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Thread: The Crisis In Venezuela, Explained

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    Angry

    Five US citizens being held...

    Execs to be tried as ‘traitors’: Maduro
    Fri, Nov 24, 2017 - DIPLOMATIC? The Venezuelan president mocked a demand by the US embassy for the five US citizens to be released, saying that they should ‘go to the worst prison’
    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday said Venezuelan-US executives at refiner Citgo who were arrested in a corruption sweep this week would be tried as “corrupt, thieving traitors,” despite a request by the US to free them. Five of six executives of US-based refiner Citgo who were arrested in Caracas are US citizens, a source familiar with the matter said, possibly complicating Venezuela’s corruption sweep of the oil industry. The six executives included acting Citgo president Jose Pereira, who has Venezuelan citizenship and US permanent residency, the source said. Citgo did not respond to requests for comment.

    Late on Wednesday, Maduro tapped Asdrubal Chavez, a former oil minister and cousin of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, to replace Pereira. Military intelligence agents detained the Texas-based executives during an event at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s headquarters in Caracas on Tuesday, two sources told reporters. Citgo is a Venezuelan-owned refiner and marketer of oil and petrochemical products. The US embassy had requested that its nationals be freed, Maduro said. He mocked the demand and vowed that the men, who are also Venezuelan, would pay for alleged wrongdoing in a financial deal. “These are people born in Venezuela, they’re Venezuelan and they’re going to be judged for being corrupt, thieving traitors,” Maduro said in a televised broadcast, during which he also sang and danced salsa. “They’re properly behind bars, and they should go to the worst prison in Venezuela.”

    Relations between Caracas and Washington have long been tense. They have further soured under US President Donald Trump since his administration imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, and economic sanctions that have impeded the OPEC nation’s access to international banks. Venezuela has defaulted on sovereign debt and bonds issued by the state-run oil firm after failing to make timely payments, a New York-based derivatives group ruled on Thursday last week. Late on Wednesday, a US Department of State official said: “We have seen media reports of the arrest of US citizens in Venezuela. Venezuela is required under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to provide consular notification to the US upon request of a detained US citizen, and to provide consular access.” “When a US citizen is arrested overseas, we immediately request permission to visit him or her. We have no additional information to offer at this time,” the official added.

    Venezuelan Prosecutor General Tarek Saab has declared a “crusade” against “organized crime” in Venezuela’s oil industry. Saab on Tuesday told a news conference that his office had uncovered an about US$4 billion planned deal with foreign companies, offering the refiner as guarantee in a detrimental deal for Venezuela. According to Saab, the deal was with US investment fund Apollo Global Management and Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based Frontier Management Group, and also included a Swiss-based intermediary, Mangore Sarl. He added that there was a “presumed” link between Mangore Sarl and the Citgo executives. Opposition leaders have attributed the arrests to infighting among government factions and the cash-strapped government’s desire to gain control of moneymaking companies, rather than a genuine desire to root out corruption.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../24/2003682845

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    Red face

    Merchants prefer dollars to bolivars...

    Venezuelans scramble to survive as merchants demand dollars
    December 26, 2017 - There was no way Jose Ramon Garcia, a food transporter in Venezuela, could afford new tires for his van at $350 each.
    Whether he opted to pay in U.S. currency or in the devalued local bolivar currency at the equivalent black market price, Garcia would have had to save up for years. Though used to expensive repairs, this one was too much and put him out of business. “Repairs cost an arm and a leg in Venezuela,” said the now-unemployed 42-year-old Garcia, who has a wife and two children to support in the southern city of Guayana. “There’s no point keeping bolivars.”

    For a decade and a half, strict exchange controls have severely limited access to dollars. A black market in hard currency has spread in response, and as once-sky-high oil revenue runs dry, Venezuela’s economy is in free-fall. The practice adopted by gourmet and design stores in Caracas over the last couple of years to charge in dollars to a select group of expatriates or Venezuelans with access to greenbacks is fast spreading. Food sellers, dental and medical clinics, and others are starting to charge in dollars or their black market equivalent - putting many basic goods and services out of reach for a large number of Venezuelans.

