National Guard captain shot dead in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

National Guard captain shot dead in Venezuela
March 19, 2014

CARACAS: A Venezuela National Guard captain died on Monday after being shot in the head during a demonstration, the military said, the 29th fatality in six weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces.

General Padrino Lopez, head of the armed forces’ strategic operational command, said the captain was shot late on Sunday at a street barricade set up by demonstrators in the central city of Maracay, in Aragua state.

“He was another victim of terrorist violence,” Lopez said on Twitter, calling for an end to the confrontations. “Our armed forces don’t repress peaceful protests, they protect them.”

Air Canada said on Monday it was suspending flights to Caracas until further notice because of the unrest, saying it could not ensure the safety of its operation.

Tareck El Aissami, governor of Aragua state and a member of the ruling Socialist Party, said authorities arrested a “Chinese mercenary” near where the National Guard captain was killed.

Aissami said an “arsenal” was found in the man’s home, and showed video of hundreds of rounds of different calibers.

More:
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/7fefb64d-f3fe-4d5b-9b89-7e21d84363c8.aspx

[MADem]

1. Maduro owes the Chinese billions, and if he doesn't pay, the Chinese have his gold in escrow.

The "Chinese mercenary" is a nice touch, a clever accusation, but Maduro is gonna have to pay those bills that he owes to the Chinese or lose a big chunk of the Venezuelan people's treasury. The Chinese people aren't going to rise up and believe any bullshit he has his minions write in propaganda press releases.

On the flip side, one must ask, how many on the Maduro team have been hit in these street battles? That's what, number three, compared to twenty something students/supporters of the resistance that the regime has gunned down?

The situation in VZ is DIRE and getting worse. Maduro accusing "the Chinese" now isn't going to fix the situation. It's not going to allow him to put off paying his bills, either.

[delrem]

4. China paid up front for future oil deliveries.

"Venezuela recorded a trade surplus of 10191 USD Million in the third quarter of 2013"
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/balance-of-trade

Now tell me about the 1-Trillion+ US debt that China owns. OK?

[MADem]

5. China LOANED Maduro BILLIONS. That's a "B"--not some trifling little third quarter millions.

They don't JUST want oil from Maduro. Though they'll get plenty of that, too--at bargain basement prices.

Did you ever ask yourself that if things were so rosy, why people are protesting in the street because they can't buy diapers or flour?

Are we seeing those kinds of problems in USA? NO--because we pay our bills.

Apparently, no one gave you the Economics 101 course. You can OWE all the money in the world--so long as you SERVICE your DEBT. USA pays their note. But Maduro ain't doing that. He is borrowing money, selling his country out from under the people...and NOT paying his BILLS.

Here, let me take you to school:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=1030596&CategoryId=10717

Venezuela's Maduro in China Gets a $5 Billion Dollar Loan
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro met with China's President Xi Jinping over the weekend in Beijing and said that China had granted Venezuela another $5 billion credit line -- and all announced by twitter.

CARACAS -- Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro met with China's President Xi Jinping over the weekend in Beijing and said that China had granted Venezuela another $5 billion credit line.

"We have ratified the strategic partnership with China, following an extraordinary meeting with the President Xi Jinping!" Maduro said via Twitter.
...The oil shipments help pay down the debts from China that Venezuela has previously incurred -- $20 billion of the $46.5 billion that China has already loaned the oil rich nation. Ramirez said earlier this year that 270,000 barrels a day are used to repay the loans. A confidential US cable from the US embassy in Caracas to the State Department in Washington unveiled by Wikileaks in 2010 documented that a PDVSA director had revealed that the state oil company "had analyzed its crude sales to China and determined that China had only paid $5 a barrel of crude on a couple of deals."
......

FIVE BUCKS a barrel!!! Lucky China!!!! What a bargain!!!! Over fifty BILLION --with a B--in loans!!

China OWNS Venezuela--the part that Cuba hasn't annexed. You're the only one who hasn't figured that out, apparently.

Again, Maduro isn't paying his bills:

Panama demands Venezuela pay $1bn debt
President Martinelli asks Caracas not to use decision to cut diplomatic ties with Panama as "excuse" to not pay debt.

Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli has called on Venezuela not to use its decision to break ties with his country as an excuse not to pay back a debt that tops $1bn.

"Venezuela is, it appears, practically bankrupt and this shouldn't be because it is a rich country," Martinelli said, in a speech expressing dismay at the recent diplomatic rupture.

On Wednesday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced that he was breaking diplomatic relations with Panama over its push for an Organization of American States-sponsored mediation in the country's crisis.

