Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time and effort. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, pls have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers: do the right thing, the honest thing, support independent investigative journalism. Note added 28/06/2021: impostors are using INFODIO's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui at gmail.com) to send copyright infringement claims / take down requests to web hosting companies. The attempt is yet another effort paid by corrupt thugs to erase information about their criminal activities. Infodio.com has no issues with other websites / journalists using / posting information published here, so long as the source is properly cited. Note added 12/06/2026: infodio.com has not created mirror websites / domains and remains totally independent and unrelated to others. Beware of websites using our brand.
Depending on source of information, Venezuela carries a debt burden between 150 and 200 billion USD. And that's the first problem: nobody knows with exactitude how much it is, given the country stopped publishing accounts well over a decade ago. Nonetheless, U.S. puppet Delcy Rodriguez announced plans to restructure it and tapped none other than old friend Matthieu Pigasse, whose current bio doesn't even mention Venezuela.
A couple days ago, the FT published "'Kiss of death’: how the US killed a Swiss merchant bank. MBaer survived years of scrutiny at home — before Washington stepped in to seal its fate." The article goes into details regarding an investigation that the Swiss banking watchdog (FINMA) ran for years, before the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) from the United States
Venezuelan historian Manuel Caballero maintained that it was a mistake to try and pigeonhole Hugo Chavez within the traditional and descriptive ideological limits of socialism, conservatism, capitalism, communism, etc., claiming “Hugo Chávez no es comunista, ni socialista, ni musulmán, como dijo él alguna vez. Pero es todo eso a la vez si le garantizan que puede quedarse toda la vida en el poder. Chávez es chavista y lo que él adora de Fidel Castro no son las cosas que Fidel hizo o dejó de hacer en Cuba, sino su casi medio siglo en el poder.”
Spain's Prosecutor Santiago Pedraz dismissed the connection between Alejandro Betancourt and a $4.85 billion money laundering scheme centered on PDVSA, by arguing that Venezuelan courts had found no crime regarding the case.
Since successful launch and completion of Operation Southern Spear in Venezuela, a development that could hardly have been foreseen has emerged: the spectacular rise of Delcy Rodriguez as Donald Trump's favourite foreign policy propaganda tool.
A little over a month after the U.S government executed Operation Southern Spear, snatching Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores and forcing the remaining chavista criminal bosses to obey and follow further instructions from Washington, Venezuela's democratic future remains uncertain. The question of elections has been met with evasive answers from nearly all U.S. officials involved. It is useful however to keep tabs on what has happened in some fronts since January 3rd, a flurry of activity in criminal investigations involving chavismo facilitators being one of the most important.
It is a fact of life that Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and Salazar have plenty of nostalgics across the world. Roosevelt and Churchill not so much, despite their actions impeding the little moustachioed man from annexing continental Europe to South Bavaria. Most people commenting on Venezuela these days must have forgotten their own history and have taken leave of their senses. Instead, in this moment of cautious optimism after enduring 26 years of chavista rule, Venezuelans the world over have had to put up with pedantic callousness from people that have no skin in the game.
Seeing an inordinate amount of suspicious traffic activity from China, this site implemented a country wide block to "visitors" connecting from Chinese IP addresses. Our Chinese "readers" did not like the measure, which lasted less than 36 hours, and instructed their Singaporean, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Iraqi and Argentinean friends to ping the site thousands of times in an effort to overwhelm the server and to knock infodio.com offline. Some got through, however we still wish good luck to the enemies of information flow.
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