Case Study 2: Merida has become an island
Merida is the capital city fo the State of the same name. It is a beautiful city, in a valley in the Andes with 5,000 meter high mountains surrounding it. Chavismo has run the State for the last 9 years, but somehow, Merida has become isolated as described by Milagros Socorro in today’s El Nacional (page A11, by susbscription).
Merida has become an island 15,000 feet above sea level. Let’s see how you can get there:
1) By plane. Well, flights from Merida’s airport have been “suspended” since mid-2008 because there was an accident and the Chavista solution was to simply suspended all flights and make you go to El Vigia airport, a smaller airstrip two hours away.
Then there are roads. To go fro Merida to Caracas, you either go towards Valera (7), via Barquisimeto, or through Barinas/Barinitas (1 and 5), as shown below, Caracas is to the Northeast (top and right):
Well, there is bad news if you are in Merida. If you want to go through Valera, the Timotes bridge fell 7 months ago and the revolution has not gotten around to fixing it (Certainly not because Barrio Adentro was distracting it). The Barinitas road has been closed for almost three weeks (lots of rain, but it did rain in the horrible IVth. Republic, no?)
The solution is clear, you have to go back the other way (remember Merida is in the middle of the mountains, so this going “back” implies going down these mountains in the wrong direction). Once you have managed this, you go down towards Lake Maracaibo and you are on your way, some five to six hours added to your schedule. (As Milagros Socorro points out, you could all the way back to San Cristobal, near the border of Colombia, but that would be like going from an Francisco to New York with a stop in New Orleans)
Buy hey, maybe it is like the Barrio Adentro problem, nobody noticed the bridge fell and after all, people go from Caracas to Barinas, Chavez was born there, but who wants to go to Merida where people work hard, the weather is nice and there is one of the best universities in the country?
Tomado de:http://devilsexcrement.com/2009/09/20/chavista-management-at-its-best-some-case-studies/#comments