Caracas Daily Journal (Vincent Bevins): Colombia is willing to increase its exports of food to Venezuela, with the aim of both helping fight scarcity and offering a gesture to ease tensions between the two countries, Ambassador Fernando Marín said Sunday.
Last week, Argentina and Ecuador, two countries which are politically very friendly with the government of President Hugo Chávez, stepped forward to help with increasing food supplies. But this offer comes from a country that is, according to Chávez, supposedly collaborating with the United States in preparation for military action against Venezuela and is intentionally filling the border region of this country with paramilitary gangsters.
Though Chávez chose to "freeze" political relations with Colombia late last year after President Alvaro Uribe, George Bush's closest ally in Latin America, chose to withdraw his support for Chávez role as mediator with the FARC, commercial relations between the two countries remain incredibly important. Due to the complex consequences of an oil economy in a boom, Venezuela imports approximately 60 percent of its food supplies. Colombia is one of the largest suppliers of that food. The largest supplier is actually the United States.
That the difficulty of finding certain basic food supplies is a problem that Venezuelans has long known, and has been increasingly recognized by the government as a major problem. On Sunday Chávez said that we would overcome this great "battle," against "the conspiracy, and our own failures."
Last week it was announced that of the thirty-five food products which currently have controlled prices, only ten will continue to do so.
It is likely that the price controls, in place since 2003, have contributed to the scarcity, either by making businesses less profitable or by inciting protests from the market, leading to hoarding, export, or a simple refusal to sell certain products. But simply buying more food and bringing it into the country is probably one of the most surefire way to fight the problem, and Colombia might be one of the countries to help us do so. "There is a scarcity of food in this country, Colombia is a large provider of food to the Venezuelan people and therefore we think we can continue … and, if Venezuela wants, we can increase the exports," said Marín. He added that the offer is a message to its neighbor country in order to solve the worst bilateral crisis in years, and that it is a complement to "diplomatic roads."
"We are working through all diplomatic channels, as should be done, with the goal we have established of securing a meeting with President Chávez," he said.
Hints that Colombia was eager to cool tensions have been forthcoming since Uribe announced this month that the two countries were "brothers," and that nothing could obscure that. Chávez, however, has not shown signs of backing down, though it is unclear whether or not that would affect this particular offer. His beef is with Uribe, not the Colombian people or its cattle farmers.
Last week, Argentina and Ecuador, two countries which are politically very friendly with the government of President Hugo Chávez, stepped forward to help with increasing food supplies. But this offer comes from a country that is, according to Chávez, supposedly collaborating with the United States in preparation for military action against Venezuela and is intentionally filling the border region of this country with paramilitary gangsters.
Though Chávez chose to "freeze" political relations with Colombia late last year after President Alvaro Uribe, George Bush's closest ally in Latin America, chose to withdraw his support for Chávez role as mediator with the FARC, commercial relations between the two countries remain incredibly important. Due to the complex consequences of an oil economy in a boom, Venezuela imports approximately 60 percent of its food supplies. Colombia is one of the largest suppliers of that food. The largest supplier is actually the United States.That the difficulty of finding certain basic food supplies is a problem that Venezuelans has long known, and has been increasingly recognized by the government as a major problem. On Sunday Chávez said that we would overcome this great "battle," against "the conspiracy, and our own failures."
Last week it was announced that of the thirty-five food products which currently have controlled prices, only ten will continue to do so.
It is likely that the price controls, in place since 2003, have contributed to the scarcity, either by making businesses less profitable or by inciting protests from the market, leading to hoarding, export, or a simple refusal to sell certain products. But simply buying more food and bringing it into the country is probably one of the most surefire way to fight the problem, and Colombia might be one of the countries to help us do so. "There is a scarcity of food in this country, Colombia is a large provider of food to the Venezuelan people and therefore we think we can continue … and, if Venezuela wants, we can increase the exports," said Marín. He added that the offer is a message to its neighbor country in order to solve the worst bilateral crisis in years, and that it is a complement to "diplomatic roads."
"We are working through all diplomatic channels, as should be done, with the goal we have established of securing a meeting with President Chávez," he said.
Hints that Colombia was eager to cool tensions have been forthcoming since Uribe announced this month that the two countries were "brothers," and that nothing could obscure that. Chávez, however, has not shown signs of backing down, though it is unclear whether or not that would affect this particular offer. His beef is with Uribe, not the Colombian people or its cattle farmers.
In the present state of affairs, where the imperialists can still muck about with and between latin american countries and their economies, food sovereignty is the only guarantee of food security. All this here can be only temporary and a stop-gap -- until the day the imperialists can no longer divide and rule by starving entire countries, and a strong socialist economy is the order of the day.
ReplyDeleteUntil then: build up local production. Whatever the cost. And a side effect of food sovereignty will be the ability to come to the aid of other countries also being blackmailed by the imperialists and their agro-corporations. Therein lies true socialist internationalist solidarity.