Category Archives: Venezuela

VENEZUELA – The Economy Is rebounding – politics still authoritarian

02/06/2023 – 12:03 am

The Venezuelan economy appears to be improving after hitting bottom, but the political situation remains mired in authoritarianism

By July 22, 2022

In Venezuela, according to the official media, 202,609 new businesses have registered. Many sell a little of everything, all day long, because it takes a lot of hard work to fulfill the basic needs. Venezuela has been “becoming less worse” since the end of 2021, when, little by little, nearly imperceptibly, the economy began dollarizing.          Continue reading →

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VENEZULA: Is Venezuela Rebounding? – Analysis

12/29/2022 – 12:04 am

The Venezuelan economy appears to be improving after hitting bottom, but the political situation remains mired in authoritarianism

PHOTO: Guyana: Hampers being distributed by the Region Two RDC/CDC to the Venezuelan refugees (SN file photo)
By July 22, 2022

Continue reading →

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VENEZUELA: How Rum and Cocuy Came Back to Life During the Crisis

12/10/2022 – 12:15 am

Thanks to the denominations of origin that protect their ancestral quality and technical standards, these two drinks endure Venezuela’s economic downfall and illicit competition

Kaoru Yonekura | Caracas Chronicles

As real as the liquor market crisis is, two Venezuelan liquors manage to avoid that same crisis: Pecaya cocuy and rum. And all while complying with the rules and regulations by which the Servicio Autónomo de Propiedad Intelectual (SAPI) gave them the Denomination of Origin (DO); cocuy pecayero got it in 2001 and rum in 2003.

With this top-tier distinction on intellectual property, producers stick to the traditional and standard techniques when manufacturing these liquors, as well as the environmental care in their production areas. This way, the original product seal indicates that the Pecaya cocuy and rum are unique, one-of-a-kind, high quality, culturally valued, and especially, Venezuelan products.              Continue reading →

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Venezuela: Illicit Trade Represents 21% of Venezuela’s GDP: Is This Our Post-Oil Future?

07/23/2022 – 10:41 pm

Venezuela – Click to enlarge

Tony Frangie Mawad | Caracas Chronicles

 After calculating the current annual worth of drug, gold and gasoline trafficking and port smuggling in Venezuela, a study by the local chapter of the anti-corruption nonprofit Transparency International — with estimates from Ecoanalítica, a Venezuelan economic consulting firm — concluded that these illegal economies made up 21.74% of Venezuela’s GDP last year.

“This means they are more powerful than any other economic sector right now, including oil,” says Mercedes De Freitas, Transparencia Venezuela’s executive director. “And we are talking only about the size of four of these economies, the most important ones. THERE ARE OTHER ILLICIT TRADES: Certain types of food smuggling, diesel smuggling, cooking gas trafficking, human trafficking or timber trafficking, which could be important in some regions.”       Continue reading →

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VENEZUELA is hoping to resuscitate its PetroCaribe programme – By David Jessop

07/13/2022 – 12:12 pm

Venezuela- PetroCaribe programme. – By David Jessop

Against a background of surging global oil prices, the country’s gradual economic recovery, political change in Latin America, and a carefully crafted dialogue with the United States, Russia, China and Iran, Caracas is seeking to reposition itself as a swing energy state.

Responding to less-than-well-thought-through western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and their impact on the global prices of oil, gas, fertiliser, food, and transport, it knows that the gradual freeing of its enormous reserves of oil could make a difference to many nations.

Its actions suggest that if it can achieve an accommodation on sanctions with the US and European Union based on the west and others urgent need for new, lower cost sources of energy through geopolitical diplomacy, it will be able to relaunch its Caribbean and Central American concessional oil initiative.    Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Energy Crisis: The time has come for CSME to play it s role – Letter by Eusi Kwayana

06/27/2022 – 12:09 am

Dear Editor:

In a discussion on Sunday June 19, 2022, the panelists on Observer Radio in Antigua considered a statement by Prime Minister Gaston Brown of Antigua and Barbuda. That statement suggested that it might be necessary for the Caribbean countries in CARICOM to approach Venezuela for a second chapter of Petro Caribe which was designed to help Caribbean countries at the time of Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.

