Monthly Archives: March 2013

Mar
29
2013
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/29/13

In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/29/13

Courtesy of: Reuters

This week:  With the presidential elections nearing, Venezuela’s “precampaign” season is off to a roaring start, with Interim President Nicolás Maduro enjoying uncontrolled access to state media; on the campaign trail and beyond, Maduro’s gimmicks reach a new level of absurdity, even for Venezuelan politics; opposition leader Henrique Capriles casts this election a war between “good vs. evil,” as he is faced with the underdog label; and Transparency International continues to document the continued  abuse of state resources for political purposes in Venezuela. Despite government promises that vigorous growth would take place in Venezuela, the economy  showed signs of slowdown in 2012; Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s 2012 revenue slips 0.2 percent, despite an increase in oil prices; surrounded by secrecy, the Venezuelan government offers $200 million during its first auction on a new foreign currency system; however, the nation’s failure to disclose exchange rate in Venezuela currency auction prompts Barclays Capital to suggest a strong devaluation of the local currency for the second time in two months; and Maduro threatens creators of a popular website that provides transparency about currency exchange rates, ordering their indictment and jailing. Mismatches between UNESCO figures and “education miracles” claimed by the Venezuelan government are revealed; at the UN Human Rights Council, Maduro is the sole leader to side with the Syrian Government of Bashar Al-Assad; Alfredo Romero, a human rights advocate, reports that around 4,500 people have been killed under the 100 day rule of Maduro; and in a effort to further inject the name and legacy of Chávez into the upcoming election, a Venezuelan-run TV station releases an ad of Chávez in heaven.

Venezuela’s precampaign season off to a roaring start, The Christian Science Monitor

Let’s recap of the first seven days of non-campaign campaigning, or in criollo doublespeak: pre-campaña.

Venezuela’s presidential campaign is devolving into a spectacle, Foreign Policy

Nicolás Maduro, the interim president of Venezuela, held a campaign rally the other night, where his supporters held up an oversized check — similar to those used on game shows — symbolically made out to “the people of Venezuela.”

Capriles: Venezuela campaign a war of good vs evil, AFP

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles raised the rhetorical stakes Sunday, casting his campaign against interim president Nicolas Maduro as a spiritual struggle of good versus evil.

Venezuela: The State as Election Campaign Headquarters, Transparency International

When is a presidential election free and fair?  During the 2012 presidential campaign in Venezuela, the Alerta Electoral bulletin recorded numerous instances of public resources being used to support the president’s successful election campaign.

Venezuelan economy shows signs of slowdown, El Universal

After the Venezuelan economy gained 5.5% over the last quarter of 2012, the economic cabinet promised that throughout this year, vigorous growth would take place, but actual results are flashing warning signs.

Venezuela’s PDVSA revenue slips on domestic fuel sales, Reuters

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s 2012 revenue slipped 0.2 percent from the year before despite an increase in oil prices as the company sold more fuel on the subsidized domestic market, the oil minister said Friday.

Venezuela launches first auction of new forex system, Reuters

Venezuela offered $200 million to local businesses on Monday in the first auction of a new foreign currency system that will bring another partial devaluation of the bolivar.

Barclays Capital: Blinding Sicad exchange rate hints strong devaluation, El Universal

Venezuela’s Ministry of Planning and Finance briefed on Wednesday on the outcome of the first foreign currency auction through the Ancillary Foreign Currency Administration System (Sicad).

Venezuela interim president Maduro takes on currency exchange website, Miami Herald

Venezuela’s interim president, Nicolás Maduro, came out Tuesday fighting the acute depreciation of the bolivar against the U.S. dollar by ordering the indictment and jailing of the creators of lechuga.com, a popular website that thousands of Venezuelans consult everyday to check currency exchange quotes in the parallel market.

