Nothing exemplifies the mismanagement of Venezuela by the revolution than the electricity crisis. Through a series of missteps and the lack of investments, Venezuela continues mired in an electrical crisis over a year and a half after it began. We have gone from blaming El Niño, to saying the problem had been solved, to now saying it is the increase in use of electricity hat created the problem.
A while back I wrote this post to show the timeline of contradictions by the Government and I have actually been updating it given all that is being said. So, if you are interested in the problem that post is dynamic, as I add news links to it. Check it out.
What is interesting is that despite the Vice-President’s claim that “the growth in demand” is one of the main culprit of the electrical problem, data shows otherwise, as at least peak demand was higher in 2009 and 2010, due mostly to lower temperatures this year.
The problem seems to be due more to not only the lack of investment, but the lack of planning and capable people making the decisions. Miguel Lara, former Head of OPSIS said that “the solution the implemented were inconvenient and what they did was to purchase new problems and not worry about maintainance”, while a former Vice Minister of Energy says that the electric system has become a patchwork.
But Jose Manuel Aller a Prof. of Engineering at Universidad Simon Bolivar makes more serious accusations, he says that because there was an emergency, purchases without bids were allowed, but that many of those acquired are inadequate, of dubious origin and very expensive.
This is the case, says Aller, of the distributed power plants that came from Cuba, they shoudl have cost half of the between US$ 1.6-1.8 billion.
The same is true of the barges that were purchased from General Electric, which cost US$ 250 million each, the market price for these is US$ 160 million. Reportedly the overcharge is so that they could be delivered in 2011.
While the Government spent all of 2010 blaming the rains, now the Guri dam is 10 meters above the operational level as it has never really stopped raining all year, but between problems with generation and problems with transmission, there is insufficient capacity.
Meanwhile, the Government installed thermoelectric power plants that run on natural gas, but the country’s production continues to go down and fuel oil has been used in some of them.
The Devil's Excrement 
May 28, 2011 at 10:37 am
while I live on the outerbanks of NC I am currently typing from an apt at the base of avilia mnt.
looking over the san jose buss stop.
arrived sat,went to Rio Chico to repair the OX66 EFI outboard on the boat my wifes family just purchased.
brought all the diagnostic equipment,all the specs,and all the tools needed to diagnose and repair OX66 EFI,HPDI and 4 stroke yamaha EFI.
because its simply NOT avalible in VE.
spent 3 days training 2 local mechanics how to use the equipment and how the systems works and then left them the tools needed to better thier livelyhoods.
been doing this 8 years.
its actually working for two families in the rio chico area anyway.
but to the point.
the infastructure is failing and failing rapidly.
this trip from caracas to rio chico I have done 4-5 times a year for 9 years.
power lines are fraying and covered with mosses and lichens power poles are failing.
the roads are nasty,even the so called new highway.
out of the5 nights and 6 days I spent in Rio Chico we were in the dark with no electrical power in the ENTIRE area for at least 11 times.
thank god for colemern lanterns and maglites.
some spots in the road were so bad people were driving into parking lots of stores to avoid the pot holes.
some pot holes were so deep and dangerous that they were marked with tires laying down in the road painted yellow.
PYGM
take a look at the hillside just below the san jose buss station, take a look at most the hut hillsides.
now guess what happens with all these poorly constructed non permited no foundation huts the next time the caracas earth shakes like it did in 1968 and about 18 times prior.
the loss of life is gouing to be staggering.
entirely preventable but it was not.
BTW, non of the huts by the buss depot existed in 2003.
so pygm you go one beliving and drinking of the koolaide.
myself I have watched the decline from a distance and its been amazing.
I just wish I had a better understanding of how people would allow their govt to do this.
sorry about the long post but its just a simple observation since 2002.
May 23, 2011 at 8:43 pm
For more data on blackouts (apagones ) check Jose Manuel Aller blogspot:
http://josealler.blogspot.com
He has a good section that scans the hashtag #sinluz in Twitter
Regards,
Moses
May 22, 2011 at 8:49 pm
My wife’s friend was in Maracaibo two weeks ago for Mother’s Day:
No power from sunrise until 7PM.
We’re not talking Margarita here–Maracaibo!!!–where there’s tons of petroleum within spitting distance (granted, not refined), which could be directly piped to generators to supply AC voltage.
