Venezuela's Chavez Introduces Food Rationing Card

People depended on the government to eat, and nothing gives you more power than having people depend on you to get their food quota. —Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies




Sept. 6, 2010
By Antonio Maria Delgado
Miami Herald

Presented by President Hugo Chávez as an instrument to make shopping for grocersies easier, the "Good Life Card'' is making various segments of the population wary because they see it as a furtive attempt to introduce a rationing card similar to the one in Cuba.

The measure could easily become a mechanism to control the population, according to civil society groups.

"We see that in short-term this could become a rationing card probably similar to the one used in Cuba,'' Roberto León Parilli, president of the National Association of Users and Consumers, told El Nuevo Herald. "It would use more advanced technological means [than those used in Cuba], but when they tell you where to buy and what the limits of what you can buy are, they are conditioning your purchases.''

Chávez said Tuesday that the card could be used to buy groceries at the government chain of markets and supplies.

"I have called it a Good Life Card so far,'' Chávez said in a brief statement made on the government television channel. "It's a card for you to purchase what you are going to take and they keep deducting. It's to buy what you need, not to promote communism, but to buy what just what you need.''

Former director of Venezuela's Central Bank, Domingo Maza Zavala, said this could become a rationing card that would limit your purchases in light of the country's recurring problems with supplies.

"If the intention is to beat inflation, they should find a good source of supply for the entire market and not only for centers that are part of social chains,'' he said. "To do that, you need to encourage local production with the help of the private sector, since they cannot do it by themselves. The government cannot become the ultimate food distributor.''

Humberto Ortega Díaz, minister for public banking and president of the Venezuelan Bank, minimized such criticism and said that all this measure is trying to do is to improve service at the government supply chains.

"Why can't our Bicentennial chain use a card to make it easier for customers to buy their groceries?'' the minister said in an interview broadcast on a government channel. He said that this type of initiative has been used by private commercial entities.

Photo: Domingo Maza Zavala
Yet, critics pointed out that the measure could turn out not as innocent as the minister makes it to be, and they insist that the government control over the supply chain is too broad and depends greatly on imports the government authorizes through its currency exchange system.

In theory, the government could begin to favor the import of products to be sold through the government chains and have more control over the type of products purchased and the people buying them.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said that Venezuela's current problems of scarce supplies are very similar to those Cuba faced when Fidel Castro introduced the rationing card.

"The card emerged when goods began to become scarce,'' Suchlicki said. "The government had seized many companies that did not work because the government managed them poorly. Then they decided to distribute groceries through those cards.''

And although the cards were introduced as a mechanism to deal with scarcities, Suchlicki said, they later became an instrument of control.

"People depended on the government to eat, and nothing gives you more power than having people depend on you to get their food quota,'' he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/04/1807508/venezuela-introduces-...

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Comment by Joe Anybody on September 11, 2010 at 9:54am
I wouldn't worry that they are going to bomb us here in the US. They on the other hand are [very] vworried that the US will bomb them. The 4th fleet (big aircraft carrier unit) is stationed off their northern coast, Colombia has US military hovering all around it, USA Drones have been seen in Venezuela across their border lines, the (sic)war on drugs paints Venezuela as "not co-operating" Anthony is correct about the propaganda, in fact recently the USA has spent millions through programs like NED (National Endowment for Democracy) which just undermines their socialism and their governement. The US has been sticking their noses in Latin America for years, not for any good reasons either, it has all been for corporate greed, capitalism, and imperialism.
Comment by Anthony Kimbrough on September 11, 2010 at 1:19am
Didn't the people put him back in power after the CIA placed their man there? I think a lot of what we hear is propaganda to create enough hate to fight them. Only they have the power and capabilities of actually bombing us from there since Russia gave them a bomber. Still, the main focus will soon be diverted to the Middle East again when they team up and close the two sea routes that the Saudis use to export oil. That means we will have to either fight or head to Chavez, and probably fight.
Comment by Joe Anybody on September 7, 2010 at 11:09pm
Give them time, the opposition and many others want to see Chavez and all his programs fail. The US would be the first to start celebrating on any failures in Venezuela. And there are many forces working in Venezuela (Example NED) to undermine any social revolution that is making progress. Thinks were way worse before Chavez took control.... I say give them more time and encouragement.
Comment by Marklar on September 7, 2010 at 3:58pm
"People depended on the government to eat, and nothing gives you more power than having people depend on you to get their food quota,'' he said.

Of course, this is why Chinese peasants agree to work in slave labor conditions for corporate vultures and why big agribusiness does it's best to destroy the lifestyle of subsistence farmers world wide.

Chavez was elected by the people of Venezuela time and time again but the people of Venezuela have never had the same power over who runs the corporations that ration food and every other resource imaginable through slave labor wages, have they?

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