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The CIA, Lost In The Orinoco
The CIA, Lost In The Orinoco
René Magritte The black flag 1937
One thing I am not is an expert on Venezuela. What I know is the country has the world’s largest oil reserves, mainly in the Orinoco Belt, but they come in a form of tar sands that while they are not as hard to exploit as Canada’s (viscosity), they’re far from easy, and buried deep. And I know Venezuela had Hugo Chávez as its president, who, for a socialist, was quite successful at what he did (depending who you ask).
And I know of course that the US yesterday recognized an opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the ‘real’ president of Venezuela, instead of the elected Nicolas Maduro, whom Chávez picked as his successor. Soon as I read that, I thought: CIA. If Chávez, and Maduro, are hated in one place in the world, look no further than Langley, Virginia.
So I looked up a few articles I though would be interesting to read. The first comes from a site called Venezuela Analysis, an entity recommended for Venezuela news. They had the article below, but also this enlightening picture:
Note: in 2002, coincident with the attempted coup against Chávez, half the employees at state oil company PDVSA went on strike. They must have felt like clowns, too, 48 hours later.
The article explains what happened in terms you can find everywhere (but are perhaps good to note), except for the last bit:
Venezuelan Opposition Leader Guaido Declares Himself President, Recognized by US and Allies
Opposition leader Juan Guaido swore himself in as “interim president” of Venezuela on Wednesday, a move which was immediately recognized by the United States and regional allies. “As president of the National Assembly, before God and Venezuela, I swear to formally assume the competencies of the national executive as interim president of Venezuela,” he declared before an opposition rally in eastern Caracas.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Maduro Orders Army Into The Streets Ahead Of “Mother Of All Protests”
Maduro Orders Army Into The Streets Ahead Of “Mother Of All Protests”
Maduro, who recently backed down from a bid to usurp supreme power after a Supreme Court decision left the local Congress powerless, only to reverse itself following furious blowback even from his own party, has faced violent protests over recent moves to tighten his grip on power, and ordered the military to defend the leftist “Bolivarian revolution” launched by his late mentor Hugo Chavez in 1999.
“From the first reveille (on Monday morning), from the first rooster crow, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces will be in the streets… saying, ‘Long live the Bolivarian revolution,'” Maduro said Sunday night in a televised address. State TV showed images of army units marching in the streets of Caracas as Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino watched although there was no sign of soldiers on patrol Monday morning in the capital.
As noted previously, Venezuela has been rocked by two weeks of unrest since Maduro’s camp moved to consolidate its control with a Supreme Court decision quashing the power of the opposition-majority legislature. The court partly backtracked after an international outcry, but tensions only rose further when authorities slapped a political ban on opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Maduro “Wake Up” Call For OPEC As Venezuela Crude Crashes To 13 Year Lows
Maduro “Wake Up” Call For OPEC As Venezuela Crude Crashes To 13 Year Lows
More jawboning and hope…
- *VENEZUELA’S MADURO SAYS HE SPOKE W/RUSSIA’S PUTIN ON OIL
- *RUSSIA’S PUTIN AGREED TO WORK ON OIL PRICE ISSUES: MADURO
- *SOME OPEC PRODUCERS ‘WAKING UP’ TO OIL SITUATION: MADURO
- *VENEZUELA OIL PRICE REACHED $20.20/BBL YESTERDAY, MADURO SAYS
- *VENEZUELA SHOULD REPLACE OIL AS MAIN FX INCOME SOURCE: MADURO
- *VENEZUELA’S MADURO SAYS HE HOPES OIL MARKET RECOVERS
“Some OPEC countries that flooded the oil market are now waking up,” President Nicolas Maduro said on state television.
Flooding oil market was “suicidal policy” by some oil producers: Maduro
Maduro said he spoke with Russia President Vladimir Putin on oil prices – “We agreed to continue working on a common vision, a common plan”
Hope is not a strategy…
As we concluded previously, what all this translates to is simple: first default, then revolution.
Which is good news for those who buy CDS. Our only hope for those who have held so far is that the counterparty you will have to novate with will still be around once the sparks fly, because once this first OPEC member goes bankrupt, things will start moving very fast.
Finally, for all those who are praying for an oil bounce, your day may be near, because nothing will send the price of crude soaring quite as fast as one entire OPEC nation suddenly entering a death spiral of chaos.
Venezuela To Start Fingerprinting Supermarket Shoppers
Venezuela To Start Fingerprinting Supermarket Shoppers
Back in August, when we wrote about the latest instance of trouble in Maduro’s socialist paradise, we cautioned that as a result of the economic collapse in the Latin American nation (and this was even before the plunge in crude made the “paradise” into the 9th circle of hell), Venezuelans soon may need to have their fingerprints scanned before they can buy bread and other staples. This unprecedented step was proposed after Maduro had the brilliant idea of proposing mandatory grocery fingerprinting system to combat food shortages. He said then that “the program will stop people from buying too much of a single item”, but did not say when it would take effect.
Privacy concerns aside (clearly Venezuelans have bigger, well, smaller fish to fry) there was hope that this plunge into insanity would be delayed indefinitely, as the last thing Venezuela’s strained economy would be able to handle is smuggling of the most basic of necessities: something such a dramatic rationing step would surely lead to.
Unfortunately for the struggling Venezuelan population, the time has arrived and as AP reported over the weekend, Venezuela “will begin installing 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets nationwide in a bid to stamp out hoarding and panic buying” as of this moment.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
China to invest $20bn in struggling Venezuela
China to invest $20bn in struggling Venezuela
China has agreed to invest more than $20bn in economic, social, and oil-related projects in Venezuela, as the country struggles from a financial crisis brought on from falling oil prices.
President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday he was seeking to strengthen ties with Chinese banks after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, a week after Caracas announced it was in a recession.
“We have wrapped up over $20bn in investments during the course of this day’s work,” Maduro told Venezuela’s official AVN news agency.
The sweeping investment deal covers a wide range of areas including technology, housing and urban planning, AVN said.
Maduro, however, did not say whether the latest investments include new loans for the cash-strapped OPEC member, or if the investments were part of an existing oil-for-loans deal between Venezuela and China.
Beijing has extended $42bn in long-term loans to Venezuela, $24bn of which has been paid out so far, according to Venezuelan officials.
Xi said that China, the world’s second-biggest economy which has been bolstering its diplomatic and economic reach in South America – had agreed to “strengthened cooperation”.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