Mismatch between actual figures and “education miracles” claimed by gov’t, El Universal

On Saturday, March 16, during the posthumous tribute to President Hugo Chavez by groups involved in government-sponsored welfare programs, known as missions, Vice-President of the Social Area and Minister of University Education Yadira Córdoba announced that the Robinson Mission had been a pathway to literacy for 1,756,250 people.

Nicolás Maduro and the Gorillas, Latin American Herald Tribune

Venezuela just showed off spectacularly at the United Nations Human Rights Council: It cast the only vote, out of 47 members comprising the entity, to side with the Syrian Government of Bashar Al-Assad, the most repudiated genocidal leader for having led his country to a civil war with a death toll of over 70,000 dead people, hundreds of thousands wounded and a far-reaching physical and economic devastation.

HR advocate: 4,500 people killed in Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro, El Universal

Lawyer and human rights advocate Alfredo Romero underscored that some 4,500 people have been killed in the first 100 days of acting President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Venezuelan state-run TV shows Chávez in the afterlife, The Miami Herald

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez may be gone but he’s among revolutionary friends. An animated spot being broadcast on state-run television shows the socialist firebrand, who died March 5, looking morose as he walks through a grassy field.

 
Mar
27
2013
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ICYMI: Venezuela interim president Maduro takes on currency exchange website

The Miami Herald
March 26, 2013
By Antonio Maria Delgado

r VENEZUELA US KILL CAPRILES MADURO large570 e1364403044850 ICYMI: Venezuela interim president Maduro takes on currency exchange website

Courtesy of: Associated Press

Venezuela’s interim president, Nicolás Maduro, came out Tuesday fighting the acute depreciation of the bolivar against the U.S. dollar by ordering the indictment and jailing of the creators of lechuga.com, a popular website that thousands of Venezuelans consult everyday to check currency exchange quotes in the parallel market.

Maduro issued the order as part of his government’s effort to contain the impact on the economy of the two back-to-back devaluations of the Venezuelan currency. The first one — of 32 percent — was announced on Feb. 7, when the exchange for special sectors went from 4.30 bolivars per dollar to 6.30 bolivars. The second one took place five weeks later, with the decision of auctioning foreign currency for another group of sectors.

Experts attribute the loss of value of the national currency to an economic mismanagement that has prompted Venezuela to experience one of the highest inflation rates on the planet, forcing it to import a large part of the products it consumes.

The annual inflation rate rose to 22.8 percent in February, the highest in 10 months, according to Bloomberg News.

Yet the Venezuelan government sees the bolivar’s loss of value as the result of efforts by the “capitalist oligarchy” to sabotage the national economy.

Maduro, who temporarily assumed the presidency after Hugo Chávez’s death, identified on Tuesday one of the great conspirators against the national currency — the creators of lechuga.com, a website that published the price at which the dollar could be bought on the street.

“This bourgeoisie that doesn’t love the nation has created a perverse mechanism of fixing the so-called parallel dollar through something called lechuga.com,” Maduro said. “I have ordered an investigation and I am asking for expediency so that those behind this economic sabotage through the parallel dollar will go to jail.”

“We have an objective with the complement system: to fully twist the arm of the parallel dollar, and we are going to achieve it,” Maduro said on the program Bolivarian Dialogue. “Those who wish to sabotage our economy are screaming because they know we are going to seize their businesses and we are going to neutralize that disturbing factor of the dollar.”

The Internet page, which had become the point of reference to those who wished to buy dollars in the country, was closed by Tuesday afternoon; so were its Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The nation’s attorney general, Luisa Ortega Díaz, responded immediately to Maduro’s statement.

“I will immediately launch an investigation of the facts that you are denouncing about trafficking of foreign currency and we will defeat the parallel dollar,” Ortega said.

Economists consulted described as ridiculous Maduro’s efforts to try to curb the monetary depreciation by fighting transactions on the street, pointing out that the extremely high levels of monetary liquidity created by the government have turned the bolivar into a currency that very few Venezuelans wish to carry.

