Venezuela declares ‘economic emergency’ amid currency woes

Latest update : 2016-01-16
Venezuela’s socialist government decreed an “economic emergency” on Friday that will expand its powers and published the first data in a year that shows the depth of a recession fueled by low oil prices and a sputtering state-led model.

The central bank, which has been lambasted by critics of President Nicolas Maduro’s government for hiding statistics since the end of 2014, said the South American OPEC nation’s economy shrank 4.5 percent in the first nine months last year.

Inflation soared in that period to an annual rate of 141.5 percent, the world’s worst.
Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy is forecast to perform abysmally again in 2016. Maduro lost control of the National Assembly in a December election due to voter ire over the crisis.
...

www.france24.com...

Venezuela's socialist system is bankrupting the nation, and causing more suffering instead of helping. Ever since Chavez' economic policies were introduced in Venezuela, which introduced rationing and made matters much worse for Venezuelans. Now people fight over the last food items in supermarkets, meanwhile tons of food have been rotting in government warehouses.

Crime, including police brutality to the extreme, as in murders, has surged in Venezuela ever since the socialist system was implemented. However, crime against police officers has also surged as criminals kill police officers "for their guns, cars, motorbikes or even telephones."

In violent Venezuela, police killings surge to almost one a day

Meanwhile 20% of all crime in Venezuela is committed by police officers, and 900 people are killed a year in Venezuela by the police.
Deadly force: Venezuela's police have become a law unto themselves

In general, crime figures have increased dramatically, meanwhile the economy has been worsening despite the socialist policies which have been implemented for over a decade.

It is always good to see government tyranny fall flat on it's face. I hope the people tear apart only the guilty.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

As you pointed out, it is interesting to notice that the French President made a similar sounding announcement :

French president declares economic emergency

And about Venezuela :

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Well, now that the government is in control things should get much better.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse


Ummm...so now we know what to expect if "The Bern" gets elected...

"Feed the rush" to "Feel the Bern"...and you might just have a Venezuelan post Socialist moment...




YouSir

a reply to: theultimatebelgianjoke

Sorry, but that man is wrong. The Venezuelan economy did not get worse because of the oil prices. Things in Venezuela began to get worse since Chavez, and the Chavistas took office. Chavez himself implemented first price controls and then rationing.

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced last Tuesday the imposition of new price controls on a long list of consumer items, he expressed optimism that they would help curb inflation:

This is a law to protect the people from capitalism. We have a tough battle ahead [because] inflation is one of the biggest problems we have.

I’m at the front of this operation, and we’re going to occupy factories and companies. We’re going to nationalize what needs to be nationalized. The bourgeoisie hoard milk, sugar and cooking oil and then [they] blame me. But it’s their fault, the hoarders.
...

www.thenewamerican.com...

Venezuela’s socialist government is now rationing food after prices controls proved to be a miserable failure

It was the socialist policies which implemented the price controls and then the rationing. It's what happens in every country that openly embraces socialism like Venezuela did. I, among some other members, stated this was going to happen yet some members kept claiming things were only going to get better there because of socialism.

The government of Venezuela under Maduro implemented a biometric system, similar to the one in Cuba, to force people to ration food.

Even Chavez stated, when he was alive of course and before everything he implemented, that Venezuelans should look forward to the way of life of Cubans, and it should inspire them.

Of course, like always, despite these problems being caused by the socialist policies, Maduro claimed that the CIA was behind the food shortages, when tons and tons of food have been found rotting in Chavista government warehouses...

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

What he skipped in his analysis is the fact that the lifting of the sanctions against Iran is making even more oil available for the markets, driving the prices even further down.
Oil is main source of income for the Venezuelan state.

originally posted by: greencmp

Well, now that the government is in control things should get much better.

You must be joking right? Is that sarcasm or do you actually believe that?

World | Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:18pm EDT
Related: World

Venezuela bans another opposition politician from holding office

CARACAS

- Former Venezuelan state Governor Pablo Perez said on Saturday he had been barred from holding public office for 10 years, the third ban on an opposition politician in the last week.

The comptroller's office this week also disqualified former legislator Maria Corina Machado and ex-mayor Vicencio Scarano, both candidates in Dec. 6 parliamentary elections, from holding office. In their case the ban was effective for 12 months.

Critics says President Nicolas Maduro is seeking to clamp down on opposition leaders and discourage voters ahead of an election polls forecast his party is likely to lose.
...

www.reuters.com...

It's a fact that the Chavista/socialist regime has been banning opposition leaders. They have been doing this for a very long time.

A Decade under Chavez...

