Reuters, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that Chavez is “really, really destroying his own country, economically, politically.”
• Election rigging: After citizens twice demanded a recall, Chavez finally gave them an election. But no opposition party was running, the voting went electronic, and widespread popular belief says the Chavez rigged the results to stay in power.
• Strike: In 2002, oil workers in Venezuela went on strike to protest Chavez’s actions. The completely ceased Venezeula’s export of oil, which was averaging 2,800,000 barrels a day. In response, Chavez fired over 18,000 skilled employees.
• Murder: Chavez is rumoured to have killed (10? 100?) protestors at a rally in Caracas, in 2002.

CURRENCY
In the 1980s, one American dollar was worth 4.5 Venezuelan dollars (called a “bolivar”). Not a bad exchange rate: Venezuelans would fly to Miami all the time for good shopping at a decent rate. Today, 20 years later, it takes over two thousand bolivars to match one American dollar. The exact figures as of Feb. 20, 2007:

1 US Dollar = 2,148.80 Venezuelan Bolivar
1 Venezuelan Bolivar (VEB) = 0.0004654 US Dollar (US)

Now, it seems that in an attempt to dupe Venezuelans into believing their currency is stronger than it is, Chavez is proposing to chop off three zeroes from the Bolivar denominations. As blogger St. Wendeler says, this is like trying to solve the problem of global warming by using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. George Reisman, another economic/politic blogger, discusses Chavez’s other so-called solutions, which include threatening to jail grocery store owners and nationalize their businesses if they violate the country’s expanding price controls.

GETTING OUT
“The worst thing that can happen to a country is not losing money. It’s losing knowledge.” – These are the words of a Venezuelan professor, visiting Canada, as told by Mario.

“But all the people with university degrees and any sort of education, they are leaving. Soon nobody will be left to speak up for Venezuelans.”

They’re only leaving if they can. To get a passport to leave Venezuela, you have to camp out of the streets for over 48 hours. Unless you have about $500 to skip the line-up (But nobody does, because the inflation rate is so high.) And once you’ve done the paperwork, you have to wait for about 3 months to receive your passport in the mail.

80% of the country’s population is poor. Venezuelans can barely afford to live in the country anymore. The President is corrupt, and only half of the population knows it. Recent reports (January 30, 2007, Dominican Today) say that more changes are on the way – changes that could end presidential term limits. Henry Krakower, a Venezuelan citizen interviewed by the Dominican Today thinks “we’re headed toward totalitarianism.”

I just heard of all this information last night, for the first time. I encourage everybody to find out more, as I will be doing. I don’t know what can be done, but it’s a sad story in Venezuela. Let’s start by getting educated.

FURTHER READING