Published at: 19/02/2025 09:00 PM

(Latest News, 16-2-1989 and CCS City, 27-2-2014)

• On February 16, 1989, Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) announced a series of macroeconomic adjustments that suddenly subjected the Venezuelan people to drastic shock measures.
• Such as the 100% increase in gasoline, the 30% increase in transportation prices, the release of interest rates, the mass layoffs of public employees, the derisory privatization of profitable State companies, the elimination of incentives for agriculture, the elimination of student travel, the increase in the cost of public services and exchange control.
• As a result, a social outbreak, unprecedented in our history, left thousands of people murdered in the streets at the hands of State security forces.
• This package of measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was a low blow to popular social strata, which were seriously affected by food shortages, the high cost of living and the elimination of social investment in housing, health and education.
• The indicators and statistics of the time reflect that the economy contracted by 8.1%, the inflation rate rose to 84.5%, the poverty rate reached 62% of the population, including 30% below the threshold of extreme poverty (National Institute of Statistics-INE, February 27, 2018).
• Before the massacre, President Pérez had said: “What Augusto Pinochet achieved by force of arms, I will achieve with the support of the votes.”
• This unfortunate comparison, wanting to equate himself with a dictator like Pinochet, revealed, once again, his true facet as a genocidal police, serving the interests of North American imperialism.
• To suppress the insurrectional response caused by its neoliberal measures, CAP did not hesitate to authorize the use of weapons, resulting in more than 3,000 fatalities, hundreds missing and thousands injured.

Mazo News Team