May 19, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Though in the long run current oil price growth rate may be unsustainable, the main thing in the horizon are the 2012 elections. If oil prices go back down after Hugo Rafael wins (legally or ilegally) in 2012, he will adjust his rethoric and start planning for the next election.
Pygmailion,
Go write your own blog. Let’s see how many people willread it (I’m sure not even your “rojo-rojito amigos” will).
May 19, 2011 at 1:25 pm
La cuchufleta rides again!
Jsb: The reports are that the generators were bought in Brazil by Cuba, re-factioned in Cuba and shipped as new to Venz.
I am not aware of the brand, just that the procurement process was, shall we say, non-standard.
May 19, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Good one, Kepler.
May 19, 2011 at 9:32 am
Blog Author: As usual Pygmallion does not answer, he trolls and the comment is all about himself.
Kepler cannot help but twitter on about what I write. However, he expects people to reply to him when he continuees to insult. Sorry, I have too much self-respect to reply to foul mouthed individuals such as Kepler.
Since Kepler lives in Germany or Belgium he can hardly know what happens in Venezuela or even what is happening in a specific part of Valencia or Naguanagua, for example. Kepler is the troll. I get my information from real people who live there and in Aragua.
Talk about a coincidence – – yesterday I was in Farmatodo in Los Palos Grandes and the power went off! First time I have seen this for a while. However, when I got back home all was fine according to the digital alarm clock which had not disconfigured itself.
The fact that there was a short blackpout in Los Palos Grandes must mean that the whole system is about to collapse.
Carlos – you wrote: ” The real non-oil GDP “growth” can be easily assessed looking at supermakets: no milk, no vegetable oil, no beef, no sugar, no nothing..or in other environments.. no new building, no cement, no steel, no alluminium, no etc etc…”
Let’s agree that sometimes there are puntual shortages – but to write “no milk…. to no everything …. etc etc…..is such an exagerration that you destroy your own argument.
The real voters know that this is simply not true. If it were, then the result of the 2012 election would be a foregone conclusion. Bye, bye Chavez!! And this is one of the reasons why Miguel is not so confident about Chavez losing in 2012 since he knows that most of the “disasters” covered on this blog and in the media are just vulhar exaggerations. This sort of journalism is counterproductive. Chavez’s edifice will fall over under its own weight and not by trying to push it over with media manipulation which has failed miserably since 1999.
May 19, 2011 at 8:04 am
Cuba’s technology for power generation
May 19, 2011 at 7:29 am
Roger and Roberto N: I thought the diesel generators Cuba has used in its distributed power scheme were from Hyundai (I don’t know what they shipped to Venz).
May 19, 2011 at 5:36 am
Carlos,
Pygmalion is no devil’s advocate. I have discussed with people who were still with the government and they – not many but some – could discuss your arguments and not simply ignore. They have brought useful discussions.
They have challenged things.
They would not just pop up, write down some remark that was completely out of place or a blatant, very blatant lie (I mean: blackouts, give me a break! that’s the daily bread in most of Carabobo). Pygmalion is a troll.
Juancho,
I never drove in Venezuela. I remember how as a teenager or a child I took buses in the evening. I remember how I would walk after going to the movies in…was it Alpha?…one of those small shopping centres…
I remember how we would go to eat out so often at night.
The murder rate was a fourth of what is now.
But now Pygmalion tiene más real y la gente es obesa en Venezuela, así que la vaina está bien.
May 19, 2011 at 4:30 am
@Roger:
Those generators are used units, bought by Cuba in Brazil, shipped to Cuba to be re-painted and gussied up (think chop shop, generator version) and then ceremoniously shipped to Venezuela, all thanks to our Cuban buddies who sold us these generators to help the people.
The kicker is the units come in at MSRP NEW price, not downmarket used low service life remaining price. Nice, huh?
May 18, 2011 at 10:55 pm
On Guri, even if you started “revamping” it today, it would take about 6 years to get everything changed out.
—————–
This is not a mere argument we can spin on endlessly but a major concern on which much of out electricity depends. It would be interesting to find out exactly what is up at Guri. All the niggling details. It’s a wonder the thing runs at all with all those dip shits shambling around the place and doing, from what I understand, little to nothing at all.
And when Kepler mentions the area between Naguanagua and Valencia, it brings back so many fond memories, including walking back to the crib, from Sambvil, a midnight. Try that now and you better have money for your embalmer . . .
