Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Showing posts with label chronic food and medicine shortages. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2018

BLOOMBERG

Venezuela’s President Feasts on Steak, Cigars at Salt Bae Restaurant

By Patricia Laya

September 17, 2018, 4:27 PM PDT

On his way back home from a trip to Asia, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro stopped off in Turkey to dine at one of butcher sensation Nusret Gökçe’s Nusr-Et restaurants where he sampled steaks and smoked cigars from a personalized box.

Maduro visited Nusr-Et, known for its $100 rib-eye, after making an official trip to China in hopes of securing financing for cash-strapped Venezuela. In videos posted by Nusret to Twitter and Instagram, Maduro is seen eating steak next to his wife, Cilia Flores, while also holding a cigar and trying on a t-shirt depicting Nusret, also known as Salt Bae and famous for how he prepares and seasons steaks.

Venezuela is in the throes of a deep humanitarian and economic crisis, following years of misrule that have led to hyperinflation, power blackouts, water outages, as well as dire shortages of food and medicine. A survey by three leading Venezuelan universities estimated 87 percent of households were living in poverty in 2017 while 64 percent of Venezuelans lost weight last year, 11.4 kilograms on average.

Nusret, who has close to 16 million Instagram followers, deleted several videos showing Maduro’s visit to the restaurant from Instagram shortly after posting them.

— With assistance by Noris Soto

More info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-17/venezuela-s-maduro-feasts-on-steak-cigars-at-nusr-et-restaurant
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Chicas'
FOOD BOX ~ GIFT BOX No. F1

As everything is more difficult each day for our families and friends in Venezuela, we (my BBF Vanessa and I) decided to help a little more our loved ones. It started by buying our 1st wholesale bulk of fruits and veggies: 645 kg!!!!!!! We could start a restaurant!!!! The idea is that this way, they could afford to buy at the whole price in smaller quantities, we would just provide the funds. So here we are with 645 kg of fruits and veggies coming soon so my little cousin Adriana with the help of Cesar (Gabby’s ex-husband) is going to prepare 20 boxes with more than 30 kg of fresh products each.

Prices are volatile in Venezuela!!! They change everyday. The dollar at the black market fluctuates in the same way. So as far as today, September 14th 2018, we are able to sell each Box for $18. Your loved ones have to go get it in Las Palmas, Caracas. We are contracting Adriana and Gabby’s brother Arturo to do the delivery so we are paying him one day of work so we can deliver in Caracas only .

In Venezuela today the economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. Like mi cousin Gabby who left with her husband and two children 4 months ago to Lima, Peru. No she helped us with all the currency transfers headaches because everyday Maduro’s regime is passing a “new” law to prohibit the Venezuelan people who have left to help their families and loved ones left behind. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

How to

11 September 2018

From cash pickup to online transfers, there are affordable ways to send money to Venezuela.

Getting money from your account in the US to someone in Venezuela might seem difficult at first, but our guide to money transfer services and exchange rates will help you get a good deal when it comes to converting your US dollars to Venezuelan bolívars.

Our pick: XE Money Transfer: https://www.xe.com/

How do I compare money transfer companies?

Exchange rate. Venezuelan bolívars are considered an exotic currency. Because of this, many banks and money transfer companies don’t trade it, but there are some that do. This will be one of the most important parts of your decision.

Transfer time. How quickly do you need the money to get to Venezuela? If the answer is minutes, then go for a provider like Western Union. If you have time, it can be worth looking for a slower, cheaper option. The transfer time is based on a couple of things, including the payment and delivery method.

Transfer fee. Transfer fees can vary greatly between providers. Some providers waive the fee if you transfer a certain amount. For example, transactions greater than $10,000 might not incur a transfer fee. Other providers may waive the fee if you transfer money multiple times, so check if there are deals before you choose a provider.

Delivery method. If your recipient doesn’t have a bank account, you’ll want to find a service that allows your recipient to pick up cash. Otherwise, one that transfers directly to a bank account should be a safer option.

