VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: And they say that the Chavez government is doing nothing to diminish corruption!

Who are “they?”

They are the anti-Chavez movement in Venezuela ... those that have been preaching that the Chavez government is the most corrupt government in Venezuelan history. They are the same ones who want Venezuela to go backwards ... to be re-ruled by the Adecos or Copeyanos ... the two traditional Venezuelan political parties which siphoned off billions of dollars from the Venezuelan oil-profits coffers through mass corruption scams and processes. The amount of money that was taken out of the country in the last 25 years is estimated at between $150-200 billion!

Let me explain some of the traditional Venezuelan scams which the Venezuelan government is attempting to curb and which they hope to eradicate in the long run.

These inbred scams are not easy to control ... and it will take years for people to get accustomed to living and working within in a less corrupt society. These scams are found within government institutions (formerly within PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, for example), within municipal, state and regional bureaucracies, within some business sectors, within the school system ... and more.

There is a Venezuela dictum which says, “When a wealthy person steals he is considered ‘smart’ ... and when a poor person steals he is considered a thief.”

From my 28-year experience with Venezuela, in a general sense, the most corrupt Venezuelans come from the mid-to-upper classes (the 20%).

Ironically, many of them don’t even know that they are corrupt because they have been brought up to believe that what they are doing is OK. They are also often taught that if they don’t do it, then someone else will ... and they will be the ones who would be labeled as “dummies.” And no one likes to be called a dummy, right?

The least corrupt, the hardest working and the most honest are usually from the 80% working classes. Perhaps this is why they are poorer(?)

There is another dictum that goes something like this “The one who is more cunning/sly lives better.” The word used in Venezuela, as in most of Latin America, is “vivo,” which means sly or cunning or smart ... but in the sense of “getting away with it.”

This is the reality of Venezuela and it is also the reality of most of Latin America. However, in Venezuela, this reality is changing while in other countries it is not necessarily so. Venezuela is at the leading edge of a new Latin America.

Chavez continuously speaks up against corruption ... he is continuously educating people as to their rights and as to what is right and what is wrong ... and that honest Venezuelans do not have to be “vivos” in order to make a decent living in Venezuela. Some poorer people (my estimate, about 30% of the population) had embarked in the “make a living through corruption” boat because they had basically said to themselves “If they can do it and get away with it, then I should also be allowed to.”

I know several Venezuelans from the barrios who voted for Chavez thinking that Chavez was going to bring in a dictatorship so as to eradicate corruption with one fell swoop. That did not happen and now they will vote against Chavez because they say “At least, with the Adecos and Copeyanos, they stole ... but they also allowed us to steal.”

• Note that I also know some very wealthy Venezuelan business people who supported Chavez and expected the same thing ... a dictatorship to keep corruption at bay!

The interesting thing about many of the people who complain that Chavez is not able to eradicate corruption is that they are pro-Adeco or pro-Copei. The Adeco and Copei parties governed Venezuela for over 40 years (prior to Chavez coming to power) and the amount of corruption in Venezuela increased exponentially over these years taking along with it the value of the Bolivar (Venezuela’s currency). The Bolivar (Bs) was at about Bs.4 per

US$ in the 1970s and it is now at Bs.1,900/US$ ... a 10,000% decrease in value!

When Chavez came into power, the Bolivar was at Bs.400-700  per dollar ... and then when the anti-Chavez movements started to sabotage the country in 2002, the Bolivar devalued even further to where it stands today.

Now ... to come back to corruption schemes. Here are some examples. The monies allocated to public (free) hospitals for medical equipment and medicine is siphoned off by hospital staff (some doctors included) ... often by re-selling medication and materials which the sick persons should not be paying for.

For example, if one has a broken leg and goes to get a cast put on in the hospital, the person will often have to pay for the cast, bandages, x-rays, and antibiotics and pain-killers. These materials are supposed to be free ... but the hospital staff will say something like, “We don’t have any material ... but I know someone around the corner who sells some.” Some of the hospital’s medical equipment also ends up in private clinics ... the Chavez government is investigating.

