Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Latin America POV: The Venezuelan Economic Situation Today is not Sustainable


It is appalling to see the direction in which Venezuela is heading. In the 2015 Bloomberg Business Report, Venezuela didn’t get a ranking in productivity or economic growth. According to the report, Venezuela ranks among the most miserable places in the world, followed by Argentina. South Africa, Ukraine, and Greece. The misery index was based on this simple equation: unemployment rate + change in the consumer price index = misery. 

A number of factors account for this low ranking: Venezuela’s inflation is now around 70 percent. JP Morgan presented another bleak report about Venezuela’s economy, calling the high inflation rate and the lack of products extremely worrisome.

All the expert analyses point to an economic disaster for Venezuela. Fifteen years of a failing Socialist Bolivarian Revolution that has ruined the country’s economy and social infrastructure are enough indication of an inept government. While people are having much difficulty coping with day-to-day living, a bank in Andorra allowed withdrawals of hundreds of millions of stolen money by corrupt government officials, money that belongs to the Venezuelan people.

Since 2014, thousand have protested government inefficiency, oppression, and corruption and hundreds have been killed and many are still in prison. The latest sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama on seven corrupt officials and the declaration that Venezuela is a threat to the United States has put the spotlight on Nicolas Maduro’s oppressive regime.

 Recently, the Obama administration offered support to those Caribbean countries that depend on Venezuelan oil. This new relationship between the United Stated and the Caribbean nations will help these countries break their ties with the Venezuelan regime that has used oil to get support from its neighbors.  This new approach brings hope for the people of Venezuela who have their hands tied by a kidnapped constitution.  



Monday, April 27, 2015

Farewell to my good friend Manuel Kohn

After a long battle with several illneses, our good friend Manuel Kohn died in Manhattan this past Saturday.  For those of us who knew him, we remember a man who loved Venezuela, his Country of origin and who, for the past 15 years, fought for its freedom and justice.

I met Manuel five years ago at the exhibit of one of my documentaries about the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Since then we became very good friends. He inspired me to do a documentary about Cuban Political Prisoners. He believed that the Cuban tragedy has become the new Venezuelan tragedy. He called it the Cuban Holocaust.

Manuel was a brilliant man who took New York by a storm. He lived in the Big Apple with the love of his life, his wife Beatriz whom he met in high school back in Venezuela.

Manuel was a thinker but above he was funny. He made light of everything and whenever you were with him; you had to laugh. His big line was “don’t worry, be happy.” Manuel Kohn not only inspired me but also kicked me in the butt when he felt I doubted myself. 

I will miss you my friend because you made me laugh when I just wanted to cry. Thank you for being there for me and for your honest friendship. You didn’t have the chance to see a free Venezuela, but I have no doubt that your wishes will always follow us. 

Latin America POV: Alejandro Toledo's Exposé on Latin America


A few days ago, I had the pleasure to meet Alejandro Toledo, the former President of Peru, during his great exposé on his vision for Latin America.  There Toledo  introduced his new book The Shared Society.
Before becoming President, and throughout his years in office, Toledo showed himself to be a man with great democratic convictions.

Toledo, who is now a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University, and a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at Stanford University, sees the future of Latin America as bright. New statistics about poverty in Latin America indicate that it is declining, and Latin American societies are becoming more equitable.

Latin America. In his view, Latin America is going through a renaissance, with the exception of countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, and Nicaragua. Those countries are still dealing with undemocratic populist leaders who are trying to remain in power indefinitely. Toledo predicts that, by the year 2050, Latin America could be at the center stage of the world’s economic growth and development.

Toledo's strong belief in democracy and his respect for human rights have been present throughout his career. He was a vocal critic of the oppressive rule that began in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez and the closing of RCTV, Radio Caracas TV in 2007. That year, one of his many articles for the New York Times was entitled “Silence = Despotism.” In it, he condemned the closing of RCTV and urged Latin American leaders to take a stand against Chavez’s rule by oppression.