Payment method. Some companies let you pay for a transfer using your credit card or debit card, but bank deposit is the preferred payment method for most money transfer companies.

Transfer options. Can you lock in an ideal exchange rate now and transfer the money later? Does the institution offer limit orders that allows you to take advantage of changing market conditions by executing the money transfer when a certain exchange rate is met? Can you schedule recurring payments? Consider these based on your needs when finding a provider.

Customer service. Is there a US-based customer service team on hand to take your call?

Transfer limits. How much do you want to send? Different providers have different minimum and maximum limits.

More info: https://www.finder.com/international-money-transfers/send-money-to-venezuela
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THE WASHINGTON POST

It’s time for a coordinated financial response to the Venezuelan exodus

By Luis Alberto Moreno
September 11

Luis Alberto Moreno is president of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington.

They are known as “los caminantes,” or the walkers.

They are Venezuelan men, women and children who have left their country in search of work and opportunity. Some can’t afford airfare or even a bus ticket, so they walk for hundreds of miles to reach the borders of neighboring nations.

In recent months, tens of thousands of these migrants have been slowly making their way along highways, camping by the roadside and relying on the kindness of strangers. They are a small subset in a much larger exodus, the likes of which our hemisphere has never seen before.

While much has been said about the political and economic problems inside Venezuela that have led to this moment, I believe the scale and impact of this migration crisis are still not understood outside of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Consider this:

While the United Nations estimates that 1.8 million immigrants have arrived in Europe by sea since 2014, up to 2.5 million Venezuelans have left their homeland during the same period. Roughly one-fifth of them have gone to Europe, the United States and Canada. Nearly all the rest — around 2 million individuals — have gone to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Colombia alone has received close to 1 million, while Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil and Argentina, in descending order, have taken in most of the rest.

But while average per capita income in the six European countries that have received the most immigrants during this period (Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Britain) is around $46,500, measured in purchasing power, in the six Latin American countries listed above, the figure is less than $17,000.

Europe can rely on modern civil services and well-staffed clinics and schools to process and care for immigrants. In Latin America, despite considerable progress in reducing poverty in recent decades, public services are underfunded and ill equipped to cope with local demand, much less to deal with this emergency.

In Colombia, an economist with the Inter-American Development Bank has estimated that the government will need around $1.6 billion per year to fully respond to the emergency, a sum equal to 0.5 percent of GDP. This amounts to a negative shock to the economy at a time when Colombia urgently needs to accelerate growth.

Venezuela’s neighbors have so far been sympathetic and generous toward the immigrants, not least because they remember how Venezuela welcomed millions of political exiles and economic refugees during the 20th century.

In addition to waiving many traditional visa requirements, the region’s governments have used scarce public resources to provide food and shelter for the Venezuelans, while reassigning thousands of security and health officials to deal with the surge.

Unfortunately, the situation has reached a breaking point. In recent weeks, we have seen incidents of violence and public protests against the immigrants, as overwhelmed officials struggle to prevent lawlessness and meet the needs of local residents who, in many cases, are also very poor.

It is time for the international community to recognize the sacrifices that Venezuela’s neighbors are making, and to offer coordinated support that can prevent further conflict and instability.

Last week in Quito, the government of Ecuador hosted ministers from 11 nations, including the six receiving most Venezuelan immigrants, to craft an integrated approach to the crisis. In their concluding declaration, delegates urged donors, the United Nations and multilateral banks to provide financial support.

The United States and the European Union have already pledged emergency aid. Now we need a substantial source of grants and low-interest loans that governments can use to expand services, speed up processing and gather reliable data on arriving immigrants. Since most Venezuelans are unlikely to return home in the near future, funds will also be required to ensure their legal and orderly integration into local schools and job markets.

The Inter-American Development Bank, which has offices in every affected country and decades of experience financing development programs with the region’s governments, is ideally positioned to create and administer a regional fund for this purpose.

We are prepared to contribute initial grants and provide guarantees that, with pledges from other parties, could generate as much as $1 billion in concessional loans over the next two years. By contributing to the fund, donor nations could channel aid to where it is most needed, while avoiding the inefficiency of fragmented contributions.

