Media Yawn at Venezuela’s Spiraling, Socialist Nightmare

THE GAS RATION HAS BEEN INCREASED FROM FOUR LITERS TO THREE: Oil-Rich Venezuela Is Out Of Gasoline.

“Gentlemen: There is no more gasoline in Venezuela. In Venezuela, we are out of gas. In Venezuela, there is no gas oil. In Venezuela, there are no lube oils,” said Iván Freites in a televised press conference. Freites is the secretary of the professional and technician division of the United Federation of Venezuelan Petroleum Workers.

In his address, Freites said that poor management led to the stoppage of 80 per cent of the country’s refineries. “Only Amuay and Cardón refineries are operative and that is nothing. They produce 40,000 barrels per day and the national demand is over 200,000 barrels of gas per day,” he said.

Venezuela’s oil production has fallen to levels not seeing since the late-1980s. According to the latest OPEC report, which is based on information provided by the Nicolás Maduro government, the country is producing about 2.3 million barrels of oil per day. In October, it experienced the steepest fall in production of 2017, as only 1.9 million barrels were extracted, 130,000 barrels less than the previous month. The oil industry, however, is still the major source of income as it generates about 96 per cent of the foreign exchange.

“Can you imagine how much it would be to bring our refineries back to operation? To recover production in the Eastern Coast of the Lake (of Maracaibo)?” Iván Freites asked during the media brief.

A question Venezuelans need to ask, and loudly: “Where did the money go?”

 

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The Suffering people of Venezuela are also "ENJOYING" the benefits of Marxist Socialism by starving.
Businesses no longer accept Bolivars as currency, only US money is accepted. Meanwhile Venezuela has missed it's bond payment again according the WSJ.
Hmm...., Loan default is just another casualty of Marxist Socialism.

Venezuela Misses Another Debt Payment, Raising Stakes for ...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezu...ent-raising-stakes-for-bondholders-1514933217
1 day ago - Venezuela has defaulted on another debt obligation, according to S&P Global Ratings, intensifying investor fears about the country's ability to make more than $9 billion in bond payments due in 2018. The ratings firm said Tuesday that Venezuela failed to make $35 million in coupon payments for its bonds ...

 

The collapse of the ppb has really hurt VZ..

Venezuela crude output hits 28-year low: OPEC. CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil-dependent Venezuela's crude output dipped last month below 2 million barrels per day, its lowest level in nearly three decades, global producer group OPEC said on Monday.Nov 13, 2017
Venezuela crude output hits 28-year low: OPEC - Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/...venezuela-oil/venezuela-crude-output-hits-28-year-low-opec-...

 

Venezuela has been a s**t show for so many years, it would only be news if something happened to make it better.
Otherwise, it's page 3 stuff.

 

Maybe they should just raise the minimum wage?

 

When we had an office in Caracas, we never accepted payment in local currency and that was during the Chavez years. We only accepted USD.Our employees were paid well and WERE MIDDLE CLASS. We continuously monitored the politics because we had to. GOvt took over utilities, seizing assets of private business and did that to oil as well. The Govt then placed hand-picked hacks and loyalists into mgmt positions who had no clue what to do. Outside contractors other than China stopped providing services and goods due to non-payment and/or fear of seizure. Even China has backed off the subsidies.

With each speech of more free stuff, the general public became even more lethargic and many of our employees simply stopped being productive. An entire generation was lost and believed that things should be provided for them as they sat there sipping espresso.

After a couple of our employees were kidnapped for ransom by local police, we knew it was time to pull out. We've never looked back, we'll never recover the outstanding receivables we have from a couple of the utilities. We moved into Colombia and that office is prospering.

 

Thank you.. I wish I could remember what year Chavez took office, but it seemed to me there was high hopes initially... and wasn't there some thing else.. a regional cooperation and pulling out of the IMF?

 

I'm glad you got out safely. I'm sure you will miss the receivables, but can you imagine falling into the hands of those thugs?

 

They should just raise the minimum wage. The people are starving, so they will quickly spend the money rather than "hording" it creating a multiplier effect.

 

Yet Sanders wanted us to emulate them.

