The reverse of the Venezuelan exodus: how a country can survive without professionals



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The unprecedented power blackout of Thursday 7 It left without electricity much of the national territory little exposed to the depth of the collapse of Venezuela.. It would be impossible to explain what happened without an advanced deterioration of the basic infrastructure, which reduced the power generation capacity and significantly affected the distribution networks. But one could not understand the helplessness of state responses without considering the drastic loss of human resources.

The Faculty of Engineering of the Central University of Venezuela concluded Tuesday in a report that the cut was caused by a fire that affected three transmission lines at the Guri hydroelectric power station, the most important of the country.

Ali Briceño, executive secretary of the Federation of Workers of the Electrical Industry of Venezuela, provided a key piece of information to understand why an incident that could have been resolved in a few hours has not yet been totally solved. "People who have the ability and technical knowledge are no longer with us", he said The National.

According to the trade unionist, 48% of employees of Corporación Eléctrica Nacional (Corpoelec) emigrated in search of better living conditions, the public company created in 2007 after the nationalization of the service. "Out of 50,000, there were 24,000 left, including 14,700 specialized engineers and technicians. We will not recover this workforce. "

More than 3.4 million Venezuelans have already left the country in recent years., according to the International Organization for Migration. This monumental figure, almost unprecedented in the region, is a symptom of the seriousness of the economic, political and social crisis in Venezuela, which has become an almost uninhabitable place for a large part of the population. Every new wave of emigrants worsens the deterioration of the country's main structuresbecause they are the ones who can, who are usually the most qualified.

The consequences of emptying professionals are felt at all levels of the economy, the state apparatus and public services. But there are three areas in which this leak particularly struck for its scale and strategic importance: the production of electricity, which was very obvious nowadays; the oil industry, decisive to understand the economic collapse; and health, which is at the center of the humanitarian crisis.

"Theoretically, there is an installed generation capacity of more than 34,000 megawatts (MW), but currently only less than 18,000 MW are available, with a permanent deficit of more than 2,000 MWeven when the companies of Guayana and most of the industrial park are paralyzed. It was true before the accident of March 7, "he told Infobae Civil engineer Jesús Gómez Medina, of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), is recognized for his vast experience in the world of hydroelectric power.

The country 's electricity problems began long ago. The first crisis was the 2010 energy crisis. It was triggered by a drought that reduced the water level of the Guri dam to critical levels., source of 70% of electricity nationwide.

But the incident highlighted the serious management problems that emerged in 2007 with the nationalization of the sector organized by Hugo Chávez. Power outages have become more and more frequent.

"Since taking power, Chávez has proposed to totally control the electrical system," said Gómez Medina, "with the gradual replacement of the executive and executive staff trained over generations by the military and PSUV activists. "The trained technical staff left the company and emigrated to neighboring countries, where they receive a salary based on their experience and knowledge.and not a salary that does not exceed ten dollars a month. Those who still work at Corpoelec are demotivated, unmotivated and highly politicized. They do not have tools, equipment or security features for their daily tasks. "

Giving priority to social and political spending in relation to infrastructure investment partly explains the exhaustion of the system. The other part is the lack of maintenance. It is at this stage that most people have felt the growing shortage of qualified personnel.

"Maintenance is not a force of military culture, apart from the fact that in Venezuela, it is easier to get funding for new facilities than to buy from spare parts, "he said. Infobae the electrical engineer César Quintini Rosales, former director of the presidency of the society of administration and promotion of electricity (Cadafe).

"Many retirees from power companies have remained consultants and contractors, helping the youngest who replaced them. When working conditions deteriorated significantly after 2004, these veterans traveled abroad, mainly to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Central America, as well as to Chile, the United States, and the United States. United and Argentina. "

The technical exhaustion of the oil industry

"PDVSA was established as a private law society. The government has not interfered with its operations.. This partly explains its success since its inception in 1975 until 1998. In addition to being a world-clbad state-owned enterprise, sustained expansion of its capacity by more than 50% during the last decade of the last century was supported by openness to investment. private sector, "said Natan Lederman, professor of economics at Metropolitan University, accessed by Infobae.

PDVSA fell to only 1 after 20 years of Bolivarian government on 3 million barrels of oil a day. Exports, which dropped from 1.2 to 2.3 million barrels between 1990 and 1998, collapsed to 900,000 in February of this year.

"The success story of the Venezuelan oil sector ended with the inauguration of Chavez in February 1999," Lederman continued, "and it shows in a series of facts: the appointment of managers and technical experts on the basis of political alliances instead of professional merits, the diversion of the Company's resources to non-oil related government activities and, most importantly, increased discretionary distribution of revenues to the government, to the detriment of investment. "

The case of PDVSA shows in an extreme way something that has also been seen in the electricity and health sector: the exile of professionals is the result of a double movement. First, it was a political decision by Chavez, who always suspected the technical staffand it was proposed to move them from all strategic sectors, to put activists who badured him loyalty. The second stage, that of the final desmadre, was caused by the deterioration of living conditions, which caused an exodus.

