Latest

The claim that Venezuela had the "world's largest oil reserves" went viral during Hugo Chavez's presidency. It is a very convenient claim, from a geopolitical and economic viewpoint. It somehow makes the country more relevant. Chavez nurtured and repeated the legend every time he could. It became one of those revolutionary mantras that everyone regurgitates without question, like the lie that Venezuela was declared an "illiteracy free territory" by UNESCO.

Take a look at this Ponzi scheme: it is said to be Spain's largest, €3 billion that belonged to 300,000 people vanished.

There is a tired debate regarding sanctions. Naturally both camps disregard data inconvenient to their stance. Proponents see sanctions as perfect non-violent measures that bring economic hardship to targets. Opponents see it as demonstrably inefficient tools that invariably end up punishing the wrong people. Both sides are simultaneously right and wrong. Cuba is the perfect case study. Years of U.S. sanctions have achieved precisely nothing against the dictators in power.

In its latest weekly publication Gotham City published "Le fisc espagnol s'intéresse aux comptes suisses d'Alejandro Betancourt." As is typical in anything related to "entrepreneur" Betancourt, it turns out he hasn't been forthcoming regarding his global income and assets, which, as a resident in Spain, he must declare. With respect to tax payments over the years in Venezuela (where Betancourt "made his wealth"), he has never paid his due to SENIAT, Venezuela's tax authority

El Nacional reported yesterday, without giving much detail, that Alessandro Bazzoni is the ultimate beneficiary owner of United Petroleo, a Panamanian shell that has been lifting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of PDVSA crude in the recent past.

A ruling from Judge Leonard P.  Stark of U.S. District Court in Delaware (case Rusoro Mining Ltd. v. Bolivarian Rep. of Venezuela, 21-mc-00481-LPS) claims that Juan Guaidó had objected to the sale by Nicolas Maduro's regime of a 35% stake that PDVSA had in Nynas. This site has covered extensively Nynas's reorganisation process.

Since last Friday it's been reported: "Tareck (el Aissami) is going down... Joselit Ramirez, his right hand man, was arrested... Antonio Pérez Suárez, head of PDVSA's trade department, was arrested... law enforcement got to the Arosio Hobaica brothers... Delcy and Jorge Rodriguez were seen screaming at Tareck... Maduro is livid due to billions lost in unpaid subterfuge trading... Alessandro Bazzoni is involved along Joaquin Leal... They're coming for Majed Khalil and brother Khaled... Alejandro Arroyo got caught..."