"If you want your baby to be prettier than it is, do not put any imported diapers on, put on Venezuelan diapers: El Guayuco. The petrochemical revolution ". The phrase, which slogan advertising campaign, came out on the lips of Hugo Chavez on June 21, 2009. The head of state inaugurated a Socialist State Enterprise for the production of diapers, under Chinese technology.

The promise was to produce 144 million diapers a year, 5% of the total annual national market demand, which the Executive then placed at 1,300 million. "Your support is very important. This is only the first factory, but we need 20, 40, 50 factories like this one. In addition, I propose something, that we set up a factory here, that we can manufacture these equipment here, "a proud Chávez told Chinese businessmen.

The Guayucos had to reach the shelves of the state food distribution network, such as Mercal and Pdval, in May 2010, because initially they were willing to satisfy the needs of the government's social programs. However, the goal was never met and the investment of 9.3 million dollars that the Government allocated for the start-up of the factory, located within the Ana María Campos industrial park, of the El Tablazo petrochemical complex, was lost. Zulia

DISPOSABLE PROMISE

The lack of planning and control over the plant prevented the production of 894 million diapers to date, based on the estimated calculation of production by the late Hugo Chávez in 2009. A promise that would have been very useful to fulfill, since at least since In early 2011 there are recurrent failures in the supply of disposable diapers, a trend that has worsened in the last year.

"When my children were young they used to be cloth diapers," Chavez laughed at the opening of the plant. Now, in 2015, some parents have had to resume this practice, because even by order of the Executive is required to deliver the birth certificate to acquire diapers when they appear on the shelves of commercial establishments.

NEVER PROSPERED

The plant seemed destined to fail. It did not even serve the first group of diapers that were produced, the ones that Chávez showed on his VTV show . "The first batch of diapers did not work. They have planned to supply the second lot only in Zulia, because there is no production for the whole country, "a factory worker told the newspaper La Verdad de Maracaibo, in a report published in September 2009.

For the debut, the source said, the error was in not having the absorbent gel required by the diapers, a cellulose that they would also bring from China. "To Chavez this gave him rage," the worker swore.

No government official is referring to the socialist diapers, nor to the production of sanitary napkins that the deceased head of state also offered. In 2011, the Company of Social Production of the Guayucos ceased to be in the hands of Pequiven, was absorbed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Intermediate Industries, without this guaranteeing its reactivation.