For book lovers like me, Cadivi is like a completely arbitrary censor with unchecked power to decide which books will be dirt cheap, which will be mad expensive, and which just won't be available at all.
You try to explain to a prestigious gringo university that unless they falsify the major on your admissions letter your government won't let you go there.
Kids in Venezuela these days can barely imagine life outside the Cadivi box.
In a government marked by opacity, CADIVI stands alone for its total data impenetrability.
For years, I took this perverse pride in being the one lawyer who wasn't milking money out of the permuta system. Instead, I wasted years of my professional life doing completely useless work.
Which of your high school classmates is going to be the one who ended up making it big on the Cadivi circuit? The bully, obvs.
Have you ever tried to explain Cadivi to a busy editor rushing to beat a deadline?
I used to love Cadivi, but now I despise it. It is the lynchpin of a failed government: opaque, corrupt and unspeakably negligent.
CADIVI wasn't just an economic policy. It was really the chain tying Venezuela's middle class to the revolution, and to Chávez himself.
By May, Venezuela's highest denominated banknote won't be worth the paper it's printed on. Literally.
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