Venezuela, The Starving Socialist Dystopia (Part 1)

U.S. Weighs Restricting Trades in Venezuelan Debt to Punish Maduro
Move would ban U.S.-regulated institutions from dealing in bonds from government and state oil company
By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Ian Talley | Aug. 22, 2017​





https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-we...lan-debt-to-punish-maduro-1503458455?mod=e2fb


Trump could show some leadership here, no need for troop surge and its right in the US backyard.

Why has America spent trillions trying to fix the middle east but when it comes to its backyard its actions are so weak.
 
Trump could show some leadership here, no need for troop surge and its right in the US backyard.

Why has America spent trillions trying to fix the middle east but when it comes to its backyard its actions are so weak.


Because they have no oil!!!


Oh wait!!!
 
'We Will Not Stand By as Venezuela Crumbles:' Mike Pence Tells Venezuelans
(DORAL, Fla.) — Vice President Mike Pence addressed a sympathetic crowd of Venezuelans in South Florida on Wednesday and pledged the U.S. will use its economic and diplomatic power to push for free elections.

Pence spoke at a church in the city of Doral, the exile enclave, to a crowd of about 300. They occasionally shouted "freedom, freedom" and cheered every time the vice president spoke of President Donald Trump's interest in Venezuela, a socialist nation that has been undergoing an economic crisis.

"Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States of America will continue to bring the full measure of American economic and diplomatic power to bear until democracy is restored in Venezuela," Pence said, threatening there were more sanctions to come against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

As other countries in Latin America have improved their economies, Venezuela has gone downhill, Pence said, calling Maduro's presidency, a "dictatorship."

"We hear you, we stand with you. We will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles," Pence said.

A woman held a sign at the event that read, "Venezuelan resistance asks for military resistance. We can't do it alone," an apparent reference to Trump's remarks earlier this month that there was a possibility for the U.S. to invade Venezuela.

Last week, Pence visited Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama in an attempt to rally the region against Venezuela, but because of Trump's comments, the vice president switched to damage control to soothe fears in a region scarred by past U.S. invasions.

In South Florida, Pence found a supportive and grateful crowd.

Earlier in the day, Pence met with 15 Venezuelan exiles in South Florida who said more help is needed to restore democracy in the socialist regime.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart joined Pence in listening to testimonies of established leaders of the Venezuelan diaspora and recently exiled politicians and judges.

Ramon Muchacho was the mayor of the municipality of Chacao since 2013 but fled in July, saying he was being persecuted by the government.

"There is no way to get (the government) out by democratic means," Muchacho said, pleading for more help from Latin America, the U.S. and Europe.

Two other mayors told Pence the U.S. government should impose more sanctions.

Carlos Vecchio, a well-known leader of an opposition party, said that Venezuela is a failed state that criminals had taken control of.

"It is a criminal state," Vecchio said. "It is led by a mafia involved in drug trafficking and close to terrorist groups."

Alejandro Jesus Rebolledo, a Venezuelan judge who fled the country recently, also accused the government of crimes such as money laundering and drug trafficking.

The country's vice president Tareck El Aissami was sanctioned by the Trump administration in February after being accused of running a drug trafficking network of corrupt officials in Venezuela. More recently, Washington slapped sanctions on Maduro and other top officials involved in the installation of a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly.

During the meeting, Ernesto Ackerman, a local leader of Venezuelan-Americans, approached Pence and gave him a black hat with the colors of the Venezuelan flag. It read, "Make Venezuela Great Again."
 
why is south america so fucked up

is not all southamerica, we are doing quite well despite our problems for a 3rd world country (paraguay) so is chile uruguay. Countries which took the bolivarian road are the one that are a fucking mess, all but bolivia, which eventhough is still a poor country, it isnt doing all that bad. Peru Chile Paraguay Bolivia Uruguay are pretty stable economies.
 
>socialists asking for laws against "intolerance" so they could redefine "intolerance" to include anything the dont like

im noticing a trend here

Honestly, it's painful how willfully ignorant you choose to be, given that you're smarter than most of your moron compatriots.

Even if Venezuela's administration isn't socialist by any means, but are still certainly economic populist, I do feel bad that they have to field the reactionary insults of US citizens who just don't understand, or choose to ignore, the facts and issues at hand.
 
U.S. Toughens Penalties on Venezuela by Curbing Its Access to Funds
The Trump administration restricts ability of Maduro’s government to tap debt markets
By Ian Talley | Aug. 25, 2017



WASHINGTON—The U.S. on Friday restricted the ability of Venezuela to tap American debt markets for funding, marking a significant escalation in Washington’s economic crackdown against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s cash-strapped government.

