September 3: “El Sacudon” That Wasn’t

During a televised speech last night, Maduro finally gave the details of his much-hyped sacudon. In Spanish, the word sacudon means, “to shake violently and abruptly”, and roughly translates into English as “big shake-up”.

Given the name, it was expected that Maduro would announce a great number of cabinet changes. As it turns out, however, the sacudon was much less violent and abrupt than imagined.

Below is a list of the biggest changes announced by Maduro:

• Vice-Presidency of the Economy and Finances: Passes to Rodolfo Marco Torres from Rafael Ramirez.
• Minister of Oil and Mining: Passes from Rafael Ramirez to Asdrubal Chavez, Chavez’s cousin.
• Minister of Foreign Relations: Passes to Rafael Ramirez from Elias Jaua.
• Vice-Presidency for Development and National Socialism and Minister for Communes and Social Movements: Elias Jaua. 

Other changes occured at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Sea and Air Transport.

There were no changes at the following high-profile ministries: Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Penal Matters, Ministry of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Electrical Energy, Office of the Vice-President.

Maduro Announces “Five Revolutions”

During the same speech last night, Maduro announced what he calls the “five revolutions”, five areas which he would like to improve. They are: 1) the economy, 2) knowledge, 3) social missions, 4) state policy, and 5) what he calls “territorial socialism”.

Maduro called the five revolutions a kind of “homework” activity for the entire nation to undertake during this “historic time”.

Former Governor Wanted by INTERPOL

Former Aragua governor Rafael Isea is wanted by the Venezuelan government and INTERPOL for “acquiring U.S. dollars through illegal means”, so says Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz.

While Diaz did not give any more details on the case, she said that INTERPOL has been informed since Isea is currently outside of Venezuela, although she did not say exactly where.

Diaz also said that Isea is only one of approximately 2,300 Venezuelans suspected of having acquired U.S. dollars fraudulently, possibly through the state’s foreign exchange system, CADIVI (now CENCOEX).

Isea was a close ally of Chavez, having participated in the 1992 coup d’etat against the Venezuelan government. He served as deputy Minister of Finance in 2007 and became Minister of Finance in 2008. From 2008 to 2012 he served as Governor of Aragua.

Here is Isea, pictured below, along notable figures, including Diosdado Cabello and current Aragua governor Tarek el Aissami:

Anxiety As Central Banks Refuses to Release Economic Data

The Banco Central de Venezuela has now gone three months without releasing any financial data, including the all-important measurement of the country’s monthly inflation.

The reluctance by the bank to release information has made it nearly impossible for companies to plan their economic activities in the country, claimed Jorge Roig, president of FEDECAMARAS. The organization -which represents private industry – has started to release its own assessments of the country’s financial status in light of the central bank’s unwillingness to do so. According to its own statistics, FEDECAMARAS says that the country’s GDP fell 4% in the first quarter of 2014.

Economist Jose Guerra, who once worked as the head of research at the central bank, spoke on the lack of economic information, saying:

This destroys the credibility of the central bank. There has never been this kind of a delay for as long as we have been measuring inflation.

Opinion

The sacudon – or rather, the lack of one – was disappointing, although not unexpected.

A great deal of hope had been placed on the event because, if it did turn out to be as monumental as the name implied and Maduro teased, then it might have had a chance at turning the country’s fortunes around. The scarcity crisis alone is an obvious indication that the country’s economy is broken, and that the people in power are either unwilling or unable to fix it. As desperate as that hope might have been, it was a hope nonetheless.

A true sacudon, a real shake-up would have involved the dismissal of ministers, the wholesale restructuring of warms of government, and perhaps even a serious introspection of the political theories guiding the country’s policy. Instead, what Venezuelan’s got was a rather tame game of musical chairs, a new coat of paint on rickety backyard deck.