Chinese bullet train in Venezuela stalls as alliance derails

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-bullet-train-venezuela-stalls-alliance-derails-050357015.html

ZARAZA, Venezuela (AP) — It was once billed as a model of socialist fraternity: South America's first high-speed train, powered by Chinese technology, crisscrossing Venezuela to bring development to its backwater plains. Now all but abandoned, it has become a symbol of economic collapse — and a strategic relationship gone adrift.

Where dozens of modern buildings once stood, cattle now graze on grass growing amid the rubble of the project's gutted and vandalized factory. A red arched sign in Chinese and Spanish is all that remains of what until 16 months ago was a bustling complex of 800 workers.

That's when the project's Chinese managers quietly cleared out.

As with many unfinished politically motivated projects dotting Venezuela — government critics call them "red elephants" — the decaying infrastructure contrasts with the railway's promising beginnings.

A decade ago then-President Hugo Chavez dreamed up the Tinaco-Anaco railway as a way to populate the plains and attract development from long-dominant coastal areas. Stretching 300 miles (468-kilometers), it was intended to move 5 million passengers and 9.8 million metric tons of cargo a year at speeds up to 135 miles (220 kilometers) per hour.

[COLGATE4]

1. Venezuela - a "bottomless rabbit hole". Perfect description.

No fools, these Chinese.

[MADem]

2. The Chinese bought and paid for a huge chunk of VZ oil

that is still in the ground. I'll bet the rue the day they ever got involved with that place. The only way they'll get that oil is if they extract it themselves, and at these prices, it's cheaper to buy elsewhere!