    According to the opposition-led National Assembly, November’s rise in prices topped academics’ traditional benchmark for hyperinflation of more than 50 percent a month - and could end the year at 2,000 percent. The government has not published inflation data for more than a year. “I can’t think in bolivars anymore, because you have to give a different price every hour,” said Yoselin Aguirre, 27, who makes and sells jewelry in the Paraguana peninsula and has recently pegged prices to the dollar. “To survive, you have to dollarize.” The socialist government of the late president Hugo Chavez in 2003 brought in the strict controls in order to curb capital flight, as the wealthy sought to move money out of Venezuela after a coup attempt and major oil strike the previous year. Oil revenue was initially able to bolster artificial exchange rates, though the black market grew and now is becoming unmanageable for the government.

    TRIM THE TREE WITH BOLIVARS

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    Exclamation

    Extreme inflation will increase 13,000% in Venezuela this year...

    IMF: Venezuela inflation will increase 13,000% this year
    Jan. 25, 2018 -- Venezuela's inflation will soar 13,000 percent this year, though other Latin American countries have much better economic prospects, the International Monetary Fund said in a revised forecast Thursday.
    The increase -- 130 times greater than last year -- is more than five times the inflation previously projected by IMF. Last year, price increases were 2,400 percent -- the biggest in the world. The IMF wrote in the report that the rise is "fueled by monetary financing of large fiscal deficits and the loss of confidence in the nation's currency." President Nicolas Maduro's government has attempted to control inflation by refusing to loosen foreign-exchange controls and price caps that have increased the short supply of all sorts of products, including food to medicine.


    Also, Venezuela's real gross domestic product is projected to fall by about 15 percent for a cumulative GDP decline of almost 50 percent since 2013. The growth forecast for 2019 is a 15 percent decline and 6 percent drop in 2019. "This trend is the result of significant micro-level distortions and macroeconomic imbalances compounded by the collapse in oil exports -- initially from the sharp fall in oil prices in mid-2014 and, more recently, from the collapse in domestic oil production," the IMF said in the report. The United States last month sanctioned Venezuela government and military officials accused of having associations with corruption and repression. The Treasury Department said "corruption and repression" has continued to grow under Maduro's regime.



    A group of people walk in front of a liquor store that was looted in the early hours of the morning in the La Vega sector in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 28, 2017. Residents were protesting shortage of food, medicine, gas and water.


    The IMF revised its projections of other nations in Latin America with the GDP predicted to increase 1.9 percent in 2018 and 2.6 in 2019 after it was 1.3 percent last year. Other Latin Americans in Central America and parts of the Caribbean will benefit from stronger U.S. growth, the report said. And South America's economy has increased due to the end of recessions in Brazil and Argentina, as well as higher prices for the raw materials to export, according to the report. "Recent trends in the world economy and financial markets are good news for Latin America," Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF's Western Hemisphere department wrote in the report. "Global growth and trade are on an upswing, and we expect the momentum to continue in 2018. Stronger commodity prices have also helped the region rebound."


    The IMF specifically was high on Ecuador after coming off its recession because of higher oil prices and greater acceptance to financial markets. IMF boosted its 2018 GDP outlook to 2.2 percent from 0.6 percent. And the IMF cited Chile's growth prospects because of continued improvement in copper prices and business sentiment -- 2.2 percent in 2018. Mexico's GDP is predict to grow 2.3 percent in 2018 and 3.0 percent in 2019 on the strength of higher growthin the United States, now pegged higher at 2.7 percent in 2018 and 2.5 percent in 2019.


    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...&utm_medium=16

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    Quote Originally Posted by waltky View Post
    Extreme inflation will increase 13,000% in Venezuela this year...


    ...
    Their restrictions on foreign currency is their undoing. It is why inflation is so damned high. Nobody wants to invest there if they cannot get their money out and the people who are there have too much cash and too few goods. Even their bonds have 20-30% interest rates and nobody will touch them because it is too hard to get in and get out of them.

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    waltky (01-26-2018)

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    Chavez’s former spy chief arrested by Venezuelan police...

