By Luis Manuel Aguana
It is still too early to evaluate the scope and
depth of the decisions taken by the Nicolás Maduro regime in economic matters.
After their conviction, Maduro and his regime flee forward with desperate
economic measures that try to square an impossible circle, trying to invent an
economy different from the one in place in the civilized world. But the
analysis that prevails here is not economic, it is deeply political. No serious
economist will have an exchange rate that is anchored in a non-existent
cryptocurrency, or that the minimum wage be multiplied by 36 overnight without
any basis for sustentation.
Even if Maduro swears on top of the Bible that
he will no longer print bills without backing, the machinery of economics will
move inexorably on its own with its own mechanisms, as economists know well.
Trying to solve the facial problem of being able to handle figures unimaginable
until a few years ago in Venezuela, in the midst of hyperinflation never before
seen on this planet, they are not focusing on the causes but on the
consequences of the disaster caused by these sorcerer apprentices.
No one in the regime is dealing with
production, because that has never been the problem of the communists, they
hate everything that represents an effort to produce because they live off the
effort of others. They have destroyed 50% of the size of the Venezuelan economy
in 5 years, as economist José Guerra recently pointed out (see in Spanish, Guerra:
En cinco años Venezuela ha perdido el 50% del tamaño de su economía, en http://versionfinal.com.ve/politica-dinero/guerra-en-cinco-anos-venezuela-ha-perdido-50-del-tamano-de-su-economia/), and now they intend to finish what they started, destroying what
remains of the private sector, the last bastion of the country's production.
But what we are dealing with here is a matter
of survival: either they survive by trying to impose a failed economic model on
the world, or we Venezuelans survive by sabotaging this attempt. For some
reason they have seen that it is not viable what has happened so far creating
inorganic money and producing a terrible hyperinflation. They are amazed to see
that they themselves have impoverished and impoverished the rest of the
Venezuelan people, and they believe that just having an unrealized wealth under
the earth is enough to establish an economic system.
Somebody please explain to this regime that it
is not enough to sit on a barrel of oil. It has to be taken out, sold and collected
with all the associated costs that this implies, so that it can be considered
as an exchange value in the international market, as it has been done until now
with the oil wealth in Venezuela for more than 100 years, with the exploitation
of the Zumaque I well in 1914. But they don't want that or they can't
understand it.
And since I believe that the regime cannot and
does not want to understand this, it has reached a stage in which nothing they
do now can only aggravate the situation of Venezuelans, making the problem, not
economic but political, reduced to a simple but incredibly difficult solution:
Maduro and his regime must be displaced from power.
The discussions on the economy or whether the
regime's economic agenda is crazy or not must stop here. That was no longer the
discussion for several years. Only now the problem is of extreme gravity, of
life or death: "He'll kill me or I'll kill him to get rid of the pod."
as the refrain of an old song by Carlos Vives said well.
In this sense, a discussion is currently under way in the National Assembly regarding the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice on the conviction of Nicolás Maduro for corruption and money laundering, which I announced in my previous note (see A sovereign’s decision, at http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/a-sovereigns-decision.html). After this new "economic program" (because it has to be called in some way) announced by the government a few hours ago, the responsibility of the deputies of the National Assembly to replace the government of Nicolás Maduro as a result of the ruling of the legitimate Supreme Court of Justice multiplies.
The deputies should not in any way go to a
parliamentary recess given the serious situation in the country and much less
leave their responsibility in the hands of a super-core established in the
Delegate Commission to decide what the position of the Legislative Power will
be regarding the vacuum of constitutional power of Maduro that comes out as a
result of that sentence. We Venezuelans demand that we be adequately
represented in order to take the far-reaching decisions that will come about as
a result of this economic package that the regime has just announced, which in
practice is bankrupting everyone in this country.
But that widespread bankruptcy does not matter
to the regime. The important thing here is what we will do in the face of this
new reality. If, in the face of this new reality, we put forward a cowardly
attitude of accepting what they are imposing on us without commenting on it,
that is precisely what we will have. And that is what the President of the
National Assembly is doing by saying that Maduro's sentence is unenforceable
without the rule of law'. (see in Spanish Barboza:
Sentencia contra Maduro es inejecutable sin estado de derecho, at http://cronica.uno/barboza-sentencia-contra-maduro-es-inejecutable-sin-estado-de-derecho/).
