April 3, 2019
By Patricia Zengerle
Washington - The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (click here) warned the U.S. Congress on Wednesday of the threat posed by “a more assertive Russia,” including a massive military buildup, threats to sovereign states, the use of nerve agents and cyberattacks.
“We must overcome our differences now because we will need our alliance even more in the future. We face unprecedented challenges - challenges no one nation can face alone,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.\
Saying “time is running out,” Stoltenberg also called on Russia to return to compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, from which U.S. President Donald Trump plans to withdraw the United States this summer.
“NATO has no intention of deploying land-based nuclear missiles in Europe,” Stoltenberg said. “But NATO will always take the necessary steps to provide credible and effective deterrence.”...
Russia must leave Venezuela and return peace to the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela needs real solutions and not war, civil or otherwise. The country needs restructuring of it's debt and to work with the World Bank to bring about a plan to bring services to the people.
April 6, 2019
By Fred Kempe
The first major showdown (click here) of our new era of great power competition, unfolding with accelerating speed over the past ten weeks in Venezuela, has entered a dangerous new phase. That is true, most of all, for the Venezuelan people, but also for Latin American democracies and for vital US interests in the Western Hemisphere.
How this drama turns out may mark the most significant test yet of the Trump administration’s credibility, following a highest-level chorus this week of President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, who all declared – in one way or another – that Russia had to get out of the country.
Vice President Mike Pence ratcheted up the pressure further on Friday, announcing at a speech in Houston with new sanctions on the state-owned oil company PDVSA as well as two additional companies that transport Venezuelan crude to Cuba. Pence, who will address the UN Security Council next week on Venezuela, also said the US would increase its pressure on Cuba.
What raised the stakes was Russia’s well-publicized and provocative move on March 23 to land two planes with some 100 soldiers in Caracas. The ostensible reason for their arrival was to service Venezuela’s Russian-made S-300 air defense systems, which are said to have been damaged in recent energy blackouts. Other Russian military contractors and mercenaries are already believed to be providing security support for the Maduro regime....
Venezuela's fiscal collapse will effect the global markets. War is not the way to remove debt. The World Bank can summit with those that hold Venezuela's debt and find solutions, but, the leadership must reject Russia and it's plans for military escalation.
April 5, 2019
The economy in crisis-hit Venezuela (click here) is expected to contract a further 25 per cent in 2019, the World Bank said on Thursday.
"Real GDP contracted by 17.7 per cent in 2018 and is likely to fall by 25.0 per cent in 2019, which would imply a cumulative fall in GDP of 60 percent since 2013," the bank said in its most recent biannual report on Latin America and the Caribbean.
The report attributes this "continuing implosion" in Venezuela, which has the most oil reserves of any country in the world, to the management of the country's economy rather than the global drop of oil prices and called the Venezuelan crisis "by far the worst in the region's modern history."
Together with declining oil prices, "highly distortionary policies, from price controls to directed lending, a disorderly fiscal adjustment, monetization of the public sector deficit, and overall economic mis-management have led to hyperinflation, devaluation, debt defaults, and a massive contraction in output and consumption" in Venezuela, according to the World Bank.
The bank repeated the estimate that the country would see inflation of 10 million per cent by the end of the year, a figure that was already predicted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October...
Recently, Russia stated they are considering crytocurrency as their main financial commodity. All this manipulation has to stop and the World Bank needs to work with leadership strained to decide the best path for their countries.
August 20, 2018
By Tom Phillips
Caracas shears five zeros from bolívar, (click here) which will be pegged to new cryptocurrency
Venezuela moved to shore up its crumbling economy on Monday, devaluing its currency and preparing to raise the minimum wage by more than 3,000% in what the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, declared a visionary bid to tame rampant hyperinflation.
More than 500,000 Venezuelans have fled overseas this year amid chronic shortages of food and medicine, soaring crime and warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that inflation could hit 1m% this year.
But on Friday Maduro unveiled a dramatic raft of measures designed to end a depression he blames on an “economic war” being waged by imperialist foes of the Bolivarian revolution he inherited after Hugo Chávez’s 2013 death....
