Of misery thanks to Chavez and Maduro
Venezuela is full
The May 25 Perspectives piece “The Real Venezuela: The U.S. Press Isn’t Telling the Whole Story” by Daniel Kovalik presents a large amount of misinformation; he obviously has no clue about the humanitarian crisis there. Mr. Kovalik said he had just come back from observing an election in Venezuela for the fourth time in less than a year. It looks like hewasted those trips.
Did he take the time to check the dilapidated state of the hospitals, where people are treated by being put on blankets on the floor and where newborn babies are put in boxes, because there are no cribs for them? What about the scarcity of food at the markets and the lack of medication at pharmacies and hospitals, where not even a Band-Aid is available? How did Mr. Kovalik not see any of this?
Let’s talk about the real Venezuela:
• Education has been free up to college since 1840 (so Hugo Chavez had nothing to do with it).
• Social services and health services were always free and the Venezuelan Social Security program was the blueprint used by the rest of Latin American countries to build their own programs. (Again, Chavez had nothing to do with this.)
• The music program Mr. Kovalik brags about was not an idea or a program from Chavez but was established in the 1970s under the term of Carlos Andres Perez.
• Venezuelan public education used to offer free food and meals to students with a program called the Daily Glass of Milk from day care to the end of elementary school. Older students could receive subsidized food at prices that were very affordable for people with less money. Also shoes, uniforms, backpacks and school supplies were given to those who could not afford them (not a Chavez program either). All the politicians ruining the country now got educated in such a system. Mr. Kovalik’s beloved Chavez came through that system.
•Public transportation has always been subsidized for students and senior citizens. This is neither new nor a Chavez idea.
• About Mr. Kovalik’s trip: He omits the fact that the National Electoral Council is managed by a group of Chavez/Nicolas Maduro supporters, so no matter what happened, there was no possible way for Mr. Maduro to lose the election. LUIS F. GRANES
O’Hara