II. Political Discrimination

Political discrimination has long plagued Venezuela. For decades, government patronage and spoils were divided along party lines at the expense of large sectors of Venezuelan society. Chávez assumed the presidency in part on the promise to free Venezuela from its entrenched patterns of political exclusion. While his government managed to uproot the established system of political discrimination, it has replaced it with new forms of discrimination against real and perceived political opponents.

The Chávez government proclaims a commitment to political inclusion, but has openly discriminated against those who do not share its views. Government officials have removed scores of detractors from the career civil service, purged dissident employees from the national oil company, denied citizens access to social programs based on their political opinions, and denounced critics as subversives deserving of discriminatory treatment. The Chávez administration’s exclusion and harassment of those who voice their dissent belie its banner of democratic pluralism.
...

www.hrw.org...

The Chavista/socialist regime did similar things against Venezuelans employees who were not "pro-Chavista", and Chavez himself went on to shame and intimidate people who were in the black list (Tascón List) for being political opponents.

Chávez’s list
Francisco Rodríguez
Last Friday, during a nationally televised cabinet meeting, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela made a striking assertion. He
called on officials in government to “bury [pro-Chávez deputy Luis] Tascón’s famous list.” This was a reference to the list of Venezuelans who had signed the petition to hold a recall referendum last year against Chávez, and which was widely used by government officials and backers to pressure opposition supporters into changing their political position. Across the nation, Tascón’s
list was drawn on by government officials not only to screen applicants for government jobs, but also to determine access to a wide range of public services including food and unemployment subsidies, government-subsidized credit, and issuance of passports and
identity cards.
Chávez’s reference to Tascón’s list is startling because it is the first public assertion by a government official that the list was indeed used to intimidate Venezuelans who opposed his government.
...

frrodriguez.web.wesleyan.edu...

originally posted by: theultimatebelgianjoke

What he skipped in his analysis is the fact that the lifting of the sanctions against Iran is making even more oil available for the markets, driving the prices even further down.
Oil is main source of income for the Venezuelan state.

Not only that, but despite the fact that Venezuela is rich in oil, the socialist regime implemented also power/electricity rationing, which has affected all Venezuelans.

Venezuela rations electricity as demand soars amid hot weather

Measures include cutting the workday for public officials and inspecting malls and factories to ensure they meet reduced power consumption targets

Venezuela’s socialist government on Tuesday announced a nationwide electricity rationing plan to tackle a surge in demand caused by rising temperatures.

The measures include cutting the workday for public officials to six hours, asking private companies to boost energy efficiency and inspecting malls and factories to ensure they meet reduced power consumption targets.

“Within a week, power demand has risen 1,500 megawatts,” the electricity minister, Jesse Chacón, said on state TV. With demand at 18,000 megawatts, he said, “the system begins to have stability problems”.

Peak temperatures have risen to 34C (93F) in Caracas, the capital, and have hit 37C (99F) in the sweltering western city of Maracaibo.
...

www.theguardian.com...

These are the "austerity policies" implemented under socialism which cause nothing but suffering for the people. It always has.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

It's hard to figure out from an external point of view what is the hidden reason behind these austerity policies.
What is certain imo, is that the population has to endure them, and that the gov has an easy job 'justifying' them because of the current international sanctions.

Under normal circumstances, Venezuela is an electricity exporter but its electric grid is plagued by blackouts because of its poor maintenance.

The entire reason Chavez came into power is because the Venezuelan economy was a wreck in 80s and 90s as well leading to riots and a change in power. At first he managed to improve things but, the same problems as before came back corruption. What started off as helping the poor and make big strides in education and raising the poverty level slowly turned into lining the pockets of the elite, that a big increase in military spending. Until whomever take power eliminates the tradition of massive corruption nothing will ever change no matter who is in power. Then again this a problem that is common on a lot of the world.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

I'm a little disappointed that my snark isn't obvious.

a reply to: MrSpad

Chavez was never trying to help the poor. That's just an empty promise all socialists make. In this same forums as Chavez was taking control of Venezuela some of us were warning this was going to happen. Heck Chavez put the Cuban system as an example that Venezuelans should look forward to, and Cuba is a repressive, socialist/communist dictatorship.

When someone tells you they have as a mentor a dictator, in the case of Chavez his mentor was fidel castro, it is not to "help people"... Socialism and communism will always be empty ideological promises used to get all power from the people and never give it back.

It's always been that way, and unless people get to understand this, more and more such socialist and communist dictatorships will continue to pop up.

originally posted by: greencmp

I'm a little disappointed that my snark isn't obvious.

It is why most people put at the end of their sarcastic comment /end of sarcasm or something similar. We are in the internet and we can't see your expression, nor the tone of voice you are using when writing such a comment.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

I know, I just thought I was notorious by now.