Interesting perspective of Ciudad Guayana from what it was 20 yrs ago to now. I am sure this article is somewhat politically motivated but reading articles about Ciudad Guayana over the years you can really see that this has been happening and the problems the CVG has been having recently. The taxes and royalties from KRY are very much needed. Wasn't sure if this should be in the off topic or main board.

City Scrap
Written by Nestor Rojas (*)
Friday, 03 October 2008

More than twenty years ago I arrived in Ciudad Guayana from the Zulia state. Maracaibo in those years was one of the most dilapidated and dirty in Venezuela, as a result of the many problems of public services.

The first thing that impressed me when I arrived in Ciudad Guayana, was the immensity of the industrial park "Matanzas" bordered by a large highway with long gardening. The Trinitarian multicolored: purple, yellow, pink and white decorated with core businesses and offered to the drivers a very special atmosphere in which one could admire such a symbiosis between nature and the industrial complex.

The avenues were also the focus of my attention. They materialized in the planning of urban planning for the city. Well-designed and in perfect condition, clean, marked, illuminated with lights and working properly, it seemed that he was in another country and not in Venezuela. However, I must confess that the descent of the Las Americas Avenue, between what is now the "Parque de la Navidad" and the vial of Chilemex, was the most spectacular jumps were the Caroni River in the middle of the city, white houses with roofs and lush vegetation, was a refreshing spectacle urban-natural!

Beyond the physical conditions, there was a festive atmosphere
because it is celebrating a major event called "The Games
Interempresas", to which I had the opportunity to attend. It was the main feast of the city. In that activity involving workers and their families, public institutions, private, government and unions, ie the general population. Ciudad Guayana was perceived as a very promising emporium prosperous, with low rates of unemployment and poverty. In fact, it was commented that the policy of full employment in this state are concretized.

Behind all this really was a key institution: the Corporation
Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), an unforgettable leader, Leopoldo Sucre Figarella, and an indestructible force, that of workers.

This reality took a dramatic turn. I witnessed how this city has been mouldering in the most absolute neglect and deterioration to get to the decline. It is characterized by destroyed roads, traffic lights useless, continuous electrical failures, overwhelmed sewers,
invasion, proliferation of ranches, Tarantino food, buhonería,
garbage, dead dogs everywhere and "kennels" as a means of
transportation.

There is no longer a market where decent to go on Sundays to buy or a soup made with the family. Proliferate the destitute and drug-users in parking lots, kidnappings, robberies, hired killers and violence in general are part of everyday turning this city into one of the most dangerous in the country. The municipal cemetery, to cite just one example, is red; the athletic sports in many sectors are destroyed, public schools seem real prisons and hospitals simply do not guarantee the provision of minimum service required by patients.

Moreover, the core business have declined significantly their
productivity and the ministry of labor and competitiveness in the
workforce, have given way to influence peddling, corruption and
bureaucracy. CVG ceased to be the major governing body to become the epicenter of the institutional bureaucracy, with no leadership.

As for regional and municipal governments, few have taken full
responsibility and leadership to lead this city by road development
and progress.

Things have changed. Maracaibo is now one of the cities that has the best conditions in this country: public services that work spaces, recreational, educational, cultural and economic developments in franca. What happened in these two cities, in the same period, to be invested in this way the living conditions, "Is this phenomenon relates to the way of public management?

The responsibility of building the city is its citizens and leaders,
but the institutional leadership of local and regional government is
essential. I think the draft Figarella Sucre and other men of those
times was coherent and adjusted to that reality, which earned him
acceptance, affection and respect for the people. The same applies to the proposals of Manuel Rosales (Governor of Zulia), Jean-sector opposition and Gian Carlo Di Martino (Mayor of Maracaibo), official, who also manage to competitively have given continuity to the urban project implemented for more than twenty years.

The Guyanese want to keep progressing and get to this city of
decadence. One way is by promoting the social agreement to secure a change in Ciudad Guayana with the participation of communities, universities, private sector, workers and regional government. On November 23 we need to give way to those who have demonstrated expertise and incompetent public management: CASTÍGALOS ...

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