Russia's answer for Venezuela is to engage in massive war destabilizing an entire hemisphere. It would serve Russia's purpose as well since it's increasing issues as the world's worst aggressor.
By David Biller
The World Bank roughly halved (click here) its 2019 economic growth forecast for Latin America on a tougher global environment and Venezuela’s downward spiral.
Latin America and the Caribbean will expand 0.9 percent this year, down from the bank’s October forecast for 1.6 percent growth. The estimates include a 25 percent GDP plunge in Venezuela that’s triple the multilateral’s prior outlook, and a lower forecast for Mexico that reflects policy uncertainty....
August 20, 2018
By Nick Cunningham
PDVSA settled with ConocoPhillips (click here) on Monday over an outstanding debt issue, a move that the Venezuelan oil company surely hopes will give it some breathing room even as the nation continues to crumble.
Earlier this year, Conoco won an international arbitration award resulting from the 2007 assets seizure by Venezuela. Conoco quickly moved to lay claim to PDVSA’s refining assets in the Dutch Caribbean, a devastating blow to Venezuela that compounded fiscal and operational problems. Without the processing facilities on the islands of Curacao and Aruba, PDVSA’s oil exports plunged deeper in the second quarter.
Venezuela’s revolutionary government has made it a point of pride to resist outside pressure, which makes the latest settlement all the more remarkable. PDVSA has agreed to pay ConocoPhillips an initial $500 million within 90 days, which will then be followed by quarterly payments over the next four and a half years....
January 24, 2019
By Ricio Cara Labrador
Venezuela, (click here) home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is a case study in the perils of petrostatehood. Since its discovery in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride that offers lessons for other resource-rich states. Decades of poor governance have driven what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries to economic and political ruin. If Venezuela is able to emerge from its tailspin, experts say that the government must establish mechanisms that will encourage a productive investment of the country’s vast oil revenues....
...In an afflicted country, a resource boom attracts large inflows of foreign capital, which leads to an appreciation of the local currency and a boost for imports that are now comparatively cheaper. This sucks labor and capital away from other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and manufacturing, which economists say are more important for growth and competitiveness. As these labor-intensive export industries flag, unemployment could rise, and the country could develop an unhealthy dependence on the export of natural resources. In extreme cases, a petrostate forgoes local oil production and instead derives most of its oil wealth through high taxes on foreign drillers. Petrostate economies are then left highly vulnerable to unpredictable swings in global energy prices and capital flight....
February 7, 2019
By MacKenzie Sigalos
Venezuela is in the middle of a power struggle(click here) at the highest level, and that could mean trouble for its two biggest foreign allies: China and Russia.
The socialist petrostate is home to the largest oil reserves on the planet, but endemic corruption has devastated its economy. Beijing and Moscow have helped the country stave off collapse by repeatedly extending financial lifelines — to the tune of tens of billions of dollars over the last decade.
For the most part, those oil-for-debt swaps were good for all parties involved. But that may be changing....
...Venezuela owes around $100 billion to its external creditors, including China and Russia. Some reports put the figure higher.
Those agreements gave Russia and China relatively cheap oil — and a foothold in the backyard of the United States — and they supplied Venezuela with much-needed cash.
But Venezuela’s oil production has plummeted. It is a third of what it was when Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, which is especially troubling given that oil revenue accounts for about 98 percent of its hard currency earnings.
Venezuela still owes Beijing $20 billion, and Russia’s state-backed oil company Rosneft another $2.3 billion, excluding interest. However, the question remains whether those debts are valid if Maduro is thrown out and replaced by Guaido....
March 8, 2019
Washington - Venezuela must pay oil (click here) and gas company ConocoPhillips’ entities more than $8 billion as compensation to settle a years-long dispute over oil extraction, a World bank dispute settlement arm said on Friday.
In the ruling, dated Feb. 27, the Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes said Venezuela must pay out more than $8 billion to three of the company’s entities at an annual interest rate of 5.5 percent. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by David Gregorio)...
