Caracas Chronicles

Over the last few days, I’ve been on a bit of a crusade to document the ways artificially low energy prices lead to overconsumption, contributing to the electric crisis Venezuela’s been experiencing. I’ve done so because I find it shocking how little attention this issue gets – the public debate on the crisis has almost entirely sidestepped it.

But, of course, sheer government hackistry has played a major role in the crisis,as well…as you can see in this priceless item (since corrected) on the Radio Nacional de Venezuela (Public Radio) web site. 

Checkout the fifth paragraph, which I’ve highlighted on the right:

Apparently, RNV thinks we can solve the electric crisis with a slightly bigger hard-drive.

It’s a bit of a cheap-shot, I realize: mistakes do happen. But SNAFUs of this kind point to a broad pattern in the chavista public sector where people without the slightest clue of what they’re doing get promoted to sensitive positions as a reward for their ideological loyalty.

I realize that every government appoints some hacks to important positions. But chavismo has distinguished itself by its willingness to extend the spoils system to technical posts where professional expertise is absolutely critical.

PDVSA after the paro is the best known example, with the BCV a close second, but can anybody doubt that the electric crisis would’ve been avoided if key technical posts at Corpoelec and Edelca hadn’t been divvied up among hardcore chavistas who can’t tell a megawatt from a megabyte?

Vamos bien!