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<h1 class="title">“A Solid Foundation for Socialism of the 21st
Century”: Venezuela's Maduro Restructures Several Government Ministries
and Institutions</h1>
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<p class="byline"> By <span class="author">Ryan Mallett-Outtrim</span>
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<p>Mérida, 16th January 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan
president Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of public
institutions related to the economy and consumer protection during a
four hour speech to the nation.</p>
<p>The shake-up came less than a week after Maduro<a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10273"> reshuffled his cabinet</a>,
appointing new ministers in the areas of labour, industry, education,
higher education, sport, youth and the chief of staff.</p>
<p>During the annual state of the nation address delivered to the
National Assembly (AN) yesterday, Maduro also warned he would use an
“iron fist” to deliver harsher penalties for “sabotage and speculation”.</p>
<p>“We fully understand what...it's going to cost to make the
Venezuelan economy fortified and sustainable in promoting jobs,
diversification of our productive enterprises in providing value to our
goods and in socialising the means of production,” Maduro stated during
the address, which continued into the evening.</p>
<p>This was his first state of the nation speech since being elected
last April. His four hour talk was less than half the length of
Chavez's record 9.5 hour address two years ago.</p>
<p>However, the president issued a defiant warning to his opponents, to
not underestimate him.</p>
<p>“For those that underestimate me from the left and the extreme
right, I say that I’m a socialist and I know what I’m doing,” he stated.</p>
<p>The president also defied predictions that he would devalue the
bolivar currency, stating that the current fixed exchange rate will be
kept in place for a “long time forward”.</p>
<p>“Venezuela has sufficient resources to keep the foreign exchange
[rate] at [Bs ] 6.30 to the dollar,” Maduro stated.</p>
<p>“We will continue fighting [the currency blackmarket]...Sicad will
fulfil its function,” he said, referring to the Complimentary System of
Foreign Currency Acquirement (Sicad).</p>
<p><a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9868">Established last year</a>,
Sicad holds foreign currency auctions for individuals and businesses,
selling dollars at a higher rate than the fixed exchange value.</p>
<p>Sicad was originally intended to operate parallel to the Foreign
Exchange Administration Commission (Cadivi), which used to be the main
government body that regulated the distribution of foreign currency.
However, yesterday Maduro announced that Cadivi will be merged with the
<a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10151">recently announced
National Centre of Exterior Commerce</a>.</p>
<p>He also named Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming as the head of the
new centre.</p>
<p>The public banking ministry has also been folded into the finance
ministry, which will now be headed by current Minister of Public
Banking Rodolfo Marco.</p>
<p>Marco replaces Nelson Merentes, who had been<a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8765"> moved from the BCV</a>
in April. Merentes was widely viewed as more market-friendly than his
predecessor. At the time, Merentes had been urged by Maduro to produce
“achieve single digit inflation” within three years. Merentes will now
resume his former position heading the BCV. Last year Venezuela's
annual inflation rate was around 56%.</p>
<p>Maduro called on Marco to oversee the construction of “a new
financial model that can allow for all these investments that we need,
that will allow the expansion of a financial system at the service of
the country”.</p>
<p>Marco was imprisoned alongside Hugo Chavez due to his involvement in
Chavez's failed 1992 coup attempt. Like Merentes, Marco is widely
viewed as a moderate figure.</p>
<p>Along with heading the banking ministry, Marco has also previously
managed the state-owned Banco de Venezuela.</p>
<p><strong>Indepabis and Sundecop Merge</strong></p>
<p>The Institute for the Defence of the People's Access to Goods and
Services (Indepabis) and the National Superintendency for Fair Costs
and Prices (Sundecop) will also be merged into a single institution, to
be headed by Minister for Women and Gender Equality Andreina Tarazon.</p>
<p>Beneath Tarazon, former Sundecop head Karlin Granadillo has been
charged with overseeing costs and earnings calculations sections, while
General Luis Motta Dominguez will manage the institution's fair price
oversight mechanisms.</p>
<p>Since being <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9724">taken
over by Eduardo Saman last June</a>, Indepabis has undertaken a
nationwide crackdown on <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9963">price
gouging and violations of price controls</a>. Saman was appointed with
a mandate to clean up Indepabis to after an alleged extortion ring was
discovered operating within the institution. However, in July <a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9876">Saman had some of his
authority revoked</a> after he dismissed a number of Indepabis regional
heads.</p>
<p>Then in October, <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10070">Saman
survived an attack</a> by three assailants armed with handguns and
explosives, which he claimed was an attempted assassination.</p>
<p>Police suspected at the time the incident was an attempted robbery.</p>
<p>Saman's official position following the merger has yet to be
