Rotten Food in Venezuela

(Caracas, Venezuela) Making big news in Venezuela in recent weeks has been the spoiling of thousands of tons of food under the jurisdiction of the state-run food distribution authority.

It's not a new problem. Only now, it's getting media exposure. President Hugo Chavez's government lackeys have had great difficulty implementing the food distribution network which had been privately-owned.

Up until last week, the issue of food spoilage had been kept off the headlines. But then on June 16, something happened.

Members of the staff of the Puerto Cabello Ports Authority confirmed the presence of Santa Paula, a ship with the Venezuelan flag, which was returned to Venezuela by authorities of the Dominican Republic, where the ship had been sent with a shipment of spoiled food to aid Haiti.

One source remarked that the stench from several thousand tons of rotten meat "stank like 100 dead dogs." Or a lot more, I'd suggest. But there's more. Talk of rotten food has brought to the forefront other recent stories of ineptitude by the government food distribution network.

a) Reported on last week, 1,600 tons of rotten rice was "found" in a warehouse in Puerto Cabello. The rice was allegedly "abandoned" 18 months ago.

b) Last month, the customs manager for the state-run food distribution network in the Puerto Cabello region "found" 1,197 containers of spoiled food.

c) The governor of Anzoátegui State admitted that the port of Jose warehouses rotten food, specifically noting a shipment of powdered milk from China.

d) El Universal newspaper estimated that at least 122,000 tons of rotten food have been found so far.

As a reminder, Chavez took over food distribution in 2008 to prevent private companies from stockpiling. So now there's no stockpiling, the food simply rots. Helluva deal!

Meanwhile, the Chavez government has issued a statement to counter the report that humanitarian rotten food for Haiti was sent back to Venezuela by Dominican Republic authorities. The statement said that Venezuelan authorities "requested" the return of the shipment to avoid food decay.