Paul Dobson — Venezuela’s Maduro Secures $5bn Chinese Loan & Joins Beijing’s New Silk Road Initiative

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro returned to Caracas Monday upon concluding a four-day visit to the People’s Republic of China, which saw the two countries sign twenty-eight bilateral agreements, including a new US $5 billion Chinese loan and joint plans for a fourth satellite, in addition to strengthening political ties....

“I have had to overcome economic sanction measures by the US and Europe, who persecute Venezuelan bank accounts, kidnap billions of dollars in international accounts and block commerce,” Maduro told Chinese state TV....

Venezuelanalysis
Venezuela’s Maduro Secures $5bn Chinese Loan & Joins Beijing’s New Silk Road Initiative

Paul Dobson

Venezuela Analysis — The Actors in the Conspiracy Against Venezuela

Backgrounder.

One-sided, but so is the "news" coming from Maduro's opposition, both domestic and international.

Venezuela Analysis
The Actors in the Conspiracy Against Venezuela

Eduardo Andrade Bone - Resumen Latin Americano

See also

Backgrounder on Venezuelan history.

While this is more about the politics and institutional factors than the economics, the political and institutional factors heavily influence the economics. So there is more to it than just mismanagement.

Could better management have obviated the crisis?

Perhaps. But it was not only lack of material systems knowledge and skills that led to the crisis and its perpetuation.

No doubt that better management would greatly improve matters though.

Fort Russ
The Venezuelan Economic Crisis: Facts. vs. Propaganda

Dexter Corbett

See also

Maduro Encourages FBI to Investigate Drone Attack Suspect

Matias Vernengo — Venezuela is about to explode

The Empire at work. Is history about to repeat?

Al Jazzera — Opinion
Venezuela is about to explode
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

See also

Naked Keynesianism
Lula da Silva is a political prisoner. Free Lula!
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

Steve Sweeney — Maduro promises more revolution and to clampdown on ‘financial mafias’ destabilising Venezuela

Neoliberal forces have been rounding on Mr Maduro’s socialist government.
The European Union demanded last week that Venezuela abandon the elections. citing concerns over transparency and democracy.

The International Monetary Foundation also issued a motion of censure against Venezuela last week for failing to provide it with data relating to economic performance, including import and export figures.…

But Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the country had one of the most audited and transparent systems anywhere in the world.

“There is no system more transparent than Venezuela’s. Today’s simulation is a practice audit because it lets us evaluate the system’s logistics and how well the machines are functioning and today’s test matches the previous 16 audits that were also successful,” he said....

Full court press against Maduro for neoliberal-led regime change.

Morning Star (UK)
Maduro promises more revolution and to clampdown on ‘financial mafias’ destabilising Venezuela

Steve Sweeney

See also at Morning Star

It's no secret the US has regime change in mind for Iran

Editorial

Reuters — U.S. urges regional leaders to isolate Venezuela's Maduro

The United States urged regional leaders on Saturday to take stronger steps to isolate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as it joined a declaration condemning the worsening humanitarian crisis and political repression in the South American nation.…

“The United States of America will not stand idly by as Venezuela crumbles,” Pence said in a speech. “Every free nation gathered here must take stronger action to isolate the Maduro regime. We must all stand with our brothers and sisters suffering in Venezuela.”

When the US mixes up "American liberal values" with the economic and geopolitical interests of the US power elite, the pitch loses credibility.

Reuters

U.S. urges regional leaders to isolate Venezuela's Maduro
Lisandra Paraguassu and Roberta Rampton

Reuters — Venezuela's presidential battle begins, Maduro favorite

Venezuela’s presidential election race has begun with favorite and incumbent Nicolas Maduro signaling a nationalist, “anti-Trump” campaign while his demoralized foes scramble to find a viable candidate for a vote they predict will be unfair.

Sums it up. The favorite wins. The opposition screams foul and runs to Washington. Washington declares foul and intervenes directly or indirectly. Wash, rinse, repeat. That's "democracy." They are now even doing it the US in the case of establishment-outsider DJT.