The fringes of Valencia used to be charmed little grottos with barbecue joints and ice cream parlors and all the rest. Now look at it, wit all of Hugo’s thugs kicking around.
And Jesus wept . . .
Juancho
Juancho
May 18, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Pygmalion is certainly performing as the devil advocate character.
It is good to see someone here to dispute our unanimous point..But..enough is enough.
1. There were many, many , many blackouts inAragua and especially Carabobo. Some areas in greater Valencia and Guacara are suffering a daily blackout.
2. GDP growth??? Manufacturing growth??? Come on!!! In Q1 2010 many factories were closed to reduce electricity requirement, especially all the big state owned (nationalized) premises.
3. GDP 300K Billons US$… sure, just apply the real official exchange rate and it will go back to 250.
The real non-oil GDP “growth” can be easily assessed looking at supermakets: no milk, no vegetable oil, no beef, no sugar, no nothing..or in other environments.. no new building, no cement, no steel, no alluminium, no etc etc…
May 18, 2011 at 8:19 pm
What gets me is how they could buy 1.5B$ plus of power generating equipment from Cuba. For sure they don’t make it there. Even Brazil has international partnerships for that level of heavy industry. Could be old Soviet stuff that parts are not available for anymore. The only other possibility is that Cuba is now part of the import-export business that is milking Venezuela of its oil wealth. It would be interesting to see the proformas and facturas for all this stuff!
BTW responses to trolls who claim to be in Venezuela should be done only in Venezuelan Crillio Spanish so that translation programs are useless.
May 18, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Hahaha Good one Miguel, I see you lost your patience in dealing with Pygma-troll. Chavistas belong to a malignant sect that denies reality and believes in an afterlife of happiness under chavista rule.
A $300 bi GDP is a folk/fools tale. The same with “normality”. Venezuela is in a state only comparable to civil war or failed states.
The problem with “normality” is that the subjects lose reference. The fact that people have semi-functional lives do not deny the fact that Venezuela is broke, without enough hard currency and at the mercy of official and unofficial thugs.
Does anybody remember that in Sarajevo there was a beauty contest during the war? It is the same “normality” Venezuela lives in…
Venezuela is a lower to middle income country. I could have entered a path towards prosperity, but it derailed.
May 18, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Sorry to say this Pygmalion but you must be the only person we have heard of that reports no blackouts in Venezuela. Maybe YOUR office has some sort of generator.
Sorry, old buddy, there’s a chronogram for “interruptions of service”.
http://aporrea.org/actualidad/n181117.html
From aporrea no less. Are they also part of the mass delusion?
May 18, 2011 at 10:39 am
We have between half a dozen to a dozen power outages EVERY DAY
May 18, 2011 at 10:38 am
Things here in Paraguana are critical, From Veneconomy:
PdV officials at CRP said last
Friday that it would take about ten days – until the start of next
weekend (May 23) – to restore Cardon refinery to full operational
capacity. Amuay refinery also should be back in full service by
next week, they said. Meanwhile, PDVSA’s gasoline production
is down by some 200,000 b/d. The CRP has suffered over a dozen
major “operational incidents” (PDVSA’s euphemism for accident)
since end-2009, including at least seven explosions and fires at
Cardon refinery, and at least five fiery accidents at Amuay refinery.
But since December 2010 the PRC also has suffered at least
six new operational incidents caused by electricity outages, including
the May 6 and 12 outages, according to CRP officials.
May 18, 2011 at 10:28 am
I know and the blackouts in the refineries only occurred in PDVSA’s imagination.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/venezuela-power-outage-hits-nations-largest-refinery-complex-oil-shipments-not-affected/2011/05/12/AFwkif1G_story.html
May 18, 2011 at 10:22 am
Miguel, don’t bother with Pygmalion. I put there two links about blackouts in Carabobo in the last weeks and they are not even the blackouts a couple of friends informed me about, just the results of a simple query on “apagones Carabobo” and something else (and now that idiot will say he just used google and did not find anything from this year, bugger off).
Those links proved well enough what he is saying is rubbish.
May 18, 2011 at 10:20 am
Pygmalion, bugger off, bugger off always, I couldn’t care less.
You are a troll.
May 18, 2011 at 10:13 am
GDP grows, but continues below 2009:
http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/05/18/el-pib-crece-pero-continua-09-por-debajo-del-nivel-de-2009.shtml
May 18, 2011 at 10:09 am
If you dont read what I write, why should I point to it? Do your homework. As to your office I could care less, go to the office of Banco Venezolano de Credito and ask them.
