FROM VENEZUELA DEAR AND COMPLEX

The first time this Caribbean country caught my attention was when a Slovenian industrialist based there married the American movie star and dream of our youth Natalie Woods. So there are millionaires who marry stars? And then, some Miss Universe. And then I made the first visit there, when the barrel of oil jumped from 1 dollar to 3 and the OPEC petrodollar cartel was founded with Venezuela leading the price increase, with the Arab countries. In Caracas, only big car. In Brazil, Beetle. There, gasoline cheaper than mineral water. And grandiose projects such as the Guri hydroelectric plant, from where they expelled the Brazilian contractor Camargo Correia, and the Orinoco steel mining complex, built by the Germans, something that Brazil failed to do, despite Carajás, which only extracts, but does not process iron ore.

Companies from all over the world ran there, where money was made, despite the complexity of the operations. Venezuela lent money, the cost of living was high, everything imported, democracy always threatened by coups, and a firm alliance with the USA, where the rich invested. The complexity of business demanded a lot from executives, who after there were able to run companies in Brazil. So it was with the legendary Wolfgang Sauer, who came later to drive VW in Brazil. And much later another Mercedes executive, who went to run the factory in Juíz de Fora.

This illusory bonanza led Tecnowatt to open a branch, in cooperation with GE. Everything went well on paper until the manager there, Galician, visited Contagem and wrapped me up with a champagne purchase at the freeshop. We sent our BH manager there and discovered a roll never seen before. No one worked, the reports and receipts were fake, but there was a market. We stayed a few years with the Brazilian management and left when there were no dollars to pay the bills. There were several types of exchange and getting dollars to pay for imports was complicated. Even when we visited Carcás, to leave we needed a certificate from the Revenue, complicated to obtain. It's complicated to always pay someone.

In the next phase of my life I was appointed Special Envoy of Slovenia, who presided over the EU Council, for Latin America. That is, responsible for the EU's relations with the continent. And coordinator of a meeting of 60 heads of state and government, in Lima, from both continents. Experienced diplomats warned me that Cuba and Venezuela would be a problem. Already at a meeting of ambassadors in Lisbon, the Portuguese representative who presided over the session lost patience with the Venezuelans and clearly said that if they did not want to collaborate, they should withdraw. Then it was the King of Spain who told Chavez to shut up at a meeting in Santiago de Chile.

Venezuelan diplomats were more Chavistas than Chaves. The solution was to deal directly with the Commander. I then convinced the President of Slovenia, that when Deputy Secretary-General of the UN helped Celso Amorim to keep Chavez in power, to visit Caracas. The schedule changed from minute to minute. With the plane approaching the airport, they warned that we would have a meeting with 18 ministers. When we arrived, there was none. At the meeting with Chavez, the presidential guard sang the Slovenian anthem better than any choir there. No accent. Chavez with his ministers, including Maduro, from abroad, asked his friend President of Slovenia what he came to do. Then he passed it to me, saying that he just came to visit his friend Chavez. I explained that Venezuela's cooperation was necessary, etc. Chavez: you want me to "shut up" as the King of Spain said. No, on the contrary. And then we talked kindly until he ordered Maduro to comply with what the Ambassador asked. And so it was. No more problems, and not even with their allies, such as Bolivia and Cuba. At the end of the meeting in Lima, after an inflamed speech, Chavez passed by me saying, did I fulfill as I promised Ambassador? Thank you very much, Commander.

Then I followed Chavez's illness, Maduro, the attempt of the EU and the US to put Guaido, and the misery that the people there lived. I would say the curse of black gold. But also what Chavismo did for the country, such as youth orchestras, from which came one of the most prominent conductors of this century, Gustavo Dudamel. A contrast behind the contrasts of a country only of contrasts and its complexities.