Didn't realize you had a job attacking certain governments online!
Forgive me, I forgot the proverbial difficulty Portuguese people have with figures of speech
You keep talking about that, but is there any reason, any reason at all, for Venezuela to deplete its oil reserves faster by extracting and selling more of it? Has Venezuela a trade deficit in need of being covered with oil exports? Foreign debt to pay? Perhaps a deflation problem due to lack of internal spending?
The reason is the same why every country that has vast oil reserves try to exploit them as much as possible, to become richer.
Venezuela is a poor country with massive social problems. Not only that, as I already mentioned, its economy was the worst performer in the continent during Chávez's reign. It is beyond obvious that they would like to exploit their reserves better; they don't do it because PDVSA is now run by baboons. So production
decreased.
Oh, and Venezuela's foreign debt more than tripled under Chávez, from $24.2 to $88.7 billion dollars. By contrast, other oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Norway have saved billions in investment funds. So there's that, too.
Those people on strike could get what they demanded, a recall referendum, though the political process. Indeed it was done later. They instead went on strike for 3 months paralysing a vital sector of the country as a form of economic blackmail imposed on the rest of the population. Once that population had their say these workers still had the option of accepting it and ending the strike. They refused. They were finally replaced. Where exactly do you manage to find any fault with the venezuelan government's handling of the situation?
Furthermore it is a bald-faced lie you keep repeating that the venezuelan government sacked the whole labour force of PDVSA. Those on strike were a minority; the 'lower ranked' workers did not join them. PDVSA did not collapse. Oil production was restored through their effort, though it took some time.
Finally, I must say that for someone who keeps thumping his chest about being supported by facts you are notoriously shout on any verifiable reference supporting even a single one of your claims made here.
Bald-faced lie, eh? Only top ranks were fired, eh?
Wiki said:
In the aftermath of the strike, the government fired 18,000 PDVSA employees, 40% of the company's workforce, for "dereliction of duty" during the strike.[25]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_general_strike_of_2002-2003
So as you can see my numbers were correct (another 1,000 employees were fired afterwards), and a huge portion of the workforce was involved in the strike, and all of those were fired.
Now, obviously, 100% of the workforce could never take part in the strike - PDVSA has a very sizable presence in the US, Brazil and other places. Obviously, none of them were fired. Additionally, in every company of that size thousands of employees are essentially only "helpers" with little or no qualification, and it makes no sense to punish them for anything.
But the fact remain that the 19,000 workers who were sacked were precisely the qualified oil workers. Venezuela lost virtually all of them.
Inhuman? Really? You know what is quite human? To forbid strikes or unions, something I'm sure you are all for.
Eh, no. I would never forbid either, as they are both legitimate tools of collective action. I'm against compulsory union membership and other such coercive legislation, but I am not at all opposed to unions.
To demand that some people be treated as some kind of upper caste who shall not be 'humiliated' into having to accept jobs outside of management or other highly paid services.
PDVSA didn't have 19,000 managers. 40% of the TOTAL workforce was not composed of managers. We're talking of skilled technicians, engineers, geologists, etc.
And I do hope nobody is humiliated, blacklisted and forced into exile; management and workers alike.
To belittle all those who in fact have to fee countries wither for lack of basic means of sustenance (poverty in Venezuela was huge while those well-to-do workers went on in their strike to overthrow a government for the
unspeakable crime trying to use some of the oil income to alleviate that poverty) or real political persecution by claiming that wealthy people who left because they were pissed at losing a political confrontation and having to search for something below their 'social standing' have been "expelled" in the same way. All that is quite human. You are a human being and you do it all. Amazing, human capacity to set oneself as the centre of the world and hold a totally distorted vision of everything else just for that sake.
It's kind of a caste thing, isn't it? You see yourself as a managed, a member of a glorified caste of upper servants, and so you suffer for the "expulsion" of all those fellow caste brothers. Oh, the inhumanity of it!
Oh my.
So firing 19,000 workers who were doing something allowed by Law, demanding something foreseen in the Constitution, is A-OK.