Look you dont care what I write,why should I explain anything to you, you keep your foolish 300 billion ignorant number. That is trolling. I once explained to you exactly how to find out Venezuela’s official GDP number and you did not even bother. As for the meaning of GDP, read the reports, when you had a terrible 1Q10, a bounce is the most expected thing, understand, dont be a cheerleader, any Government with ten quarters of GDP contraction (and six saying the recession was over) should be voted out and it is terrible. Period.
May 18, 2011 at 10:07 am
Kepler – after your foul mouthed comments directed at me a few days ago I do not feel obliged to answer any of your questions until you apologise. The ball is in your court.
May 18, 2011 at 10:04 am
“I was in Caracas last week and there were five black outs in my office, what is more important is that in a single day, Corpoelec, not a foolish commenter, reported 50 blackouts.”
I know you do not like to be questioned Miguel but my office is also on the Av. Francisco de Miranda and we did jno thave any blackouts last week. Strenge. huh?. Please give a link where Corpoelec reports the blackppouts or a link to the 50 which ahppened last week. It would be good to have access to this information.
I agree with your point on how GDP numbers do not demonstrate what they purport to do but not even you can deny that the trend has changed from contraction and is heading back to growth. No point in painting the scenario any blacker than it already is.
May 18, 2011 at 9:25 am
Barclays conclusion:
In sum, the result suggests the continuity of an unsustainable growth
model that depends on increasing oil prices to propel domestic demand. In
the short run, we expect the government to continue to stimulate the
economy by increasing expenditures, which could put the public sector in
a more vulnerable position over the long term and may require significant
reform after the 2012 presidential election.
May 18, 2011 at 8:50 am
On Guri, even if you started “revamping” it today, it would take about 6 years to get everything changed out.
May 18, 2011 at 8:47 am
I think BCV take out the globes and lie very openly in all statistical matters, no statistical data from them will be convinced any more.
May 18, 2011 at 8:38 am
Thanks, Isa.
Anyone has updated data on M1-3?
May 18, 2011 at 7:52 am
Barclays on the GDP
The result was basically due to two factors: 1) a
statistical recovery after two years of recession, exacerbated in Q1 10
by the supply shock caused by the electricity crisis; and 2) a 10.4% jump
in public expenditures. In absolute real terms, this was a greater
increase in public expenditures than in all of 2010. Fiscal stimulus,
along with greater availability of imported goods, has helped private
consumption to recover – it increased 3.7% after two years of
contraction.
Despite the positive news about the recovery in economic activity, the
huge fiscal push creates concerns about its effect on the liquidity
position of the public sector.
May 18, 2011 at 7:47 am
Geez Kepler, I guess you don’t remember that there are no Iguanas or CIA agents in Aragua and Carabobo, so there cannot be electric service interruptions.
Come on, mano, get with the program!
May 18, 2011 at 6:58 am
It seems clear that it is the fault, not of “El Ninyo”, but of el gran ninyo.
May 18, 2011 at 3:57 am
Just one more from Carabobo:
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2011/04/01/apagones-afectaron-nuevamente-a-sectores-de-carabobo/
May 18, 2011 at 3:55 am
Pygmalion,
Where in Carabobo do your friends live?
This is just one example:
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2011/04/26/apagon-de-15-horas-en-puerto-cabello-podria-retrasar-2-dias-actividad-portuaria/
But it is happening everywhere in Carabobo and I have loads and loads of relatives everywhere there. Perhaps your friends live in the military compound between Naguanagua and Valencia.
As for obesity: for decades now obesity is no longer the privilege of the rich. In fact: but for some countries in the Sahel, you will see more obesity among the poor than among the rich. That is so in South Africa, in Russia, in Great Britain, in the US, in Venezuela. This does not mean obesity allows you to compare nations, but within a nation chances are an obese person is poorer – ceteris paribus.
Miguel explained it well. Pygmalion I can’t believe you are an economist if you are taking that GDP growth so completely out of context.
By the way: oil prices have increased over 26% since last year. The effect on the economy is not immediate, but it shows. Without ever higher oil price increases, Venezuela would collapse. That is something you do not seem to understand. Now, tell me for how many years can oil prices keep on rising as they are now.
