The problem
At this moment Venezuela faces one of the strongest economic crises in its history, which has gone from the shortage of essential products to the disappearance of cash.
From the National Government a series of actions have been undertaken in order to counteract the effects of this situation, however, in most cases these initiatives have not prospered in their mission.
The implementation of fingerprint readers and the biometric system to ensure equity in the acquisition of existing items, the establishment of a single day for the purchase of products according to the terminal of the ID number, the regulation of the products of the basic basket and the The supervision of the different food outlets by the National Guard and the Communal Councils has not been sufficient to combat the severe crisis that plagues the country.
The promise
The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro Moros, announced in a joint radio and television broadcast, on April 3, 2016, the creation of the Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP), which would be aimed at improving the correct distribution and marketing of staple foods.
According to the area to benefit the products would arrive monthly to the homes of the Venezuelans in boxes or bags, with an invariable price of 10,000 Bs, and they had to contain at least two units of each the following items: Milk, Sugar, Rice, Pasta, Oil, Corn Flour and Grains. With an additional cost the citizen could choose among some other products among which would be cleaning items, canned, wheat flour, liquid milk, mayonnaise, margarine, tomato sauce and some refrigerated protein previously packaged.
The National Coordination of the project would be in charge of Freddy Bernal and would use the infrastructure, the personnel and machinery in general of the extinct Mercal and PDVAL, also born during the revolutionary management.
The implementation
In his annual message of delivery of accounts to the nation corresponding to 2017, made from the Federal Legislative Palace before the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), on January 15, 2018, the President celebrated that 6 million homes have been benefited by the CLAP.
Ana Vásquez, an inhabitant of the Macarao Parish and beneficiary of the CLAP exchange, assures that the monthly distribution offered and proclaimed by different government spokespeople is not being executed regularly, "we have spent up to two months waiting for the stock exchange, when they are going to sell us a day before and must be canceled in cash. "
During the annual message of accountability the President emphasized that the "CLAPs were consolidated as a popular organizational force that provides effective response and attention to the communities in the supply of food items, hygiene products and basic necessities."
Currently the cost of the bag or CLAP box was set at 25,000 Bs, a price that is not prorated according to the content of the same, can come with only 2 or 3 items and still cost the same.
The number of complaints for surcharge in the cost of the stock market at the national level is difficult to determine, generally they have to do with the areas of difficult access and in the places where the benefit arrives in cash form is in these sites where they end up establishing a additional cost arguing, in general, freight charges.
Mariana and Carolina are sisters. Mariana resides in the San Pablito neighborhood of Caricuao and Carolina Parish in the Juan Pablo II Urbanization of La Vega Parish, both west of the capital. The bag is sold to Mariana quite regularly, with intervals between four and six weeks. Carolina made the payment deposit corresponding to her box and has been waiting for it for seven months.
In the Carolina box all the products are imported, mostly from Mexico, in the Carolina stock market they can be found from products of scarce national production to some imported ones.
Mariana consoles her sister by saying that "for three months the bag has come without milk, without pasta, without rice, without beans, with a single kilo of sugar, two oils and four corn flours". Similarly, he said that of the additional products offered by the government, he only benefited twice from chicken and meat at the end of 2016, which has never had the opportunity to purchase the cleaning products or the rest of the items promised.
The difference between these testimonies can be explained through the statements offered by Freddy Bernal, Minister of Urban Agriculture and National Coordinator of the CLAP, who expressed that "the CLAP boxes are only for the" most vulnerable "sectors of Venezuela, because "the middle and upper middle classes have sufficient resources to buy in the normal Venezuelan market, and even bring them imported."
The data
The National Assembly estimated that at the end of 2017, the accumulated inflation in Venezuela was around 2000%, making it the only country in the world with a four-figure inflationary index and significantly reducing the purchasing power of Venezuelans.
Similarly, the main body of the Legislative Branch indicated that the shortage of basic products or staples exceeds 90% in all food marketing companies.
This situation turns the Local Supply and Production Committee into the main food trader in the country, in other words, the diet of a large part of the Venezuelan families depends on the CLAP. Perhaps that is why Freddy Bernal declared that "CLAPs have managed to keep the revolution going."
The productive apparatus of the country generates fewer and fewer resources. The lack of raw material indispensable for the production of food and basic necessities has been decisive; the preferential currencies are not granted to the companies that actually produce and require import raw material that would be impossible to acquire with the devalued national currency.
The non-existent foreign investment in a country that does not meet the minimum requirements to attract investors and the lack of skilled labor in the countryside and in the companies that were the target of expropriations have ended up squandering the solid economic system that Venezuela once enjoyed.
The chaos
Along with the decree of the beginning of the Christmas season on November 1, 2017, the President announced the fourth salary increase of the year and the implementation of a plan to supply Christmas products that would include the necessary ingredients to make the traditional hallaca and a pernil.
The days went by and Christmas arrived and the town was still awaiting the fulfillment of the presidential offer. To only two days so that the year finished the town decided to resort to the citizen protest in several localities of the country in search of which their needs were fulfilled.
The presidential promises were not fulfilled. The executive tried to justify this breach by holding the governments of Portugal and Colombia to conspire against the people and the intentions of the Venezuelan Government as an extension of the so-called economic war.
However, the provision of legs that reached Venezuelan soil was destined to benefit the armed forces and members of the political structure of the official party, claiming that it was an incentive for the hard political work carried out throughout the year.
After the official silence the protests resulted in looting and some other vandalism actions that ended up exacerbating the crisis and the climate of tension due to the political situation in the country.
The large food distribution establishments refuse to receive merchandise for fear of being looted, the transit of vehicles carrying food is becoming less and less due to the same fear, since there have already been cases of vandalism on the highway.
Given all this problem the initiative undertaken by the National Government in the voice of the Vice President of the Republic Tareck El Aissami, has been the requirement to the different food distribution chains to resume the price schemes for the month of December, regardless of that not even the production costs are covered with the December prices.
It is evident that the economic dynamics resulting from the different initiatives undertaken by the government have been inefficient, inadmissible and incapable of covering and satisfying the needs of Venezuelans.
If the trend is maintained and progresses at the same pace that has been up to now, the main alloy of the revolution, what for Freddy Bernal has managed to keep the revolution going can end up being his worst enemy and the spark that starts a great social fire with unimaginable, irreparable and irreversible consequences.