"PDVSA inherited nationalized transnational corporations in 1976 from the personnel management policies of any globalized enterprise. He has been rigorous in selecting employees, has submitted them to the ascending grades of a series of requirements, rewarding the accomplishments of management and worried about continuous improvement. For the Bolivarian revolution, these practices were anathemas. What they raised was that public servants had to be loyal, regardless of their competence. The application of these approaches has destroyed the ability of this industry to stay alive and thrive, "he said. Infobae Engineer Arnoldo José Gabaldon, former Minister of the Environment and individual number of the Academy of Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

At the beginning of his government, Chávez entered a direct confrontation with the oil group's management, which resisted his interference. The conflict escalated with the call for a series of oil strikes led by Fedecámaras and by company workers. After the failed coup of April 2002, supported by the strikers, the lieutenant colonel decided to get to the bottom of things.

"The first mbadive migration into PDVSA took place in 2002, when around 22,000 public servants were disbadociated. Said Gabaldon. They accounted for almost half of the company, but they weighed a lot more qualitatively, because they were the most experienced. It destroyed the human capital and it was a hard blow that could not be recovered. "

The crisis has worsened with the arrival of Nicolás Maduro to the presidency, which handed the company to the army as booty in 2017. He introduced Major-General Manuel Quevedo, without no experience comparable to that of oil. At the same time, the socio-economic disaster eventually drove out the few qualified executives who remained.

Alejandro Rísquez, medical director of Venezuela's Vaccination Center in Caracas and professor at UCV's Faculty of Medicine, has devastatedly described the state of public health in Venezuela. "Infant mortality has increased by 35% between 2015 and 2016 and continues to increase without control," he said. InfobaeMaternal mortality reached 75%, far exceeding the 1990 rate. Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, rheumatism and blood diseases do not receive the appropriate treatments. There are no drugs in hospitals, public pharmacies or private pharmacies. If these goals are achieved, the price will be much higher than most users can afford. End-stage renal diseases or those undergoing dialysis treatment receive very precarious and transient treatment, and grafts have been virtually eliminated. "

The return of long-eradicated infectious diseases is the most obvious proof of the collapse of the health system. The case of malaria is the most shocking. Venezuela, which was one of the first countries in the region to control it, is suffering today from an epidemic spread throughout the country. and exported to neighboring nations.

"The deterioration began in 2004, when it was decided to bring in Cuban doctors, in violation of the national law on the practice of medicine.. A parallel health system called Barrio Adentro was built to attract the supposed attention of the poor, while ensuring doctrinal intervention to gain favor from these populations through health, "Rísquez said.

In the field of health as well, it is clear that the erosion of occupational layers began as part of a political project. One can understand that a devastated country like Haiti is asking for the collaboration of the controversial Cuban missions, but that never seemed justified – at least in strictly medical terms – by a middle-income country like Venezuela.

"In the framework of cooperation programs with Cuba, In 2007, a parallel government decision launched the parallel training of health human resources outside the standards of the National Council of Universities.. About 34,000 community doctors graduated with rudimentary and insufficient knowledge, which only meet one of the seven basic skills. They have asked for insufficient refresher courses to fill the large numbers of doctors who are leaving, "said internist José Félix Oletta, former health minister and professor at the Faculty of Medicine at UCV. , in dialogue with Infobae.

What began with the displacement of professionals to give priority to Cuban officials, who offered other services, turned into a widespread theft abroad when hunger became a reality among academics.

"No less than 24,000 doctors have emigrated in the last five years -Suite Oletta-. Among them, highly qualified people, specialists who were not available in other countries. But it is a phenomenon that is not limited to doctors. It covers nutritionists, nurses, laboratory experts, biobadysts and all other professions related to health. This had a very important impact on the quality of services. It's something new, because we had one of the most important human resource training systems. There were more than 450 graduate degree programs in different universities. "

The rout has no limits. Because beyond the consolidated professionals who have left, we must take into account all young people with potential and medical vocation who, instead of going to work in hospitals, leave the country in search of a future. possible.

"We are witnessing the desertion of recent graduates, who do not even wait for the act leading to the diploma, nor the year of rotation internship. More than 80% of this relay generation migrates. Thirty years ago, it was the other way around.When badessing the expectations of students, 85% wanted to continue working in Venezuela because there were decent working conditions, a possibility of development and other benefits. Now, an internal doctor in a public hospital barely reaches a salary of six dollars a month, "said the Minister of Health from 1997 to 1999.

However, in the midst of the collapse, there are still people who, being able to go to other countries without major difficulties because of their qualifications, choose to move forward to fulfill their mission. Only for them, the humanitarian tragedy is not worse. "Still, the health system is still thanks to the will of doctors who stayed in Venezuela. We will not give up our patients, as difficult as it may be, "concluded Oletta.

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