- Economy: Maduro raises the price of gasoline and ends 'Saudi Venezuela'
The entry into force of the new gasoline prices has accentuated one of the main signs of the Venezuelan pandemic: huge queues and the first protests . The Government assured yesterday that with the "new normalization" from the first hour they would dispatch the saving fuel arrived from Iran in exchange for tons of gold. After several hours, the wait continues between disorder and uncertainty, because consumers do not know how the distribution will take place and if there will be for everyone. All this in the presence of the military, police and militiamen, who control the first services under a biopayment system.
In Guarenas, near Caracas, drivers collapsed one of the main roads while in the capital a group of motorized drivers faced the National Guard in demand of what the president had promised. In the interior of the country the situation is similar. In Táchira, on the border with Colombia, not a single gas station has opened its doors, with the exception of the one that supplies government vehicles in San Cristóbal. To the east, in Bolívar, on the border with Brazil, the queues lengthen more than three kilometers.
" I call on you to rebel, to make your protest visible and spread ," said Juan Guaidó, legitimate president of the democratic Parliament, who held a virtual plenary session on Sunday despite threats of jail for the deputies participating. The government knocked YouTube down for minutes so that Venezuelans could not watch the debate around the increase in gasoline, during which it was concluded that once again this is an unconstitutional measure that needs the approval of the National Assembly.
" The dictatorship wants you silent, " concluded the opposition leader, who, like economists and experts, is convinced that the Bolivarian proposal will double the black market. "The new gasoline system is made for corruption," added deputy José Guerra, "minister" of the economy in the shadow of the opposition. A "package" that represents "a new business for the plugged in," concluded deputy Robert Alcalá.
The biggest embezzlement
During the 21 years of revolutionary government, the greatest embezzlement in the history of humanity has occurred thanks to different economic strategies imposed by the Executive and the heat of the oil boom, with a barrel of oil above $ 120. Parliament and Hugo Chávez's two economic vice presidents estimate that more than 500,000 million dollars "flew" from the public coffers , with the smuggling of gasoline extraction as one of the big deals.
A new era of different prices but similar sufferings thus begins in the country with the largest oil reserves on the planet , where its citizens since the last century were convinced that free gasoline was a fundamental right. Until now. For months now, whoever wanted to load their vehicle without the ordeal of spending days and days in line had to pay in dollars on the black market. In the land of revolutionary surrealism, you could even order a bottle of naphtha at a very high price per delivery.
The new scheme decreed by Nicolás Maduro supposes an enormous increase and thousands of doubts, beginning because the national refineries continue to collapse due to neglect and corruption . Gasoline at "international prices", at half a dollar a liter, is unattainable for the people: a single tank costs around twenty minimum wages.
"In Venezuela, under normal conditions we need 180,000 barrels a day, we would need two tankers a week to cover demand and queues to disappear," said Asdrúbal Oliveros, director of Ecoanalítica.
Iran sent five ships to Venezuela on a trip that lasted for a month. The Tehran government has shown its interest in maintaining this system of shipments, "legitimate, since both countries are under unilateral and cruel sanctions by the United States that no country is obliged to comply with," said Abás Musaví, Iranian foreign minister.
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