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Published: December 19th 2013
My dearest friends,
I will take you today to our neighbouring country Venezuela, a country which should be our brother but unfortunately, we have not been on the best terms since Adam and Eve. Well, I don't know whether I am throwing a monkey wrench in the works but I feel that given the investment we are at present making in the Venezuelan economy, shopping mistreatment shouldn't be even considered by them. It will be up to you to judge after reading my entry, that's why, let's concentrate for the moment on the mere description of that Venezuelan city called San Cristobal, not very far from the Colombian border.
The Capital of Tachira
Located in the western Andes of our neighbouring country, San Cristobal is one of the oldest Venezuelan cities. It was in 1561 that a Spanish captain called Juan manuel Ordónez and Villacuiran ordered to create a new municipality called San Cristobal. The city is mostly commercial and given the layout, it reminds me of Guangdong, in China, with the colourful streets and the cheap markets. It also has a couple of comercial centers, notably the Sambil, where long queues
are found everywhere, crowds of people trying to purchase everything once the shopping mall is open and that is really something!
Mind the step...
As it is so close to Cucuta, a city in the Colombian border, San Cristobal becomes an important trade venue for people from the nearby regions. It offers a lovely weather, not much of sightseeing to be honest, well... I saw in the centre of town a very stunning gothic style church, St Joseph, although the view was completely spoiled by a stall of lemonade and empanadas, just some meters off the entrance; I wouldn't call the city beautiful, far from it, there is a lot of rubbish everywhere, dangerous holes on sidewalks and to be honest, I am not able to imagine a nightlife there. Despite this, San Cristobal remains a must destination, these days, specially for Colombians who want to grab anything cheap this Christmas and do their black Friday there instead of NY. Mind you, the sellers are not that friendly.
La Ciudad de la Cordialidad
The City of the Friendliness Well...
That title? "Their people famous for their hospitality" well...maybe
the city deserved that title in the past or in a previous generation for currently. there is no kindness whatsoever in the sellers' spirit. They are quite economical with the information and their expressions are those of anger when being approached. I don't know whether it is because they have to attend to Colombian shoppers and as I said it before, there's always been this certain level of uncomfortability between people from both nationalities.
Not the best way to start an entry, I know, but hey, I am going to explain the situation briefly. For you to understand, we have to go back to almost 2,000 years back in history so that you have a clearer picture of how close we were in the past which is a contrast taking into account the present situation.
La Gran Colombia There are so many links between these two countries that there should be a way to remember our past and try to sort of live accordingly. There was a time, to be more precise from 1819 to 1831- when we were so related and dependable that both countries, together with Ecuador,
Panamá, part of Brasil, Costarica, Nicaragua and Western Guyana conformed what was called La Gran Colombia. Yes, it was a Venezuelan son, our liberator, Simón Bolívar who came up with this brilliant idea of only one nation.
It could be that what happened in Japan actually happened here: somebody somehow managed to tear that page from the book of south American history or maybe some authorities want to forget about our committment and necessary coexistence. For one, the last two Venezuelan presidents, calling themselves wholeheartedly pro-Bolivar supporters, in what they call the XXI Century Socialism, have talked plenty of times and preached about the love for the past; they state that Bolivar's ideas need to live on but it seems that they forget that what he wanted was the union of the south American countries, to have a big nation out of the different nations mentioned above. That's what La Gran Colombia was!
Federalism or Centralism While it is true that due to differences between the biggest men of both countries: our Colombian Francisco de Paula Santander, who became the vicepresident of the GC and Venezuela's Simón Bolívar, the president, were
stronger than the dream of becoming one only nation like what they did in Europe, the union of the organisation moved ahead at a staggering speed from its very beginnings. Such a milestone resulted in big changes for all countries involved.
On the one hand, establishing an only government served to help some regions to claim independence from Spain and empower the army during some serious confrontations, notably that with Peru; on the other hand, from the Gran Colombia, we also got our name Colombia in 1863. Therefore, it is in those achievements that both governments should try to focus on to befriend each other instead of fighting, to support instead of attacking, and only then, the big dream of our common liberator would come true.
Back to the present Unfortunately, it seems that we are only concentrating on past differences and what is important right now is to show who is stronger and that, my friends, wouldn't take us anywhere. As far as their recession continues biting into their lives, they might have to think otherwise, I guess but I don´t see any upcoming solutions as relations between both countries
continue deteriorating.
Who needs to be thankful regarding the economic inflation and disinflation undergone there? BOTH COUNTRIES, REALLY We, Colombians owe you more than one as millions of our compatriots live in Venezuela and have worked and supported their families back in our country or have actually become Venezuelians. But this undeclared war has actually stagnated both nations' economies. Well, I have to admit that sometimes we have actually benefited from the comunist ideas of Chavez, when he started attacking the foreign companies, some of the multinationals moved to Colombia and since then, have generated millions of jobs by helping out companies such as Ecopetrol and others alike.
They, Venezuelians owe us the manpower, remember that for a long time, they used to go shopping to Miami and lived off the government as they would get the education and food paid from the estate's money. They did this as the petroleum produced in their country would give them enough money to give away and live and dance. In this way, the venezuelians didn't learn how to work and it was then that they found Colombians to
do their donkey work. That's why you now find lots of Colombians living there, studying, doing business, working in any kind of office or market. Back in Colombia, our government made things easy for them as they allowed Venezuelians to enroll their sons in our best schools and buy property in luxurious areas.
Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, your currency devaluation has had extremely negative effects on several economic sectors in Venezuela. To illustrate this, we need to talk about figures, which I will briefly depict:
Change of roles For a long time, and after consecutive implementations of Chavez's and Maduro's economic policies such as quickened inflations and a huge currency devaluation, the bolivar lost strength against the Colombian peso, so much that it went down to 0.032 bolivars per Colombian peso. Who would've thought that we would live to see such amazing devaluation if reaching these record levels was far from becoming a reality.