Reuters
Venezuela's presidential battle begins, Maduro favorite
Andrew Cawthorne, Andreina Aponte

Daniel Margrain — Venezuela: History repeating itself?

The corporate media is deliberately giving readers the false impression that Venezuela is ‘flirting with dictatorship’. In reality, these claims couldn’t be further from the truth. But majority support for a Constituents Assembly, and the fact that the Governing United Socialist Party won 17 out of 23 governor races is irrelevant to Washington’s nefarious objectives. US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson is threatening to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is he doesn’t leave of his own accord.” The country is being “softened up” through the press as a precursor to its subsequent destruction.…

The politics of Chavez were founded on two very simple tenets:

1) People ought not to be starving in dreadful slums in the world’s most oil rich state.

2) The CIA ought not to control Venezuela....

Renegade Inc.
Venezuela: History repeating itself?
Daniel Margrain

Alexandra Witts — Venezuela's president says Donald Trump is 'the new Hitler'

Trading insults.

Independent
Venezuela's president says Donald Trump is 'the new Hitler'

Alexandra Witts

Sharmini Peries interviews Mark Weisbrot — Venezuela's President Maduro Presents New Economic Measures

Video and transcript. 

Mark Weisbrot is one of the most knowledgeable people writing about the economic situation in English.

SHARMINI PERIES: Mark, so let's start with President Maduro's economic policy announcements, which took place on Thursday night. From what you can tell so far, do you think they will work towards recovering Venezuela's economy here?

MARK WEISBROT: Well, I think probably not. I think there's some good things there. The try to increase the food distribution, which they have increased recently, I think is a good thing, but they do have these fundamental imbalances in the economy that have not been resolved, and have worsened pretty much continuously over the last five years....

Float the bolivar (VEF).

That's why I'm recommending that they let the currency float. It's not that I think that that's always the best thing, although you don't see really ... very few economies in this hemisphere have anything like that kind of system, and no economist in the world, that I can think of, would recommend the exchange rate system that they have.

Now, that's not to say that the vast majority of economists can't be wrong. You know, they are, but this is really almost anyone across the political spectrum, and you can see it again, they've had it for five years, and you can see exactly how it's destroyed the economy, so I think that those are the kind of reforms they're going to need, and they're probably going to need some outside help too. [Which Russia and China stand ready to provide.]

TRNN
Venezuela's President Maduro Presents New Economic Measures

Sharmini Peries interviews Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C, along with Dean Baker, and President of Just Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization dedicated to reforming United States foreign policy

See also

Calling BS. Always against the adversaries of the Atlanticists and never against them or their allies. No credibility given the record.

Reuters
U.N. rights boss sees possible "crimes against humanity" in Venezuela
Stephanie Nebehay

Vladimir Rodzianko — Oil-rich Venezuela is abandoning the US petrodollar, plans to introduce new international payment system

In an address to a new legislative superbody, Maduro said: 

“I am announcing that Venezuela intends to introduce a new international payment system and to create a currency basket for the liberation from the dollar and, [we intend] to free ourselves from the clutches of the dollar, the currency that is strangling our country.” 

“If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian rouble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro,” Maduro said....

Another wipe at what's left of Bretton Woods.

The Duran

Oil-rich Venezuela is abandoning the US petrodollar, plans to introduce new international payment system
Vladimir Rodzianko

The Battle for Venezuela and Its Oil — Jeremy Scahill interviews Eva Golinger

Backgrounder.

EG: Because while there is a state reaction taking place, there is repression with tear gas and rubber bullets, you’re not seeing the other side of it, which is that those are not exactly peaceful democratic protests. There are smaller factions. I mean, there are parts of the opposition in Venezuela that act within a democratic framework, but there is a very violent faction that’s gotten out of control. It’s anarchical. I mean, they where they’re using Molotov cocktails, homemade bombs and weapons, and they’re using them against the state security forces.

So I mean, I always think about it is, if this were happening in Washington D.C. or even here in the in the streets of New York where I am, I mean, it wouldn’t last more than an hour....

