Where did the money go? Hummm … Let’s see, 18,000 x US$10,000 (benefits?)
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: Oscar Heck
VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: I recently received many positive feedback letters from Venezuelans who have lived and/or observed the negative effects of the opposition-backed stoppage (December 2002úJanuary 2003) and its devastating consequences, including the stoppage and sabotage of PDVSA by ex-PDVSA employees.
The following is part of the text from one of these letters. It is being used with permission. All names and direct references have been excluded or modified in order to protect the people involved from receiving threats from anti-Chavez, pro-opposition or ex-PDVSA supporters.
Oscar, this is what I know: This friend of my family found a job in PDVSA-Caracas a few years ago. He had no money whatsoever. In fact, he lived with my family in Caracas because he didn't have a place in Caracas. As soon as he got a job in PDVSA, he rented an apartment in Caracas in the east part. (Note: the east part of Caracas is often considered a “ritzy area”). The company paid 50% of his rent (I wish , here where I am, that I could find a job that pays 50% of my rent!). Then, he got a credit from PDVSA to get a car with a very low interest rate. The company was paying a private tutor for him to learn English! They were going to send him to the USA to do a masters in the oil industry.
When he got married, he and his spouse enjoyed their honeymoon in Europe. Something that they would not have done not even in dreams if he was not working in PDVSA. When the strike came, he was outside protesting.
Over December, he went to Margarita and my mother asked him "What are you doing there? ...you should be working!" and he replied that he was in Margarita while the strike was taking place. I actually don’t know how long he was in Margarita, but I know it was over 3 weeks. He was fired and was so mad! But check this out. His boss, never went on strike and he is still at his post. This friend of ours was a normal engineer. He was not an executive and look at all the benefits he got. He deserved to be fired for hurting my country!
My uncle: He works in one of the PDVSA subsidiaries. He has been there for the last 25+ years. When the strike started he was on vacation in another part of Venezuela (he does not go anywhere outside the country). Well, he came back out of his vacation because he heard about all the stuff that was happening. When he got back to work, he cried because all the disaster the strikers had done to the equipment. He told my mother that all those people should be in jail because they destroyed millions of dollars in equipment that the company acquired with years of work. When he got back to work, somebody (I don’t know if it was a manager who was part of the strike) asked him if he was "chavista.". My uncle replied saying that he was Venezuelan and for that reason he had to go back to work.
My other uncle: This uncle worked as a Public Relations general manager in PDVSA for over 15 years. He left PDVSA a few years ago. You have no idea how much money he and his friends (who worked for the company had). Everyone had new cars, trips to Europe, shopping in Margarita, their children going to private universities, enjoying parties in their house with lots of food and alcohol. They all had boats to go to the beach, etc. In fact, my uncle bought 2 apartments while working in PDVSA. When we would go visit, the whole family (10+ people) would go to expensive restaurants and all of it was paid by PDVSA.
I know an ex-PDVSA employee who bought an apartment in the same apartments where Giusti and family have one. The same with other saints of the company. Giusti would fly his family in the PDVSA airplanes to Margarita and Miami. God, I could go on and on about everything I saw! One cannot say that all those people who were fired were indispensable!
Give me a break! I tell you ... I could do the job that 5 people would do in PDVSA-Caracas. None of them should be able to get back to work in PDVSA and I hope none of them work ever in an oil company. After the destruction that they caused to Venezuela and the oil industry NONE of them should be thought as good workers.
Why didn’t the pro-opposition people talk against PDVSA while all those workers enjoyed those incredible benefits that not even in the best companies in the USA a normal worker would enjoy?
As soon as I find out more I will let you know (right now there is a manager in one of the PDVSA refineries who was fired because he didn’t let a new manager come into the installations). According to what we know, he was mad by the fact that his previous boss was fired and the new person was appointed by PDVSA-Caracas. The new manager had to take a helicopter to get inside the building because the person closed the main doors. The incredible thing is that this fired manager was a supporter of the President and never went on strike. I will see what I find out.
Regards xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
The above is a first-hand account of some of the things that can be associated with some (many or most?) ex-PDVSA employees that have been fired for supporting the anti-Chavez and opposition movements through their sabotage of the PDVSA installations and for “not showing up for work.”
Meritocracia? Professional? Civilized? Democratic? The opposition says, “PDVSA belongs to all Venezuelans.” Hummm. Who are “all” Venezuelans? No wonder these ex-PDVSA people are so angry at the fact that they have been fired!
Some people ask: “Where did the money go?” Hummm … Let’s see, 18,000 x US$10,000 (benefits?) = US$180,000,000 … and 10k is probably a very conservative figure ... apartments in ritzy areas are not inexpensive ... university education in the USA is extremely expensive ... restaurant tabs in Las Mercedes are exorbitant ... vacations in Europe are barely affordable by most average Canadians, let alone average Venezuelans. Vacations at resorts in Margarita or Los Roques are relatively expensive as well.
If these benefits are paid out yearly, in 6 years it would amount to over US$1 billion. I wonder where the money went?
Meanwhile, the average Venezuelan works for as little as US$120 monthly … not even enough to survive. Many of the average Venezuelans that work as maids earn less (and most non-poor Venezuelans have maids). Many average Venezuelans must work 6-7 days per week just to survive, let alone go on vacation or go study in the USA. Let alone, hire a maid.
Oscar Heck oscar@vheadline.com
Note: I met a person in Merida in January 2003 that was a strong anti-Chavez pro-opposition supporter. One day he came to have a coffee at his regular eatery (where I also ate and drank coffee). He was very upset and was talking loudly so that everyone could hear him. He said something to this effect, “I went to a party at my brother-in-law’s house on the hill about 3 weeks ago. It was a BBQ evening with a whole pig being roasted and lots of beer and scotch. My brother-in-law has been working for PDVSA for 11 years. He is an engineer. He has a huge house and fancy cars but I never paid attention to that before, not until that night. He got really drunk and said that when he left PDVSA in support of “El Paro” (The Stoppage), he broke 5 pipes and stole the keys to one of the main control panels. I was disgusted and left the party. Today I am a full-fledged Chavista. I never believed what VTV (the government TV station) was saying about sabotage at PDVSA. I though it was all invented by the government. But now I know it is true. My brother-in-law received a notice yesterday that he is fired. I am glad. Tonight I am going to take the bus to the “23 de enero” celebration in Caracas…”