President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibits institutions in the U.S. from trading new bonds with Mr. Maduro’s government, including through the state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA. It doesn’t curb trading of existing Venezuelan bonds in secondary markets and allows short-term trade finance to facilitate oil transactions between Venezuela and the U.S.

The actions are aimed at limiting the government’s ability to finance itself, undermining Mr. Maduro’s legitimacy and estranging him from the leadership of his own Socialist movement.

The Trump administration said it aims to return Venezuela to democracy and penalize the Maduro government for what it calls human rights abuses and state-led corruption. This is the third round of sanctions the administration has levied against Venezuela in half a year. It previously targeted 30 top officials in the Maduro government, including the president himself.

“We will not allow the United States’ financial system to participate in the underwriting of the Maduro dictatorship” amid “a wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy and the violent oppression of the Venezuelan people,” a senior administration official said. “We’re closing off his access to the markets for the financing he has been using to prop up his regime and to fund the security apparatus that is repressing the Venezuelan people.”

The sanctions, reported by The Wall Street Journal early this week, also ban the oil company, known as PdVSA, and its refining company operating in the U.S., Citgo Petroleum Corp., from sending profit earned in the U.S. back to Venezuela. They do allow Citgo to continue to raise new debt and the trade of Citgo bonds. There is also an exemption allowing humanitarian assistance. One recent Venezuelan bond issuance held exclusively by the government is completely banned from trading. Taken together, the actions effectively prohibit Venezuela from restructuring its debt with U.S. entities.


Bond investors expressed relief that the new sanctions didn’t ban trading of all the country’s existing bonds, an outcome that would have caused major disruptions in emerging debt markets. Venezuela government bonds due in 2027 edged down 1.2% to 40.9 cents in Friday afternoon trading, according to traders. PdVSA bonds due on Nov. 2 were up 0.4% to 93.4 cents, following a 6% gain the day before, according to traders.

High risk premiums mean Venezuelan government already has been effectively shut out from new international debt issues. U.S. officials said the new measures are meant in part to hit the personal wealth of army officers, businessmen and ruling party officials who industry sources say own Venezuelan bonds and rely on them for income. This will make it harder for them to make use of these resources in international markets.

“We urge those around Maduro to take note, to take heed, and to actively distance themselves from the violence and the dictatorship,” the senior official said.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, speaking at the United Nations, called new U.S. financial sanctions “the worst aggressions to Venezuela in the last 200 years, maybe,” the Associated Press reported. Mr. Arreaza said his government wouldn’t let the U.S. “create a humanitarian crisis.”

Angel Alvarado, an opposition lawmaker in Venezuela’s congressional finance committee, said the measures weren’t as restrictive as some expected. “The message from Washington is political, not financial...No one wants for the humanitarian crisis to get worse. This is a signal to the president to change course.”

A second senior administration official said Washington would continue to escalate its sanctions regime until “the Maduro regime holds free, fair, transparent and internationally-monitored elections, releases all political prisoners unconditionally and respects the authority of the legitimate national assembly.”

Washington has condemned Mr. Maduro’s move to rewrite the country’s constitution, his imprisoning of dissidents and the treatment of the former attorney general, as evidence “Maduro has fully embraced dictatorship,” the official said.

Venezuela is suffering from a deep, multiyear contraction. Inflation hit 700% this year and is expected to top 2000% next year amid a widespread shortage of food, medicine and other critical supplies, according to the International Monetary Fund. Nearly one in three Venezuelans eat less than three times a day.

The government has been on the verge financial collapse for months, with markets pricing in a near-term default. Russia has kept the country on life-support through loans that have cost the country dearly in terms of interest, oil and stakes in the state-owned petroleum sector. U.S. purchases of Venezuelan oil—which Washington has threatened to ban, but has left as a major, final escalation in its sanctions arsenal—are still allowing Caracas to pay interest on its debt.

Still, the sanctions will make it harder for PdVSA to meet the $3.5 billion in bond payments due in October and November by limiting its scope for financing deals. Last October, the company issued $3.4 billion of new bonds to swap with investors for the debt maturing that year. The new measure prevents the repeat of such a deal.

Venezuela has $9.7 billion in international reserves, though analysts estimate that less than $1 billion of it is in cash or other liquid assets. Its foreign-currency obligations, U.S. administration officials say, outstrip its foreign exchange income, pushing the country to the brink of default.

The measures against PdVSA, which is the lifeblood of Venezuela’s economy, puts the company closer to a default in the coming months, said Nymia Cortes de Almeida, a credit analyst at Moody’s. “Even though the company still has access to other major world capital markets, the sanctions increase the risk of refinancing the $3.2 billion in debt that matures before the end of the year,” she said.

