Venezuelans hoping for concrete plans from Maduro about their escalating financial crisis instead got mindless blather. He said “God will provide” after a ten day worldwide trip begging for money and higher oil prices. He got neither. Venezuela faces $11 billion in bond payments this year it cannot possibly make. An economy mismanaged for years has been devastated by low oil prices. There are huge lines everywhere for basic supplies and food.
Banksters and other bottom dwellers will be happy to feast on whatever carrion they can find. As for Venezuelans, they face increasingly desperate times.
The Venezuelan economy is in tatters with higher than 64 percent inflation and dwindling foreign reserves. Protests like those that paralyzed the country last February are beginning to sprout up again. Maduro’s decision to essentially maintain business as usual – in his speech last night he accused opposition politicians of planning a coup and avoided an explicit devaluation of the currency – signaled to Venezuelans and the world that he’s not willing to face the country’s ailing economy head on.
Bob’s ongoing obsessional disdain for Venezuela continues it seems. Back in the day, Polizeros insisted that Chavez was a nut case and today, Maduro is dismissed here as platitudinous. But if you check this report maybe the preference here for a Gringo take on Venezuela’s problems isn’t as caricatured. Also not flagged is the ongoing debate in the country about the way forward.
This issue is discussed extensively in these resources…