Then we're in agreement. Chavez installed programs that worked and that helped millions of people and that no other Venezuelan administration installed in the many other oil boons throughout their history.
I wasn't arguing that Maduro was managing them wonderfully.
Yeah, I don't think $800k is going to be enough to bribe a major economy like Argentina into something as big and important as a regional organization.
Not even the richest country in the history of the world (the US) has enough money to bribe 12 nations with 400 million + people into joining a union that THEY run. OAS kinda started like this and that was back when the US was even richer than it is now and South America was poorer and more submissive.
There's no logical reason for UNASUR to have any one nation as its hegemon.
I was a child during Garcia's first term but I get what price controls means.
I responded to that guy because I assume that like most gringos, he groups all Third World nations together so when they hear "They're forming lines for basic supplies!" they think it's a Somalia or Congo situation where people are literally starving on the streets.
I was just explaining that that isn't the case. The shortages are a result of companies' desire to maximize profit, not because there's no food around.
This is where I disagree having lived in venezuela until recently. The scarcity of food and basic goods was very common even in 2007. Now it reach drastic proportions but I remember shopping for food in 2010 and they had rationing or the national guard gave out the basic goods.
Maduro gets a lot of the blame but it was all chavez's fault. This was going to happen with chavez because it was happening under chavez. You may not know but when chavez won in 2012 he wanted to install 21st century bolivarism. What he wanted to know was implement a nation wide rationing system for 10 years. Why?
Because he knew massive rationing was coming. But his reasoning was because we all need to eat less. The first massive rationing for shampoo happened in 2011 during the chavez years. So you cannot blame Maduro.
The thing was and you couldn't believe unless you saw it. The people truly loved chavez like you would love your mother. Even if your mother smokes, drinks and sleeps all day you still love her. When chavez was president people were willing to overlook the problems. And in to be honest the best thing chavez could have done for his legacy was die. Because if he was alive now he would absorb the blame. But his legacy to those idolise him is now untarnished.
The only reason chavez managed to help the poor was because oil was high. In fact one of the most honest pollsters in Venezuela even said in 2008. The only thing that will defeat chavez is low oil prices.
Remember Chavez's appointed minister of finance in 2007 predicated oil in 2014 will be $200 a barrel. Which is the amount we need to balance the budget.
Chavez also wasted a lot of money on failed projects. 30 billion was given to china to build a new national railway system by 2015 for venezuela. The project hasn't even started and we are in 2016.
Billions was spent in the tech industry to make computers. Some money is missing and the rest wasted I guarantee you have never seen a venezuelan made laptop outside of certain cities in Venezuela.
The socialist motorcycles sold well for 4 years and now the company is defunct. The food processing plants need a loan from china.
But the worst mistakes he made were the deals he negotiated that now Maduro has to suffer. In 2013 Maduro flew to china to renegotiate and get 5 billion dollar loan. The original deal with China that Chavez negotiated was China would get $40 a barrel for oil, since 2007. Maduro tried to ask for higher prices and money. China said no and gave maduro $5bn in electronic goods like washing machines.
I remember the event it was very funny. He came back with washing machines and gave them in a lottery to the poor. While people couldn't buy chicken, soap, shampoo.
I am going back to Venezuela soon for vacation. I already have been asked by 20 people even some chavistas to bring back shampoo and toothpaste.