Talking About Colombia

Happy (belated) 56th Birthday, Commander Hugo Chavez! Your socialist project is “the only solution for the liberation of the people. … The revolutionary people are filled with happiness and give you a hug, Commander Chavez, on your birthday.”

But, Commander Chavez, the revolutionary people are hungry. Why did the hundreds of thousands of tons of food that your government imported rot in a port? Someone said, “It stank like 100 dead dogs.” The revolutionary people would have eaten those 100 dead dogs.

When the trucks from Colombia used to deliver the food, at least we ate.

Commander, you promised to feed us. We are starting to think it’s true what we hear on the channel you don’t want us to watch, on Globovision, that the intermediaries, who were supposed to facilitate food imports, were overpaid and yet, because of corruption, they did not deliver.

We have kids to feed. There isn’t any milk, rice, mayonnaise, oil, wheat, or butter. We lack rice, spaghetti, sugar, eggs, chlorine and toilet paper. There is no powdered milk. We have to wait in long lines for basic comodities.

Commander Chavez, it’s getting harder to believe you: On January 20, on “Alo Presidente,” you told us that the price of milk had risen by 14.3% between 2002 and 2007, yet the number of cows for milk production increased by just 1%. You said, Commander, the causes included global warming and increased droughts, as well as the fall of the US dollar and speculation on the market. Comandante, no entendemos. Like we said, the revolutionary people only understand you when you fill our bellies! The revolutionary people are desperate and behaving like animals.

Commander, your words:
“Socialism is necessarily better than capitalism across the board, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Come September, Commander Chavez, when the parliamentary elections arrive, we’ll vote with our bellies, that’s what we’ll do.