 

"We came to know a man [Chavez] who expressed a vision to bring profound changes to his country to benefit especially those people who had felt neglected and marginalized" -Jimmy Carter

I suppose we can give Jimmy a break because of his age. Chavez destroyed the wealth of that country.

 

How about "Cash for Clunkers" or even old mule-carts? Buy the old ones and destroy them then folks will have to buy new ones which will provide jobs. Win/Win!

 

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Yes there were high hopes of stealing money from the citizens by Hugo Chavez. According to the Miami-based Diario Las América, Venezuelan media sources will soon publish materials showing that María Gabriela Chávez has bank accounts in the U.S. and Andorra with assets totaling nearly $4.2 billion USD. Despite her great wealth, she still promotes the socialist lifestyle her father forced upon the people.

 

Well, widespread unemployment is a real problem. Have they considered extending unemployment benefits? Pelosi says that's one the best forms of stimulus!

 

Come on guys, get with the program! All Venezuelans need to do is break all the windows.

 

Then you weren't paying attention at the time.

VZ was providing free home heating oil to poor Americans via CITGO..

I wish I could remember the program that Chavez instituted to keep from using petro dollars in the region. It was quite brilliant.

The thing that got VZ was the crash of the ppb.

 

It was the Petrocaribe economic initiative .. It think it was Haiti, Nicaragua , Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador .. It may be more countries. I haven't followed it for over 15 years.

 

If you look west of Fort Lauderdale in Davie and Weston FL, you'll find a ton of Venezuelans who left the country when they could still take some of their money with them. These folks were a brain drain as they are Drs and professionals. When you could get medical care in Venezuela, it was by Cuban doctors who were on loan by the Castro regime and needless to say, those who could afford it, went to Colombia or even the USA for treatment.

Those who were productive saw the writing on the wall and many left. They saw that the only trajectory for all of the people was downward.

I would comment every 3-4 months when I'd fly into the airport about how much more the infrastructure had degraded. When the mandatory brownouts started it was a joke. Even in 5 star hotels you'd be walking down dark corridors.

You'd walk into govt offices and it was dark inside and all the while, many refused to accept what was happening and doubled-down on their support of socialism.

 

I remember.. I was living in Fort Lauderdale t the time.

 

Socialism works really well for the Wall Street/donor/"job creator" class. It's just no good for the unsubstantial people.

 

Anyone who doesn't see how they are being manipulated by the mass, leftist media, is a fool, plain and simple.

Let's start with the NYT, who went from being adamently against illegal aliens to supporting and cheerleading for them and amnesty after Carlos Slim, the mexican billionnaire whose wealth was built upon phone calls home and remittances sent by illegal aliens, bought the publication.

Their coverage of the current iran protests has been sparse to say the least, and that was very well explained in a number of articles:

http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/02/5-worst-echo-chamber-talking-points-iranian-uprising/

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/197447/washington-post-out-of-iran

Anything, anything, that will sully the legacy of obama, whether its coverage of the iran protests, or other foreign policy failings like Venezuela, are to be ignored outright, or minimally covered in a back section.

Since the rest of the major news media follows the NYT like a drone, none of the other outlets like CNN or MSNBC have covered the protests, or Venezuela very much.

If someone was to drive a truck bomb into the NYT building, I might mourn the janitorial staff, but the rest of that POS? I'd have my first alcoholic beverage in years.

 

Even if the wall never even gets built - its already costing mexico money; more of their people are being stopped at the border and being deported, and harsher treatment is preventing others from sneaking in. That's a lot of people, and a lot less money being remitted to mexico.

 

Did they try hiring more government workers to reduce joblessness?

 

We just went through eight years of a stagnant economy, but the Liberals cheered Obama every chance they got. Now we have an economy that is heading up, up, up, but the Liberals can only refer to Trump as "moron", "insane', "unstable", "pathetic", "orange", and "needs to be impeached". What do we now know about Liberals? Hint: Economics ain't one of their strong points.

 

Maxine is stupid enough to verbalize what others will not. It is not that any socialists on the left want equality for all. They actually want to take over all the companies and transfer billions of dollars into their personal accounts, just as the Chavez family did. Once done, they will leave the people to starve or riot themselves to death. Just look at the leftist strong holds in our own country. Chicago is a little Venezuela, so is Baltimore, and California is comping at the bit to get there too.