As Central Bank slowly shuts down
Most of the bank’s 2,000 employees were sent home when the lights went off in Caracas on March 25 — and haven’t been able to return since, said the people on condition of anonymity. The emergency group has been working from a library with the help of water tanks, focused on vital tasks to keep operations going, such as transactions between local banks and reserves, they added.
Bloomberg
The central bank’s situation underscores the disarray inside President Nicolas Maduro’s administration. Bathrooms have no water and the building has no air conditioning as a power crisis exacerbated water shortages in the Venezuelan capital amid a drought. Employees don’t know when they will be able to return to work. A spokesperson for the bank didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Maduro’s dilemma is that he doesn’t have enough money left to run a state. He can’t meet payroll, pay the utilities — there are no utilities. He has about enough to run an insurgency. Maybe he should resign and try that.
However Maduro’s utility to Putin is as an incumbent. His value is not as a ruler but to keep someone else from ruling. He’s like the dog in the manger, who neither eats nor lets anyone else eat.
He must desperately cling to power if only for one more day, one more hour. What’s his future otherwise?