Show me the money: Signed checks missing from city treasury in Valencia, Venezuela
鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's blog, . The views expressed are the author's own.
Valencia has seen its share of troubles lately: The construction of their subway, their drinking water, their streets are and the local government is Could things get even worse for Venezuela鈥檚 third city?
Yes. Four City Treasury check books, with 110 signed checks,
罢丑辞耻驳丑听, there are doubts that the checkbooks () will ever be found, given the fact that. The public pressure forced them . However the president of the council thinks
What do you know about Hugo Chavez? A quiz on Venezuela's president.
What鈥檚 really going on over there? Is this a streak of bad luck or a small part of a vast Imperialist conspiracy? No. In the end, it鈥檚 in part just another example of bad governance, personified in part by , Edgardo Parra. After (thanks to an opposition split), he has devoted his time more to than to .
But not all the blame falls on Mr. Parra鈥檚 shoulders. Valencia, like other municipalities around the country, is just another victim of a longrunning campaign taken by the central government to drastically curtail their sources of income and their capacity to get things done. (passed by decree, through the Enabling Law) allows the president to create new legal structures and bypass governors and mayors.
In the meantime, Mr. Parra got into a , just to . But even if he鈥檚 , his successor and the people of Valencia will still face difficult times ahead.
鈥� Gustavo Hernandez Acevedo is a writer for , the place for opposition-leaning-but-not-insane analysis of the Venezuelan political scene since 2002.
