Cordiplan return of Jorge Giordani sparks ill-willed Frankenstein scenarios

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 By: David Coleman

President Hugo Chavez Frias has recalled 62-year academic Jorge Giordani as Economic Coordination & Planning (Cordiplan) Minister in the latest Cabinet reshuffle after Felipe Perez (48) was sacked on the heels of what are described as "sharp differences" between members of Chavez Frias' economic council.

The announcement came as a surprise to insiders who had thought that Giordani and the President had had an ideological parting of the ways after three years in Planning after Chavez Frias came to power in February 1999.  It was not so for Chavez Frias who says "in reality, Jorge never left here ... how can someone leave who has spent a decade thinking, analyzing, proposing ideas that become projects."

Nevertheless, the news caught many financial analysts on the hop after they had welcomed Perez as Giordani's substitute last May last year just weeks after Chavez Frias had been returned to power after the 2-day dictatorship of now-exiled Pedro Carmona Estanga.

Giordani has been seen as the intellectual author of most of Chavez Frias economic policies which have sparked vitriolic opposition from largely corrupt business leaders and labor mafia bosses who claim that he frightened away many foreign investors by praising Giordani as an "anti-IMF policy maker."  Before he's even had a chance to get warm in the seat, opposition radicals are insisting that Giordani's return is only going to heighten the diplo-economic chasm between Caracas and Washington.

Giordani, however, says he will make recovery of Venezuela's opposition-crippled production levels a priority.

Meanwhile Felipe Perez ... a Chicago University Ph.D ... has had publicly disagreements with the President's decision to tighten foreign exchange and price controls backed by most of the remainder of the government economic cabinet ... he had also had "policy differences" with Finance (Hacienda) Minister Tobias Nobrega and Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) directors over how to tackle a deep recession caused by months of economic sabotage by a corrupt opposition which refuses to abide by the nation's Constitution.

Opposition analysts are quick to highlight Giordani's alleged failures during the first three years and claim that now that Chavez Frias brings him "back into the fold when the situation is worse ... it shows that Chavez' priority is politics, not the economy."

Finance (Hacienda) Minister Nobrega ... a banking and finance specialist in civilian life ... has been heading government's efforts to negotiate voluntary debt swaps to ease a payments crunch but watchers say that Giordani's return could lead to confrontation since both strong figures.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Venezuela to ditch currency controls and has forecast a 17% GDP contraction following a fall of nearly 9% last year.