I would ask myself if, as a consequence of the absence
of the rule of law in Venezuela, we would stop what we have to do for the
return to legality. That is as if they were arresting Omar Barboza for any
reason and his defenders were not exercising what they have to exercise in his
defence because in Venezuela there is no rule of law'. It would rot in the dungeons of the regime.
And of course there is no rule of law! The
situation has long since gone from being legal to being political. Given
Odebrecht's corruption scheme, in which millions of dollars were distributed to
both the regime and its official opposition to favor contracts between the
Republic and the company, I see it as extremely difficult for the official
opposition gathered in the MUD parties in the National Assembly to meet the
conditions necessary to decide on the political course of action for the
well-being of Venezuela.
While it is true that the parties gathered in
the National Assembly have the constitutional responsibility to decide on a new
government as it has been since 9 January 2017, when Nicolas Maduro's term of
office was declared vacant, it is no less true that the Assembly has been
diminished, contaminated and corrupted by fractions that have been partners of
the regime in keeping Maduro in power, trying to destroy the work of the
legitimate Supreme Court from its Board of Directors, as well as political
parties that have been accused with their main leaders of having accepted
bribes from Odebrecht, and that will desperately seek to take control of the
country to avoid further investigations. Add to that the political persecution
of deputies and party leaders who have not bowed down, and what could be the
result of a political agreement to form a government made up of corrupt and
persecuted people? Then the National Assembly would not be the best political
scenario for those who would lead the country at the worst moment in the
history of Venezuela to be born.
This explains why the National Assembly's
directive did not want to wash or lend the bathtub in the appointment of a
transitional government. They know they have constitutional responsibility, but
they also do not want the legitimate TSJ to make the decision where they do not
have control. And in the midst of that tragedy are Venezuelans dying fast in
the midst of the most appalling economic scenario ever seen by humanity.
Should we then accept this blackmail from
Barboza and his directive by saying that Maduro's sentence is unenforceable'
because there is no rule of law in Venezuela for not doing what they are
supposed to do? That is unacceptable. The immediate debate raised by fraction 16J in the National Assembly (see
in Spanish Fracción 16J tras madurazo: Exigimos la inmediata convocatoria a
sesiones extraordinarias de la AN, en https://www.lapatilla.com/2018/08/18/fraccion-16-j-tras-madurazo-exigimos-la-inmediata-convocatoria-a-sesiones-extraordinarias-de-la-an/) is the legitimate response of the decency that still remains in the
National Assembly when it states: "The
sentence of the legitimate Supreme Court, which is known to all, has definitely
been signed, the National Assembly cannot evade it and fail to fulfil its
clearly constitutional responsibilities. The answer to the tragic maturation is
to fill the constitutional vacancy. This can only be done by the National
Assembly, which cannot be replaced by the Board of Directors or the Delegate
Commission". But that is precisely what Barboza wants to do, to
replace the decision of the Plenary of the Deputies with what he wants to fix
the core of a directive handed over to the regime.
But the country is not
in a position to wait another second for a new government to be decided in
Venezuela. Barboza and no one else can stand in the way of changing the
suicidal course of the Republic. It could be said that the conditions are not
right for a new government to be appointed from the National Assembly, however
legal this decision may be. It would even be detrimental to Venezuela's
interests if this new government were to come from a negotiation with
opposition factors bogged down by the corruption of the regime. A Political
decision is therefore urgently needed (with a capital "P"), not only
as close to justice as possible, but also to republican ethics and morals, as
the Liberator always demanded in his proclamations. And those who have so far
demonstrated in their actions the behavior that is so much needed in Venezuela,
are outside the country in an all-out struggle to take to prison those who have
destroyed the Nation, in the legitimate Supreme Court in exile. Let us all sum
up so that this immediate decision is backed by the people of Venezuela.
Caracas, August 19, 2018
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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