Hugo Chavez closed the RCTV and appropriated most of the media outlets in Venezuela, yet Latin American leaders remained quiet. The result was an oppressed Venezuela; the country plunged in economic and social chaos that continues today under the Nicolas Maduro regime.

“History will judge those leaders who opted to be quiet as accomplices of the situation," Toledo said.

Farewell to my good friend Manuel Kohn

After a long battle with several illnesses, our good friend Manuel Kohn died in Manhattan this past Saturday.  For those of us who knew him, we remember a man who loved Venezuela, his Country of origin and who, for the past 15 years, fought for its freedom and justice.

I met Manuel five years ago at the exhibit of one of my documentaries about the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Since then we became very good friends. He inspired me to do a documentary about Cuban Political Prisoners. He believed that the Cuban tragedy has become the new Venezuelan tragedy. He called it the Cuban Holocaust.

Manuel was a brilliant man who took New York by storm. He lived in the Big Apple with the love of his life, his wife Beatriz whom he met in high school back in Venezuela.
Manuel was a thinker but above he was funny. He made light of everything and whenever you were with him; you had to laugh. His big line was “don’t worry, be happy.”

Manuel Kohn not only inspired me but also kicked me in the butt when he felt I doubted myself.
I will miss You, my friend because you made me laugh when I just wanted to cry. Thank you for being there for me and your honest friendship.  You didn’t have the chance to see a free Venezuela, but I have no doubt that your wishes will always follow us.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Latin America POV: Latin American Leaders Socialist Rhetoric

Latin American leaders at the Seventh Summit of the Americas repeatedly, and with obstinacy, talked about the United States being imperialist and portrayed Latin American countries as victims of the US empire. A wrong  term to describe the United States, which has never been an empire. President Obama rejected the Latin American leaders notion that the U.S is to blame for all their problems.

 The real victims have been the Latin American people from corrupt power-hungry leaders like Nicolas Maduro, Cristina Kirchner, Rafael Correa, Fidel and Raul Castro, Evo Morales and others.  These so-called socialists leaders have brought more poverty and economic hardship to their countries than the so-called "imperialist” American government. The most interesting part is that none of these leaders has taken responsibility for the corruption, human rights violations, and abuses that happen in their nations on their watch.

Nicolas Maduro’s regime has stolen billions of dollars from the Venezuelan Petroleum Company, PDVSA and has committed the worse human right abuses in the history of Venezuela against its citizens. But Nicolas Maduro continues accusing the United States of waging an economic war against the country.

 Vladimir Lenin used the term  imperialism as "the Highest Stage of Capitalism in which imperialism was a product of monopoly capitalism." For many, Lenin governed the early Soviet Union in the name of socialism as a dictator that carried out mass human rights abuses. Lenin was the creator of the Red Terror, an organized program of arrests, imprisonments, and killings. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000."

Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor in the Soviet Union,  caused a famine in the Ukraine that resulted in an estimated 7 million people dead. Stalin stole the food that the farmers  had cultivated with their hands.

This Leninist ideology can be traced in Central America through the turbulent modern political history of Mexico, and the total dominance of a single political party,  PRI (National Revolutionary Independent Party) for 70 years.  From 1929 to early 1990's PRI pilfered the money that could have been used to improve the quality of life for average Mexicans and converted the PRI into a nest of corruption and nepotism.

In El Salvador, in addition to poverty and a lack of the essential needs, the cruel civil  took 80,000 lives and destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure. It was a war between the leftist groups of the Frente Farabundo Marti and the Salvadorian military. Both sides committed great atrocities. Massacres of hundreds of innocent civilians took place.

Similarly, Fidel Castro’s socialist tyranny in Cuba killed thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands during more than half a century of oppression.

The birth and rise of the main Colombian terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia, or FARC, offers a terrifying example of the destructive powers of extremist political ideology.  Since 1948, the conflict between  FARC  and the government has claimed more than 300,000 lives in Colombia.