To read this article at The Miami Herald, please click here.

 
Mar
22
2013
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/22/13

r CHAVEZ SUPPORTERS CLASH WITH STUDENTS large5702 e1363978984713 In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/22/13

Courtesy of: Agence France Presse

This week:  With the April 14 election approaching, the “David and Goliath contest” between opposition candidate Henrique Capriles and acting president Nicolás Maduro begins; Capriles launches a nationwide tour as part of his campaign to replace the late President Hugo Chávez; Maduro’s launches anti-U.S. accusations as part of his campaign rhetoric and propaganda; and the Venezuelan government cuts off the last remaining direct line of communication with the U.S. Supporters of the government attack protesting students; as violence continues to spread through Venezuela, many hope for a change post-Chávez; Chávez’s funeral procession offers a harsh reminder of the bleak Venezuela he left behind; and despite having the largest oil reserves in the world, economists predict Venezuela’s inflation will continue to rise in 2013. New Venezuelan foreign exchange system released by Maduro offers little detail and skirts key issues; Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB), the world’s largest oil-services company, reduces work in Venezuela because of difficulties getting paid by state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA; by mentioning Chávez’s name around 3,500 times in just 16 days, Maduro continues to use the late president to ramp up support; and the Venezuelan government turns ordinary events like book fairs into de facto campaign rallies for Maduro.

Venezuela’s election: Battling it out, The Economist

On April 14th, Venezuelans will elect a new president. The choice, if one believes what the two main candidates say about each other, is between “a son of the parasitical bourgeoisie” and “a lying, incompetent usurper”.

Henrique Capriles Launches Venezuelan Campaign Tour, The Huffington Post

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has launched a nationwide tour as part of his campaign to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.

Anti-US Accusations in Venezuela Seen as Campaign Rhetoric, Voice of America

Venezuela’s Acting President Nicolas Maduro has been making unsubstantiated accusations against Washington, also accusing the United States of plotting to kill Venezuela’s opposition candidate for president.

Venezuela Halts Communication With US Diplomat, ABC News

Venezuela’s government has halted lines of communication established by a top U.S. diplomat to protest what it says has been U.S. interference in the country’s internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.                                                                                                            

Chavez Supporters Clash With Student Protestors During Demonstration, Huffington Post

Supporters of the late President Hugo Chavez hurled rocks and bottles Thursday in an attack on student protesters who were marching against perceived bias by Venezuela’s electoral council.

Venezuela plagued by violent crime, The Associated Press

On their daily cable car rides to and from home in Venezuela’s capital, Maria Gonzalez and Jose Rafael Suarez soar in a bubble of safety far above the deadly, trash-strewn streets below.

Hugo Chavez Coffin Parades Past Venezuela’s Ills, ABC

The road from the military academy where Hugo Chavez’s body has been lying in state to the hilltop museum where he’ll be displayed indefinitely is lined with some of the most dangerous slums on the planet.

Venezuela to face high inflation in 2013, Global Times

Among the economic challenges facing Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, experts say the worst is sustained high inflation.

Venezuela gives few details of new forex system, Reuters

Venezuela vowed on Tuesday to provide more dollars to importers through a new foreign exchange system, but officials gave only vague details of how it will work and skirted around key issues including what the rate would be.

Schlumberger to Reduce Venezuela Work on Unpaid Bills, Bloomberg

Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB), the world’s largest oil-services company, is reducing work in Venezuela because of trouble getting paid by state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

How to keep Chavez memory alive? Name him 200 times a day!, Reuters

Hugo Chavez’s protege and the new flagbearer of socialism in Venezuela has lost no time proving his loyalty in public – in fact, 3,456 times in just 16 days.

Venezuelan government turns book fair into another celebration of Hugo Chavez’s legacy, The Washington Post

Near the entrance to Venezuela’s national book fair, an image of the late Hugo Chavez holding a can of paint in one hand and a brush in the other greets visitors.