Caracas Chronicles

We’ve been hearing as of late that SICAD dollar auctions were being used as stopgap measures to avoid scarcity for particularly sensitive items. For example, many SICAD dollars are apparently going to people wishing to import school supplies and toys for the upcoming Christmas season.

But now, it appears as if something doesn’t fit.

The government says that 666 (así mismo, mark-of-satan-style) bike companies got dollars. Funny thing then that Cavebici – the long established trade association for makers and sellers of bikes – says only 2 of their 20 members got greenbacks.

It gets screwier: Cavebici says there aren’t even 500 bike shops in the entire country, let alone 600+ companies in need of dollars to import bikes. Instead, it sure looks like it’s a bunch of “phantom” bike companies that are benefitting from cheap dollars…apparently, a situation the government can only remedy by approving an enabling law (rather than by, y’know, stopping handing out free money to evidently fake companies!!)

Ah, Misión Cadivi – it’s the story that keeps on giving.