Our dear minister of Popular Power for Commerce and Trade, Eduardo Salmán, just announced the government imported 124000 toys from such brands as Mattel and Fisher Price "to satistfy the demand of the population".
I remember how I wrote in 1996 to El Nacional complaining that the AD governor of Aragua state was giving as prize to good pupils trips to Walt Disney in Florida, instead of giving them lots of cool books and/or less expensive trips in beautiful Venezuela. Things haven't improved in the XXI century "socialism" one single bit.
The government of a Third World country is spending 1.4 million dollars in subsidies for the US industry...and promises local toy production will increase twofold for next year...and we will be at year 11 of the so-called revolution. It is not like they haven't had the time to invest in Venezuela in an efficient, open way.
Well, at least the Barbies are less expensive than the Russian tanks and other defence toys Hugo bought this year. All those toys are worth 1 T-72 tank (and we got almost a hundred of those big Russian toys). Still, with a little bit of planning and intelligence we could have generated our own toys, and not just marbles:
Well, my congrats to Mattel Inc. and Fisher Price Inc. I am sorry for the petrodollars we won't be able to use in sustainable development. I had a couple of ideas for schools in Barinas or in Delta Amacuro.