January 15 2015 – Arturo Rosales

You want a Sunday chicken dinner and you cannot find the chicken in Venezuela.

This is because unscrupulous distributors are hoarding the birds for political reasons or to supply restaurants that specialize in roasted chickens. There are many of these restaurants in Venezuela, and all appear to be able to offer their juicy wares to the hungry consumer.

Today, January 15 2015, the Venezuelan Authorities detected a distributor hoarding nearly 27,000 tons of chicken, exclusively to be sold at usurious process to restaurants in the Andean city of Mérida. This is in complete violation of the law to supply the public before restaurants when it comes down to basic foodstuffs.

The 26.6 tons of chicken will be sold at regulated process to the public in Mérida via Mercal and PDVAL.

Hoarded cooking oil

Also today, at the Excelsior Gama super market in Los Palos Grandes East Caracas, a huge line formed inside as everyone scrambled for bath soap and corn flour. The limit was 6 kilos of corn flour per person and many people bought 10 bars of soap, which should last them for months. The psychological war in the media has sparked panic buying that deprives others of basic products and leads to reselling at speculative prices and actual hoarding in people’s homes. The only good side to this is that people have money in their pockets to spend – but it is for this reason that one can see the same people day after day in line buying products they intend to resell at a profit.

A further 11 people were detained in Falcon state from the company Herrera CA for hoarding tons of food and cleaning products.

In Zulia state, the authorities have detected sales of basic goods being made to at least 7,000 people using false ID cards. It looks as if there will be a clean-up in the local ID system (SAIME) as there must be widespread corruption for this number of genuine looking ID cards to be roaming the streets.

January 16, 2015 – Arturo Rosales

In Barinas state, the Superintendent of Fair prices discovered 40 tons of chicken being sold at Bs. 72 per kilo when the regulated price is Bs. 43 per kilo. The company, Pollos Amanacu, had the stock removed from them and it will now be sold to the public via the state grocery chain of PDVAL.

The Superintendent reached an agreement with Pollos Amanacu to avoid prosecution by signing an agreement making this company an exclusive supplier to PDVAL in the future at regulated prices.

Also in Zulia, the military arrested seven people attempting to smuggle two tons of regulated products over the border to Colombia. They were caught at a checkpoint and did not have the necessary documentation to export the merchandise. All seven were remanded in custody in a local prison awaiting trial. They face at least 12 years in prison for this crime under Venezuelan law.

Cement bags misdirected

The manager of the government supermarket Bicentenario in Bolivar state was imprisoned awaiting trial for diverting products to street hawkers in the region.

In Miranda state, Guatire, the municipal police of Zamora intercepted a truckload of cement bound for the Great Housing Mission as it was being diverted to an unknown destination. There were 630 sacks of 40 kilos each in this load and the owner of the vehicle was detained as he could not explain why the truck was off route compared to the manifest.

In Guarico state, the National Guard discovered 61.5 tons of powdered milk hidden in a warehouse. The aim was to mix it with cheaper products and sell it at speculative prices, thus avoiding the regulated price that is accessible to the public. This price is Bs. 70, and some unscrupulous supermarkets have been selling it at Bs. 240 – Bs 280 per kilo. Arrests were made and the perpetrators will be presented before the judge on Monday.

January 18, 2015 – Arturo Rosales

In Ciudad Bolivar, the Attorney General’s Office arraigned 25 people who work for the Bicentenario State Grocery chain for reselling at exorbitant prices products they had hidden. The manager and Assistant manager were held in custody and the remaining 23 workers involved in the movement and illegal sale of regulated products were ordered to report to the court until their case comes up. They all face jail time.

The manager of a hypermarket in Santa Bárbara de Zulia was arrested by the National Guard for selling chicken and meat to the public at speculative prices. The National Guard confiscated 2 tons of chicken and seven tons of beef and will sell it to the public at regulated prices.

In Sucre municipality in Caracas, run by fascist mayor Carlos Ocariz, a truck authorized by his office is selling chicken at speculative prices – Bs 150/kilo vs. Bs. 43/kilo, the legally set price. This is a 340% markup and was carried out in broad daylight. Just before Christmas, the same truck was selling chicken at Bs. 73 per kilo and suddenly doubled the price. This has been reported to the Superintendent of Fair Prices and we expect arrests to be made on Tuesday when the truck returns to its regular spot opposite the Santa Eduvigis Church in the said municipality.

Confiscated milk powder

In the same street, trucks also authorized by Ocariz and selling fresh fish, have upped their prices by about 40%, on average, since Christmas. This is the private sector speculating; but then opposition politicians and the private media try to “blame it on Maduro”.

In San Felix, in Guyana, the National Guard confiscated 12 tons of beef being sold at speculative prices in contravention of the Fair Price Law.

In order to avoid agents-provocateurs from the opposition infiltrating lines at food outlets, the PSUV has deployed 20,000 inspectors nationwide to combat this destabilization plan.

Upon his recent return to Venezuela, President Maduro gave some facts about the lines that had formed outside supermarkets since January 5. The spark leading to the lines was a campaign of rumors over social media and text messages with the opposition – based in Miami – predicting shortages and “hunger” in Venezuela. This caused more than 18 million people to rush to buy food over five days (three per family of the approximate 6 million families in the country). The result was that, in just five days, one-and-a-half months supply of food and other household products were sold. This left many businesses short on stock.

Normally, some 6 million people would shop in that period of time and, as Maduro said, this sort of rumormongering is designed to scare the population is damaging the country.

Maduro also said that every distributor and wholesaler of food and household products would be summoned to the presidential palace, one by one, to sign what he called an ‘ultimatum’ to guarantee respect to the Venezuelan people and to comply with their duty to make deliveries. Those that refuse or mock this ruling will suffer the weight of the law.

We at Axis of Logic have always maintained that the success of the economic war was because the distribution chain is run by the private sector - the sworn enemy of the socialist government. This sector is working to oust the government. Finally, the government has taken up this challenge and will take direct action to bring the distributors and wholesalers into line.

Confiscated milk powder

© Copyright 2015 by AxisofLogic.com

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