Category: Latin America

Enraged as they are by their nation’s leaders, many of the protesters who have spilled onto Venezuela’s streets have their eyes fixed on another government altogether, one they resent perhaps just as bitterly as their own: Cuba’s. The Cuban government and its president, Raúl Castro, they contend, have leeched off Venezuela’s oil wealth, grafted Cuba’s rigid brand of socialism onto their country and helped choreograph a broad crackdown on dissent. Their rancor is echoed by the Cuban opposition, which has thrown itself behind the Venezuelan protesters’ cause with gusto, sharing photos and videos of protests and police abuse on Twitter, urging Venezuelans to resist and even rapping an apology for what they call Cuba’s meddling. The fixation with the influence of Cuba in Venezuela’s affairs reflects how meshed the two countries’ economic and political realities remain a year after the death of Venezuela’s longtime president, Hugo […]

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– President Nicolas Maduro’s cash-strapped government unveiled a new currency market Monday that allows Venezuelans to buy and sell dollars legally for the first time since 2010. Opposition leader Gov. Henrique Capriles said the so-called Sicad 2 exchange system is akin to a devaluation and will eat away at the savings of poor families. The government is counting on the new exchange mechanism to alleviate pressure on a black market Venezuelans turn to when they can’t purchase hard currency from the government at the official 6.3 bolivars per dollar rate. Maduro’s government has been increasingly safeguarding its shrinking supply of dollars as oil production declines and deficit spending remains high. That’s led it to fall behind on payments to foreign airlines and carmakers, exacerbating a shortage of imported goods.

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Seeking to confront the deep economic problems that have helped fuel weeks of protests here, Venezuela ’s socialist-inspired government took a step on Monday toward easing strict currency controls and opened what it says will be a free market for the sale of dollars to Venezuelans. The new exchange rate mechanism is intended to reduce the black market price of dollars, which had soared in recent months. Yet the impact of the measure, which is similar to a system that was shut down in 2010, depends on how much money the government allows to change hands in the new market and how freely it allows the market to operate. Alejandro Grisanti, an economist for Barclays, said the change “makes the exchange rate system more flexible,” adding, “And in that sense it’s very positive for Venezuela.” The new system will operate in tandem with a base exchange […]

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Oilfield services provider Weatherford International Ltd said on Monday it was reducing operations in Venezuela and expects its Russian business to grow this year. The Swiss-headquartered company, which competes with Schlumberger and Halliburton, said the "serious liquidity situation in Venezuela" is causing it to pare back services it provides inside the OPEC country, Chief Executive Bernard Duroc-Danner said at the Howard Weil conference in New Orleans on Monday. Weatherford provides drilling and exploration services to Venezuela’s national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA , but Venezuela’s currency devaluation and economic instability have prompted payment delays, according to Weatherford’s annual filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. In Russia, Weatherford expects a "very constructive year," Duroc-Danner told the conference. He did not mention the ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea and how it could affect his business. Last year, revenue in […]

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Venezuela’s president said on Friday that street protests for the past month have caused at least $10 billion in damage, accusing hardline foes of carrying out terrorist acts to sabotage public assets. President Nicolas Maduro did not say how the government arrived at that figure from the clashes between demonstrators barricading roads, pro-government radicals and security forces that have killed at least 31 people. "The minority who want a coup have done so much damage to the country … they burnt a public university where hundreds of young people studied," he said in a nationally televised speech. "This isn’t protest. It’s vandalism. It’s terrorism." Maduro was referring to a military college affiliated with the Venezuelan armed forces that authorities say was torched by demonstrators in the western city of San Cristobal, near the border with Colombia. San Cristobal has been harder hit by the violence than […]

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The authorities have jailed the mayors of two cities that have experienced some of the most intense unrest in a wave of protests that has shaken the country in recent weeks. The arrests came as the National Assembly called for a criminal investigation of a prominent opposition lawmaker on charges related to the demonstrations. The intelligence police on Wednesday arrested Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of San Cristóbal, a city near the western border with Colombia where the protests began in early February. Many parts of San Cristóbal have been virtually shut down for weeks by demonstrators manning barricades, and clashes between residents and security forces are common. Mr. Ceballos was arrested during a trip to Caracas, the capital. The justice minister, Miguel Rodríguez, said that the mayor had been taken into custody on a judicial order after citizens filed court papers accusing him of failing to […]

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