Despite the obvious political sensitivities surrounding this issue, I am certain this fund could quickly be made operational. In 2016, the World Bank partnered with the U.N. and the Islamic Development Bank Group to launch a similar effort in less than three months. That fund raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help communities in Jordan and Lebanon cope with the arrival of Syrian refugees.

Migration, regardless of its motives, has long been a defining experience for people in the Americas. History has taught us that those in search of hope and refuge may someday be the ones who offer it. Venezuelans did not hesitate to extend a helping hand in the past. Let’s make sure we do the same for them now.

More info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/09/11/its-time-for-a-coordinated-financial-response-to-the-venezuelan-exodus/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b697319c9a9e

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Bloomberg

Venezuela Raises Minimum Wage 3,000% and Lots of Workers Get Fired

Fabiola Zerpa

September 14, 2018, 2:00 AM PDT
Venezuelan workers who earned a pittance are now earning a slightly larger pittance, thanks to a big increase in the minimum wage. What they may not have are jobs.
Starting this week, 7 million employees are guaranteed 1,800 bolivars a month -- worth about $20 at the black-market rate. President Nicolas Maduro intended the mandate as political boost, but it’s having the opposite effect as companies, already hit by Venezuela’s epic economic contraction, tell workers they can’t afford to keep them.
While there have been many similar moves in the past, never has one been so disruptive, arriving amid hyperinflation, depression and devaluation. Some employers are restructuring costs, rejiggering pay scales and negotiating settlements with workers. Others are simply dismissing people. Much of the action happens secretively as companies try to avoid punishment by the government, which has been jailing those it believes are flouting the rules.
Caracas garage owner Marcos Vizcaino, 56, said the increase was the final blow for the family business of two generations. He said the scarcity of spare parts, a sclerotic tax bureaucracy and hyperinflation had already complicated matters and resulted in less than a customer a day.
“I already told my four employees to go find other jobs,” he said. “I’ve decided to close. There’s no need for me to keep to losing money for a third year in a row.”
No Customers
In two industrial and wholesale districts in Caracas, La Trinidad and Boleita, about half the businesses were closed last week, including several restaurants that depend on local workers. Weekday traffic resembled the leisurely flow of a Sunday.
“I have four salesmen; all have come in this morning,” said Manuel Rosas, 55, who owns a shop that sells spare parts for Chryslers. By 11 a.m., he had sent them all home because they had nothing to do.
The higher minimum wage, which Maduro announced last month, was among several bids to steady the rapidly failing state’s economy and stanch hyperinflation. The socialist autocrat also devalued the currency and lopped five zeroes off denominations of the bolivar bill, which has been rendered almost valueless.
Difficult Meetings
Sine the new minimum wage was announced, business and industry groups in Caracas held a flurry of meetings. Lawyers have been holding advisory sessions with clients, and there have been difficult sit-downs among owners, employees and unions, all players in the nation’s heavily regulated employment economy.
Vizcaíno says he can’t let go of workers easily. If they believe they have been fired wrongly, they can complain to a Labor Ministry court, setting off a lengthy bureaucratic process akin to a trial.
Not far from Vizcaíno’s auto shop, dozens of workers fired after Maduro’s wage announcement gathered at the Labor Ministry’s doorstep. Many arrived as early as 7 a.m. seeking legal guidance on their dismissals but were prevented from entering after appointment times ran out. Many inspectors had been dispatched to see whether pharmacies, shops and factories closed without permission. Workers anxiously posed questions to officials who told them to come again the next day. Disappointed and confused, many left.
Emergency Plan
“In a situation like this, the government should have an emergency plan to advise workers,” said Edwin Lumar, a 29-year-old shopping-mall security guard. His employer fired three out of six workers without providing legal paperwork. “How many times have new wages been put in place with no results to end hyperinflation?"
In fact, since Maduro took office in 2013, he has boosted the minimum wage 24 times. But inflation keeps galloping and businesses keep shutting down. Some 20,000 have closed since 1996, three years before Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chavez, took power, according to Fedecamaras, the nation’s largest business organization. Only about 3,600 remain open. In June, more than half of companies surveyed reported they worked at less than a quarter of capacity, according to Conindustria, a trade organization.
“Closing is an individual dilemma,” said Rodrigo Agudo, Dairy and Meat Institute director and food industry expert.
Apart from the astronomical rise in wages, companies have limited ability to adapt, thanks to restrictive controls. Food operations are closely monitored as the government provides them imported raw materials. More than 500 supermarkets and stores have been fined and 200 managers and workers detained since Maduro’s announcements, according to Cedice, a private-property watchdog group.
On Sept. 3, the government seized a pharmaceutical company in Maracaibo that planned to shut; it was previously fined for hoarding products. In August, the government seized a Smurfit Kappa plant that made cardboard after it closed several production lines and sent workers on early vacation. Demand had fallen as the food packagers it supplied closed.
Banking, commerce, education and construction companies, which often have large and stable payrolls, are expected to be buffeted. Benefits pegged to wages -- which depend on an employee’s tenure -- also will increase, and large firms have collective-bargaining agreements subject to government scrutiny.
“The impact can be devastating; it can consume a whole company’s capital,” said Aurelio Concheso, a labor expert at Fedecamaras.

