venezuela

Starbucks recently opened a shop in Caracas. It was an instant hit. Social media got inundated with the news, as sure sign that Venezuela is back on the mend. In other news, many sources report that Caracas looks different. There are bodegones (delis) popping all over the place. Restaurants and night clubs are filled with beautiful people. Some avenues in East Caracas are lit again, as part of a beautification effort launched by local authorities. The greenback is king... 

On 10 December this site revealed Roger Carsten's visit to Caracas:

@StateDept’s @StateSPEHA flew to Caracas aboard “Ebola plane” #N173PA to negotiate release of some political prisoners of @NicolasMaduro

When it comes to foreign policy blunders that can't be hidden from view, it doesn’t really matter who inhabits the White House: Venezuela is a source of endless embarrassment.

UPDATED 15/10/2021 - Juan Guaido, the U.S. Department of State's designated "interim" President of Venezuela is in a bit of a pickle. So is his boss / handler, Leopoldo Lopez. People that claimed to propugn democracy and adhere to its core tenets will know that legitimacy isn't something the State Department can conjure and bestow on others. Legitimacy is something that only democratically elected officials have. When was the last time Juan Guaido won an election? When he did win, that last election, under which system / authority he got elected? How about Lopez?

As per Reuters: "The United States, Britain and other large, rich nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to squeeze more money out of multinational companies such as Amazon and Google and reduce their incentive to shift profits to low-tax offshore havens.

Every journalist / media outlet out there is partial to its causes. When it comes to corruption, and specifically to graft in resource rich countries, there is little that is not known, that is doesn't form part of an ever evolving narrative particular to the field. Every person remotely acquainted with large scale corruption would have heard (by now) about Russia, Nigeria, DRC, Odebrecht in Brazil, China, Panama Papers, FIFA, Switzerland, London, Daniel Ortega, the Kirchners, HSBC actively helping Mexican narcos launder money, David Cameron and Greensill, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump...

There's a report in Panampost that claims that Jimmy Story has communicated President Joe Biden / State Department's new Venezuela policy to Juan Guaido.

The good thing about having followed Venezuelan politics very closely -for almost two decades- is that little of what chavismo does surprises. With respect to the "new electoral authorities", Nicolas Maduro may fool Bloomberg hacks, but not us. We know who Enrique Marquez and Roberto Picón are.

Bloomberg put this out yesterday: "Guaido approved the release of $152 million, of which about $100 million will be used to buy vaccines through the World Health Organization-backed Covax initiative or other organizations, according to a budget report approved by the National Assembly.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (USGAO) released a report yesterday, "Additional Tracking Could Aid Treasury's Efforts to Mitigate Any Adverse Impacts U.S. Sanctions Might Have on Humanitarian Assistance", which found that "Despite U.S.