In Peru, the leftist group  Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian Army became  engaged in a cruel struggle that took 50,000 lives and has driven thousands of Peruvians away from the country. The list of conflicts between leftists guerrilla groups and the governments in Latin America is long.  Latin American leaders  should stop the blaming game and also take responsibility for the economic and social problems that their nations are facing today.

The United States economy, often referred as a free market economy, allows  consumers, producers, and the government to make decisions on a daily basis, mainly through the price system. Although not perfect, a free market economy is the engine that makes this country very successful.




Monday, April 13, 2015

Latin America POV: Nicolas Maduro must Follow the Will of the Venezuelan People


Nicolas Maduro should do, what any Democratic president would do, follow the will of the people. After all, that's what Simon Bolivar the Liberator of five nations did in 1828.  Simon Bolivar called for a new constituent assembly, but no one agreed to his autocratic government.  The voices of the opposition from Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador was loud and clear opposing Bolivar's ruling. In 1830, Simon Bolivar finally realized that his goal was unattainable, so he agreed to leave the country.  
Nicolas Maduro,  a high school dropout, and later Hugo Chavez's bodyguard, was selected Chavez's Foreign Minister.  He was elected President in 2014 and has not been able to solve the mounting of economic problems he inherited from Hugo Chavez. 
A new Keller survey indicates that 44% of Venezuelan believe that Maduros resignation will solve the crisis that Venezuela is living today,  and 82 % believe that the Venezuelan economic crisis is Nicolas Maduro's falt. 

According with a report from CNN Money, "The Venezuelan economy is in crisis because of the government  instability, food crisis, the fall of the oil prices, and the devaluation of the Venezuelan currency.  In addition,  the Venezuela's debt, despite the exorbitant amount of money that entered the country from oil revenues this past 15 years.  
        
A survey done by Datanálisis about Maduro's popularity, published in El Universal newspaper, concluded that 76% of Venezuelans predict even more devastating economic situation for Venezuela this 2015. In addition, 58% feel that the government should build mix business while almost the same amount of people support the privatization of businesses.

Survey after survey points out not only the discontent of the Venezuelan people but also  the damaging effect that the Maduro's inept government is having in the country, after 15 years  of Chavismo in Venezuela.

 Maduro and the later Hugo Chavez have used and abused in the name of Simon Bolivar but so far they have no follow what the liberator intended for Venezuela.  Maduro must come to the realization that the Bolivarian revolution is a big fat failure.  Instead of resigning like Simon Bolivar did, he is going to end up fleeing the country with his band of thief’s if he persists in staying in power.

Monday, April 6, 2015

More Abuses from SEBIN, Maduro’s Repressive Police

A year ago, sound engineer Pablo Estrada Izaguirre was detained and imprisoned by the SEBIN, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service. Since his arrest, he has been in a jail known as “La Tumba”  (the Coffin), located in Caracas, leaving behind his girlfriend and newborn baby. In this jail, horrific acts of human rights violations are committed daily against the prisoners, who are mostly activists thrown in tiny cells in extremely cold temperatures and deprived of sun for many months.

The sad part of Pablo Estrada Izaguirre’s story is that, according to his lawyer, he has never engaged in political activities. This 37-year old man was detained in an arbitrary and oppressive manner by the Maduro regime last year, in reaction to the student protests against the regime that had spread throughout the country. The protests were due to the lack of security that exists in the country, in addition to high unemployment and long lines to purchase basic products.

Izaguirre suffers a very serious illness. Before his arrest, he was being treated for disseminated tuberculosis, “a contagious bacterial infection in which the tuberculosis bacteria spread from the lungs to other parts of the body through the blood. “

Pablo Estrada Izaguirre requires treatment and according with his lawyer the SEBIN has no access to this type of medical care, nor is it allowing doctors to provide related medical services to this man.
Pablo's condition continues to deteriorate without any hope for his release in sight. Once again, the Maduro regime will have blood on its hands if something happens to Pablo.