Venezuelan pastor rejoices over Maduro ouster

By Abdul Masih —

From Venezuela in the early 2000s, Jose Luis Da Encarnacao brought only $10K with him to buy merchandise in the United States to take back home and sell. He was embarrassed because everybody else in the plane brought $50K and $100K.

“We can’t do that any more,” Jose says. “The policy that the rich and the poor were equal, the communist system, turned the country into a disaster, a tragedy.”

The government took over businesses and drove them all to bankruptcy through incompetency. The communists put their buddies into control of operations, friends who had no knowledge of how to run the business. Money concentrated in the hands of the few friends of president-dictators Hugo Chavez and later Nicolas Maduro, who U.S. military operations arrested Friday and held in custody in New York Saturday.

For the last seven years, Jose has visited the United States only to visit his grandchildren. He doesn’t have any money to buy things.

Jose Da Encarnacao has been an evangelical pastor in Barquisimeto from 1998. Born in Portugal, Jose was brought by his parents to Venezuela in 1971 to escape the post-WW2 reconstruction economy and the obligatory military service in Portugal’s colonies Angola, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique.

At the time, Venezuela was in full economic boom. With ample oil reserves, the South American nation earned the nickname “Saudi Venezuela.” Riches flowed.

Then Chavez, a 2-time failed coup organizer, ran for president in 1998 on the communist platform. Ten years earlier, Cuba’s Fidel Castro had toured the country speaking at universities and persuading students that the country should help the poor.

There was only one problem. Who was poor? The country was so rich that the wealth trickled down.

But because prices were rising, Chavez promised price control, free bus pass, free electricity, free water. The country could afford it — at the time. People saw Chavez as a Messiah, as a Savior. No one expected what was to come. Jose was one of the few exceptions.

“Nobody imagined the magnitude of the problem that was unleashed,” Jose says. “They stole all the money from the rise of the price of petroleum. They didn’t invest anything into the country. As minister of petroleum, Tareck El Aissami (accused of helping Hezbollah) alone stole more than $23 trillion.”

Venezuela is now suffering poverty. Gas shortages, food shortages, lines to buy food, widespread unemployment. People die of hunger, 8M Venezuelans abandoned the country seeking to migrate to other nations.

Jose’s wife, a retired schoolteacher, receives less than $1 each month as retirement pay.

“When I want to give out clothes to people in the church, there’s no one my size,” Jose says. “I am the only blessed one in the church.”

From extreme wealth, Venezuela fell into extreme poverty.

Today, Jose is happy that the U.S. arrested Maduro and took over the country and set up a transition government.

Under Maduro, Venezuela became a nexus for China, Iran and Russia, who exploited its resources while they conspired against the United States. In the news were drug boats from Venezuela sent to the United States. Less known was the cooperation with hostile, anti-American international actors.

“I hope they finish the job. The other half is that many bad people are still there,” Jose says. “My hope is that the country overcomes the trauma it has suffered during 27 years. With these leader, Venezuela never had peace inside or outside the country. I hope good administrators come and do something for our nation. This is the opportunity to show it can be done.”