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In reply to the discussion: The Venezuelan right wing opposition has got to be the world's most shameless. [View all]polly7
(20,582 posts)70. Riggggght.
Monetary warfare. This started with run on the currency, the manipulation of the black market dollar, obtaining dollars at preferential price from the government under false reasons. Maduro did not hesitate: he regulated prices and changed the monetary exchange rules and 70% approved of his response.[ii]
False scarcity: A double blow of outrageous overpricing of goods plus artificial food scarcity started just as people were beginning their Christmas shopping. Wealthy merchants proceeded to hoard essential goods: corn flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, toilet paper, etc. placing them in hidden warehouses or spirited off to Colombia through a well-planned smuggling operation. The military discovered an illegal bridge built for motorcycles that carried the smuggled goods. Thousands of bags of foodstuffs were discovered simply left rotting on Colombian byways: this was not smuggling for economic reasons, but for political reasons. The Colombian government cooperated with the Venezuelan government to stop this smuggling.
Attack on Venezuelas petroleum company PDVSA: the international press has been alleging that PDVSA is failing because it is using its profits for social programs instead of re-investing, and that the country is running out of petroleum. Funnily enough they never warn Canada or Saudi Arabia about oil scarcity. They even state the preposterous notion that Venezuela is importing gasoline from the USA. The fact is that PDVS owns the large oil company CITGO in USA whose refinery often sends back to Venezuela a special liquid used for improving gasoline grade 95. PDVSA is still one of the top 5 oil companies in the world according to the influential Petroleum Intelligence Weekly.[iii]
Campaign to discredit the economy. The international media has been predicting doom and gloom for Venezuela for years! The Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94 billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons a historically low record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus (not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous national or foreign debts.[iv] These are excellent indicators that many countries in Europe would envy, even the USA and Canada. The multinational bank Wells Fargo has recently declared that Venezuela is one of the emerging economies that is most protected against any possible financial crisis and the Bank of America Merril Lynch has recommended to its investors to buy Venezuelan government bonds. [v]
False scarcity: A double blow of outrageous overpricing of goods plus artificial food scarcity started just as people were beginning their Christmas shopping. Wealthy merchants proceeded to hoard essential goods: corn flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, toilet paper, etc. placing them in hidden warehouses or spirited off to Colombia through a well-planned smuggling operation. The military discovered an illegal bridge built for motorcycles that carried the smuggled goods. Thousands of bags of foodstuffs were discovered simply left rotting on Colombian byways: this was not smuggling for economic reasons, but for political reasons. The Colombian government cooperated with the Venezuelan government to stop this smuggling.
Attack on Venezuelas petroleum company PDVSA: the international press has been alleging that PDVSA is failing because it is using its profits for social programs instead of re-investing, and that the country is running out of petroleum. Funnily enough they never warn Canada or Saudi Arabia about oil scarcity. They even state the preposterous notion that Venezuela is importing gasoline from the USA. The fact is that PDVS owns the large oil company CITGO in USA whose refinery often sends back to Venezuela a special liquid used for improving gasoline grade 95. PDVSA is still one of the top 5 oil companies in the world according to the influential Petroleum Intelligence Weekly.[iii]
Campaign to discredit the economy. The international media has been predicting doom and gloom for Venezuela for years! The Venezuelan economy is doing very well. Its oil exports last year amounted to $94 billons while the imports only reached $59.3 billons a historically low record. The national reserves are at $22 billons and the economy has a surplus (not a deficit) of 2.9% of GDP. The country has no significantly onerous national or foreign debts.[iv] These are excellent indicators that many countries in Europe would envy, even the USA and Canada. The multinational bank Wells Fargo has recently declared that Venezuela is one of the emerging economies that is most protected against any possible financial crisis and the Bank of America Merril Lynch has recommended to its investors to buy Venezuelan government bonds. [v]
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/venezuela-under-attack-again/
Written by a person from Venezuela ....... maybe even your wife's relative?
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The Venezuelan right wing opposition has got to be the world's most shameless. [View all]
JackRiddler
Feb 2014
OP
Ven. never needed the CIA or the Western Imperialists to screw it up, yet that is what they did.
sabrina 1
Feb 2014
#73
No, such people just believe in math, as in the fact that Maduro won by a hair in 2013.
geek tragedy
Feb 2014
#14
This is the issue, no matter how much fondness for Chavez or his alleged heir to power, Maduro.
freshwest
Feb 2014
#30
Doubt this is about the CIA. The belief in 'American Exceptionalism' is old hat.
freshwest
Feb 2014
#8
The belief we are all powerful a weird sort of egotism. The USA's RW is has been foiled a lot.
freshwest
Feb 2014
#50
what do you say about the 49% of Venezuelans who voted against Maduro a few months ago? nt
geek tragedy
Feb 2014
#16
the point is that VN is a narrowly divided country, and Maduro is not terribly far
geek tragedy
Feb 2014
#72
I support socialist theory. But Lopez, etc., are not outliers. Both sides have strong support there.
freshwest
Feb 2014
#27
Which of the PEACEFUL student protestors killed the Chavista community worker?
Comrade Grumpy
Feb 2014
#52
That Twitter post just says this is how they treat our women, not that is is in Venezuela.
Coyotl
Feb 2014
#25
It says "this is how GNB treats our women protesting peacefully". GNB = National Bolivarian Police.
El_Johns
Feb 2014
#42
Well, you and the OP think so. But I don't agree and was not deceived by the tweet.
Coyotl
Feb 2014
#59
No evidence is ever good enough for folks like you. Because "the economy" was so great before
El_Johns
Feb 2014
#61