The Intercept

The Battle for Venezuela and Its Oil

Jeremy Scahill interviews Eva Golinger

See also

Ironically, Trump has been hammering his generals on losing in Afghanistan and suggested an interest in a total pullout. Yet, he then said that he was considering an intervention in Venezuela — a move that could unite the country behind Maduro and hand him the very victory that has eluded him.

Maduro can now take that statement to Venezuela’s new Constituent Assembly as he demands unchecked powers.

Jonathan Turley
Trump Declares That Military Options Are Being Considered in Venezuela
Jonathan Turley | Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University

Matias Vernengo — On Venezuela, Democracy, Violence and Neoliberalism

The question then is how much of the push to limits to the power of the legislative assembly dominated by the opposition, and how much of the political repression (including the treatment of opposition leaders, but also the police violence) results from the very violent and anti-democratic push from the opposition itself, that has tried to bring down the government since the very beginning (including a failed coup attempt in 2002). And this is also a valid concern that many (almost all the mainstream media) on the left seem to forget. I can’t honestly respond. But I can provide a perspective, based on my understanding of the Argentine and Brazilian cases that are closer to my experience.

Naked Keynesianism
On Venezuela, Democracy, Violence and Neoliberalism

Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

See also

Prof. George Ciccariello-Maher of Drexel University analyzes the latest developments in Venezuela, including a new UN human rights report, US sanctions, and the begrudging admission by President Maduro's foes that he still has popular support

TRNN
UN Human Rights Report on Venezuela Ignores Opposition Violence

Kevin Gosztola — After Constituent Assembly Vote, US-Backed Opposition Further Destabilizes Venezuela With Violence

An alternative view of Venezuela, which, if true, would make conventional reporting fake news. Cui bono?

Firedoglake
After Constituent Assembly Vote, US-Backed Opposition Further Destabilizes Venezuela With Violence
Kevin Gosztola

Michael Roberts — The tragedy of Venezuela

What went wrong with the laudable aims of Chavismo? Could this tragedy been avoided? Well, yes, if the Chavista revolution had not stopped at less than halfway, leaving the economy still predominantly in the control of capital. Instead, the Chavista and Maduro governments relied on high oil prices and huge oil reserves to reduce poverty, while failing to transform the economy through productive investment, state ownership and planning. Between 1999 and 2012 the state had an income of $383bn from oil, due not only to the improvement in prices, but also to the increase in the royalties paid by the transnationals. 

However, this income was not used transform the productive sectors of the economy. Yes, some was used to improve the living standards of the most impoverished masses. But there was no plan for investment and growth. Venezuelan capital was allowed to get on with it – or not as the case may be. Indeed, the share of industry in GDP fell from 18% of GDP in 1998 to 14% in 2012.

Now the right-wing ‘free marketeers’ tell us that this shows ‘socialism’ does not work and there is no escape from the rigors of the market. But the history of the last ten years is not the failure of ‘socialism’ or planning, it is the failure to end the control of capital in a weak (an increasingly isolated) capitalist country with apparently only one asset, oil. There was no investment in the people, their skills, no development of new industries and the raising of technology – that was left to the capitalist sector. Contrast that with ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, albeit in the largest country and now economy in the world.

While the situation in Venezuela  is more complicated than the scope of this post can address, Marxian economist Michael Roberts hits the high points from the perspective of someone favorable to Bolivarian revolution, Chavismo and socialism.

Michael Roberts Blog
The tragedy of Venezuela
Michael Roberts

Reuters — U.S. sanctions Venezuelan officials to pressure Maduro

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior officials of Venezuela's government, military and state oil company PDVSA on Wednesday, U.S. officials said, seeking to ratchet up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress.…

Let's see now, the US is at war economically with North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria, and now Venezuela. Did I forget anyone? Oh right, the US just sanctioned some Chinese entities over NK.

