Economics With A Face

While brief, all the speeches were interesting. Faria, for example, gave an excellent talk on the importance of property rights. He made the analogy that if the government was given the power to confiscate farmland it deemed “unproductive”, what safeguards would people have when the government next decided that it wanted to take a second house that was not your primary residence, or even an unused bedroom in your home? When I commented to Vladimir that I wished we had leftist politicians like that in the United States, he replied that Chavez has opened a lot of people’s eyes to these kinds of issues. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Liliana is such a passionate well-spoken individual that I’m sure Chavez would love nothing more than to have her out of power.

It should be noted as well that these politicians face serious risks just exiting and entering the capital building to vote. We were told Chavistas gather in masses in the plaza outside the capital when the parliament is in session and at times have resorted to violence against those who vote in opposition to their party. One opposition politician was stabbed in the plaza when leaving the building. On another occasion, Chavez called for parliament to convene in one of the Barrios of the city. Opposition candidates did not attend, knowing they would be putting themselves in danger. Thus, Chavez used the opportunity to push though several bills he could not get through in normal sessions.

After the event we grabbed some lunch at a small, open-air, buffet style restaurant that was directly across from the building in which Vladimir used to work. We had some great paella at an even better price. Since we were in the area we toured the art museum that was located just across the street. The museum housed a famous painting of Francisco de Miranda in a prison cell that was quite impressive. We also took some time to walk around the city park that was at the same location.

Tonight we headed back over to Vladimir’s house for dinner. Sitting in his living room before the meal he gave us a great walk though of the history of Venezuela over the last 40 years. It really helped to give us a bigger picture.

After dinner we watched another film on the oil workers and their conflicts with the government. Scenes from this event were particularly disturbing. It was another full day in which I’m not even coming close to getting down in writing everything that we are learning.