    Venezuelan police arrest Chavez’s former spy chief
    Thu, Mar 15, 2018 - ARBITER OF DISPUTES: Miguel Rodriguez Torres has been detained for allegedly plotting to undermine the military chain of command and disturb the peace
    Police on Tuesday arrested late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s powerful former spy chief on accusations of sowing unrest as he leads a movement of disgruntled leftists seeking to replace Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Miguel Rodriguez Torres was speaking at an event organized by women activists from his political movement in a Caracas hotel when he calmly stopped his speech and left the podium, saying he had “received a notification that requires me to urgently leave.” Moments later, he was escorted into the back of a police vehicle and driven away by what witnesses said were heavily armed agents from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) — the same force he created in 2010 while serving as Chavez’s trusted adviser. Indira Urbaneja, an aide who was also detained at the event, said the two were taken to SEBIN headquarters before she was released and Rodriguez Torres was taken to another unknown location.

    In a statement read on state television, the government said that Rodriguez Torres was being sought by the judiciary for plotting to undermine the military’s chain of command and disturb the peace. “The criminal actions planned by this gentleman and his accomplices include armed actions and conspiring against our constitution,” said the statement, which demanded Rodriguez Torres’ “treason” be met with “severity.” Rodriguez Torres is a former army major general who served alongside Chavez in a failed 1992 coup. For more than a year, he has been quietly building a movement to challenge Maduro in presidential elections, but earlier this year was barred from holding office for 12 months on what supporters call trumped-up charges of not presenting a sworn affidavit declaring his assets and income. In his speech on Tuesday, he called for electoral authorities to uphold Venezuela’s constitution and provide guarantees that the upcoming presidential election would be free and fair.

    Several prominent opponents of Maduro’s socialist administration have been barred from competing in the May vote, while several others have been exiled or jailed. “Once those conditions are reached, we should select one candidate to begin that electoral process to begin transforming the reality we are living today,” Rodriguez Torres told the gathering. With deep ties to the military, traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, Rodriguez Torres has managed to distinguish himself from other former government loyalists on the left even while, until now, evading arrest or prosecution like many of Maduro’s conservative opponents.

    In an interview last year, Rodriguez Torres accused Maduro of destroying Venezuela’s oil-rich economy, failing to rein in violence by pro-government militias and silencing critics. He said if given the chance to lead, he would eliminate foreign currency controls put in place in 2003 and seek financial assistance from the IMF, which Chavez railed against. Despite attempts to present himself as a kinder, gentler Chavista, many in the conservative opposition accuse Rodriguez Torres of violating human rights by arresting dozens of protesters as Venezuelan minister of the interior during a wave of unrest in opposition to the government in 2014. The statement from Maduro’s government announcing Rodriguez Torres’ arrest repeated claims that he had been fired as minister for allegedly having ties to US intelligence agencies.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../15/2003689346

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    Colombian church sends communion wafers to Venezuela...

    Colombia church sends communion wafers to Venezuela amid flour shortage
    March 30, 2018 -- A food crisis has left Venezuela without wheat flour to make the sacramental bread used to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, so a Colombian church stepped in with a gift.
    Members of the Catholic diocese of Cúcuta, Colombia, donated 250,000 communion wafers "so Venezuelans can celebrate the central mysteries of the Christian faith."

    The wafers were delivered on a bridge between the two countries during a heavy rainfall. "Due to the scarcity of this country, the hosts for the celebration of the Eucharist have not been the exception; For this reason, and in the exercise of the charity of Christ on the border, the particular Church of Cúcuta has handed over to the dioceses of the Venezuelan border zone the subject matter for the celebration of the Holy Mass," according to a Facebook statement by the diocese.


    Members of the Catholic diocese of Cúcuta, Colombia, donated 250,000 communion wafers so Venezuelans can celebrate Holy Eucharist. A food crisis has left Venezuela without wheat flour to make sacramental bread.