At this point it is good to remember that Trinidad and Tobago during the days of its oil boom had extended credit facilities to some of the Caribbean islands in CARICOM. One of them, Guyana, benefitted from these credits up to its limit of $500M in US dollars, I suppose largely for fuel imports. It was reported that a substantial amount of these debts ($482.5M US dollars) were eventually written off by the Trinidad and Tobago government as Guyana was unable to honour its debt. (See note at end).            Continue reading →

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VENEZUELA: US lawmakers blast change in policy towards Venezuela; oil projects could increase

05/20/2022 – 12:03 am

Nicolás Maduro

By OilNOW –

(S&P Global Platts) Details remained scant May 18 on a US policy shift that could chart a path for US companies to again invest in and operate Venezuelan oil projects as the Biden administration has reportedly begun to ease oil sanctions on the country.

While the administration has yet to officially announce any changes to US policy towards the regime of President Nicolás Maduro, several lawmakers put out statements criticizing a policy shift they contend was aimed at restarting dialogue between Maduro’s ruling government and the US-backed, opposition Venezuelan Unitary Platform.              Continue reading →

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VENEZUELA: VIDEO: Special Report: Inside Venezuela – Bloomberg Markets and Finance

04/30/2022 – 12:49 pm

Special Report: Inside Venezuela

– Bloomberg Markets and Finance – August 20, 2021.

Venezuela is in default; the country has suffered one of the greatest economic and humanitarian crises in modern history. Now, after four years of crippling U.S. sanctions, President Nicolas Maduro is making a public plea aimed directly at President Joe Biden– it’s time for a deal. Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker travels inside Venezuela and sits down with Maduro to discuss the country’s future.

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GUYANA: The Trinidad Connection and Guyana’s Local Content Act – by Ralph Ramkarran

04/06/2022 – 12:06 am

 April 2, 2022- The Trinidad Connection

A robust debate has been triggered by Guyana’s Local Content Act (the Act) between Guyanese and Trinidad and Tobago business organisations, businesspeople and involving some Guyanese public officials. The debate has had little input from ordinary Guyanese citizens. For example, there has been few, if any, letters in the press from Guyanese expressing outrage against Trinidadians for any reason.

However, while the debate is limited to Trinidad’s business practices, trade policies and importance to Guyana as a Caricom member, there is a strong undercurrent in Guyana of resentment against what is believed to be Trinidad’s historically unflattering view of Guyanese due, it has always been believed, to Trinidad’s sense of its own superiority by virtue of its oil wealth as against Guyana’s relative poverty.            

Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Don’t be fooled by rising Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – by Terrence Yhip

04/04/2022 – 12:03 am

International Economist Terrence Yhip

Kaieteur News – Apr 03, 2022 – By Kiana Wilburg

– Oil already widening gap between rich and poor – Int’l Economist Terrence Yhip

The Government of Guyana has boasted that the oil sector which has experienced an increase in oil production from 120,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to 340,000 bpd is poised to drive Guyana’s growth to historic levels. In fact, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh had disclosed during the reading of this year’s GY$552.9B national budget that Guyana’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow by 47.5 percent. It is a level of performance no other country in the world is forecast to achieve in 2022.

While Guyanese should feel justifiably proud of the fact that their county’s GDP has been growing the fastest, and will continue to do so, Terrence Yhip, an economist, says citizens must not get carried away just by the sheer size of such figures as they, in isolation, are not an accurate reflection of the country’s wellbeing, and more importantly, the wellbeing of citizens. Indeed, “Income disparities persist across the land, and the problem is severest amongst Amerindians in the hinterland.”        Continue reading →

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