Maduro accused Panama's president of conspiring with the United States to intervene in Venezuela's affairs. During a rally on Thursday, he gave the Panamanian ambassador and three other diplomats in Venezuela 48 hours to leave the country.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Venezuela had also suspended debt negotiations over $1bn owed to Panamanian exporters.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-venezuela-maduro-airlines-protests-20140313,0,2650064.story

Amid unrest, Venezuela is accused of owing airlines $3.7 billion

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-venezuela-maduro-airlines-protests-20140313,0,2650064.story#ixzz2wRr3scZF

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Nicolas Maduro’s government Thursday faced accusations of owing international airlines more than $3.7 billion and violating treaties, while separately officials said the number of deaths from violence related to antigovernment protests continued to rise.
In a sign of Venezuela’s deepening economic problems, the International Air Transport Assn. this week accused the Maduro government of failing to “repatriate” $3.7 billion in air ticket revenue owed to foreign carriers. IATA director Tony Tyler said he had written to Maduro to complain.
“It is a major sum of money. And it is unacceptable that the Venezuelan government is not playing by the rules to which it is treaty-bound,” Tyler said in a statement Wednesday.
The Venezuelan government acts as intermediary in all foreign financial transactions and is holding up payments to a broad spectrum of foreign vendors, which economists say illustrates its dire cash shortage.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-07/venezuela-gets-more-than-7-billion-from-china-and-russia.html

Venezuela owes Brazilian construction firms more than $2 bn, daily says

Sao Paulo, Mar 5 (EFE).- Venezuela's government owes as much as $2.5 billion to Brazilian construction companies carrying out infrastructure and sanitation projects in the neighboring country, Sao Paulo business daily Valor Economico said Wednesday.

Brazilian builders' combined portfolio of projects in Venezuela is valued at some $20 billion and, according to sector sources, several of those companies have been affected in recent days by serious payment delays.

Political ties between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro are not as close as those that existed between their predecessors, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the late Hugo Chavez, enabling China to make more inroads in Venezuela, the article said.

Lula visited Venezuela 16 times between 2003 and 2010, while Chavez, who died of cancer a year ago, made 20 trips to Brazil.

Head in the Sand
How long can Venezuela's president pretend not to see the economic ruin his policies have created?

In January 2014, Venezuela revamped its currency system -- one historically riddled with corruption and an overvalued bolivar that only stoked a raging black market. The official exchange rate is now 6.3 bolivars to the dollar for food, medicines, and goods that the government deems priorities. But the government has transferred other foreign-exchange transactions, like travel and remittances, to the Sicad exchange rate -- Venezuela's other rate in its currency-control system -- to 11.7 bolivars to the dollar. The black market rate is now 84 bolivars to the dollar. ... Maduro asserts that the country's new exchange system will go a long way to alleviate shortages of food, toilet paper, medicines, and other daily necessities. Critics, however, argue that by transferring many transactions to the Sicad rate in Venezuela's dual-rate system, this is nothing but disguised devaluation and it will only spur inflation.

...."The question is do we give dollars to speculators, or do we bring in medicine," said Rafael Ramirez, the vice president for economic affairs, oil minister, and president of the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA. "Do we give dollars to travelers or do we bring in food?" The health and needs of Venezuelans, he said, take precedence over all else.
Many overseas suppliers, who are owed upward of $14 billion by Venezuelan companies, are reluctant to extend more credit. Given that Venezuela imports about 70 percent of the products it consumes, any curtailment is a serious threat to the country's wellbeing. Food shortages -- a chronic problem for the past two years -- are worsening.

"I have to go to central Caracas now to find food, as there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in my neighborhood,'' said Letitia Suarez, who lives in one of the slums surrounding the Venezuelan capital, in early February. "And when I go to Caracas it's a constant battle to find food. I spend hours standing in line, and fights always break out." Getting to the city center isn't an enjoyable trip: Her bus line is rampant with thieves. Crime has increased with the economic crisis, and the city now has the third highest murder rate in the world.
...

Moody's rebaja calificación de la deuda venezolana
La firma asegura que es "notorio el incremento del riesgo de que ocurra un colapso económico y financiero"

Translation: Moody's downgrades Venezuelan debt
The firm said there was " an obvious increased risk of occurrence of a financial and economic collapse"

Leer más en: http://www.elmundo.com.ve/noticias/economia/mercados/moody-s-rebaja-calificacion-de-la-deuda-venezolana.aspx#ixzz2wS2qB6Kx

Venezuelan government's debt up 92.3% in four years
Domestic obligations went up 185% in 2009-2013

[Marksman_91]

7. Jesus, what a disaster

I honestly don't get how Maduro and the rest of the criminals in the government expect to get out of this shithole without problems.

[MADem]

9. He's pissing off people who were the long-term supporters of Hugo.

And he's not terribly loved in the first place.

He can hang on, but only by dividing the country and brutally repressing the next generation. And not with chit chat, with Extreme Violence.

The elderly, the middle class, they've all come round to the students' POV, and since services are being rationed even in the traditional neighborhood strongholds, there's discontent starting to rumble there as well. People are starting to realize that this "Maburro" guy is no Hugo--Hugo could at least rile 'em up, tell a joke, jolly them along, and be entertaining between the bouts of bombast.

And for those here who keep whinging on about the politicians, it's not about THEM either. There's Capriles and Lopez (who just celebrated a month in jail) and many, many other groups that made up a patchwork "opposition" (not a unified one), but they aren't leading the charge. The student leaders are, and one, in particular, named Juan Requesens, is really igniting the imagination--he's more mature than any of the so called "adults" on either side of the issues. He's a chunky kid who lives with his parents, and he is one dynamic leader. If they don't kill him, he could be president of the country one day.

