Quote:
Originally Posted by domer2
You are copy and pasting propaganda and are too ignorant to know the difference between reality and fiction.
You don't even know how to spell the Colombia.
No. Stop.
The economic downfall began BEFORE oil prices collapsed.
For instance, the protests took place in early 2014, when oil was around $100/barrel. Corruption had already began to take its toll on the country in a serious way, with shortages of very basic goods like food and toilet paper, etc. Venezuela led the misery index in 2013 (and every year since). High oil prices in 2013 and until the middle of 2014 prevented the country from falling sooner and faster.
There are no sanctions from 2016, so no clue what you are talking about.
This propaganda about 2015 is also wrong.
In 2015, the US sanctioned 7 INDIVIDUALS who helped kill protesters in 2014.
US businesses left because the country had become increasingly unstable/totalitarian, because the economy was crashing, because Maduro was nationalizing industries (he lost a $7b World Bank case just days ago for stealing equipment) and because there was the inability to access basic supplies.
Repeating myself: the United States was the LARGEST TRADING PARTNER of Venezuela from the time Chavez stepped into office until 45 days ago. The idea that the US sanctions crippled the regime prior to January 2019 -- rather than giving them what became their only source of cash -- is nonsense. But it appeals to a certain subset of people who are too stupid on Venezuela to know the difference.
You're right I made a mistake, sorry about that.
There were sanctions earlier, not particularly significant, but not nothing, either.
And even if it wasn't significant, you've gotta be kidding me if you ignore the effect this would have had on how foreign investors considered their options in Venezuela.
"In August 2017, President Trump issued E.O. 13808, which prohibits access to the U.S. financial markets by the Venezuelan government, including PdVSA, with certain exceptions to minimize the impact on the Venezuelan people and U.S. economic interests. The sanctions restrict the Venezuelan government’s access to U.S. debt and equity markets. Among the exceptions are transactions for new debt by CITGO, owned by PdVSA; certain transactions by U.S. owners of certain Venezuelan/PdVSA bonds on secondary markets; financing for agricultural and medical exports; and short-term financing to facilitate trade.
In March 2018, President Trump issued E.O. 13827, which prohibits transactions involving the Venezuelan government’s issuance and use of digital currency, digital coin, or digital token. The Maduro government launched a cryptocurrency known as the petro in February 2018 in an effort to circumvent sanctions.
In May 2018, President Trump issued E.O. 13835, which prohibits transactions related to the purchase of Venezuelan debt, including accounts receivable, and to any debt owed to Venezuela pledged as collateral. U.S. officials assert the action was intended to deny corrupt Venezuelan officials the ability to improperly value and sell off public assets in return for kickbacks."
We can easily agree that Maduro and Chavez are largely at fault for everything gone wrong. I'm not contesting that. But you're fooling yourself and pulling an Iraq 2002 if you seriously believe western media is unbiased in how they report the events. If you can crossreference literal facts and opinions it doesn't take much to see that things are heavily skewed.
Propaganda is not a one way street and isn't exclusively non-western media. Everyone and their demented grandmom knows the excessive western propaganda during the cold war which was all about making people afraid of those damn commies to give leeway to the governing organs.
And to the guy who said well more people came out and criticised the Iraq wr than have the sanctions. Sanctions are significantly softer than an invasion, if the US were on the edge of invading Venezuela I bet quite a few people would come out and suggest that's probably not a good idea. And iirc, people back then weren't ever arguing that Iraq wasnt bad, they just didn't want to go to fullblown war with them.