From my research I have also discovered that in the past some of the money allocated by the government for public (free) schools were slyly allotted to “private” schools which, in addition to collecting government funds also charged pupils for education and books and materials! Some of these schools are also operated in collaboration with the Venezuelan church, which mostly sides with the anti-Chavez movement who wants to return to the “old ways.”

I suspect that the Chavez government is also investigating these scams.

Typically, for example, if you were a member of the Adeco party and the local mayor was Adeco, you were able to get your hands on a certain portion of the construction materials which were allocated by the central government to that region for, say, infrastructure construction. Only a small percentage of the material (and money) would actually end up being used for construction of infrastructures in that area. The same went for government housing projects, road construction, etc.

The Chavez government is apparently investigating such “habits.”

At PDVSA, as in many government organizations and institutions, people would get full salaries and benefits ... but show up to work only once a week or once a month to collect their checks. Well connected people would be able to collect several checks from several different institutions on a regular basis for years and years.

(I always wondered how some Venezuelans could afford to have two or three giant homes, a couple of apartments, a yacht ... and still be able to spend months on vacation in Florida in their american-style condominiums!)

Many of the estimated 18,000 fired ex- PDVSA employees were is similar predicaments. Some were paid extravagant salaries and benefits including free housing (and I mean housing!), company cars, free medical care at private clinics, free private schooling for their children, free paid vacations for their families, etc., etc., etc.

The Chavez government has already addressed the PDVSA problem of inbred corruption. Two other very good examples of mass corruption within government institutions can be found in Charles Hardy’s article “The story of eighty doorkeepers and only one door.”

In the 1970s I went to get my Venezuelan driver’s license and had to pay about US$150 to get it, when it should have cost something like $10. If I had not paid a middle-man, it would have taken years to get my license ... yes, years. The people who received a cut from the middle-man were: the bank manager, the local police and the local driver’s license office manager.

Everyone seemed to know about the scam but no one said anything.

Till now, many Venezuelans have made a living as middle-men in areas of driver’s licenses, legal documents, banking and passports. However, with the crackdown by Chavez government investigators, it is getting harder to make a living as a middle-man.

See: 46 passport officials arrested on corruption charges but problem continues and Lands Institute (INTI) getting shakedown with dismissal of regional directors.

On the other side of the coin, government investigators can’t be everywhere at the same time ... so, I suspect that as soon as they turn around, some new scam probably crops up again. This will probably go on for some time ... until the majority of the people decide to speak up openly and denounce those who continue to practice such abuses.

(Traditionally, in Venezuela, one keeps his/her mouth shut in order to avoid threats, revenge or “pay-back.”)

When I was in the town of Coro in 2000-2001, the Chavez government was in the process of replacing the entire Coro police force (chiefs included) because of mass corruption. This is the depth of the corruption which was created, tolerated and endorsed by the Adecos and Copeyanos during their 40 years of rule. This is the corruption which the Chavez government acquired. This is the corruption which the Chavez government is addressing, sector by sector, unit by unit, region by region, level by level.

It will take time ...

Contrary to what most anti-Chavez people are saying, the Chavez government is the only Venezuelan government to have ever had the courage to face up to corruption. It isn’t easy to find people to work as investigators against corruption in Venezuela. Look at what happened to some estimated 200 land-reformists in the last three years ... they were assassinated ... most probably by wealthy land owners who wanted these reformists “out of their hair.”

It isn’t easy to find people who are willing to face the risk of being threatened or assassinated because they are simply trying to apply the law. It isn’t easy.

The fact that the Venezuelan government has the courage to do something about corruption (and not just talk about it, like the anti-Chavez movement) is not only admirable but remarkable and probably unique in Latin America.

Chavez, along with many devoted and honest Venezuelans are putting their lives at risk to help create a more equitable Venezuela for all.

Venezuela is an example for all of Latin America.