Tag Archives: Venezuela

Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action First a plug – my colleagues at IPA have done amazing work this year quickly pivoting a big research organization to tackle the covid crisis head-on, studying hunger, refugee issues, education and 80+ other topics, and staying up late into the night, over and over again. Not all of our expenses are covered directly by research grants, so we rely on donations for the rest. If you donate here BEFORE TUESDAY you gift will be...

Should have posted this a while ago. I had a conversation with the World Bank economist above on how much of the problems of Venezuela are the result of the embargo. Here a paper by Francisco Rodríguez. Worth reading.

The Venezuelan government has launched its first gold processing complex as part of efforts to overcome US-led sanctions. According to government sources, the Manuel Carlos Piar Complex in Matanzas, Bolivar State will initially process twenty kilograms of gold per month. When completed, it will reportedly have a capacity of 200 kilograms a month, which would make the complex the fifth largest in Latin America. The installation employs 150 workers and is made up of nine heap leaching plants...

The secretary-general of the Venezuelan Communist Party calls for “unity within diversity” in the Chavista movement. VenezuelanalysisThe Crisis of Rentier Capitalism in Venezuela: A Conversation with Oscar Figuera

Naked Capitalism5 Reasons Why Trump’s Venezuela Embargo Won’t End the Maduro Regime Marco Aponte-Moreno, Associate Professor of Global Business and Board Member of the Institute for Latino and Latin American Studies, St Mary’s College of California. Originally published at The ConversationVenezuelanalysisIn Venezuela, social, popular and communal unity is not an illusion Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora interview with Ángel Prado, the spokesperson of the Socialist Commune El...

Preliminary probe into the incident has suggested the “existence of an electromagnetic attack that sought to affect the hydroelectric generation system of Guayana, the main provider of this service in the country,” the minister told state channel VTV. While authorities are struggling to resolve the crisis, the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido has used the power outage to once again attack his political opponent, accusing President Maduro of “destroying” the country's electrical...

On June 26, the Trump administration’s so-called “Special Representative for Venezuela,” Elliott Abrams gave a five-minute update to reporters about the development of the coup attempt against the government of Nicolas Maduro, followed by a brief Q&A session. The event, held at the US State Department in Washington, was textbook Abrams: full of lies, loaded language, double standards and breathtaking hypocrisy. Below, I deconstruct each of his points by providing rebuttals, context and...

A new investigation has exposed members of Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó’s inner circle for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars designated for humanitarian aid and spending it on luxury goods and lavish accommodations for themselves. Guaidó had been aware of the fraud for weeks and stubbornly defended his cohorts until a leak from Colombian intelligence forced him to acknowledge the scandal.... The Gray ZoneFrom coup leaders to con artists: Juan Guaidó’s gang exposed for massive...

The Trump administration likes the steps Bolsonaro took. It wants to starve Cuba of access to hard currencies that the body leasing of doctors provides. It is also one of the reasons why it targets Venezuela: Around 50,000 Cuban health professionals work in 66 countries worldwide, although around half of those work in Venezuela, with an additional 11,456 in Brazil. The Cuban doctors in Brazil are gone and the U.S. is pressing for those in Venezuela to leave. Trump's National Security...

The curse of oil and Dutch disease used to force compliance. [Mark] Weisbrot and [Jeffrey]Sachs say that these sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment,” as laid out in the Hague Convention (1899) and in the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). The United States is a signatory of both of these frameworks. “Collective penalties,” says the Fourth Geneva Convention, “are prohibited.” Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are dead. Tens of thousands more are under threat of death....