International Venezuela, The Socialist Dystopia, v2: The region's worst humanitarian crisis in decades

[Arkain2K]

Angry Venezuelans tell Maduro they’d rather clean America’s toilets than stay in their country
by Rachelle Krygier | April 4, 2017

CARACAS, Venezuela — During a speech on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro mocked the many Venezuelans who have fled the country over the past several years. Migrants abroad, he said, “regret” leaving and supposedly have ended up “cleaning toilets in Miami.”

The comment sparked outrage in Venezuela, and plenty of his countrymen had no hesitation in firing back.

“Maduro doesn’t need to go clean a toilet abroad because he transformed Venezuela into his own toilet,” said Twitter user @chelodiaz1 in a typical insult.

​

Venezuela has witnessed a massive exodus — more than a million people have left over the past two years, according to the International Organization for Migration — and it shows no signs of stopping. A recent poll found that another 1 million Venezuelans have plans to leave the country. The United Nations' refugee agency recently said that the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum abroad has increased by 2,000 percent since 2014, and it recently put out new guidelines urging countries to treat Venezuelan migrants as refugees.

In addition to political repression, the country's economy has virtually collapsed. Venezuela's inflation rate is set to reach 13,000 percent in 2018, the highest in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund; supermarket shelves are empty; medical infrastructure is crumbling; and the number of abandoned children has surged, among other crises.

Maduro, who is running for reelection in May, has claimed that the number of Venezuelans fleeing abroad is lower than what other countries and international bodies have said. During his speech Tuesday in the town of Barquisimeto, he called reports about Venezuela's problems “propaganda against our country,” and his government has accused international media of waging “psychological war.”

But Venezuelans retorted that cleaning toilets would still be preferable to staying in their country. “Minimum wage in Florida, which those whom Maduro is mocking earn, is $1400 a month,” tweeted oil expert Francisco Monaldi. “Minimum wage in Venezuela is less than $6 monthly. Maduro destroyed Venezuela and he now makes fun of migrants that have to work hard to continue.”

​

“Maduro says Venezuelans abroad are cleaning toilets but he doesn’t say that in Venezuela, thanks to his corrupt government, Venezuelans who work in the most professional fields can’t even bring food to their homes,” added Twitter user Héctor Manrique.

​

Roberto Jimenez, a Venezuelan lawyer now living in Miami, posted an open letter to Maduro: “Do you know how much I earned cleaning toilets here?” he asked. “They paid me four dollars an hour, which was 32 dollars a day. At the end of the month I realized I had never seen so much money together in my whole life as a lawyer in Venezuela.”

He signed the letter with one final shot, calling himself “a Venezuelan toilet-cleaner in Miami who has his pockets full and is grateful to this country, which gave me the opportunity to clean all its dirtiness, contrary to yours which is diving in its own crap.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...stay-in-their-country/?utm_term=.c759e8158a17

 

[Arkain2K]

'It feels like we're all dying slowly': Venezuela's doctors losing hope
With major shortages of medicines, many doctors are joining the exodus of people trying to find a better life abroad
Carmen Fishwick | April 5, 2016

Venezuelans demonstrate against medicine shortages in Caracas.
​

After six years of studying and working part-time jobs, Cristian Diaga, 24, will soon graduate from medical school in Caracas, Venezuela. But instead of continuing his training in a top hospital in the country, as he had hoped, he is taking a job in a fast-food restaurant in Argentina – a situation he says is much more preferable.

“I do feel bad leaving. I think everyone would like to give something back to their country, but right now it is my life and future and all my possibilities to help my family to get out of this madness,” he says.

More than half of Venezuelans between 15 and 29 want to move abroad permanently, according to a poll carried out by the US firm Gallup and shared exclusively with the Guardian.

“In Venezuela, it feels like we are all just dying slowly and there’s no hope for a change. I don’t care if I’m gonna work as a doctor or not. I just want to have food, medicines, security, a house, a car, and be able to give a good life to my loved ones,” he says.​

But it’s not as though many of Diaga’s relatives still live in the country – the majority have fled to Argentina by road through Brazil. And soon he will join them.

“My younger brother had to leave because the urgent medicines [he needs] can’t be found here and with my mum’s salary it’s impossible to buy them in another country.