That's right! At present, things have conmpletely changed and Colombians have taken the Venezuelians' role of the 70's. Now due to their economical crisis, it is us who go there and
A buffet in a mall
A nice breakfast we have, so cheapbuy their products as it is extremely cheap for us; from different Colombian cities, buses go daily to San Cristobal, packed with passengers who might have a Venezuelan identity card aiming to go there to grab everything they can on their Venezuelan path:
Buying medicines, house appliances, food, clothes, fuel, cosmetics and even having aesthetic surgery at such cheap prices has become quite fascinating for many Colombians. We even buy their imported products as they are too expensive for them; so, we are helping their economy grow but they seem to be angry as they believe we are getting their best products, which is true, and yet, this is a vicious circle as that wouldn't stop for they wouldn't be able to buy them by themselves; which means that if more money enters the country now, they will be in a better situation.
Living in Venezuela is not the best thing for a Venezuelian at the moment, salaries are low, food is scarce or too expensive for them to buy; their crisis is so worrisome that the figures are staggering. To give you an idea, 600 thousand pesos a month correspond to the Colombian
minimum wage, which is about 18 million bolivars. Venezuela's minimum wage, on the other hand, has not yet reached 3,000 bolivars per month.
Sometimes in the past, even after queueing for hours and days, Venezuelians wouldn't be able to buy their core products, or even now, there are so many restrictions, to give you an example, supermarkets do not sell you toilet paper in Venezuela, and you can see people so desperate when in the supermarkets, someone on a microphone announces that they are going to sell one toilet paper roll per family, poor people, they inmediately rush to the queues to buy it. The same goes for flour: you can only buy 1 kilo of flour per day.
Well, this situation does not benefit all Colombians as it is not comfortable for our economy; our sellers do not find ways to lure Colombians to buy in our shops, cities like Bucaramanga have suffered the consequences of this situation. Indeed, Bucarmanga's butchers have protested as they see big trucks arriving in different cities with loads of Venezuelian meat, and which, is being sold at cheaper prices. Another example, Cucuta's shop owners have seen their
sales plunge by 60 %!,(MISSING) They lost their Venezuelan shoppers, obviously and even their Cucuta's shoppers as the trend is go shopping to Venezuela.
Come on, Venezuelians, look on the bright side of it:
It is true that it is quite comfortable for us, shoppers, to go and save lots of money when purchasing goods there. But there is a funny thing in all this, let me put it this way:
...when it was the chance for Venezuelians to come and buy in Colombia as their currency was strong, we took advantage of the situation, thinking about the big contributions they were making to the development of our economy; thereby, ways to lure Venezuelians into buying our goods was of prime importance; Carte Blanche was given to Venezuelians so that they weren't required to have any visa to come and buy here. They did what was expected, came in throngs to Cúcuta, which lives off the trade between both countries, and they even bought property as our government eliminated some paperwork requirements.
Venezuelians were quite happy to come and buy what they call high quality goods as such low prices.
Now that I think, we are so welcoming with foreigners, that I guess when
living the Colombian dream becomes a quest, foreigners will be treated like kings, seriously.
Anyways, now that the situation has changed completely, as we are now buying their produce and manufactured goods, the Venezuelan authorities take the influx of Colombian buyers as a takeover, a confrontation, I guess, or I don't know what, but whatever it is, they don't see this as an opportunity for their economy; as a matter of fact, it is, in their eyes, a problem that they need to solve; as a result, we are not treated properly, the sellers hardly look into your faces and the guards charge us lots of money to allow the venezuelan products to come into our country.
Is that Protectionism? Well, any economists around? please, help me here... Are protectionism measures a good move when the economy of a country is going through such a difficult period? I do not get it, for example, if you are not venezuelian, you cannot buy electrical appliances or technology there, and it is so cheap! You need to prove that
you are Venezuelian, in fact, to buy a computer, they are asking you for your Venezuelian identity cards, bank statements from Venezuelian banks, electricity bills and on top of that, a neighbour's letter proving that you have lived at that address all your life. To cut it short, only Venezuelians would be able to buy these electrical appliances.
Bankrolls to enter the country But that's not the worst, every day, the Venezuelian guards are asking Colombians who want to enter their country, money to be allowed there. it is like a sort of fine before buying goods, and I guess they only do it with the small buyers for there must be a different system for the big retailers; but, hey, let me say: wow, they must be making loads of money then for the amount of Colombians going there is huge. So, if you ask me, What do I want to be when I grow up? If I grow up, that is... I would say I want to become a Venezuelian guard right now, change of profession, hehehe.
And throngs of Colombians keep entering the country to buy stuff,
which makes sense, the fine given to the guards is nothing compared with the savings you make in the merchandise you buy. By the way, just on today's news, in Puntofijo, the custom guards confiscated a large array of items that a Bucaramanga's family had legally bought in San Cristobal. The guards are asking for half of the money that was spent on the goods as a tariff to give the merchandise back to them.
Wrapping up... Well, let's hope that the situation changes, for it is not fair that while we keep on buying their goods and contributing to their economy, we continue being accused of smuggling contraband goods when the shopping is done legally. The same goes for Mexicans who have started a witch chase against Colombian tourists, who are being kidnapped and asked for ransoms, 10 kidnappings in a month is not a coincidence. I am glad that the Colombian government has started a huge campaign inviting foreigners to come to our country, maybe in the future, the image of the country will be changed
.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
An excellent explanation
Thank you for taking the time to explain the issues between Venezuela and Columbia. I found the terminology donkey work interesting. Economic issues drive behavior and sometimes the behavior makes the economics worse. Life is a circle.