I plotted some months ago a chart with GDP difference next to oil price differences. It is quite revealing. Pygmalion, apparently you studied economy. I definitely didn’t. If someone like you can get a job in Venezuela having anything to do with economy, the country is in real shit.
May 18, 2011 at 12:12 am
Pygmalion, you obviously live in Caracas as that is the only place where the lights stay on. Try coming to Nueva Esparta or Anzoategui and tell people they are imagining the blackouts.
May 17, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Economic ignorance is indeed a tragedy, when Government Ministers preside over ten consecutive quarters of GDP contraction and they come and gloat about GDP improving, when you are comparing a quarter (1Q11) to one of the worst quarters in recent history (1Q10), it is really sad.
You see, economists have this quirky way of measuring GDP growth, they compare one quarter to the same quarter a year ago, not the previous quarter, but few people know or note this. 1Q10 was a horrible quarter, the economy shrank by 5.1%. Thus, when Merentes and the fool Girodani gloat over 4.5% GDP growth, they are still behind 0.6% with respect to 1Q10 and we have close to 30% inflation to boot. GDP in the first quarter of this year was behind 2Q10, 3Q10 and 4Q10, but explain that to these fools. (or to our commenters). This quarter was worse than all previous quarters going back to the first quarter of 2008. Talk about running in place, going nowhere unddr Chavismo. Even worse, oil GDP was down in 1Q11, construction GDP (7%, so much for building housing!) was also down, manufacturing was what saved the day, could it be they were printing bills?
Similarly, anyone that still believes the exchange rate is Bs. 3.33 (to give you a foolish GDP of 300 billion dollars) continues to insult the intelligence of the readers (There is Bs. 4.3 and Bs. 5.3 at SITme and others higher), but what can you expect from someone who thinks the election is a choice between Maria Corina and Chavez.
As for the blackouts, failing to read the posts does not excuse anyone from being disrespectful, anecdotical evidence is meaningless, I was in Caracas last week and there were five black outs in my office, what is more important is that in a single day, Corpoelec, not a foolish commenter, reported 50 blackouts.
May 17, 2011 at 10:01 pm
You do not have to blame rains, Nino, Nina, Iguanas, conspiracies, not at all.
You only have to blame the more than 6 million dumb venezuelans that voted 2,3,4,5 times these red thugs and appointed Chavez as president 3 times, governors and majors twice, red parliament representatives, and so on.
May 17, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Yes, Gordo, most Venezuelans are starving that’s precisely why obesity has become a worse problem in Venezuela in the last decade. For the life of me I cannot understand why no one commenting here can see that unless a connvincing plan is put up by the opposition, then despite my optimism the opposition candidate could risk losing against Chavez in 2012.
With a solid policy plan, well presented, there should be no problem winning – but no one is putting it forward. Is there some sort of conspiracy even in the opposition to ensure that Chavez wins in 2012? That’s the way it is starting to look. Does Chavez have that much money and clout to bribe the whole opposition?
May 17, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Bariven/PDVSA is far behind in paying its bills. Its common knowledge among vendors and many of them simply will not participate in tenders. Which is a shame. PDVSA used to have a very good name in industrial markets.
May 17, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Shortages and more shortages…. so what’s so different from 10th Century Socialism?
May 17, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Thanks, Miguel. I didn’t realize it had been six months.
May 17, 2011 at 7:10 pm
“with the economy growing by 4.5% in Q1 things are looking up for all Venezuelans”
I don’t know which Venezuela your living in,
but try telling that to people who cant get chicken or milk. As for your 4.5 growth, I wouldn’t trust those numbers from a government that hides murder rates, and hasn’t released financial data from the oil sector in years.
May 17, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Sorry to say this but we have not had any blackouts for months. Even friends of ours in Aragua and Carabobo are not complaining. I hear that there were some blackouts in Guarenas but only for an hour or so. I agrree with Gringo that we need more information if there are any blackouts but in the absence of such information we must assume that “Everything is OK”. With a PIB of $300 billion there should not be any blackouts and with the economy growing by 4.5% in Q1 things are looking up for all Venezuelans.
May 17, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Gringo: I put that in my timeline link, it is the six month anniversary today.
May 17, 2011 at 5:09 pm
The difference between the IV and the VTh. is that in the IV, commissions were smaller because there was oversight and the Vth. discovered why bother building things if financial corruption can be so profitable.