And how were they not fleeing poverty? They were expelled from their sector of expertise. They were very much fleeing unemployment, poverty and political persecution.
But hey, they're "the enemy", right? In your eyes they belong to the GULAG, or perhaps the Cuban "paredón", to cite two regimes you love. They're not humans, right? They're the class enemy, the enemies of the people, the enemies of history and of progress. Right?
I said it about the british coal miners striking inside a nationalized industry, I say it about the oil workers who went on strike in Venezuela, or anyone using economic blackmail against an elected government: you fight such fights in in the election booth and the political arena, not through such blackmail. It applies to whatever caste of workers does it, from the lower levels up to and including bankers and their ilk.
Well, it is too bad that Venezuelan law gave them the right to do exactly as they did...
So they're having an inflation problem and you want them to increase oil exports?
Which 3 years in a row of recession were those, data please. Oil production, tell you what: find me the evidence for lower production in any 10 year span since 2000, the year before those conflicts in PVDSA. Check the OPEC reports if you don't know here to start.
I'm not even bothering to check your hospital beds thing, you lack credibility for me to waste any more time.
You see, I'm trying to argue with facts here. You are arguing with your wishes.
I'll give your data. But first a quick question: why didn't you ask for a source for my claim that, under Chávez (and only under Chávez), Venezuela's violence skyrocketed and Caracas became the murder capital of the world, more dangerous than Baghdad?
Number of hospital beds falling under Chávez:
For example, the president says he has revolutionized health care by setting up free clinics staffed by Cuban doctors in poor slums across the country. But hospitals have lagged behind, with officials figures showing the number of available hospital beds down from 28,000 beds in 2000 to 22,000 in 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/23/venezuela-oil-production_n_1907170.html
Recession on years in a row:
I was slightly wrong, it was only two years in a row with an actual recession (negative growth), but that still gives Venezuela the distinction of being
the only country in South America to go through two years of recession following the financial crisis
GDP Change:
2009: -3.2%
2010: -1.5%
And this on the same decade as Chávez achieved this:
2002: -8.9%
2003: -7.8%
http://www.google.com/publicdata/ex...ry:VE&ifdim=world&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false
Falling oil production:
Year Barrels(000) Change
2000 3,155.00 11.65%
2001 3,010.00 -4.60%
2002 2,603.95 -13.49%
2003 2,335.19 -10.32%
2004 2,556.94 9.50%
2005 2,564.66 0.30%
2006 2,510.55 -2.11%
2007 2,432.64 -3.10%
2008 2,394.02 -1.59%
2009 2,239.45 -6.46%
2010 2,145.75 -4.18%
2011 2,240.00 4.39%
http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=ve&product=oil&graph=production
So in 2011 oil production was 30% below the 2000 level, even with vast untapped reserves lying idle. I particularly like the
5 years in a row of falling production between 2006 and 2010. Will you blame them on the strike that ended many years before as well?
And I know you didn't ask for it, but I'll provide a source for my claim that under Chávez Venezuela became a deadly war zone:
The Venezuela Violence Observatory says at least 19,336 people have been killed this year, an average of 53 a day.
The figures suggest Venezuela's murder rate is the highest in South America and four times that of Mexico.
...
"We must inform the nation that 2011 will end as the the most violent year in the nation's history," the Venezuela Violence Observatory (OVV) said in a news release.
Its figures - based on research by several Venezuelan universities - suggest that in 2011 Venezuela had a murder rate of 67 per 100,000 inhabitants.
That compares to 32 per 100,000 last year in neighbouring Colombia and 14 per 100,000 in Mexico, two countries suffering widespread drug-related violence.
...
The OVV says violent crime has risen steadily in Venezuela since 1999 when President Chavez took office. In that year only 4,550 murders were registered.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16349118
Put all of the above together and boy, what a success story!
Just like Cuba is a shining success! Is there a pattern somewhere I'm missing?
I provided sources for everything you asked (and then some more). I hope you have the courtesy of addressing each issue I presented individually.
'd
