In a post the other day about the war rhetoric from Venezuela’s President, I alluded to electricity and other problems in Venezuela that might explain his desire to stoke nationalistic feelings in the population. Yesterday, the NYT had a full story on the situation: Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela:
President Hugo Chávez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.
And talking about potential invasion by The Empire (aka, the US) and making fun of Uribe is probably a better way to sway the masses than this:
In response, the president is embarking on his own crusade: pushing Venezuelans to conserve by mocking their consumption habits.
He began his critique last month with the amount of time citizens spent under their shower heads, saying three-minute showers were sufficient. “I’ve counted and I don’t end up stinking,” he said. “I guarantee it.”
Then he went after the country’s ubiquitous love motels and shopping malls, accusing them of waste. “Buy your own generator,” he threatened, “or I’ll cut off your lights.” He similarly laid blame with “oligarchs,” a frequently used insult here for the rich, for overconsumption of water in gardens and swimming pools.
Mr. Chávez is even going after his countrymen’s expanding waistlines. “Watch out for the fat people,” he said last month, citing a study finding a jump in obesity. “Time to lose weight through dieting and exercise.”
This strikes me as largely counter-productive, although the anti-oligarch talk fits into Chávez’s populist mode of politicking.
Overall it is a story of mismanagement of resources by the state, of ad hoc policy making that was often predicating on the notion that oil revenues were endless and forever on the climb. It is worth noting that part of what brought down the pre-Chávez political order was the fact that the masses saw a disconnect between the obvious wealth of Venezuela’s oil reserves and their daily lives of poverty. Chávez came to power promising to fix that state of affairs. However, if his management of the country’s resources leads to continued power and water rationing (and being told that the solution is a diet and shorter showers), then he may find himself in the same place politically as the “oligarchs.”
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