[delrem]

8. lotta blue links and spittle, MADem.

You're clearly upset.

[MADem]

10. Ah, the personal attack!! That's what failed debaters who don't have a rebuttal use.

Where's your answer to the economic points I made?

Tick, tock. Tick tock. Conspicuous by their very absence!

You're saying they don't owe billions to China, then? They didn't make a bad bargain, to include five buck a barrel oil?

You're saying they haven't stiffed their neighbors, the airlines, etc. to the tune of billions?

The crime rate...nothing to see here?

The street violence....all a chimera?

The shortages....only a dream?


Yeah....

THOUGHT SO.

and a little "spittle, spittle" just for you...! Since clearly, you need some!

[delrem]

11. As I said, you're obviously very upset.

There'll be another Venezuelan federal election in 5 years. That should give you and your political friends plenty of time to cool down and build up a base.

Tho' I'm being a fit facetious about your possibly "cooling down" -- after all the years of Chavez, and now a year of Maduro, you guys are just frickin seething!!

[MADem]

12. And you DOUBLE DOWN on the rude and disruptive PERSONAL ATTACK! Because that's all you've got!

Heckuva job, there Brownie!!!

Tick tock....

You can't answer the questions I've put to you, so you resort to insult and name calling. Twice now...!

Come on--respond to the points, don't babble on about elections. Respond to the economic issues.

Oh, wait--you can't. Facts have a way of obviating any hope of retort, don't they now, delrem? And all you're left with is name calling, like a little schoolyard bully, trying to make up for inadequacies with childish snark and foolishness.

[delrem]

13. But I responded before you made your "points", MADem.

China bought oil, and in return expects it be delivered. That's it! The whole point!

The rest is your enraged tantrum.

[MADem]

14. No, you didn't. And it's one, two, three strikes you're out! More insults!

The links illustrated the points.

I think the one having the enraged tantrum is the ineffectual keyboard bully calling names!

Poor you--no answers, no ability to refute the plain facts, all you can do is just bang out sad little schoolyard taunts on your keyboard.

China didn't "buy" oil, and the links I provided show just what kind of arrangements were made. You clearly have either not read the articles, OR you have comprehension issues. Which is it?

It's kind of sad to see such juvenile behavior on an adult's message board. I can only speculate that your life must be full of occasions of profound powerlessness, because someone who was happy with their life and self-actualized wouldn't, I should think, toss such childish names at complete strangers on the internet.

Particularly over plain facts that just aren't in dispute.

It's just not a very mature approach to discussion, delrem.

I do hope you get the help you need. Anger can kill ya!

[delrem]

15. Sigh.

Of course China 'bought' oil, MADem. And China is happy to do business all across South America. After all, China has lots of US $$ to work with, owning all that US debt and being on the ascendant it need hardly touch the principal.

Now calm down and wait for the next Venezuelan election.

[MADem]

16. There you go yet again with the "personal" characterizations.

What kind of person does that sort of thing? "Sigh" ....."Calm down?" It's like you're trying to substitute snark for fact--and it's not working. You haven't refuted a single fact that I offered you in those links. Why? You can't, that's why.

I do feel very sorry for you, indeed, delrem. Not just because you substitute grade school teasing at the kindergarten level for conversation, but because your powers of comprehension have plainly failed you and you're only response is to repeat, like a frightened parrot, the desperate mantra "Wait for elections, wait for elections!!!" as if that will convince the students to get out of the streets.

First, you don't know the difference between a pre-payment and a loan (how embarrassing for you), you then double down on your ignorance, you ignore the billions in defaulted payments by VZ with some less-than-impressive "Nothing to see here" bravado, and you finish up by tossing immature personal insults on DU! What a compelling argument (not)! Ah, yes, your winnings, sir!

Five bucks a barrel....yeah, that's one helluva "pre-payment!"

[Marksman_91]

2. Student from UNET in Táchira shot dead in the face

http://m.panorama.com.ve/not.php?id=104656

And he wasn't even participating in the protests. But please, do go on about the poor National Guard who work alongside paramilitaries to repress civilian neighborhoods.

Also, that supposed "arsenal" is made up of airsoft guns. Nothing you can really kill anybody with. And the supposed Chinese "mercenary" wasn't even given a name or picture, clearly indicating they're in the midst of fabricating whatever bullshit they can come up with to convince people that this "mercenary" is real.

[Bacchus4.0]

3. makes you wonder about friendly fire for the NG captain

I read about the supposed Chinese mercenary yesterday. Seemed a pretty far fetched tale.

[MADem]

6. Well, they can't pull the "We hate you so we not a-gonna PAY you" stunt they pulled with Panama.

They owe Panama a billion; they owe China fifty billion.

Make no mistake, Beijing gonna get their money! There is no likelihood that Maduro will be able to get away with that stiff arm he's giving everybody when they send him the bills!