Showing posts with label PDVSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PDVSA. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Where Did Maria Gabriela Chavez get her Billions?

There is no reliable economic data provided by the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  Economic
predictions from companies like JPMorgan and other independent sources are very bleak for the coming months. Sixteen years of a failing Socialist Bolivarian Revolution and massive corruption
has ruined the country’s economy,  and the crumbling social infrastructure is enough indication of 
the direction in which the country is headed.  The inept policies of both Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have devastated Venezuela.

While the vast majority of people are having difficulty coping with day-to-day living, finding food, surviving the high crime and unemployment, Maria Gabriela Chavez, the daughter of the late Hugo Chavez, is considered one of the richest women in Venezuela. She is having a time of her life working as a Venezuelan Diplomat for the United Nation.  Her net worth is in the billions of dollars, not to mention the "honor" of being the darling daughter of the most corrupted man in the history of
Venezuela.

Maria Gabriela Chavez who has been living la vida loca in “el imperio” (as Nicolas Maduro calls the United States) has been spotted in New York City withdrawing money from the Venezuelan Petroleum Company's bank accounts - PDVSA - as though it was her own account. 

Hugo Chavez, who was born  in the poor Venezuelan town of Sabaneta,  committed the most fraudulent acts that ended up bankrupting the entire country. In 2012, Transparency International named Venezuela the most corrupt nation in the hemisphere.

Billions of dollars flowed into the country during the Oil Bonanza, but those dollars quickly left as they landed in the Bank Accounts of Hugo Chavez, his family, his confidants: Hugo Carvajal - in Charge of Military Intelligence (DIM). General Henry Rangel Silva - Director of National Security and Prevention (DISIP). Captain Ramón Rodríguez Chacín -former minister of Internal Justice. 
 Also the Chavez elites, including Jose Vicente Rangel, Chávez - Minister of Foreign Affairs. Diosdado Cabello - current  President of the Venezuelan National Assembly. And last but
 not least, Rafael Ramirez - Nicolas Maduro’s Oil Minister.  The list of thieves is very long and wide and this brief blog will not be able to give justice to the magnitude of the abuse of power and corruption in both the Chavez and the Maduro regimes.

Going back to the darling Maria Gabriela Chavez. Where did she get  this colossal fortune of 4.2 billion dollars? Was this an inheritance , and what type of experience or qualification does she possess to be entitled to a Diplomatic post at the United Nations? 

We wonder if this position is a just a way to exempt her from persecution while scrutinizing in the United States, and to legitimize her theft of money from Venezuela with impunity.





Monday, April 20, 2015

Latin America POV: Latin American Leaders Socialist Rhetoric

Latin American leaders at the Seventh Summit of the Americas repeatedly, and with obstinacy, talked about the United States being imperialist and portrayed Latin American countries as victims of the US empire. A wrong  term to describe the United States, which has never been an empire. President Obama rejected the Latin American leaders notion that the U.S is to blame for all their problems.

 The real victims have been the Latin American people from corrupt power-hungry leaders like Nicolas Maduro, Cristina Kirchner, Rafael Correa, Fidel and Raul Castro, Evo Morales and others.  These so-called socialists leaders have brought more poverty and economic hardship to their countries than the so-called "imperialist” American government. The most interesting part is that none of these leaders has taken responsibility for the corruption, human rights violations, and abuses that happen in their nations on their watch.

Nicolas Maduro’s regime has stolen billions of dollars from the Venezuelan Petroleum Company, PDVSA and has committed the worse human right abuses in the history of Venezuela against its citizens. But Nicolas Maduro continues accusing the United States of waging an economic war against the country.

 Vladimir Lenin used the term  imperialism as "the Highest Stage of Capitalism in which imperialism was a product of monopoly capitalism." For many, Lenin governed the early Soviet Union in the name of socialism as a dictator that carried out mass human rights abuses. Lenin was the creator of the Red Terror, an organized program of arrests, imprisonments, and killings. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000."

Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor in the Soviet Union,  caused a famine in the Ukraine that resulted in an estimated 7 million people dead. Stalin stole the food that the farmers  had cultivated with their hands.

This Leninist ideology can be traced in Central America through the turbulent modern political history of Mexico, and the total dominance of a single political party,  PRI (National Revolutionary Independent Party) for 70 years.  From 1929 to early 1990's PRI pilfered the money that could have been used to improve the quality of life for average Mexicans and converted the PRI into a nest of corruption and nepotism.

In El Salvador, in addition to poverty and a lack of the essential needs, the cruel civil  took 80,000 lives and destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure. It was a war between the leftist groups of the Frente Farabundo Marti and the Salvadorian military. Both sides committed great atrocities. Massacres of hundreds of innocent civilians took place.

Similarly, Fidel Castro’s socialist tyranny in Cuba killed thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands during more than half a century of oppression.

The birth and rise of the main Colombian terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia, or FARC, offers a terrifying example of the destructive powers of extremist political ideology.  Since 1948, the conflict between  FARC  and the government has claimed more than 300,000 lives in Colombia.

In Peru, the leftist group  Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian Army became  engaged in a cruel struggle that took 50,000 lives and has driven thousands of Peruvians away from the country. The list of conflicts between leftists guerrilla groups and the governments in Latin America is long.  Latin American leaders  should stop the blaming game and also take responsibility for the economic and social problems that their nations are facing today.

The United States economy, often referred as a free market economy, allows  consumers, producers, and the government to make decisions on a daily basis, mainly through the price system. Although not perfect, a free market economy is the engine that makes this country very successful.




Sunday, January 25, 2015

Maduro’s Band-Aid to Venezuela’s Economic Crisis

President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, instead of creating a free market economy and encourage the private industry and entrepreneurs in Venezuela, decided to put a band-aid to the Venezuelan economic crisis that the Chavez regime created. The selling of $2.5 billion in CITGO bonds and getting a $1 billion loan from CITGO  will further push Venezuela into an economic meltdown. CITGO is owned by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which is controlled by the government.  This quick CITGO bonanza will temporarily alleviate the enormous cost of the Venezuelan Socialism of the XXI century created by Hugo Chavez. 
During his 13 years in control of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez arbitrarily expropriated many domestic and foreign companies including the Exxon Corporation. Venezuela owes $2.5 billion jto the Exxon Corporation alone, and that debt will have to be paid before te regime get any money out.  The default of Venezuela under the Maduro regime is inevitable.