Neight and the Pernicious Page

Mérida, March 23, 2020 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government announced a series of measures on Sunday in attempts to protect the population from the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis. Speaking on a live televised address, President Nicolas Maduro instructed that all commercial and residential rent, as well as all capital and loan interest payments, are to be suspended for six months.

Public- and private- sector workers will receive a special government bonus, and wages of small and midsize companies will be paid by the state until September. A pre-existing workplace stability decree has also been extended until the end of the year, outlawing job dismissals as a result of the quarantine.

Loan appeals by small and medium businesses are to be fast-tracked, and a special agricultural investment plan will look to guarantee the contents of the subsidised Local Food Production and Provision Committees (CLAP) food boxes for a reported seven million families. Telecommunications companies have also been barred from cutting off customers for six months.

Upon unveiling the measures, Maduro promised to use “all his power and consciousness to protect jobs” and the most vulnerable in society during the quarantine lockdown. 

While grassroots organisations such as the Tenants’ Movement applauded the measures, business leaders such as Alan Celis, president of the Venezuelan Industry Confederation, claimed they “fall short”. Celis also highlighted the need to end the acute fuel shortages in the country in order to restart the economy.

Also in response to the government measures, economic analyst Francisco Rodriguez explained on Monday that US-led sanctions limit the Maduro administration’s ability to inject public funds into the economy. According to Rodriguez, the response to the virus could be improved if the country could access US $7 billion he alleged are currently blocked in international accounts.

“When international financing is blocked, [countries applying sanctions] aren’t just refusing funds to the government. Society also pays a high price, and the amount which all of the Venezuelans have to pay to confront the pandemic increases” he explained.

That would be like calling Ebola (which was named after a river, not an entire ethnicity) or Zika (which was named after a forest, also not an entire ethnicity) the “African virus.”

Why is this so complicated for you to understand? How are you not recognizing the difference?

LIL NAS X for CALVIN KLEIN 2020