Reuters
U.S. sanctions Venezuelan officials to pressure Maduro
Matt Spetalnick

See also

Russia Insider
Study: Russia Insulated From Further Sanctions by Import Substitution Success
Jon Hellevig

Matias Vernengo — A brief note on Venezuela and the turn to the right in Latin America

Matias explains the situation in Venezuela in more detail. The problem is endemic and not directly the result of the Chavez-Maduro governments. A right-wing neoliberal government won't be able to fix it either, although they would likely get assistance from the IMF and US, at a price that will be borne by the people rather than the elite, who will be boosted by it, in particular as compradors.

Naked Keynesianism
A brief note on Venezuela and the turn to the right in Latin America
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

BBC News — Maduro orders seizure of shut factories

Going Galt in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has ordered the seizure of factories that have stopped production and the jailing of their owners.

In a speech to supporters in the capital Caracas, he said the country had to recover the means of production, to counter its deep economic crisis.

On Friday, he introduced a new, nationwide state of emergency.

Now we learn why there is no toilet paper or beer.

The move to seize closed factories came after Venezuela's largest food and beverage company, the Polar Group, halted production of beer, blaming government mismanagement for stopping it importing barley.

The group's billionaire owner, Lorenzo Mendoza, is a fierce critic of President Maduro.

"We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralysed by the bourgeoisie," Mr Maduro told a rally in Caracas.

BBC News
Maduro orders seizure of shut factories

nsnbc — Maduro: Obama’s Latest Comments Reveal “Anti-Bolivarian Obsession”

According to Maduro, Obama’s latest comments will be interpreted as a call to depose his government by the emboldened rightwing opposition, who announced their intention to force the president from office via referendum or constitutional reform earlier this month.

“This is directly meddled up in the coup attempts to change a legitimate constitutional government… in an absolutely independent Republic such as our Bolivarian homeland… violating international law and with no reason or moral motive,” lamented the president.

“It is a green light for the terrorist madness of the Venezuelan opposition,” said the head of state, referring to the violent opposition protests of 2014 which left 43 people dead.…

Nicholas Maduro is the democratically elected president of Venezuela.

He was also joined in his criticism by Venezuela’s foreign ministry, which released a statement condemning the US president’s comments.

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects the declarations of the United States president as blatant interference in the political life of our homeland, and openly inciting violent sectors to overthrow the constitutional and legitimate government of President Nicolas Maduro,” read the official communique dated March 15th.

nsnbc international

Maduro: Obama’s Latest Comments Reveal “Anti-Bolivarian Obsession”

Mark Weisbrot — Venezuela: Dismantling a Weapon of Mass Destruction

The government of Venezuela has often denounced an “economic war” against it, and of course this is part of the current situation. The primary weapon of mass destruction in this war is the black market for the dollar. It is no coincidence that the main source of information for this market — the extreme right-wing “DolarToday” — is run by someone who played an important role in the U.S.-backed military coup in 2002. He was then an army officer — Colonel Gustavo Díaz Vivas — and he now resides in Alabama, with DolarToday operating out of the U.S.

This is also no coincidence. Washington has been trying to topple the Venezuelan government for at least 15 years, and almost every journalist I have talked to during this time — including from every major international media outlet — has been well aware of this effort; although they almost never write about it.…

Excellent analysis follows.

Noteworthy:

Others argue, from the left, that a floating exchange rate is “neoliberalism,” and that keeping the fixed, overvalued rate is “socialist.” But this is also deadly wrong. The worst economic crises of the late 1990s — in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other countries — were brought on by fixed, overvalued currencies. Most of these fixed, overvalued currencies were strongly supported by the International Monetary Fund and other neoliberals until they collapsed.

Much of the Left is clueless financially and economically.

Triple Crisis
Venezuela: Dismantling a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the president of Just Foreign Policy

nsnbc — Uproar after Venezuelan Colonel Detained for Giving Controversial Interview

Venezuelan Colonel Jose Martin Raga was detained Wednesday after Newsweek en Español published an interview in which he shared his critical perspective on the Bolivarian government, while maintaining his support for the revolution. The military official was released today without charges, after his arrest took social media by storm.

Corruption is bipartisan.

nsnbc

Uproar after Venezuelan Colonel Detained for Giving Controversial Interview

Davit Kezerashvili, Georgia’s Most Wanted: Walks Free with Political Impunity