Correspondent
In March this year, the national government said income poverty had dropped to 19% Photo: File
Caracas will be “accused” of many charges. Including: prevent children and young people educated, encouraging the development of crime, reduce life expectancy and even blamed for the deaths of billions of people worldwide. True or not accusations, governments around the world, the United Nations (UN) and more than a thousand institutions and associations the adversan. Your name? Poverty.
Poverty is what, a little over two years ago, seen Venezuelans of all strata, when they look in the mirror. His appearance, or rather its resurgence, is closely linked to the loss of purchasing power. It is that in the last 24 months, the purchasing of goods and services of Venezuelans has fallen precipitously.
27.3% homes Venezuelan swelled the income poverty line in 2013, according to the National Institute of statistics.
“In an inflationary environment such as Venezuela, all those who are near the poverty line (the line method income) are in risk of becoming poor. And in general, all citizens, regardless of the stratum to which they belong, are losing quality of life, “said sociologist Genny Zúñiga, a member of the Institute of Economic and Social Research of the Catholic University Andres Bello (UCAB), and coauthor of Survey of Living Conditions 2014 (Enconvi 2014).
Castles in the air
The spell ended. Firm pledges made by President Hugo Chavez, and has repeatedly insisted his successor Nicolas Maduro are plummeting to the view.
The Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI) 2014 study conducted between August and September 2014, by the Catholic universities Andrés Bello (UCAB), Central de Venezuela (UCV) and Simon Bolivar ( USB), it revealed that the achievements in poverty reduction, both of which boasted Chavez two years of rule by Maduro, in the best of cases, vanished. And, at worst poverty he won the war on the Bolivarian revolution.
In 1999, when Chavez took office, 43.9% of households were poor Venezuelans revenue per line, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE) . ENCOVI 2014 revealed that, after 16 years, the number of poor households by line revenues were 48.4%; that is, there are now poorer than when the leader of the Bolivarian process began his crusade against the scourge.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) measures poverty through two methods:. Line income (LI) and unsatisfied basic needs (NBI)
The first calculates the ability to acquire the food basket and the basic basket of household rules. The second considers access to education, overcrowding, housing conditions, access to basic services and the degree of economic dependence. The agency estimates that each household is made up of five people.
What now?
“The social situation, as measured by levels of income poverty, brings us to the one we had in our worst years (1989, 1992 and 2003). Most troubling is that the social consequences of the recession are just beginning, “warned the specialists in charge of the LSMS 2014.
As Zuniga, the other authors of the survey associated the increase from poverty to the situation (economic and social) crisis in the country and are concerned that the phenomenon could be extended and deepened in 2015. As inflation continues to rise and wage adjustments, as they have been until now , remain inadequate, purchasing power will continue to decline and more households could enter the income poverty line.
The alarms were fired not only by the authors of the LSMS 2014. In fact, the findings of the Venezuelan Education-Action in Human Rights (PROVEA) Program are slightly above those reported in the study.
“We estimate that last year the number of poor households by income exceeded 50%. The poverty figures that are occurring today in Venezuela suggest that the number of poor in the country is similar to that was in 1998. We are in decline in this area, “said research coordinator, media and broadcasting organization, Inti Rodriguez.
As academics in charge of the LSMS 2014 Provide fears that the deepening economic crisis in the country to launch income poverty in many more homes 2015
“What has happened in Venezuela is a major increase in recent poverty (33.02% of poor households by income are in that category),” experts in charge of the ENCOVI 2104.
The recent poverty is no more than the indicator showing how many Venezuelan homes no longer enough monthly income to buy the basic food basket . There are millions. And the prognosis is to be a few million more in 2015 if the picture does not change.
The risk on which experts warn that the situation of these new poor, due to the situation facing the country, can also be aggravated if the salary is no longer enough to meet basic needs. Then they are become structurally poor. “And the structure is difficult to eradicate poverty in the short term,” said Zuniga.
“Tragedy” for young people
José (name changed at the request of the source) graduated at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) with honors. He was 22 when he graduated from the higher education system and expectations of improvement. Now 25, he works full time; but still dependent on their parents.
He says it clearly: “The salary does not reach me. If I had to live alone, which would earn just enough to pay for a room, I could not eat. ” There are many Joseph in Venezuela, but nobody knows how many, because there are no official statistics.
In the country there are those who have traveled more than a stretch. Housewives, parents and, in general, people who managed to improve their standard of living through years of work and now, with insufficient monthly income received, come to poverty “smile at” the other side of the mirror, all days.
In the first two years in office of President Nicolas Maduro, the minimum wage has increased 174.58%, while the Food Basket Family (CBF) increased 321 , 97%, according to the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM).
“There are households with an income that is very close to the poverty line. When there is an inflationary impact as we had become poor. The middle class is the one that is always hardest hit by these processes. If you are rich you have a heritage that allows you to stay. But if you have a cushion to face extreme conditions, and that you add hostile conditions of life, how you doing? That is a tragedy in the case of young people who are just gaining independence, because if they become independent really can not raise their status. There is no capacity for independence, “Zuniga said.
The forecasts are not encouraging. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that this year the Venezuelan Gross Domestic Product (GDP, production of goods and services) will drop 7%, while inflation closed at 96.8%. Other estimates put inflation more over the three digits.
ENCOVI 2014
Living Conditions Survey 2014 is a diagnosis social, national, conducted by Andres Bello Catholic universities, Central of Venezuela and Simon Bolivar. The research results are the product of a survey, a questionnaire composed of more than one hundred questions, which were performed in just under 1 000 500 households across the country. The field work was conducted during the months of August and September 2014. The last major effort to lift a social survey in the country did the public sector in 1998, coordinated the National Statistics Institute (INE). The most recent (2014) was in charge of the academy.
Figures evenings
The National Statistics Institute (INE ) it is in default. Spread the month of May 2015 and the agency has not yet made public the figures for poverty last year.
The latest available data corespond to 2013. This was denounced the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) two and a half months ago. “By March 19, 2015, the National Statistics Institute of Venezuela, under the Ministry of Popular Power for Planning, has not released figures of poverty in 2014. In its website, the statistics only appear until the second half 2013, “warned the organization doomed to defend access to information in Venezuela.
The official data are far from resembling those published by the universities in charge of the Survey of Living Conditions 2014 (ENCOVI 2014). In 2013, according to measurements made by the INE, 27.3% were poor households by income.
But more dissimilar is the latest government data offered by President Maduro. In March this year, the president said that income poverty had dropped to 19% and promised that 2018 would be zero poverty in Venezuela. The gap between the official data and ENCOVI 2014 is just over 29 percentage points.
Regarding the delay in publication of official statistics, the NGO Transparency Venezuela insisted that “corruption risks are stronger where the citizen is restricted data information managing their rulers.”
