Engines falling off of jet planes, commuter trains colliding, jacuzzi-size holes in the middle of main roads – those are but a few examples of the perils Venezuelans face when traveling in and out of the country. As the Chávez government continues to nationalize the remaining private companies in the transportation industry, the outlook for Venezuela’s already-crippled infrastructure does not look promising.
Transportation-related accidents are up across-the-board in Venezuela, causing delays and endangering the Venezuelan people no matter how they choose to travel. Frequent air travelers were alarmed to learn that a DC-9 belonging to Aeropostal, a state-owned Venezuelan airline lost both of its engines during a recent landing in Puerto Ordaz. The incident should not come as surprise to anyone. After all, Venezuela has reportedly the most obsolete air fleet in the Americas. In the month of September alone, there were 33 aviation scares.
Nobody is safe in Venezuela, neither by air or land. Three days after the Puerto Ordaz near-disaster, three Caracas commuter trains collided, killing a driver and injuring dozens of passengers. Two days earlier, traffic heading into the city of Maracaibo was held up for hours after a metal joint between two sections of a long bridge over Lake Maracaibo fell into the waters below. To add insult to injury, potholes in Venezuela’s roads have become so large that local reporters have drummed up a new term to describe them – “mega-holes.” Some of these holes are large enough to swallow an entire vehicle.
True to form, Mr. Chávez has responded to the infrastructure crisis by doing what he does best – ordering more expropriations. The recent takeover of Conferry is the latest instance of an expropriation frenzy which experts see as “part of the problem, rather than the solution.” Chávez has even “centralized” control of many public services, which were once run by Venezuela’s local governments. As the government bureaucracy swells, public services become unreliable and dangerous. In the past 10 years, for example, the Caracas metro has been riddled by breakdowns, overcrowding, and lengthy delays.
While Mr. Chávez’s 21st Century Socialism continues to crumble, Venezuelans may increasingly choose to just stay home.