ve closed since last year, said Wael Raal, a shop owner who is also president of the community’s commerce association.
“We are crossing a desert,” he said.
— With assistance by Noris Soto

More info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-14/after-getting-3-000-wage-hike-workers-are-fired-in-venezuela
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MY SAN ANTONIO,

Impoverished Venezuelans are abandoning their pets

by Rachelle Krygier,

The Washington Post Published 5:28 am CDT, Thursday, September 13, 2018

CARACAS, Venezuela - It was Sheldon's 6th birthday, and Mary Cruz Lema realized she had to give him up.

As Venezuela's economic crisis had deepened, she and her husband had been struggling to feed their beloved black and white schnauzer. Their collective salaries - hers as a schoolteacher and his as a nurse - equaled no more than $10 a month, barely enough to cover meals for themselves and their two children.

The last time Sheldon had had a dog treat was in November. By January, their budget was so tight that Lema stopped buying pet shampoo and begin limiting his meals to one a day. By June, his only sustenance was a few leftover vegetables from the family table. Once playful, Sheldon became lethargic - sitting in a corner in distress.

"I looked at the dog and couldn't sleep," Lema said. "It felt urgent."

So she took a step that is becoming increasingly common in this collapsing nation: giving up the family pet.

If life in Venezuela has become hard for humans, it has become even harder for many pets. With inflation soaring toward 1 million percent, dog food and veterinary care have spiraled out of reach for millions of people. One kilo - or 2.2 pounds - of dog food, for instance, now costs nearly the equivalent of three weeks' salary for a minimum-wage worker.

The result, animal specialists say, has been an exploding population of abandoned dogs on the streets and rising numbers in underfunded shelters. Although there are no reliable national figures on the phenomenon, officials from eight shelters in the capital, Caracas, said they had seen a roughly 50 percent rise in the number of pets left at their facilities this year. At the same time, pet adoptions have a dropped by as much as a third, they said.

"People are being forced to choose their priorities, and dogs for the most part aren't one of them," said Esmeralda Larrosa, owner of the Kauna Animal Foundation, a Caracas shelter. Her facility, she said, is now struggling to feed its 125 dogs - including 15 that arrived within the previous two weeks. "The rise in abandonment we are seeing is simply crazy."

On one recent morning, dozens of dogs, many of them emaciated, languished inside Evelia's Shelter in eastern Caracas. The smell of dog urine filled the air - a scent hard to wash away in a city where businesses and homes have running water only intermittently. A tiny, skeletal black poodle - brought in a week earlier - sat in one corner. A 1-year-old golden retriever, recently surrendered by a man unable to feed him, roamed the yard.

"Every day is incredibly sad," said Aida Lopez Mendez, 53, one of the shelter's owners. "We never thought the situation could get so tragic."

