Category: Venezuela

Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

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Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Riots in the streets. Killings of protesters. Shortages of consumer staples like toilet paper and flour. Power outages. Confiscations of private property. Capital flight. Inflation running at more than 50%. The highest murder rate in the world. The situation in Venezuela has grown so terrible that we could very well be witnessing the waning days of the Chavez-Maduro regime. But don’t hold your breath. Despots propped up by revenues from natural resources have had a surprisingly robust track record over the past 100 years. Saddam Hussein survived through ruthlessness and handouts to Baath party loyalists. Khadafi perfected the same model in Libya. The Saudis and other Gulf sultanates and emirates have survived by paying off tribe members. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is still around thanks to his trade in blood diamonds. In each case, the big boss keeps his head by paying off everyone who matters. Hugo Chavez appeared to […]

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Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

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Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

Click here to view full article at www.bbc.co.uk

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators faced off in streets blocked by burning barricades in several provincial cities on Thursday as protests escalated against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government. At least five people have died since the unrest turned violent last week, with scores of injuries and arrests. The demonstrators, mostly students, blame the government for violent crime, high inflation, product shortages and alleged repression of opponents. They want Maduro to resign. In middle-class areas of Caracas overnight, security forces fired teargas and bullets, chasing youths who threw Molotov cocktails and blocked streets with burning trash. It was one of the worst bouts of violence the capital has seen in nearly three weeks of unrest across Venezuela, and trouble also flared in other urban centers. Many Caracas residents banged pots at windows in a traditional form of protest, and knots of demonstrators were out again early on […]

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Security forces and protesters fought around Venezuela on Thursday in streets blocked by burning barricades and a supporter of socialist President Nicolas Maduro was shot dead, the sixth fatality from more than a week of violence. Maduro said a "fascist bullet" killed Alexis Martinez, a brother of a ruling Socialist Party legislator, in the central city of Barquisimeto. A local journalist said Martinez was shot in the chest while passing an opposition protest. There have also been scores of injuries and arrests since the violence broke out eight days ago, the most serious unrest since Maduro was narrowly elected in April 2013. The protesters, mostly students, want Maduro to resign, and blame his government for violent crime, high inflation, shortages of goods and alleged repression of opponents. The most sustained clashes on Thursday were in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been […]

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The only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year, and the new owners have softened its news coverage. Last week, President Nicolás Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death here. Opposition legislators have been barred from debates and stripped of committee posts in the National Assembly. And when an opposition leader called for a protest this week, Mr. Maduro scheduled his own march to start at the same spot and dispatched the National Guard to try to block protesters from rallying elsewhere. Venezuela is being convulsed by the biggest protests since the country’s longtime president, the charismatic Hugo Chávez, died nearly a […]

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Venezuela on Tuesday renamed its largest crude reserve, traditionally known as the Orinoco Belt, after the country’s late socialist leader. "I’ve decided as of today to name it the Hugo Chavez Oil Belt," said President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s protege and successor, during a rally of oil workers. "Do you agree?" The crowd roared its approval. "The biggest oil reserve on the planet was rescued by our Commander Chavez," Maduro said, referring to his predecessor’s crusade to boost state control over natural resources. Chavez died last year after a 14-year rule in which he built up a cult following thanks to liberal spending of oil revenue that helped him win repeated elections. His detractors accuse him of squandering a decade-long windfall and leaving behind an economy weakened by state controls. The United States Geological Survey in 2010 estimated the area held 513 billion barrels […]

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In a prerecorded video message released hours after his arrest , López urged Venezuelans to continue a campaign of “resistance” to force the resignation or recall of President Nicolás Maduro, a goal López calls “the Exit.” Seated on a sofa beside his wife and appealing directly to Venezuelan youth, López told viewers that what the country needed more than ever was for Venezuelans to make “a commitment for change.” “But that commitment can’t be passive,” he said. “It has to be active.” It was the kind of passionate, personal appeal and call to action that showed exactly why the Harvard-educated López has been at the center of the most serious challenge yet to the struggling Maduro, successor to the late Hugo Chávez. In a country floating atop the world’s largest oil reserves but facing worsening shortages of milk, medicines, toilet paper and other basic goods, many Venezuelans are angry, […]

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