http://lo-de-alla.org/2013/10/venezuela-a-familiar-recipe-for-destabilization/#more-4391
Venezuela: A familiar recipe for destabilization<http://lo-de-alla.org/2013/10/venezuela-a-familiar-recipe-for-destabilization/> [Translation of an article from *El Clarín* of Santiago, Chile, for October 6, 2013. See original here<http://www.elclarin.cl/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9345%3Avenezuela-desestabilizacion-con-receta-conocida&catid=13%3Apolitica1&Itemid=12> and related articles here<http://lo-de-alla.org/2013/10/venezuela-between-disenchantment-and-patience/> and here<http://lo-de-alla.org/2013/04/venezuela-what-is-the-oppositions-game/> .] By Frida Modak There has been a change in the past few months in the Venezuelan opposition’s strategy. They no longer stress the supposed electoral fraud, as they did right after the presidential elections. As far as is known, no change has been announced resulting from the reviews electoral authorities have made, so we should wonder what has brought about this new attitude and when. And if we look for an answer, we find that this new attitude coincides with the trip defeated candidate Enrique Capriles made to Chile, where he met with the leaders of some political parties for whom he has a certain affinity. Not much information has been released about it and the visitor was not received by President Sebastián Piñera because it was considered inappropriate, since Chile has relations with the government presided over by Nicolás Maduro. So the meeting between them was informal in nature and consisted of a dinner to which both were invited. Reports on Capriles’ stay in the South American country were not very complete; nevertheless previous events indicate that it was not a simple excursion. *Coincidences* When Capriles arrived in Chile, there was already a shortage of basic essential goods, just as occurred in Chile when the administration of President Salvador Allende had been in office for two years and parliamentary elections were approaching. The parties of the Right and the Christian democrats had made a pact with a view not only of winning those elections but of electing a combined total of 65 percent of the members of parliament and of being able to remove President Allende from office. >From that perspective, the shortage of everything, from milk, eggs, meat, baby food, including baby bottles, oil, sugar, cigarettes and even toilet paper, became an electoral weapon, or at least that is how they perceived it. A replay of these events in Venezuela is therefore not surprising. It becomes obvious that all this is connected, although those who aspired to removing President Allende suffered a great disappointment: they did not elect 65 percent of the members of parliament. The fundamental reason was that, with the voluntary participation of the teachers, who at that time were on vacation, and of the radio stations, newspapers and journalists, a campaign was launched to demonstrate that these goods were not in scarce supply but were hidden away and sold at very high prices to the wealthier sectors. A similar situation is being seen in Venezuela, but according to opinion polls released in the past few weeks, this does not seem to weaken public support for the government headed by Nicolás Maduro. It is registered as having 43 percent support, which is similar to the results of the presidential election, so the accent is now being placed on another aspect, the availability of currency. *The dollars* The Venezuelan opposition’s anti-government activity seems to be centered now on leaving the country without currency and here we find another similarity with what happened in Chile when Salvador Allende won the presidential election of 1970. Once the campaign of fear against the Allende candidacy had failed, the presidential election was to spill over into the parliament, where it was necessary to choose from the two largest majorities, as the constitution requires. The Christian democrats were governing but their candidate had won only third place and within that party there was a sector favoring an accord with *Allendismo,* which was not to the liking of the governing team or of the United States. Then an unusual event took place: the minister of the treasury delivered a speech to the country which generated a new campaign of fear, this time over the possibility that currency would not be available in the future. This resulted in sectors that had the resources to do so planning costly trips abroad with the object of obtaining the greatest quantity of dollars possible, because there was currency control established by the previous Christian democrat administration. This control was necessary because the same business community that supported the conservative government had carried out a series of financial maneuvers that left the government they were a part of without currency. The speech by Andrés Saldívar, minister of the treasury in the administration of Eduardo Frei, translated into the desperate buying up of dollars through a not very complicated formula. Those who planned to travel outside the country could acquire an amount determined by where they were planning to go. So hundreds of moneyed families planned fantastic trips, on which they would generously take their maids, nursemaids, cooks and chauffeurs. The buying of dollars was greater the farther away the countries they were supposedly going to were, but in practice they had agreements with the airlines or tourist agencies and would arrive in a nearby country, where the bosses would recuperate even the price of the fares that had not been used. This same thing is happening now in Venezuela. Curious, no? The tale is told by a correspondent, apparently from BBC, and was published on October 2 in the newspaper *Última Hora* of Caracas. The correspondent had to go to Bogotá, Colombia, to arrange a Venezuelan visa, but at all the travel agencies he went to in search of a ticket the answer was the same: “There are none.” But not only that, they told him that the flights to Peru, Ecuador and Miami were all sold out for the next four months. Others do the same as we have told about happening in Chile, including inviting friends to go to Europe; they pay for everything, they leave them in the chosen place with a certain amount and they keep considerable sums; buying dollars in Venezuela turns out to be more troublesome. The Maduro administration has announced changes in these arrangements. But it would also seem necessary to investigate the subject more deeply, as well as what is behind so many coincidences with what happened in Chile and led to the military coup.