As prices of goods and services surge, Larrosa said, she has been forced to cease most vaccinations and medical treatments for the animals. Anesthesia injections for animal operations, for instance, can cost the equivalent of $50.

At the same time, donations to shelters have fallen drastically. To get by, Larrosa is feeding her dogs discarded pieces of meat from a nearby restaurant. And new animals are arriving in ever-worse conditions.

"We mostly get malnourished dogs now," she said. Three such canines were left at her door last month; two died within weeks.

For pets as well as people, the crisis here is likely to get worse. This petroleum-rich country's woes are the result of a combination of factors - including lower oil prices, corruption and failed socialist policies. In an attempt to stabilize the economy, President Nicolás Maduro - the successor of Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013 - announced a 3,000 percent minimum-wage hike last month.
So far, though, that measure and others have seemed to backfire, with prices for basic goods almost doubling.

Some shelters are considering closing once they're able to place all their dogs.

"It's a critical situation because we have to spend three times as much as we used to to maintain each animal," said Mariant Lameda, owner of the Network of Canine Support, which has 270 dogs. Only one has been adopted this year, compared with 13 last year, and more than 200 in 2015.

The crisis is forcing people such as Johnny Godoy, a 40-year old businessman, to make desperate decisions about their pets. Unable to get by on the money he makes selling paper products, Godoy is planning to move to Peru, a journey of more than 2,000 miles. He has spent months trying to find a family with whom he can leave his 6-year-old miniature pinscher.

"Because of the country's situation, it's hard to find someone who wants to keep her. But I can't take her; I'm leaving by bus, and we still don't know how long it will take for us to get settled," he said. "We're going to miss her horribly."

For Lema, the teacher, saying goodbye to her dog was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. On that late June morning, she recalled, she walked out of the house holding Sheldon,
accompanied by her two children, as representatives of an animal aid group arrived in a car to pick up the dog. The three of them were crying. Her boy, who is autistic, was especially distraught.
She gave the aid workers Sheldon's purple pillow, his little red quilt with polka dots, and the dog. As their vehicle started to pull away, her 13-year-old son started hitting the car window, shouting for his pet.

Lema said she kept Sheldon's dog tag.
"We miss him every single day," she said.

- - -
The Washington Post's Anthony Faiola in Miami contributed to this report.

More info: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Impoverished-Venezuelans-are-abandoning-their-pets-13226063.php
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FINANCIAL POST

Everyone realizes too late that Stephen Harper was right about Venezuela

by Terence Corcoran

Published: September 13, 2018 9:33 AM EDT

As beleaguered Venezuela lies in socialist ruins and its people plunge deeper into economic chaos, the country’s president announced Wednesday that he was flying off to China in search of another financial rescue. It is not unreasonable to ask: Will he ever return? Are Chinese leaders crazy?

According to Reuters, Nicolas Maduro made the announcement over state media from Caracas airport just before boarding a plane. His parting words could be interpreted: “I am going with great expectations and we will see each other again in a few days with big achievements.” Was that a promise or a hope?

American media have been abuzz with speculation about a coup d’état in recent days at a time when the Venezuelan economy — in collapse for at least a year — seems beyond rescue. The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump officials met with Venezuelans plotting the overthrow of Maduro’s dictatorship. Trump rejected the idea, but the news has generated new fever about foreign intervention or of a possible internal coup.

A peaceful overthrow of the Maduro regime would be the best outcome for a country that has been in a socialist tailspin for more than two decades — a reign of economic error that might have ended sooner had it not been for the soft-headed support of the world’s leftists, a collection of ideologues that ranged from Canadian mainstream socialists to international economists and a global media all too willing to downplay the scale and causes of Venezuela’s decline.

National income has cratered. The country’s currency is worthless paper with its estimated annual inflation rate of one million per cent. Disease is spreading, corruption is rampant, rule of law non-existent, crime everywhere. It is estimated that 2.3-million Venezuelan refugees have fled the failed state for better lives in Colombia and other South American nations.