The latest sanctions prohibit the type of deal that brought Goldman Sachs Group under fire in May for buying $2.8 billion in Venezuelan bonds. The bank has said it bought the securities from a broker and didn’t interact with the Venezuelan government. Because of sanctions risk,Credit Suisse Group has prohibited trading of certain Venezuelan bonds.

Treasury and State Department officials meanwhile have been reaching out to allies in Latin America, Europe and beyond to encourage those countries to enforce the sanctions. U.S. officials say Mexico, Peru, Colombia and other nations have already committed to rolling out parallel sanctions. And although some European Union member states are resistant, large allies in the region back implementing similar efforts, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-cu...debt-toughening-sanctions-1503678435?mod=e2fb
 
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And you are regurgitating GS rethoric
That isn't GS rhetoric, dude. That's the NYT, Bloomberg, and Forbes; the same bodies reporting the claims of the opposition. These are matters of objective reporting. They even named half a dozen holders of the bonds:


Goldman Sachs has defended the deal, saying that many other investors, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, own the bonds and that its asset management division bought the securities on the secondary market, without interacting with the Venezuelan government.

Nevertheless, the transaction highlights the extent to which investors are willing to take on increasing levels of political and economic risk as they seek high-yielding investments when interest rates still hover near zero.

“There is a lot of interest in this trade,” said Carlos de Sousa, an economist at Oxford Economics, a research company based in London. “We are in a low-rate environment, and these are dollar bonds with really high yields.”

Among the large holders of Pdvsa bonds are BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and Ashmore, an emerging market specialist based in London.


-- New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/...uelan-bonds-and-an-uproar-begins.html?mcubz=1
I think GS is telling the truth in the sense that he bought from "secondary market" but the fact that the Venezuela central bank claimed it had increased its reserves by $700~ millions just 2 days after they sold the bonds at $800~ millions is incredibly suspect.

Most likely they bought it from a broker working with the Venezuelan central bank to place those bonds.

But its just speculation, so ill concede.
Your concession was already accepted on this matter, so I don't care what you speculate.
 
That isn't GS rhetoric, dude. That's the NYT, Bloomberg, and Forbes; the same bodies reporting the claims of the opposition. These are matters of objective reporting. They even named half a dozen holders of the bonds:


Goldman Sachs has defended the deal, saying that many other investors, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, own the bonds and that its asset management division bought the securities on the secondary market, without interacting with the Venezuelan government.

Nevertheless, the transaction highlights the extent to which investors are willing to take on increasing levels of political and economic risk as they seek high-yielding investments when interest rates still hover near zero.

“There is a lot of interest in this trade,” said Carlos de Sousa, an economist at Oxford Economics, a research company based in London. “We are in a low-rate environment, and these are dollar bonds with really high yields.”

Among the large holders of Pdvsa bonds are BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and Ashmore, an emerging market specialist based in London.


-- New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/...uelan-bonds-and-an-uproar-begins.html?mcubz=1

Your concession was already accepted on this matter, so I don't care what you speculate.

The NYT is quoting GS.

EDIT

This update is now changing the tune, its not now the secodary market, now its a broker.

Along with the timing of Venezuela Central Bank announcement its pretty obvious what happened.
 
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US-based Citgo exempted from sanctions, but it's not allowed to send profits back to Venezuela
August 25, 2017

picAlvinTX.jpg

President Trump is exempting Citgo Petroleum Corp., owned by Venezuela's government, from the financial sanctions imposed Friday on the country.

The latest set of sanctions is meant to punish the government of President Nicol s Maduro as it moves to rewrite the country's constitution and consolidate his power. To that end, the sanctions seek to exclude the Venezuelan government from the United States' economy, including its markets and capital, and to make sure the U.S. does not assist the Maduro government.

But Citgo, an oil refiner, retailer and transporter based in the United States and owned by the government's Petr leos de Venezuela, will get to operate largely as normal.

The White House statement announcing the sanctions framed the Citgo exemption as an attempt "to mitigate harm to the American and Venezuelan people."

Petroleum imports and exports are also exempt, a nod to the significant petroleum trade between the United States and Venezuela.

"We are issuing general licenses permitting transactions that would otherwise be prohibited under the executive order," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Friday.

"These include a 30-day wind-down period, the financing for humanitarian goods to Venezuela and certain dealings in specific debt instruments that trade on secondary markets, and certain dealings with U.S. entities owned or controlled by the government of Venezuela. Also, the executive order carves out short-term financing for most commercial trade, including the export and import of petroleum."

Nonetheless, Citgo will not be allowed to send profits to its Venezuelan parent.

A senior administration official said that officials are also watching out for whether Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, takes a significant stake in Citgo, which Venezuela put up as collateral for a loan from Russia.