announced.</p>
<p><strong>Speculation</strong></p>
<p>Despite describing Venezuela's economic growth in 2013 as “very
successful”, Maduro stated that he intends to deepen reform to counter
what he describes as an “economic war”.</p>
<p>Venezuela's economy <a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/node/10201/edit">grew by 1.4% in the
first three quarters of 2013</a>.</p>
<p>However, Maduro stated that 99% of businesses inspected by
authorities last year were inappropriately pricing goods, with “no
economic explanation”.</p>
<p>The next law Maduro says he intends to pass with his decree powers
will cap businesses' profit margins to 30%. The law will be drafted in
the coming days, according to the president.</p>
<p>Maduro was <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10178">handed
presidential decree powers</a> under the Enabling Law by the AN last
November.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/documento/show/id/551">statement</a>
released by the AN following the enacting of the Enabling Law said that
Maduro had been empowered to pass legislation to “fight corruption,
usury, money laundering and the economic war unleashed in recent times
against the country by the national oligarchy”.</p>
<p>“While the government makes a big effort to guarantee the quality of
some services and the availability of products, the mafias speculate
with other products and even medicines,” he stated.</p>
<p>Maduro pledged to continue to use his decree powers to counter “both
abuse and outrages” of the economy in 2014, and stated he would put
price gougers “behind bars” with tougher penalties for “sabotage and
speculation”.</p>
<p>“With the economic war the bourgeoisie have shown a cruelty that is
comparable only to the acts of 2002,” Maduro stated, referring to
shortages of consumer goods ranging from milk to cooking oil and toilet
paper.</p>
<p>“How can you describe someone who hides formula milk for babies
[from supermarket shelves]? We cannot create a new euphemism for that,”
he stated.</p>
<p>“That person must be described as a criminal,” Maduro said.</p>
<p>Both scarcity and inflation levels <a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10201">spiked</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>“There won’t be any forgiveness to those who keep robbing the
people...they’re speculating with food and medicine,” he said.</p>
<p><strong>Investment Plan</strong></p>
<p>Along with promising to chastise businesses that act
inappropriately, Maduro also stated his government aims to coax foreign
investors to Venezuela. According to Maduro, the government's plan will
focus on promoting investment in 11 key areas, including: petroleum,
petrochemicals, construction, industry, agriculture, agriculture,
manufacturing, tourism, textiles, mining and communication.</p>
<p>“I call to all national and international entrepreneurs who are
investing in Venezuela,” he said.</p>
<p>Some incentives will be provided to investors, though Maduro didn't
go into details.</p>
<p>He also stated Bs 25.5 billion would be invested in public works
nationwide in the coming years.</p>
<p><strong>Media and Security</strong></p>
<p>In yet another announcement during the speech, Maduro called for a
national review of the country's media landscape. The president accused
the private media of promoting “guns, drugs, violence and betrayal”.</p>
<p>Minister for Communication and Information Delcy Rodríguez along
with the board of the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel)
were ordered to undertake an official review, while the president also
called for a public debate on the media and violence.</p>
<p>“I think there needs to be an honest, open discussion, open debate,”
he stated.</p>
<p>Earlier this week the president <a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10276">slammed Venezuela's media</a>
for turning former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear’s murder into a “show”.</p>
<p>Maduro also stated he would strengthen his government's anti-crime
and anti-violence initiatives, including the Safe Homeland Plan.</p>
<p>“I call upon young men to be able to challenge and demolish the
culture of violence, drugs, individualism, hatred and greed,” he stated.</p>
<p>He also urged all governors and mayors to back the Safe Homeland
Plan, regardless of political affiliation.</p>
<p>“We have to be building peace for communities, families; peace
grounded in values of respect for life, coexistence, social peace based
on a new culture that overcomes the negative values of the culture of
death, greed, ambition and wealth that are given to us by the great
national and international media,” Maduro said.</p>
<p>“We'll build a culture of work, overcome consumerism as social
deviance and cast a solid foundation for socialism of the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century,” he said.</p>
<p>Maduro also devoted a portion of his speech to reflecting on last
year.</p>
<p>“2013 was a year of love, loyalty and victory over pain and
difficulties. We turned grief into strength and life in joy,” Maduro
stated.</p>
<p>Referring to the April and December elections, Maduro stated that
“democracy is only meaningful if it meets the needs of the people and
not the accumulation of wealth”.</p>
<p>The president pointed to the death of his predecessor Hugo Chavez as
a low point in the year, but emphasised that the Bolivarian Revolution
would continue nonetheless.</p>
<p>“The enemies of Hugo Chavez were wrong, the great revolution did not
vanish [when Chavez died],” he stated.</p>
<p class="published">Published on Jan 16th 2014 at 8.11pm </p>
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