    Shortages of food and medicine have become common in Venezuela because of an economic crisis largely fueled by a decline in oil production. Earlier this month after supplies had run out, some churches had asked people to bring flour to nuns who make the hosts. The Colombian Catholic church said it had a moral duty to help Venezuelans. "It is important to attend to the needs that afflict the faith as a result of this time of border crisis," a statement from the diocese said. "At this time of the week, the central mysteries of the Christian faith can be celebrated."

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...l&utm_medium=6

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    Or toilet paper. I would want that over flour.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


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    OAS chief threatens military force against Venezuela...

    OAS chief threatens military force against Venezuela
    Sep 15, 2018 - The head of the Organization of American States has joined President Trump in holding out the threat of a military intervention in Venezuela to restore democracy and ease the country’s humanitarian crisis.



    OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro delivered the sharp warning in a visit Friday to Colombia’s border with Venezuela in which he also denounced President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist “dictatorship” for spurring a regionwide migration crisis. “With respect to a military intervention to overthrow Nicolas Maduro’s regime, I don’t think any option should be ruled out,” Almagro said at a news conference in the Colombian city of Cucuta. “What Nicolas Maduro’s regime is perpetrating are crimes against humanity, the violation of the human rights and the suffering of people that is inducing an exodus. Diplomatic actions should be the first priority but we shouldn’t rule out any action.” Almagro has been Maduro’s most outspoken critic in Latin America, but until Friday he hadn’t been willing to go as far as Trump, who last year raised the possibility of a “military option” against Maduro. In several meetings with aides and Latin American leaders last year, Trump also discussed the possibility of a U.S. invasion of the South American nation. Still, for many in Latin America, the prospect of a military intervention is bound to revive memories of the Cold War, when the U.S. gave backing to coups and rebellions from countries including Chile, Cuba and Brazil. For Almagro, the threat of military force is especially surprising given his condemnation of the region’s support for a U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 to remove a democratically elected but pro-Cuban president. The invasion, carried out in the OAS’ name, left thousands dead and for decades stirred Latin American resentment against the idea of ever again using force against sovereign nations.




    Almagro in 2015 apologized for the OAS’ role in the invasion, saying such events should not be repeated. While circumstances in Venezuela are far different, and many still see an invasion as a remote possibility, Maduro has nonetheless held out the threat to try to rally Venezuelans behind him at a time of mounting hardships. Almagro in his visit Friday said countries in the Western Hemisphere should work together to provide relief to the droves of Venezuelans who every day are fleeing hyperinflation and food shortages in their homeland. But, he added, the ultimate solution to the crisis is to restore democracy in Venezuela. “The international community has to provide answers. We can’t allow a dictatorship in Venezuela that affects the security of the entire region through drug trafficking, organized crime and the deep humanitarian crisis it has created,” Almagro said. During Friday’s visit to the border, Almagro met aid workers and government officials in Cucuta, where schools and hospitals are struggling to cope with the influx of Venezuelan migrants.



    The Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, Uruguayan Luis Almagro, right, greets Venezuelans during his visit to the Divina Providencia migrant shelter in Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela





    The outspoken diplomat was stopped on the street and greeted by dozens of Venezuelan migrants who urged him to work for the “liberation” of Venezuela from tyranny. He said while countries like his native Uruguay had weathered bloody dictatorships in the past, Maduro’s government stands out for using shortages of food and medicine as “instruments of repression” to impose its political will. “This is inadmissible. We’ve never seen such an immoral government in the world that doesn’t allow the entry of humanitarian aid in the middle of a humanitarian crisis,” he said. According to the United Nations, more than 2.3 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years.




    Increasingly they are leaving with no money and are traveling on foot across South American countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in dangerous journeys that can take several weeks. Almagro said the OAS has created a working group that will look at ways to help desperate migrants as well as their host countries. OAS member states recently voted on a resolution that accuses Maduro of breaking his country’s constitutional order when he got himself reelected in May in a vote boycotted by opponents. Colombia’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said Friday that it was investigating preliminary reports that 20 soldiers from Venezuela’s national guard illegally entered a remote Colombian river hamlet and captured three civilians. Relations between both countries have been tense for years, but have not affected Colombia’s policy toward Venezuelan migrants so far.


    http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-v...915-story.html

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