Such a transaction, or trading that collateral for an interest in Citgo assets, could trigger new action against the company since Rosneft is already subject to United States sanctions, the official told reporters.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/348007-trump-exempts-citgo-from-venezuela-sanctions?amp
 
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“These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger.”

-Bernie Sanders
August 5, 2011
 
Venezuela: New assembly approves treason trials for opposition
30 August 2017

_97595437_mediaitem97595433.jpg

The new Venezuelan political body is packed with government supporters

Venezuela's new constituent assembly has unanimously voted to put opposition leaders on trial for treason.

The assembly said it would pursue those it accuses of supporting US economic sanctions against the country.

Washington approved the measures last week in response to what it called the "dictatorship" of President Nicolás Maduro.

President Maduro has accused the US of trying to cripple Venezuela's economy amid an ongoing economic crisis.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 25 August to ban trade in Venezuelan debt or the sale of bonds from its state oil company.

His reasons included "serious abuses of human rights" as well as the creation of the "illegitimate" constituent assembly, which the US accuses of usurping the democratically elected parliament.

The constituent assembly, which was convened by President Maduro and is made up of government supporters, has been condemned by international leaders as unconstitutional.

'Immoral actions'

On Tuesday, members of the assembly unanimously approved a decree calling for the investigation of "traitors" who supported the economic sanctions.

_97598134_84332926-1af0-476b-b36b-0c9f1ad117f3.jpg

Constituent assembly member Gladys Requena's shouts of "Viva Maduro!" were met by a standing ovation


During the three-hour session, they took turns denouncing those who have been critical of the government in ever more colourful language.

Among those they attacked for allegedly being "engaged in the promotion of these immoral actions against the interests of the Venezuelan people" were not only members of opposition parties but also former supporters of the socialist government.

The sacked chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who over the past months has become one of the most vocal critics of the government, came in for particular vitriol.

Constituent assembly member Iris Varela called Ms Ortega "scum". She also said that Ms Ortega "crawled like a worm" and "sold her homeland for a few dollars she stole from this country".

Ms Ortega was sacked by the constituent assembly in its first session earlier this month and replaced by a loyal government supporter, Tarek William Saab.

She has since travelled to a number of Latin American countries denouncing alleged government corruption in Venezuela.

The head of the opposition-controlled parliament, Julio Borges, was named as "one of the real enemies of Venezuela" for asking US bank Goldman Sachs to stop buying Venezuelan bonds.

Mr Borges reacted by saying that it was time the government stopped looking for others to blame for Venezuela's economic and political crisis.

"The only one responsible is Maduro and it's time he takes a look in the mirror and accepts he has ruined Venezuela," he told reporters.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41091745
 
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August 25, 2017 - 03:52 PM EDT
US-based Citgo exempted from sanctions, but it's not allowed to send profits back to Venezuela

picAlvinTX.jpg


President Trump is exempting Citgo Petroleum Corp., owned by Venezuela's government, from the financial sanctions imposed Friday on the country.

The latest set of sanctions is meant to punish the government of President Nicol s Maduro as it moves to rewrite the country's constitution and consolidate his power. To that end, the sanctions seek to exclude the Venezuelan government from the United States' economy, including its markets and capital, and to make sure the U.S. does not assist the Maduro government.

But Citgo, an oil refiner, retailer and transporter based in the United States and owned by the government's Petr leos de Venezuela, will get to operate largely as normal.

The White House statement announcing the sanctions framed the Citgo exemption as an attempt "to mitigate harm to the American and Venezuelan people."

Petroleum imports and exports are also exempt, a nod to the significant petroleum trade between the United States and Venezuela.

"We are issuing general licenses permitting transactions that would otherwise be prohibited under the executive order," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Friday.

"These include a 30-day wind-down period, the financing for humanitarian goods to Venezuela and certain dealings in specific debt instruments that trade on secondary markets, and certain dealings with U.S. entities owned or controlled by the government of Venezuela. Also, the executive order carves out short-term financing for most commercial trade, including the export and import of petroleum."

Nonetheless, Citgo will not be allowed to send profits to its Venezuelan parent.

A senior administration official said that officials are also watching out for whether Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, takes a significant stake in Citgo, which Venezuela put up as collateral for a loan from Russia.

Such a transaction, or trading that collateral for an interest in Citgo assets, could trigger new action against the company since Rosneft is already subject to United States sanctions, the official told reporters.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/348007-trump-exempts-citgo-from-venezuela-sanctions?amp

In B4 Boston Red Sox
 
Honestly, it's painful how willfully ignorant you choose to be, given that you're smarter than most of your moron compatriots.

Even if Venezuela's administration isn't socialist by any means, but are still certainly economic populist, I do feel bad that they have to field the reactionary insults of US citizens who just don't understand, or choose to ignore, the facts and issues at hand.
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