Opposition deputy Carlos Ramos asked the Chávez government for the nth time about where 29 billion dollars from the Fund for Endogenous Development (FONDEN in Spanish) went...and he hasn't got any answer.
People like German deputy Stroebele defended the Chávez government, among other things, because "large groups of the current opposition were involved in corruption and cronyism". Although most people within the German Green Party have been more critical of the Chávez government, Stroebele was one of those who preferred to give the benefit to the 1992 coup monger...it was his love for what he considered a rebel with cause. Most people now remember Stroebele for defending terrorist Baader, so this shouldn't be a surprise. I will talk about Mr Stroebele in more detail in another post.
Carlos Andrés Pérez, one of our former presidents, had to step down from power for the misappropriation of a fraction's fraction of the FONDEN money now unaccounted for. Will we ever see Chávez doing the same?
Millions in Venezuela won't react to anything of the sort...not now. Why? Because they expect to get a Haier washing machine or something similar from the government and they don't see the billions the Chávez regime is pulverizing, billions that could be used for Venezuela's sustainable development. "Well - people like Stroebele may tell us - "at least they are getting something, aren't they? Why didn't Carlos Andrés Pérez give them washing machines back in 1989 and instead introduced those liberal measures?"
Well, because of this. It's not rocket science, really. Unfortunately, European deputies like Stroebele are not expected to do some basic homework before writing reports about foreign countries. Imagine we, Spanish Americans, were writing such reports about Germany as Stroebele did back in 2004 about Venezuela.
I am sending this post to Stroebele.