“If I go to Argentina, at least I will be with my family and together I think we’ll be able to make progress,” he says.

Shortages of medicines are well-documented in Venezuela, with patients often having to buy prescriptions and basic medical supplies using contacts abroad and risk having them sent over, or purchasing at highly-inflated prices on the black market. But many are going without.

“Every day we see people dying for diseases that we know exactly how to cure but when you don’t even have gloves, masks, gauzes, medicines or some big but necessary equipment, it’s too hard.

“And at the same time it’s scary, because some families have ended up hitting us, frustrated and feeling that we don’t want to do anything to save their loved ones and that we are guilty for this dramatic situation,” he says.

Colombia, which officially took in more than half a million Venezuelans over the last six months of 2017, is continuing to to be a destination of choice among those looking for a better life. Elena Rincones, 25, a political scientist from Caracas, is relocating there this month to make sure she has access to the medicine she needs.

“I’d rather be working as a waitress and being able to ship my father his meds than watch him die slowly because we can’t find them nor afford them if we do. Last month alone I spent 10 times the minimum wage most Venezuelans earn on my dad’s medicine for his diabetes.

“And last time I got sick, I had to look in about six pharmacies to get the medication I needed. There are no medicines, people are even dying due to lack of antibiotics,” she says.

Ysabel Limas, 65, a retired writer, says she does not want to leave her home in Venezuela, but cannot afford the medication her stepmother needs. She has little savings and no family outside the country to call on for help.

“I cannot move, but I’d love to move. My stepmum, who is 96, is living in a nursing home. Luckily I don’t need to take a regular prescription. However, the pills for my stepmum, who suffers from dementia, are only available by a section or the whole the blister strip. There’s been no availability of these medicines at any pharmacy for a long time.

“I found a person who can be contacted by email for medicine request. He finds your prescriptions, then you meet this guy or a person who you are supposed to pay in cash and you get the exact number of pills,” she says.

As is often the case when official channels dry up, black market trade booms. Ordinary people left with no other choice are turning to unofficial channels, with many taking advantage of the demand for drugs to supplement their meagre wages.

Daniel Lopez, 35, an architect from Caracas who to Colombia last year, is trying to help from afar. He runs a non-profit medicine service which redistributes basic medical supplies from Colombia to Venezuela free of charge.

“Families and friends of friends call me asking for the cost of a medicine that is urgent for someone they know or themselves. Most of the time they can’t buy it because of the cost or the medicine is regulated. And they can’t afford to travel to Colombia to buy it.

“So what we do is collect some common and cheap medicine and wait for someone we trust who has planned a trip to Venezuela, to give them the medical supplies to deliver to our loved ones. We can’t risk sending the medicine through the mail as it’s prohibited by law,” he says.

And many others are doing the same. Fran Mejía, 35, a music producer who now lives in Barcelona, Spain, sends medicine to his mother, who is a doctor in Caracas.​

Hospital patients and relatives protest over scarcity of medical supplies in Caracas.

​

“My mother is a GP who works in private practice in Caracas. Throughout my life, and thanks to having a doctor in the family, we’ve always had what we’ve needed in terms of medicine. Not any more. Nowadays my doctor mother is asking me to send medicines her way from Spain,” he says.

Serina Moritz, 47, a senior doctor in a large public hospital in Caracas, says that in her 20 years working in the profession the system has never been under so much pressure.

“Not only do we not have medicines, even basics, but there is no blood as we cannot run tests on it. For most of us we don’t know what to do. I know colleagues who are leaving depressed,” she says.

According to the Venezuelan Health Observatory, a research centre at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, estimates that less than 10% of operating theatres, emergency rooms and intensive care units are fully operational. It says 76% of hospitals suffer from scarcity of medicines, 81% lack surgical materials and 70% complain of intermittent water supply.

“I will stay but it is impossible for us to survive under this system … why would anyone want to?”​

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...l-dying-slowly-venezuelas-doctors-losing-hope

 

[Rematch]

Angry Venezuelans tell Maduro they’d rather clean America’s toilets than stay in their country
by Rachelle Krygier | April 4, 2017

CARACAS, Venezuela — During a speech on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro mocked the many Venezuelans who have fled the country over the past several years. Migrants abroad, he said, “regret” leaving and supposedly have ended up “cleaning toilets in Miami.”

