Eduardo Samán and the electoral-economic sabotage theory

Yesterday (June 24) the recently appointed President of the Instituto para la Defensa de las Personas en el Acceso a los Bienes y Servicios (Indepabis, the ombudsman for the defense of consumers), declared that it is important that the people become fully involved in the struggle against speculation and basic goods shortages.

According to the AVN press note, Samán declared that people have to understand the real origins of scarcity. According to him the “rise in shortages and the economic sabotage generally increase in the days before and after electoral campaigns and voting events, [which is a] ploy generally used by the right.”

He further explained the solution to this electoral-shortages correlation problem: “As we come to understand that this issue of goods shortages has an electoral component, we can force the high bourgeoisie to stop using it as a form of blackmail. When it ceases to be effective, they [the high bourgeoisie] will stop using it.”

Samán’s electoral-sabotage-shortages correlation theory is difficult to demonstrate. The electoral calendar has been intense in recent years and to an outside observer it may seem that Venezuela is in a permanent electoral campaign. Indeed in the case of the October 7, 2012 presidential elections, the relation may have been negative, as an increase in public spending in the months leading up to the elections produced a mini boom of imports and consumption and a decrease in shortages.