Even CBC’s The National has glommed on to Venezuela’s economic disaster, having dispatched star anchor Adrienne Arsenault to the border between Colombia and Venezuela to file reports this week on the human toll of the refugee flood. It’s a big move for The National, which over two decades has rarely raised a concerned eyebrow as Venezuela slid under the tyranny of leftist populism, first under Hugo Chavez, hero of the Canadian left, and then under Maduro, who took power when Chavez died in 2013.

At the time, left-wingers criticized then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper for issuing a statement on Chavez’s death that rightly offered no sympathy: “I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.”

At Rabble.ca, official home of leftist Canadian commentary, a writer implied that Harper could learn a lesson from Chavez, who — among other things — was said to be more representative of democracy since he won elections with big majorities that Harper never matched. In 2014, a Rabble headline read: “NDP should use Venezuelan revolution as inspiration for Canada’s labour struggles.”

The list of Canadian enthusiasts for Chavez-style socialism ranged from journalist Linda McQuaig to celebrity author Naomi Klein. McQuaig devoted 20 pages of her 2004 book “It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet,” to Chavez as the hero of nationalization after he took over control of Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVAA — a classic socialist takeover that became the single-largest cause for the country’s decline. Chavez used nationalized revenue from the country’s massive oil reserves to set up social redistribution to buy support among the poor and the masses: free housing, virtually free gasoline, payoffs to supporters. As oil hit US$100 a barrel, the ideology seemed to be paying off. But when the commodity-price bubble burst, it all came crashing down.

McQuaig, Klein and other squishy Canadians were not alone in cheering Venezuela’s Chavez/Maduro takeover. Nobel economist and former Clinton adviser Joseph Stiglitz praised Chavez, claiming he “appears to have had success in bringing health and education to the people in the poor neighbourhoods of Caracas, to those who previously saw few benefits of the country’s oil wealth.”

International support for Venezuelan socialism continued over two decades and up till recently. British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn hailed Venezuela as a socialist model and Chavez for showing the world there is a better way of doing things. “It’s called socialism,” Corbyn said.

In a commentary last week, Harvard Economist Kenneth Rogoff spread the net of complicity wide:

“Altogether too many left-leaning economists (including some who ultimately worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders in the US) were diehard supporters of the Venezuelan regime. There were also opportunistic enablers, including Goldman Sachs (with its ill-considered purchase that propped up Venezuelan bond prices), and some on the right, such as the inauguration committee for US President Donald Trump, which accepted a large donation from Citgo, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.”

Are the Chinese crazy enough that they will sink more cash into a destitute and failed economy?

All through the Chavez/Maduro regime, Venezuela has been forming military and financial ties with Russia and China. Russia has supplied billions of dollars to Venezuela while pressuring the country to nationalize industries and mines, including Chrystellex, the Canadian gold operator that last month won another U.S. court case seeking US$1.2-billion compensation for the government takeover.

Russia’s involvement in Venezuela runs deep, leading some to speculate that a new clash with the United States in taking shape over the future of South America. China has also funded Venezuela, based on the assumption that there will in future be cash to extract from the country’s massive oil reserves.

Can Maduro, if he is indeed off to China, secure more stopgap funding from Chinese leaders? Are the Chinese crazy enough that they will sink more cash into a destitute and failed economy in the hope that the investment will be returned once some form of stability is achieved?

Venezuela has a lot of oil, but its current government has so many growing liabilities tied to that oil, sorting out the debts in future will not be easy, especially given the failed nation’s current state of law and monetary policy. It is possible that China and Russia might find themselves coexisting as the backers of a regime that neither would claim is an economic success, even by the miserable standards of Latin America.

Meanwhile, Maduro recently launched a farcical reform of the valueless Venezuelan Bolivar, including the launch of a cryptocurrency called the Petro — described by Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke as a scam.

Whether or not Maduro ever returns from China with his “great expectations” fulfilled may not matter. From what we know of Venezuela’s economic plight, there is more than a good chance that the end is near for the glorious socialist model that never existed.

More info: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-everyone-realizes-too-late-that-stephen-harper-was-right-about-venezuela
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