Venezuela Observatory - Just one uninformed American's digging

Have you heard about the Economic Crisis in Venezuela?

I want to keep my opinion and ideas in this post short because I am not at all well informed on this subject but I've seen enough to be concerned.

As just another a human on this shared planet I believe the struggles of the Venezuelan people should be everyone's concern - just the same as all other suppressed and/or occupied people. No child deserves to starve or be witness to murder, bombings, and terrifying situations just because they happened to be born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I thought I would highlight a few of the articles I've found relating to this topic.

If you are currently living (or have lived) in Venezuela I would love for you to comment and give us all your point of view on what is going on and even what has lead up to this travesty. Misinformation is rampant, statistics are manipulated (over decades even), media is bought and paid for therefore true personal experiences are priceless in today's world.

My only personal point of reference really, as a 30-something-American, is the "Joe-4-oil" billboards and commercials I recall seeing everywhere before but have not seen over the last few winters.

Here's one of his old commercials that used to play on cable here in Mass:

Joe Kennedy began his partnership with Citgo and Venezuela back in 1989. You can learn more about his projects and his past partnership with Venezuela at Citizen's Engery Currently Joe Kennedy sponsors solar projects all over New England. I did not look too deeply into exactly when/how Joe-4-Oil died down but from what I did read, obviously, there are a multitude of reasons. I have to admit I was happy to read about his solar related projects going on although I'm sure the oil businesses felt the loss.

In the News

Here are some articles from all different sources (even MSM) reporting on the situation. As usual, do your own research and form your own opinion. If you have any additional information feel free to drop it, or any links, in the comments section.

• Houston Chronicle article from May 9th Iran sanctions add to Venezuela collapse, jolting oil market

The South American nation, holder of the world's biggest oil reserves, has seen output fall almost 40 percent since 2015, to 1.5 million barrels a day, amid political turmoil and an economic meltdown under President Nicolas Maduro. With global creditors eyeing Venezuelan assets and the U.S. considering more sanctions, production could drop further, to 1 million barrels daily, Societe Generale analysts said in a report last week.

• Article from Al Jazeera posted on May 7th My life in crisis: Diary of a Venezuelan journalist

While barricading the street, burning tyres and braving rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, the protesters told us journalists of the hours their children spend sobbing from going to bed hungry. Children who don't go to school because, without food, they might faint in class.

Many Venezuelans today don't have milk for their children, they don't have rice, oil, sugar, coffee, spaghetti ... They can't afford anything because a kilo of rice, imported from Brazil or Trinidad and Tobago , costs around 220,000 bolivars ($4.40) - 56 percent of the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela, which is currently 392,646 bolivars ($7.85).

• CNN article from April 20thVenezuela protests: What you need to know

The opposition call became even stronger when, on April 7, the government notified main opposition leader Henrique Capriles that he had been banned from doing any political work for 15 years. The 44-year-old governor of Miranda, who has run for president twice, said the government was again acting like a dictatorship.

• NY Times article from February, 20th Venezuela Launches Virtual Currency, Hoping to Resuscitate Economy

The Venezuelan government has said the value of the petro will be tied in some way to the value of a barrel of Venezuelan oil. But the Maduro administration has not given many details on how this pricing would work, and many investors have said they would not trust the government to faithfully maintain the link between the petro and the price of oil.

• Bloomberg on Jan 28th IMF Projects Venezuela Inflation Will Soar to 13,000 Percent in 2018

The IMF expects the Venezuelan economy to contract 15 percent this year, leading to a cumulative GDP decline of nearly 50 percent since 2013. That’s holding back the rebound of the entire region; Latin America is expected to grow 1.9 percent this year, or 2.5 percent without Venezuela. While Venezuela suppresses the regional average, at this point the impact on its neighbors’ output is “very limited,” Werner said in a press conference following the report’s release.

• Reuters Jan 11th Food riots grip western Venezuela, mob reportedly slaughters cattle in field

A video on social media also showed around a dozen men running into a lush pasture, chasing a cow, and then apparently beating it to death.
“They’re hunting. The people are hungry!” says the narrator of the video, who filmed the incident from his car. Lawmaker Paparoni said some 300 animals were believed to have been killed. Reuters could not verify the information.

• HumanRightsWatch.org put out an overview of 2017 : https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/venezuela

They put out this easy to read image of statistics"

Now, let's take it back a few years and see what MSM was preaching back in 2016

• Forbes Magazine June 21, 2016 Congratulations To Bolivarian Socialism - Venezuela Has Food Riots Now
  This self righteous prick is so utterly condescending and argumentative that I question whether Trump may have ghost written this.. LOL

This post has been part of #venezuelaobservatory. All earnings on this post will be transferred and donated to this project.

I hope you're interested in learning more about this initiative! Check out this post by @bifilarcoil Venezuela Observatory: (2018 may 06) to learn all about the project. <3 <3