The governor of the state of Carabobo,Henrique Salas Feo, said that a great part of the problems of scarcity and cost of living increases in Venezuela could be attributed to the corruption of people close to its government and Cuba’s inefficiency managing the facilities at Puerto Cabello.
“Puerto Cabello is the entry gate to Venezuela;it handles 80percent of everything that enters or leaves the country, but since the Cubans took over, things are getting worse by the day, which is affecting Venezuelans’ daily life,” Salas said in a telephone interview with El Nuevo Herald.
“The economic reality of all Venezuelans depends on the good management of the port,but imported goods are incurring in enormous delays that create scarcity and increase costs that end up transferred to the consumer,”..
According to the governor’s estimates, poor port management and corruption are provoking a 30-day delay in containers entering the country,which contrasts with the 72hours it took before Cubans took control.
The port terminal is of particular importance due to the severe deterioration of the Venezuelan productivity as a result of government policies, which has increased the dependence on imports, he said.
The situation created by expropriations, the strict currency exchange control and the system that controls pricing is leading Venezuela to go abroad to acquire basic consumer products.
The Chávez administration has also granted concessions to Cuban enterprises to acquire products abroad, a situation that lends itself to corruption.
“[The Cubans] control everything that comes in and goes out......
....“They are bleeding the country dry,”.....
It was one of the populist leader’s infamous “chain broadcasts”, in which all regular programming on public access television and radio is suspended so that he can trumpet the achievements of his “Bolivarian revolution”, often for hours on end.
...Mr Chávez has been in power for more than 13 years and the opposition sees this year’s poll – due to take place on October 7 – as its best chance yet of ousting one of Latin America’s most controversial leaders. Henrique Capriles, the pro-business opposition leader, is Mr Chávez’s main rival. Now allegations of government electoral abuses have raised fears about how far will Mr Chávez go to ensure his victory.
......A major opposition gripe is Mr Chávez’s almost unlimited access to state oil revenues – Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world – that allows him to “buy” votes by investing heavily in his popular social programmes. Central government spending grew by 41.1 per cent in real terms last month. By contrast, Mr Capriles must raise campaign funds privately.
....Adding to the tension are opposition allegations that people fear they will lose their jobs if they fail to vote for Mr Chávez. Many Venezuelans fear their vote will not be secret. The names of signatories of a petition for a 2004 referendum that attempted to unseat Mr Chávez were made public. The signatories were later blacklisted by government ministries.....