Close Out Report On 2010 13 Strategic Plan And Possible Board: Fill & Download for Free

Let me invite you on a journey around the world: From the high streets of London … to Zhengzhou, a booming Tier II/III city in China … to Apple’s corporate headquarters in sunny California … to the Emerald Isle … and finally back here to Lower Manhattan.As we travel on this journey, I will try to explain how the money flows from that point-of-sale purchase to my brokerage account when the company pays out its quarterly dividend.This journey is interesting because it helps shine a light onto the increasingly complex and globalized world in which we live.(1) Retail — the Apple StoreI walk into the Apple Store on picturesque Regent Street in London’s posh Mayfair district. 15 minutes later, I stroll out with a base-level 64 GB iPhone X for £999[1].The money starts to flow as soon as I successfully input the PIN for my Barclaycard into the payment terminal:The U.K. has a 20% value-added tax[2] (similar to a sales tax in certain states in the U.S.) which means £167 comes right off the top to fund government and public expenditures.Since the iPhone was purchased with a credit card, another 3% or so is taken out by the payment processing companies, leaving the retail operation with a net total of £803 collected. If I had paid with cash, there would be some indirect cash handling expense that the retail operation would absorb (probably higher than 3%).For illustrative purposes, let’s say that Apple targets 20% retail margins to cover the costs of its beautifully designed Apple Stores. This means that the store is allocated about £161 per iPhone to pay for that expensive Regent Street rent, store employee salaries, Apple Geniuses, utilities, depreciation on the store’s capital improvements, etc.This leaves £642 that ultimately flows to Apple’s UK entity.(2) Manufacturing — A Globalized Supply ChainNow we need to hop on a Cathay Pacific flight from London to Hong Kong with a quick layover before transferring to a Dragon Air flight to Zhengzhou, a city in China that is about the size of New York City’s five boroughs … that many of you have probably never heard of.Don’t worry, though. These days even the locals simply refer to it as “iPhone City”.Zhengzhou is the capital of the densely populated, relatively impoverished Henan Province whose industrial economy had historically been centered around light textiles and food processing. Situated at the transition between the North China plain and the Qinling mountains, it is about a 4–5 hour (around 900 km) high-speed train ride from Shanghai.This is where Apple’s Taiwanese contract manufacturing partner Foxconn decided to locate its second major industrial operation after its main Shenzhen complex. With generous support from the local government, Foxconn spent hundreds of millions of dollars building out factory operations in an area that was specifically set up to export consumer electronics. For example, it is located in a “special bonded zone” that is legally considered foreign soil under Chinese regulation (doing it this way helps makes the logistics more efficient).In August 2010, the first lines at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory began production[3]. A little over eight years later, it produces around half of all of the iPhones in the world, churning out upwards of 500,000 per day.Along with 350,000 employees who work at the factory (during peak times), tens of millions of components from all around the world and other regions in China stream into Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory on a daily basis. Many of the semiconductor components are designed in one part of the world only to have their ECAD designs[4] electronically transmitted to Taiwan’s chip foundries for fabrication.Here is a summary of how the bill of materials (BOM) breaks down:My recently purchased base-level 64 GB iPhone uses an estimated $370 worth of materials and components[5]. Adding in around $35 in assembly and logistics costs and we are looking at a total BOM cost of around $405.The biggest cost item is the OLED display from Samsung, making up around 27% of the BOM. This is because Samsung is the dominant supplier of advanced OLED screen technology and is able to command premium prices[6]. It is also why Apple is pushing so hard to foster greater competition in the industry[7].Another notable component is the RF chipset supplied by Qualcomm. While a relatively modest 4% of the BOM, what is not included in the table above are additional 4G licensing fees that are paid separately by Apple. I’ll come back to this in the next section.Many of the other discrete analog and digital semiconductor components primarily supplied by U.S., German and Japanese fabless semiconductor designers are often fabricated in chip foundries in Taiwan (e.g. TSMC).Notably, China’s value-add to the BOM is relatively low and mainly comprised of more labor-intensive elements or less advanced components like the lithium-ion battery, packaging or simple accessories like the standard white Apple headphones. Overall I estimate China’s contribution to the BOM at around 13%.Okay, we’ve spent enough time in the “iPhone City”. We now need to catch our Air China flight from Zhengzhou to San Francisco via Beijing. We are heading to Silicon Valley.(3) Corporate — One Apple ParkThis is where the magic happens.Apple’s recently opened new headquarters[8] occupy 2.8 million sf in Cupertino, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Built at a construction cost of around $5 billion, it houses 12,000 highly compensated[9] employees.It is here (well, technically nearby at the old Apple Campus) that the iPhone and other Apple products were conceived and designed. It is where corporate executives like Tim Cook make big decisions about the next versions of existing product lines, the next advertising campaign, or how the company should allocate the product development dollars.And this is where — at this very moment in late 2018 — executives are likely debating whether it makes strategic and financial sense to diversify Apple’s manufacturing base outside of China by setting up another “iPhone City” in places like Vietnam[10].These corporate expenses are primarily fixed costs that you can amortize across the entire global revenue base of the company. As an example, in FY2018, Apple’s R&D expenses totaled $14.2 billion, or 5.4% of revenue. If we break it down on a per-unit basis, this comes out to something like $41 per iPhone sold [see Note i]:Between the £642 ($813) that flows into Apple’s UK corporate entity and the $405 BOM, you have $407 that flows back to Apple Inc. This money will be used to pay for:Corporate costs including sales and marketing, product development and general and administrative costsThese costs are mostly comprised of employee compensation, whether in the form of salary, bonus or stock-based compensation.Rent for all of the leased office space around the world; maintenance and depreciation for its owned properties.Spending is heavily concentrated in Cupertino/California although Austin, Texas[11] is