National Guard captain shot dead in Venezuela

[MADem]

5. China LOANED Maduro BILLIONS. That's a "B"--not some trifling little third quarter millions.

They don't JUST want oil from Maduro. Though they'll get plenty of that, too--at bargain basement prices.

Did you ever ask yourself that if things were so rosy, why people are protesting in the street because they can't buy diapers or flour?

Are we seeing those kinds of problems in USA? NO--because we pay our bills.

Apparently, no one gave you the Economics 101 course. You can OWE all the money in the world--so long as you SERVICE your DEBT. USA pays their note. But Maduro ain't doing that. He is borrowing money, selling his country out from under the people...and NOT paying his BILLS.

Here, let me take you to school:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=1030596&CategoryId=10717

Venezuela's Maduro in China Gets a $5 Billion Dollar Loan
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro met with China's President Xi Jinping over the weekend in Beijing and said that China had granted Venezuela another $5 billion credit line -- and all announced by twitter.

CARACAS -- Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro met with China's President Xi Jinping over the weekend in Beijing and said that China had granted Venezuela another $5 billion credit line.

"We have ratified the strategic partnership with China, following an extraordinary meeting with the President Xi Jinping!" Maduro said via Twitter.
...The oil shipments help pay down the debts from China that Venezuela has previously incurred -- $20 billion of the $46.5 billion that China has already loaned the oil rich nation. Ramirez said earlier this year that 270,000 barrels a day are used to repay the loans. A confidential US cable from the US embassy in Caracas to the State Department in Washington unveiled by Wikileaks in 2010 documented that a PDVSA director had revealed that the state oil company "had analyzed its crude sales to China and determined that China had only paid $5 a barrel of crude on a couple of deals."
......

FIVE BUCKS a barrel!!! Lucky China!!!! What a bargain!!!! Over fifty BILLION --with a B--in loans!!

China OWNS Venezuela--the part that Cuba hasn't annexed. You're the only one who hasn't figured that out, apparently.

Again, Maduro isn't paying his bills:

Panama demands Venezuela pay $1bn debt
President Martinelli asks Caracas not to use decision to cut diplomatic ties with Panama as "excuse" to not pay debt.

Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli has called on Venezuela not to use its decision to break ties with his country as an excuse not to pay back a debt that tops $1bn.

"Venezuela is, it appears, practically bankrupt and this shouldn't be because it is a rich country," Martinelli said, in a speech expressing dismay at the recent diplomatic rupture.

On Wednesday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced that he was breaking diplomatic relations with Panama over its push for an Organization of American States-sponsored mediation in the country's crisis.

Maduro accused Panama's president of conspiring with the United States to intervene in Venezuela's affairs. During a rally on Thursday, he gave the Panamanian ambassador and three other diplomats in Venezuela 48 hours to leave the country.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Venezuela had also suspended debt negotiations over $1bn owed to Panamanian exporters.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-venezuela-maduro-airlines-protests-20140313,0,2650064.story

Amid unrest, Venezuela is accused of owing airlines $3.7 billion

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-venezuela-maduro-airlines-protests-20140313,0,2650064.story#ixzz2wRr3scZF

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Nicolas Maduro’s government Thursday faced accusations of owing international airlines more than $3.7 billion and violating treaties, while separately officials said the number of deaths from violence related to antigovernment protests continued to rise.
In a sign of Venezuela’s deepening economic problems, the International Air Transport Assn. this week accused the Maduro government of failing to “repatriate” $3.7 billion in air ticket revenue owed to foreign carriers. IATA director Tony Tyler said he had written to Maduro to complain.
“It is a major sum of money. And it is unacceptable that the Venezuelan government is not playing by the rules to which it is treaty-bound,” Tyler said in a statement Wednesday.
The Venezuelan government acts as intermediary in all foreign financial transactions and is holding up payments to a broad spectrum of foreign vendors, which economists say illustrates its dire cash shortage.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-07/venezuela-gets-more-than-7-billion-from-china-and-russia.html

Venezuela owes Brazilian construction firms more than $2 bn, daily says

Sao Paulo, Mar 5 (EFE).- Venezuela's government owes as much as $2.5 billion to Brazilian construction companies carrying out infrastructure and sanitation projects in the neighboring country, Sao Paulo business daily Valor Economico said Wednesday.

Brazilian builders' combined portfolio of projects in Venezuela is valued at some $20 billion and, according to sector sources, several of those companies have been affected in recent days by serious payment delays.

Political ties between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro are not as close as those that existed between their predecessors, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the late Hugo Chavez, enabling China to make more inroads in Venezuela, the article said.

Lula visited Venezuela 16 times between 2003 and 2010, while Chavez, who died of cancer a year ago, made 20 trips to Brazil.

Head in the Sand
How long can Venezuela's president pretend not to see the economic ruin his policies have created?

In January 2014, Venezuela revamped its currency system -- one historically riddled with corruption and an overvalued bolivar that only stoked a raging black market. The official exchange rate is now 6.3 bolivars to the dollar for food, medicines, and goods that the government deems priorities. But the government has transferred other foreign-exchange transactions, like travel and remittances, to the Sicad exchange rate -- Venezuela's other rate in its currency-control system -- to 11.7 bolivars to the dollar. The black market rate is now 84 bolivars to the dollar. ... Maduro asserts that the country's new exchange system will go a long way to alleviate shortages of food, toilet paper, medicines, and other daily necessities. Critics, however, argue that by transferring many transactions to the Sicad rate in Venezuela's dual-rate system, this is nothing but disguised devaluation and it will only spur inflation.

...."The question is do we give dollars to speculators, or do we bring in medicine," said Rafael Ramirez, the vice president for economic affairs, oil minister, and president of the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA. "Do we give dollars to travelers or do we bring in food?" The health and needs of Venezuelans, he said, take precedence over all else.
Many overseas suppliers, who are owed upward of $14 billion by Venezuelan companies, are reluctant to extend more credit. Given that Venezuela imports about 70 percent of the products it consumes, any curtailment is a serious threat to the country's wellbeing. Food shortages -- a chronic problem for the past two years -- are worsening.

"I have to go to central Caracas now to find food, as there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in my neighborhood,'' said Letitia Suarez, who lives in one of the slums surrounding the Venezuelan capital, in early February. "And when I go to Caracas it's a constant battle to find food. I spend hours standing in line, and fights always break out." Getting to the city center isn't an enjoyable trip: Her bus line is rampant with thieves. Crime has increased with the economic crisis, and the city now has the third highest murder rate in the world.
...

Moody's rebaja calificación de la deuda venezolana
La firma asegura que es "notorio el incremento del riesgo de que ocurra un colapso económico y financiero"

Translation: Moody's downgrades Venezuelan debt
The firm said there was " an obvious increased risk of occurrence of a financial and economic collapse"

Leer más en: http://www.elmundo.com.ve/noticias/economia/mercados/moody-s-rebaja-calificacion-de-la-deuda-venezolana.aspx#ixzz2wS2qB6Kx

Venezuelan government's debt up 92.3% in four years
Domestic obligations went up 185% in 2009-2013