The comment sparked outrage in Venezuela, and plenty of his countrymen had no hesitation in firing back.

“Maduro doesn’t need to go clean a toilet abroad because he transformed Venezuela into his own toilet,” said Twitter user @chelodiaz1 in a typical insult.

​

Venezuela has witnessed a massive exodus — more than a million people have left over the past two years, according to the International Organization for Migration — and it shows no signs of stopping. A recent poll found that another 1 million Venezuelans have plans to leave the country. The United Nations' refugee agency recently said that the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum abroad has increased by 2,000 percent since 2014, and it recently put out new guidelines urging countries to treat Venezuelan migrants as refugees.

In addition to political repression, the country's economy has virtually collapsed. Venezuela's inflation rate is set to reach 13,000 percent in 2018, the highest in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund; supermarket shelves are empty; medical infrastructure is crumbling; and the number of abandoned children has surged, among other crises.

Maduro, who is running for reelection in May, has claimed that the number of Venezuelans fleeing abroad is lower than what other countries and international bodies have said. During his speech Tuesday in the town of Barquisimeto, he called reports about Venezuela's problems “propaganda against our country,” and his government has accused international media of waging “psychological war.”

But Venezuelans retorted that cleaning toilets would still be preferable to staying in their country. “Minimum wage in Florida, which those whom Maduro is mocking earn, is $1400 a month,” tweeted oil expert Francisco Monaldi. “Minimum wage in Venezuela is less than $6 monthly. Maduro destroyed Venezuela and he now makes fun of migrants that have to work hard to continue.”

​

“Maduro says Venezuelans abroad are cleaning toilets but he doesn’t say that in Venezuela, thanks to his corrupt government, Venezuelans who work in the most professional fields can’t even bring food to their homes,” added Twitter user Héctor Manrique.

​

Roberto Jimenez, a Venezuelan lawyer now living in Miami, posted an open letter to Maduro: “Do you know how much I earned cleaning toilets here?” he asked. “They paid me four dollars an hour, which was 32 dollars a day. At the end of the month I realized I had never seen so much money together in my whole life as a lawyer in Venezuela.”

He signed the letter with one final shot, calling himself “a Venezuelan toilet-cleaner in Miami who has his pockets full and is grateful to this country, which gave me the opportunity to clean all its dirtiness, contrary to yours which is diving in its own crap.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...stay-in-their-country/?utm_term=.c759e8158a17

Damn, son. That's savage.

 

[JSN]

You know things are bad when people are fleeing to Columbia. Shit.

 

[splendica]

When you elected a bus driver as president, then don't be surprised if you get taken for a ride.

Or in the case of a snow-board instructor, don't be surprised if you get lifted.

- J to the T

 

[Arkain2K]

Damn, son. That's savage.

I thought that dig was brutal, then I clicked on the next news headline and saw malnourished Venezuelan children now fighting each other for any scrap of remotely edible trash and realize it's just the plain truth.

A stable janitorial job at minimum wage in the U.S would be a massive upgrade from the starving $6 monthly full-time salary in the hell hole they're living in.

 

[Arkain2K]

Goldman Sachs reaps $90 million payout on Venezuela bonds
By Julie Wernau | Apr 11, 2018

Venezuela’s cash-strapped government stopped paying its foreign debt months ago. But a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recently received payments of tens of millions of dollars for bonds that ignited controversy last year when they were purchased at a big discount, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Venezuelan government made the payment in November, but the money had been held up by a clearing house that processes these payments over concerns that it may have been in violation of U.S. sanctions, these people said.

The purchase in May by Goldman’s asset management arm sparked charges that the New York firm was providing a financial lifeline to Venezuela’s embattled government. The public anger seemed to catch Goldman off guard, in part because the asset management arm hasn’t usually been prone to controversy.

Analysts say the $90 million payment on Friday for the bonds, which are held mostly by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, could amount to the final payment made by the government of President Nicolás Maduro —on any of its bonds.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/g...-million-payout-on-venezuela-bonds-2018-04-11

 

[Arkain2K]

Venezuela Debt Crisis Nears New Low as Riskiest Bond Matures
By Ben Bartenstein | April 9, 2018

The Venezuelan debt crisis could be on the verge of a new milestone as a $650 million bond matures Tuesday with little hope it’ll get paid.

