The unusual prophecies of Hugo Chávez for Venezuela in 2019

"This year, we will approach 400,000 million dollars (of GDP), measured at constant prices. From 90,000 to 400,000, this represents more than 400% of GDP growth. We are one of the most prosperous economies of this continent. Now, imagine in 2019, "said Hugo Chávez in 2002 in an interview granted to the Palace of Miraflores at the end of his last election campaign.

The president was imposed on October 7 this year to Henrique Capriles in the presidential elections. which guaranteed him a new presidential term. If he had completed it, he would have reached 20 consecutive years in power.

But Chávez died months after this interview, March 5, 2013.. Nicolás Maduro, the successor he himself chose when he knew that he had little time left, was tasked with leading Venezuela towards this promising future.

However, things did not go as planned by the leader of the Bolivarian revolution. For starters, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, Venezuelan GDP in 2012 amounted to $ 331 billion, not $ 400,000. But this difference is smaller compared to what happened in the following years: in a typical landslide of a country at war, GDP has contracted by more than 70%, up to 87,000 million dollars estimated by the IMF at present.

This was not the only unrealized prophecy. "In 2014, we will initially produce 4 million barrels of oil, and in 2019 we will be at 6 million barrels.. In 2016, we will be the leading petrochemical power on this continent. "

Venezuela is not only far from being an energy power today. He can hardly pump oil. Production, which stood at 3 million barrels a day in 2012, fell to 2.8 million in 2014 and to 1 million in 2019.

Chávez also referred to food, which still posed a problem due to excessive dependence on the outside. "In 2019, we will have food sovereignty. We import today, if we exclude wheat, which is not produced here, 20% of the food we consume. But you have to reach 100% (production). "

To speak of food sovereignty in present-day Venezuela would be almost a bad joke. The country has reduced food imports, but because it has more money to pay for it -Following the collapse of oil-. And that did not replace it with local production, but with hunger.

The Venezuelan Living Conditions Survey (Encovi), conducted by the country's most prestigious universities, revealed in 2018 that 64% of Venezuelans lost on average 11 kilos in one year for lack of food. With hyperinflation of 1,600,000%, the vast majority of the population does not have enough money for their most basic expenses.

This is one of the main reasons why more and more people are choosing to exodus. More than 3.4 million citizens have left the country in recent yearsaccording to the statistics of the International Organization for Migration.

"I'm excited when I see the next six years, now, all of this we can do in socialism.said Chávez at the end of the interview.

In this he was not wrong. Socialism is deepened. What has disappeared is democracy. After elections with key leaders and illegal opposition parties and without any outside control, Maduro badumed on Jan. 10 an unknown presidential term in the National Assembly and 50 countries, including all his neighbors. In Venezuela today, almost no one is encouraged to talk about the future.