Zorro est arrivé

As related in prior posts, because of gross economic mismanagement, Venezuela is experiencing an acute shortage of foreign exchange.  The result is that local companies cannot pay for imports, which in turn causes them to cut back production and makes a bad situation even worse.  Recently, the franchisee for Toyota in Venezuela announced that it was closing for 45 days due to a lack of parts and components.  But a lack of dollars is not the only problem.

 

I thought it would be instructive to compare the initial response of President Nicolas Maduro to this crisis with that of Winston Churchill upon becoming Prime Minister.  You draw your own conclusions.

Nicolas Maduro[1]                   

“I just ordered the Minister of Industry to summon the Head of Toyota for Latin America or somebody from Tokyo…Sometimes [companies] get desperate for no good reason…If one of those pencil-pushing managers[2] thinks he can alarm [the country], better watch out… It would seem that the only plan of these pencil-pushers is dollars, dollars and more dollars…Where is the capacity to create products in Venezuela if here we have everything: aluminum, petrochemicals, iron, steel.”
 

Winston Churchill[3]

“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat…You ask, what is our policy?  I can say: it is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us…This is our policy.  You ask what is our aim?  I can answer in one word: victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

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[1]  As reported by the newspaper El Universal on 2/8/14.

[2]  In the Spanish original text: Un ‘gerentico’ de estos bureaucraticos.

[3]  Speech of May 13, 1940 at the House of Commons after Churchill had formed his government.