Versión Español
In spite of the absence of an electoral calendar, the presidential elections in Venezuela are supposedly approaching; and given the need of the regime to obtain votes at whatever cost, it has created a new series of “bonuses.”
Such is the case of the bonus for pregnant women; While the base salary in Venezuela is 248,510 bolivares (USD $1.24), Nicolás Maduro approved an amount of 700,000 bolivares (USD $3.50) for pregnant women.
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Women in Venezuela, one of the countries with the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in the world, will now have another incentive for those statistics to worsen even further: now, in a country with one of the lowest salaries in the region and the highest inflation in the world, the government is incentivizing pregnancies, especially in the most low-income neighborhoods.
Instead of guaranteeing access to contraceptive drugs, the regime opted, once again, for populist measures that will only cause more poverty.
And Nicolás Maduro has also created other “protective bonuses” for the elderly, people with disabilities, and students; all of them, under the requirement of carrying the Chavista Carnet de la Patria; a way to distribute government resources to those loyal to the government.
Like pregnant women, people with disabilities will receive 700,000 bolivars (USD $3.50) per month, while some 200,000 students receiving scholarships from the state will also receive an increase in their income.
Maduro, whose policies keep more than 80% of the population in poverty, also approved bonuses for four million families that do not have a monthly income and explained that these grants will vary according to the number of members of each household.
The monthly bonuses, of course, are insignificant with an inflation that is now surpassing four digits; yet still, the salary of the doctors and professors will pale in comparison to the bonus for pregnant women.
Javier Antonio Díaz Santana, professor and columnist of the digital portal chavista Aporrea which has become a critic of the regime, repudiated the measure taken by Maduro.
“In Venezuela, madurismo considers it is not worth working or studying; it just encourages sexual pleasure for procreation, and that way, those who control the government will stay forever in power, at the expense of poverty, hunger, ignorance, and the submission of the people.”
While the regime announces bonuses to pregnant women, most of them spend the nine months of pregnancy waiting in long lines to buy diapers, due to shortages.
The same is the case with baby formula, and vaccines; in fact, the Venezuelan dictatorship demands the Chavista Carnet de la Patria as a requirement to receive them.
The same day that Maduro announced the populist bonus for pregnant women, the teacher’s day was also commemorated; However, the educational union has nothing to celebrate, because now a pregnant woman will have more monthly income than a teacher.
The country governed by Maduro is going through an unprecedented economic crisis, where “bonuses” are not going to cut it: the only solution is elimination of unproductive economic controls.
But it is clear that the regime is interested in keeping Venezuelans submerged in poverty and dependence in order to manipulate and control them at their convenience.
The daily income is now equivalent to 26,583 bolívares (USD $0.26), and covers only the purchase of a coffee or empanada.
The income situation in Venezuela is so dismal that a minimum wage will only buy you 6% of a typical family’s monthly food necessities.
The reality is that in Venezuela a family, to be able to eat adequately, had to earn every day the equivalent of a minimum monthly salary; and that, in Venezuela is impossible.
