September 18, 2017
By Marianna Parraga
Shippers are sending oil cargoes (click here) originally bound for Venezuela to other spots in Latin America and the Caribbean, in advance of coming hurricanes that threaten to further disrupt oil flows in the region, according to traders and Reuters data.
After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma caused massive flooding and damage in Texas and Florida, fuel tankers floating off Venezuela's coast have been shifted elsewhere, largely because the cash-strapped state firm PDVSA (click here) [PDVSA.UL] cannot pay for the cargoes.
The latest threat for the Caribbean is Maria, now a Category 3 hurricane, which currently boasts wind speeds of 125 miles per hour (200 km per hour). The storm is expected to get stronger as it moves through the Leeward Islands later on Monday. Shippers have responded by moving supplies in the region around so they can discharge and supply key ports before it hits. [nL2N1LZ0UE]
Hurricane-related supply interruptions may limit exports to Latin America and the Caribbean, which imports 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. refined products, mostly from the Gulf coast....
President Trump held a dinner for Latin American leaders and the main topic was to be Venezuela. Who knows all that was discussed. President Trump promised to talk to each of the Latin American leaders personally after dinner.
September 18, 2017
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro (click here) praised the U.S. administration's support for talks with the opposition to his government.
"I praise the President Donald Trump for his support to the national dialogue," the Venezuelan president said on Sunday during his television program with the Bolivian President Evo Morales.
"We are going to help in this battle. Venezuela is an oil power. How can it not be in the sights of the American empire?" Maduro said.
According to Maduro, talks are "already underway." Opposition leaders say that 'it is only an exploratory' process.
On Friday, the US State Department issued a statement announcing that "the United States reiterates its call for a complete restoration of democracy in Venezuela. We support serious negotiations that in good faith achieve this goal."...
President Maduro wants to have bilateral talks with the opposition to his government, however, there are already sanctions placed on him by the USA.
August 10, 2017
By Kenneth Rapoza
The U.S. has slapped individual sanctions (click here) on Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, following his move to squash majority rule in that country's congress. Washington sanctioned eight more individuals on Wednesday. But if Washington took more serious steps and sanctioned Venezuela's cash cow, the PDVSA oil firm, it would push the country to bankruptcy. It's already on the edge.
As it stands, PDVSA is both basket case and Venezuela's one saving grace. It has been relying on Chinese and Russian sources of funding now for at least two years, helping to keep the government afloat. Slapping them with sanctions is an idea that's been tossed around the foreign policy establishment in Washington for months. From a market perspective, it will be largely ineffective.
Sanctions by the USA? I doubt that means much to a president of Venezuela that receives his country's financing through China and Russia.
That's mainly because PDVSA doesn't have access to U.S. capital. Recent news of Goldman Sachs buying upwards of a billion bucks of PDVSA debt was a secondary market transaction and not a new issue. PDVSA bonds are being traded every day....
With all the Goldman personnel within the Trump administration I would expect the SEC to investigate any insider knowledge regarding Venezuela. I would expect no interference from the Trump White House to inhibit the SEC as well.
Purchasing Venezuela debt is more or less like buying Russian and Chinese interests in the country. With Paulson having a Chinese financial services firm in China the motivation for any of this is questionable. This is a curious move by Goldman with an administration that wants to distance itself from Russia.
This may be new debt, but, then again it may not. Paulson would be interested in China's loss with Venezuelan debt, too.
I find it really odd Goldman would make such a move with the US applying sanctions to Venezuela's leaders.
August 9, 2017
By David Mortlock and Francisco Monaldi
...Additional Targeted US Sanctions (click here)
To date, US efforts to pressure President Maduro’s government to respect civil and political rights have focused on individuals. In March 2015, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13692 (EO 13692)—renewed the following year—which adhered to and expanded on the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014. The order declared a national emergency based on the threat that the situation in Venezuela posed to the United States and imposed sanctions on seven government officials following the erosion of human rights and crackdown on the political opposition. Those sanctions were specific to individuals, blocking property held that was subject to US jurisdiction, and targeted neither the Venezuelan economy nor its people.
In February 2017, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami and an associate based on evidence of their prominent role in international drug trafficking. In May 2017, the Trump administration used EO 13692 to impose individual sanctions on eight members of the Venezuelan Supreme Court for annulling the opposition-led and democratically-elected National Assembly, and in July, this executive order was used to sanction thirteen government officials accused of undermining democracy, corruption, and leading acts of violence against protestors.
1. FAC could use the existing EO 13692 to designate additional current or former officials of the Venezuelan government or to designate entities close to the administration that are providing support or acting on behalf of those officials.
2. The United States, using a new executive order, could impose limitations on US persons dealing in new debt, including buying new bonds or providing credit to PDVSA and other major state-owned entities.
Goldman is making life easier for the leadership of Venezuela. It is supporting the debt rather than making life difficult. I think Goldman is floating the Chinese and Russian debt. Goldman lucked out at this point because those sanctions are not implemented yet, if ever.
3. The Trump administration could issue a new executive order to prohibit the export of certain goods and services to Venezuela.
4. The United States, through a new executive order, could prohibit the import of oil from Venezuela.
5. One of the most severe options for the United States would be to add PDVSA to the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List).
There is a refugee population beginning in Brazil. (click here)
It is complicated. The Bolivarian Revolution is considered "life blood" of many South American leaders.
September 19, 2017
...Amupanda (click here) yesterday told New Era that one of his contributions upon arrival in Caracas was to call for an inward-looking declaration of the Third World, which continues to be at the mercy of neo-liberal foreign policies of powerful capitalist nations.
He observed that there were concerted efforts under way to roll back the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution – an ongoing leftist political process in Venezuela initiated by late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
The revolution is named after Simón Bolívar, an early 19th-century Venezuelan and Latin American revolutionary leader, prominent in the Spanish American wars of independence in achieving the independence of most of northern South America from Spanish rule.
According to Chávez and other supporters, the Bolivarian Revolution seeks to build an inter-American coalition to implement Bolivarianism, nationalism, and a state-led economy.
Chávez, Amupanda observed, was trying to use the revolution to unite the Global South – as middle and lower-income countries are sometimes referred to as.
“Before he died, he wrote a letter to Africa not only tracing historical links between Africa and Latin America – biological and ancestral – but also calling for a new solidarity with and amongst nations of the Global South,” Amupanda explained.
He believes the Caracas Declaration, adopted at the 10th Inter-American Conference in Caracas, held from 1954, March 1 to 28, presents an opportunity for what he termed “diplomacy of the people”.