May 17, 2011 at 5:08 pm
As far as I can tell, the opsi.org.ve website is still out of commission. Soviet style: no news of air crashes in the old USSR- keep bad news out of sight and out of mind. Chavista style: no more government electrical power website in Venezuela, a country with government-generated electrical power snafus. If there is no information, there is no basis for informed complaints.
May 17, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Any purchase by the gorvernment is an opportunity to inflate the price and pocket the difference between the real price and the extra. I can imagine in a lot of cases no one with technical expertise is consulted (the fewer that actually know what’s going on the better), with a lot of equipment being purchased being inadequate.
This “phenomenon” (corruption, or “malversacion de fondos”) is really not new. It already was rampant during “la cuarta”. But “la cuarta” didn’t enjoy such high oil prices, for such a long single government.
Sometimes it does seem this nightmare Venezuela is going thru doesn’t have an end. Probability for government change in 2012 is slim to none. What is very probable is that it represents one more opportunity to “malversar mas fondos” since more equipment will be needed, and more gifts will be given to the prospective chavista voter (never mind some, or many, of them will be coerced to vote for “mico…”, that is “micomandante”).
May 17, 2011 at 4:50 pm
There’s something VERY wrong (and it was before Hugo Chavez) in having any single source account for more than half of electric generation in a country.
That anyone can take for true the (false) idea that the crisis was due to Guri Dam’s water levels and not feel horror for at least ten reasons (all unrelated to water levels themselves) is a proof the levels of myopia (and other sight defects) in Venezuelan society.
Just a little example, for the hyperpatriotic (according to them) chavistas: An external enemy, if they had an interest in sending Venezuela to the Bronze Age, need only bomb Guri. Not that the U.S.A., the so-called enemy out to destroy Venezuela according to chavista mythology would ever do that. They still want the oil to sail into THEIR ports.
Of course. Hugo Chavez and Co. are blind in a land of near sighted, so to say. They went one better than even the worst of the “Cuarta Republica”. They are wholly responsible for producing the present crisis:
http://lanota.com/index.php/CONFIDENCIAS/El-patetico-caso-del-sistema-electrico-de-Venezuela.html
They are supposed to mind the store. Given that they insist on owning it. If they let it fall into disrepair and give out the wares, the results are obvious.
Returning to Hugo Chavez’s pet fake obsession with invasions. Everybody who does not believe that stale crap knows that nobody need waste bombs on Venezuelan power plants, oil production, highways, cities or fabrics to make the situation unbearable. Just let Chavez run things into the ground. He’s self defeating. The infrastructure sort of will be there after if chavistas don’t blow it up themselves through sheer incompetence.
Though there’s a chance that Venezuela gets actually into the Bronze Age because of him. I wonder how that would influence the decisions of foreign powers like the U.S.A.
May 17, 2011 at 3:44 pm
A shortage of energy in Venezuela should be like saying there is a shortage of penguins in Antarctica.
May 17, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I spent a little over 3000 BsF to buy a deep-cycle marine battery, a 1000 watt inverter, and a 30 amp battery charger. When the electricity goes out I switch on the inverter, plug the computer UPS into that along with a lamp or two and I’m still operating. If the power outages start lasting longer than a few hours at a time I’ll have to get a bigger system that will handle the refrigerator too.
May 17, 2011 at 2:23 pm
The more “emergencies” the more Chavez can bypass oversight and use them as an excuse to takeover more of the economy, for example housing and food. As the country collapses the more he has to control to save it from his own mistake, the perfect “catch 22”
May 17, 2011 at 2:00 pm
…ah, our future, in preview.
May 17, 2011 at 1:46 pm
MO your should send your list to the opposition, they can use it in their campaign to show why Chavez et al. should not be elected again!
May 17, 2011 at 1:10 pm
So whose fault will it be this year? La Niña? La Iguana? The Capitalists/Imperialists?
WE should have a pool, or quiniela, to see who guesses the next stupid reason the govt. gives.
It’s probably our fault.
May 17, 2011 at 12:56 pm
I could not help but note the irony of the placement of the last sentence of your post regarding using fuel oil to run thermoelectric power plants, right above the picture with the caption “Si al protocolo de Kioto.” Priceless
May 17, 2011 at 12:35 pm
It has been said all along that the Guri plant needed a total revamping to get the turbinos all up and running. This was never done to my knowledge, so no matter what the water levels are, there is no effective way to translate the hydro resourse into hydroelectricity.
Wond what the actual condition of he Guiri complex really is – right now.
Juancho