The notes from the state-run electric utility were always considered among the country’s riskiest securities because the downsides to a default are relatively minor. They don’t contain any cross-default rules that would affect sovereign debt or notes from the state oil company, and the utility doesn’t have any overseas assets that investors could try to seize.

A missed principal payment would mark a new low for Venezuelan investors who are already confronting $2 billion in late interest but haven’t yet seen the government skip out on paying back maturing notes. President Nicolas Maduro said in November that he wanted to restructure the nation’s obligations amid a deep recession, currency crisis and tumbling oil production, but international sanctions have prevented any progress on that front.

“I just cannot see them scraping that kind of capital to be paid back at this point,” said Ray Zucaro, the chief investment officer at RVX Asset Management, which holds Venezuelan debt.

Electricidad de Caracas’s notes trade at about 33 cents on the dollar, signaling that investors view them as the riskiest debt maturing this year in the world’s riskiest nation. Fitch Ratings puts them one notch above default. Only some holders received an interest payment due in October and the trustee declared a default. Elecar said the payment was delayed due to “operational changes,” which Finance Minister Simon Zerpa later said were resolved.

If the bond does get paid, investors who bought the notes now would make a quick 150 percent profit. It could also spur a rally in other Venezuelan debt. The last glimmer of hope money managers can cling to is unsubstantiated speculation that a group of wealthy Venezuelans with government connections holds a large chunk of the debt, and Maduro’s administration wouldn’t want to give them reason to be angry.

Officials at Elecar and Venezuela’s Finance Ministry declined to comment on the payment or who holds the debt.

Here’s what investors and analysts had to say about the Elecar payment:

Shamaila Khan, director of emerging markets at AllianceBernstein:

“From an operational perspective, they have had a hard time making coupon payments. So it is hard to imagine they can make the principal payment”

Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America fixed-income strategy at Nomura:

“I don’t think they have money to pay, but Venezuela always surprises”

Expects default due to lack of money, payment chain issues and relatively minor consequences

Francisco Ghersi, managing director at Knossos Asset Management

“I think they are going to default -- 95% chance”

“There’s no incentive to pay. They’re in default right now, so why they are going to pay?”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...isis-nears-new-low-as-riskiest-bond-comes-due

 

[Arkain2K]

Corruption at Venezuela's state-run oil company is pushing the country deeper into a crisis
Nick Cunningham | April 19, 2018​

The decline of Venezuela's oil production for the foreseeable future has been assumed, and to a large extent, already priced into the market. However, an acceleration in the rate of decline is possible, and a few recent developments raise the odds that such a disaster will become a reality.

Reuters reported that state-owned PDVSA is completely falling apart, with workers walking off the job at a frightening pace. The conditions for oil workers has deteriorated for years, with shortages of food, unsafe working conditions, and hyperinflation utterly hollowing out the value of paychecks.

Since last year, however, things have grown worse. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro sacked the head of PDVSA and handed over control to the military in order to keep the armed forces on his side. But Major General Manuel Quevedo has only accelerated the decline of PDVSA, which once held a reputation as one of the better managed state-owned oil companies in the world.

Reuters reports that about 25,000 workers have quit PDVSA between January 2017 and January 2018, a staggering sum. PDVSA employs roughly 146,000 people. Thousands of workers are walking off of job sites, fed up with going to work hungry, putting their lives at risk at rickety refineries, all for a paycheck that fails to cover even the most basic expenses.

The worker exodus has grown so bad that the company has in some cases refused to process resignations. Those higher up are no less unhappy. Reuters says that General Quevedo "quickly alienated the firm's embattled upper echelon and its rank-and-file."

The loss of both top level engineers and managers as well as workers on the ground ensure the oil production losses will continue. Reuters reports that some rigs in the Orinoco Belt, where PDVSA produces heavy oil, are only operating "intermittently for lack of crews."

Moreover, the situation at the company's refineries are arguably worse. Fires are breaking out because they are falling apart and they no longer even have the staff to run them properly. Even ports are reducing operations because of a lack of workers.

But the problems don't stop there. PDVSA only accounts for about half of the nation's oil production on its own. The rest comes from joint ventures with international oil companies. Production at the joint ventures has eroded at a much slower pace than operations run solely by PDVSA.

