Venezuela’s constitution has de facto decreed that 97% of its exports, is to be managed by some few in the government.

I refer to Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez’ “Venezuela’s broken system cannot fix itself” April 24

Sir, Venezuela’s constitution has de facto placed 97% of its exports to be managed by some few in the government of turn.

I ask: if that were the reality of your country, would you as a citizen prioritize changing the government or changing the constitution?

I do not think my homeland has a sustainable good future, unless we dilute the excessive powers of our government, by sharing out all oil revenues directly to the citizens.

A government that is not sustained, frugally and solely, by taxes paid by the citizens, will never act sufficiently responsibly in favor of the citizens.

@PerKurowski

http://petropolitan.blogspot.com

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com

In the midst of the Venezuelan pandemonium, is not selling petrol at less than $2 cents a liter a crime?

Sir, Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, describing Venezuela’s current plight writes: “Food and medicine are scarce. Anemic oil prices and a heavy debt load leave scant foreign exchange for the import sector. “Venezuela sets the stage for a chaotic and tragic exit” May 30.

What’s worse, within the pandemonium, few react to that petrol, even after it was raised a 6.000 percent in February this year, is still being sold at less than $2 cents per liter. Perhaps the most serious problem in Venezuela is not Maduro, but the lack of a responsible elite, that is willing to speak up on what is wrong and right.

If the price of petrol sold domestically was raised to its world value, and the resulting revenues all paid out in cash, to all citizens, that could provide them with what they might need to cover the basic food needs. And, to top it up, that would free a lot of petrol for exports.

I myself have tried for long to have the Organization of American States to look into if whether giving away petrol almost for free, while there is lack of food and medicines, does not qualify as an economic crime against humanity. Seemingly OAS/OEA prefer to look the other way.

@PerKurowski ©

Venezuela must be an Emperor Severus’ dream come true… that is until…

Sir I refer to Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez’ “A civilian sacrifice is more likely than a coup in Caracas” February 16.

It is a great article though perhaps his reference to the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus’ strategy to: “Enrich the soldiers, and scorn all others”, could have been made even more potent.

In Venezuela an Emperor Severus would not really have to be concerned with how all others were doing, so to be able to enrich the soldiers. In Venezuela an Emperus Severus would be receiving, directly into his coffers, 97 per cent of all the nations abundant exports, and that must be an Emperor Severus’ dream come true… that is until fast dropping oil prices turns it into a nightmare.

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com

Do not reduce what is an economic crime against humanity to merely being a “petrol subsidy”

Sir, Daniel Lansberg Rodriguez, I presume my former colleague as columnist in El Universal, as I assume he has been censored too, writes about “slashing petrol subsidies” in Venezuela, “Latin America swaps its populists for apparatchiks” August 20.

Hold it there, “petrol subsidies” is not the correct way to describe selling gas at less than 1 US$ cent per gallon, at less than 1 € cent per 5 liters, less than 1 £ penny per 6 liters of petrol or gas.

To put it in its real current perspective it means that, more than US$ 2.500 are handed over to each one of the more than 5 million cars on the roads of Venezuela, representing a value that by far exceeds what the government pays out in all other social programs put together… if we now can count the gas/petrol give away as a social program.

The International Court of Justice should be able to also handle these economic crimes against humanity.