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Venezuela to raise domestic gas prices?

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signaled he wants to raise gasoline prices, which are considered among the cheapest in the world at about 5 cents a gallon. "Without a doubt there’s a distortion that we need to correct," Maduro said Wednesday, in reference to the country’s highly subsidized gasoline. His comments came during a rare meeting with opposition political leaders, the Wall Street Journal reports. While the government should continue offering "special" prices for the domestic market, the president said, the subsidy "should be an advantage, not a disadvantage." The gasoline subsidy costs Venezuela about $12.5 billion a year. The president spoke of a "plan that should take us some three years for setting prices of hydrocarbons and their derivatives in the national market." Maduro added it should be a "progressive plan with national consensus." Violent riots erupted the last time the Venezuelan government […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela revamping its currency control system

Venezuela is overhauling decade-old currency controls to benefit its struggling oil industry and arrest the decline of the bolivar on the black market. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez says the government’s nine-month-old U.S. dollar auction system will be expanded next year to provide a more favorable exchange rate to oil companies, tourists and the central bank’s gold purchases. Ramirez denies the move represents a stealth devaluation, though he says the auction mechanism will gradually replace the so-called Cadivi system that’s used to mete out dollars to Venezuelans. The government currently sells a dollar for 6.3 bolivars, but access is restricted and the greenback costs more than 10 times that amount on the black market. Ramirez doesn’t say what exchange rate will be used at the auctions. Ramirez made the announcement Monday. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela’s president tightens grip on media

As Gov. Henrique Capriles campaigned for president of Venezuela last April, he couldn’t venture more than a few steps without being hounded by dozens of sharp-elbowed cameramen and photographers. Nearly eight months later, the visibly thinner and exhausted opposition leader is accompanied by just a handful of journalists at what was supposed to be one of the final, electrifying opposition rallies ahead of this weekend’s mayoral elections. Critics say the shrinking media coverage has been deliberate. Even while Venezuelans endure their toughest economic crisis in 15 years of socialist rule, the opposition has been largely knocked from public view by what they claim is a government-led campaign to intimidate media outlets that give airtime to the opposition and the nation’s mounting woes. Between January and September, the number of attacks on journalists, cases of harassment and reports of censorship has risen 56 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela's president tightens grip on media

As Gov. Henrique Capriles campaigned for president of Venezuela last April, he couldn’t venture more than a few steps without being hounded by dozens of sharp-elbowed cameramen and photographers. Nearly eight months later, the visibly thinner and exhausted opposition leader is accompanied by just a handful of journalists at what was supposed to be one of the final, electrifying opposition rallies ahead of this weekend’s mayoral elections. Critics say the shrinking media coverage has been deliberate. Even while Venezuelans endure their toughest economic crisis in 15 years of socialist rule, the opposition has been largely knocked from public view by what they claim is a government-led campaign to intimidate media outlets that give airtime to the opposition and the nation’s mounting woes. Between January and September, the number of attacks on journalists, cases of harassment and reports of censorship has risen 56 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela cyber crackdown ensnares Web’s Bitly

Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar’s plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news – it’s taking down websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market. Cyber-activists say the crackdown goes to absurd lengths, even targeting Bitly, the popular site for shortening Web addresses to make it easier to send them as links via Twitter and other social media. For more than two weeks, access to the service has been partially censored by several Internet service providers in Venezuela, apparently because Bitly was being used to evade blocks put on currency-tracking websites. The New York company says such restrictions have only previously been seen in China, which has one of the worst […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela cyber crackdown ensnares Web's Bitly

Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar’s plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news – it’s taking down websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market. Cyber-activists say the crackdown goes to absurd lengths, even targeting Bitly, the popular site for shortening Web addresses to make it easier to send them as links via Twitter and other social media. For more than two weeks, access to the service has been partially censored by several Internet service providers in Venezuela, apparently because Bitly was being used to evade blocks put on currency-tracking websites. The New York company says such restrictions have only previously been seen in China, which has one of the worst […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuelan oil diplomacy curbed by economic crisis

he late President Hugo Chavez’s dream of leveraging Venezuela’s oil wealth to spread revolution across Latin America is crumbling under the weight of an economic crisis that is forcing his hand-picked successor to cut back on generous foreign aid. Signs of the country’s waning influence are becoming more apparent. In early November, Guatemala withdrew from the Petrocaribe oil alliance launched by Chavez, saying it didn’t receive the ultra-low financing rates it had been promised by Venezuela when it first sought to join the 18-nation pact in 2008. Also in recent weeks, representatives of Brazil and Colombia have held meetings with their Venezuelan counterparts to collect overdue payment for food, manufactured goods and other imports. While Venezuela has fallen behind on payments before, the latest cash crunch is more severe, and the economic outlook more uncertain, than any time in 15 years of socialist […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela’s Maduro Pledges Crackdown Against Foreign-Exchange Speculation

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday promised to intensify his crusade against alleged speculators and greedy businesses which he says are contributing to the oil-rich country’s economic troubles and pledged more state control over sectors fueling sky-high inflation. The leader unveiled a new price cap for commercial real estate and also appointed a few of his cabinet members to run a recently created state agency that will oversee all of Venezuela imports and exports, as well as access to dollars in a country that has had tight currency controls for the last decade. They are the latest measures by Mr. Maduro as he tries to tame an inflation rate well above 50%, rapid depreciation of the local bolivar currency and a shortage of dollars in the import-dependent economy, which has resulted in shortages of food and consumer goods. Regional elections on Dec. 8 are adding pressure […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Venezuela's Maduro Pledges Crackdown Against Foreign-Exchange Speculation

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday promised to intensify his crusade against alleged speculators and greedy businesses which he says are contributing to the oil-rich country’s economic troubles and pledged more state control over sectors fueling sky-high inflation. The leader unveiled a new price cap for commercial real estate and also appointed a few of his cabinet members to run a recently created state agency that will oversee all of Venezuela imports and exports, as well as access to dollars in a country that has had tight currency controls for the last decade. They are the latest measures by Mr. Maduro as he tries to tame an inflation rate well above 50%, rapid depreciation of the local bolivar currency and a shortage of dollars in the import-dependent economy, which has resulted in shortages of food and consumer goods. Regional elections on Dec. 8 are adding pressure […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple