Caracas Chronicles

This Bloomberg piece describing changes in chavista financial management sort of raises more questions than answers, if you ask me. According to Joshua Goodman and Charlie Devereux, this…

Last week the government cut by $2.9 billion Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s share of oil revenue it contributes to an off- budget fund that’s the second-biggest source of public spending.

…is a sign that the chavista paquetazo is already in progress. And while the paquetazo is as dear a theme to my heart as any, how this move counts as an instance of it somewhat eludes me: surely, by cutting your contribution to a mechanism that acts as a savings fund, you’re signalling that you want to spend more now and less later, no?

i.e., the Fonden shenanigan looks to me more like a patada de ahogado trying to postpone a paquetazo for just a little bit longer than a part of the aforementioned. Or am I missing something?