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After a referendum on the question of whether Guyana's territory belongs to Venezuela in which hardly any Venezuelan voter participated, Nicolas Maduro made a series of statements that are causing concern (?) in some places: Venezuela's map has been redrawn to include most of Guyana; PDVSA is to create new divisions that will seek to grant licenses in Guyana's territory to exploit oil & gas; the Venezuelan army -which has been put in "war alert"- is to oversee from a center of operations in Tumeremo that inhabitants of the "reclaimed" area receive Venezuelan citizenship and related docu

Imagine you're someone whose entire life has been devoted to criminal activity (bombings, corruption, misappropriation of public funds, money laundering). Imagine that the country where you did all that becomes unlivable and you emigrate, expatriating the stolen loot. You settle in a new place, where nobody knows you and, more importantly, nobody knows the origin of your "wealth".

RTP Noticias from Portugal posted an article yesterday that claims: "O venezuelano Nervis Villalobos, indicado como estando envolvido no caso de corrupção e branqueamento de capitais nas ligações do Grupo Espírito Santo (GES) à Venezuela, acusou a justiça portuguesa de "atitude persecutória" e ameaçou com um processo." [bold added] Translation: Nervis Villalobos, involved in corruption and

Canaima Finance Limited. That is, according to a criminal probe led in Portugal by prosecutor Olga Barata, the shell in which Rafael Ramirez got $47,831,557 from a slush fund to make bribe payments created by Ricardo Salgado (Banco Espirito Santo - BES). Luis Rosa from El Observador was given access to the prosecution files and has the full report.

The Washington Post published an editorial yesterday that concludes: "Whether Mr. Maduro now makes way for a truly competitive political process, or just collects oil revenue and pays lip service to democracy, will depend first on Mr. Maduro, but, second, on whether the opposition, Venezuelan civil society and the United States hold him to his commitments.

With the presence of representatives from the European Union, the U.S., Latin American governments, and (some) Venezuelan opposition figures, the regime led by Nicolas Maduro agreed this week in Barbados to a "set of electoral guarantees" for the "upcoming presidential election" in the second semester of 2024. Maduro also submitted to electoral observers from the EU, U.N., African Union, and Carter Centre, and, crucially, agreed to audits of the electoral system.

Further to media announcements in late September about development of Dragon Field by Trinidad and Venezuela, the Maduro government is yet to give any indication as to what was signed and how the deal, which has to comply with U.S. Treasury's sanctions, will structure a non-cash paying mechanism to Venezuela. Deals of this nature signed by the Executive only become official, as far as current Venezuelan law is concerned, once Congress approves and orders publication in Official Gazette. That is yet to happen.