Yet, the Venezuelan government is in danger of sparking steeper losses from joint venture operations. On Tuesday, Chevron said that two of its workers were arrested in Venezuela. Chevron has not fled the country even as its peers have packed up and departed, but the detainment of the oil company's workers could very well lead the oil major into rethinking its operations. "Chevron has been one of the more steadfast participants in Venezuela, having stuck around through some of the most challenging times over the past two years," Mara Roberts Duque, a BMI Research analyst, told Bloomberg. "These arrests will likely encourage them to turn away from Venezuela in a more definitive manner."

Reuters says that Venezuelan intelligence "burst into the Petropiar joint venture's office" and arrested two workers. The arrests appear to be the first to directly hit an international company operating in the country.

"Oil industry companies would do well to be cautious and stop assuming that good relations with PDVSA can last forever due to a common interest in pumping oil," Raul Gallegos, associate director with the consultancy Control Risks, and author of Crude Nation, a book about how oil ruined the Venezuelan economy, said in an interview with Reuters. "The level of corruption in PDVSA, especially under a military administration, can and will trump production logic."

It isn't necessarily that the few remaining international oil companies in Venezuela will immediately withdraw their personnel. But at some point the costs of operating become too high. Companies like Chevron and others have long been frustrated with lack of payment. Reuters reports that they are now also increasingly aggravated by PDVSA's chief Miguel Quevedo, who refused to enact reforms to stop the decimation of the country's oil and refining facilities.

Ultimately, President Maduro's grip on the nation will become increasingly shaky. Utterly dependent on oil exports for revenues, the resources available to Maduro are vanishing.

http://www.businessinsider.com/corr...mpany-is-worsening-the-economic-crisis-2018-4

 

[Rod1]

My Venezuelan friend gave signs of life, he tells me he stopped working because by the time he gets paid the money is worthless, he told me he got a new rig and is looking at farming money in WoW in order to earn money.

He tells me he can live comfortably if he can get $20 dollars a month, at this point im feeling like giving it to him.

 

[Arkain2K]

U.S. pledges additional $16 million to help Venezuelan exiles in Brazil and Colombia
By Jim Wyss | April 13, 2018

The United States on Friday announced that it’s earmarking an additional $16 million dollars to aid Venezuelan migrants who are fleeing that country’s hunger, violence and economic collapse.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, said the new funds would include a contribution to the United Nations Refugee Agency, which is aiding Venezuelans in Brazil and Colombia.

The funding is in addition to the $2.5 million dollars the U.S. State Department already committed to helping Colombia absorb hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan exiles.

More than 1 million Venezuelans have fled the country in recent years in what is becoming a major humanitarian crisis in the region.

The announcement came as Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Lima, Peru, Friday for the eighth Summit of the Americas — an event that draws leaders from across the region.

Shortly after arriving, Pence met with Venezuelan opposition figures at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Lima, including the former president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, and former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma.

Venezuela’s opposition is pushing for the international community to ratchet up sanctions against President Nicolás Maduro and his associates, as the country heads into a controversial May 20 presidential election that Washington and other nations say they will not recognize.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article208862499.html

 

[Karasu-Hanta]

My Venezuelan friend gave signs of life, he tells me he stopped working because by the time he gets paid the money is worthless, he told me he got a new rig and is looking at farming money in WoW in order to earn money.

He tells me he can live comfortably if he can get $20 dollars a month, at this point im feeling like giving it to him.

Help where you can mate.

 

[TheGreatA]

The socialist hacks have had their day. Time for somebody else to be put in charge.

 

[Arkain2K]

 

[Stoic1]

You know what I heard? Madurai used chemical weapons on his own people. Time for a little FREEDOM.

 

[ShinkanPo]

You know what I heard? Madurai used chemical weapons on his own people. Time for a little FREEDOM.

Madurai? Typo man its Mudaira

 

[Rod1]

Madurai? Typo man its Mudaira

The bad guy from Naruto?

 

[cincymma79]

One thing I know is if we don’t take in every single person from Venezuela we are racist and Venezuelaphobes

 

[ShinkanPo]

The bad guy from Naruto?

Could be.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

One thing I know is if we don’t take in every single person from Venezuela we are racist and Venezuelaphobes

Came here to post this.

Ain't that right @El anciano ?