rapidly turning into Apple’s version of “HQ2”[12].Apple also spends heavily on brand advertising.Global licensing fees / QualcommAs I alluded to above, Qualcomm is entitled to collect royalties on any device that connects to a 3G or 4G network (which includes basically all smartphones).This is because of patents and intellectual property that it created (and acquired) over the years, primarily around a “channel access method” called code-division multiple access (CDMA) on which almost all modern wireless standards are based today.Moreover, the licensing agreements that it negotiated many years ago stipulate that it collects a percentage of the entire “final sale” price of the smartphone — so as these devices have gotten more complicated (and more expensive) over time, Qualcomm has collected more revenue.As you might imagine, this is causing a lot of friction along a number of fronts — many companies are questioning why Qualcomm should collect the same percentage (or any percentage at all) on peripheral components that have nothing to do with wireless.This is one of the primary reasons why so many other companies are focused on building their own IP portfolios for the next generation of wireless standards (5G). This article from Macro Polo[13] discusses the whole saga in detail and I would recommend reading it if you have time.In any case, what this means for Apple is that it has to pay 3.5% of the final sale price of the iPhone to Qualcomm (with “final sale price” capped at $400 to $500[14]).After paying off all of its corporate expenses and (reluctantly[15]) cutting a massive check to Qualcomm, there is $281 left. This equates to 27% of the net revenue collected on Regent Street. Apple’s overall operating margin is 27% … so this passes the sanity check [see Note ii].(4) The Tax Man“We all know this deal is as certain as death and taxes.” — from Meet Joe Black, one of my all-time favorite movies.Apple is enormously profitable. In its last fiscal year (FY2018: 12 months ending 9/30/2018), it generated $72 billion of earnings before taxes. That is $72 followed by 9 zeroes. And the Tax Man is salivating at the sight of all of that taxable income.Historically, the U.S. corporate tax rate was 35%. Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the corporate rate was lowered to 21%. Including state-level corporate taxes, the average corporate tax rate is 26%[16]. Apple is a U.S. company headquartered in California, so all we have to do is multiply the $72 billion by 26% and call it a day, right?Wrong.In FY2018, Apple provisioned $13.4 billion in corporate income taxes, which comes out to an 18% effective tax rate. That’s 8% lower than the prevailing rates. How is this possible?The reason is that tax rates are different all around the world, so multi-national corporations (and their accountants) are always trying to figure out how to legally lower the amount of taxes they have to pay. For uber-profitable companies like Apple, the stakes are massive — each 1% reduction in your effective tax rate is $700 million of additional net income.Technology companies are especially good at this, because much of what they are selling is “intangible” (i.e. software, intellectual property, etc.) and they also tend to sell globally which means the flexibility of multiple tax jurisdictions to play with. So even though the IP assets that Apple develops are mostly created in Cupertino and the United States, from a legal and tax perspective, the IP is actually located outside of the country.This is why instead of flying to Washington, D.C. where the IRS’ headquarters are located, we are now boarding an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, Ireland.Photo: Sharp Magazine: The Travelling Man — Dublin, IrelandIn the aftermath of World War II, while most of Western Europe boomed on the back of the Marshall Plan and post-war reconstruction, Ireland was held back by its “economic nationalism” resulting high tariffs and import substitution policies. Its economy stagnated and the country entered the 1980s with high levels of public debt, 20% unemployment and a public sector that accounted for a third of the workforce[17].Economic reforms starting in 1987 led to reduced public spending, lower taxes and increased competitiveness — especially for global capital. The government made a major effort to lure technology companies such as Intel and Microsoft. In the 1990s, its economy finally began to pick up and soon people were talking about Ireland as the “Celtic Tiger”[18]. In less than three decades, Ireland went from being one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of its wealthiest.One of the areas that helped Ireland attract so much foreign investment was favorable tax policy. Without getting into the details[19], Ireland enacted policy that made it possible for companies to shift profits on intangible assets like software and patents from higher-tax locations to lower-tax ones. For global technology companies like Apple, this is the main reason why its effective tax rates are so much lower than the prevailing tax rates of its primary tax domicile in the United States.And this is the reason why wee little Ireland features so heavily in Apple’s annual report[20]:When Apple sells its products overseas, the vast majority of the profits remain offshore. Bringing this cash onshore would require Apple to pay something called a “repatriation tax” to the IRS. Leaving it offshore means that it can delay its payment. Instead, this cash can be used for overseas acquisitions, or perhaps they can wait for the U.S. government to issue periodic “repatriation holidays” to try to coax that money back home. But more often than not, the offshore cash is parked in government and corporate bonds [see Note iii].Out of approximately $257 billion in cash (and equivalents, including bonds) held by Apple, about 93% of it is sitting offshore[21].In any case, the corporate income taxes that Apple does pay — mostly from profits on its U.S.-generated revenue — comes out to about $39 per iPhone. This leaves $243 in after-tax profits.(5) The ShareholdersTime to head home. I hop on a United flight from Dublin to John F. Kennedy Airport. I head home, fire up my PC, log onto Quora on one screen and my trading platform on another.This is where we wrap up our journey following these money flows around the world.The $243 in after-tax profits belongs to the bondholders and equityholders in the company. More accurately, nearly all of it ends up with the equityholders.Let’s start with the bondholders: Apple has about $115 billion in outstanding bonds that pay lower rates than the U.S. government (less than 3%). It pays out about $3.2 billion in interest expense, which is actually more than offset by over $5 billion it earns from interest income on all of its offshore bonds.Now some of you might be wondering why such a profitable company like Apple needs to issue bonds. This is where we turn our attention to the shareholders (disclosure: I am one of them).The reason is because Apple wants to return capital to shareholders by repurchasing its shares. However, to repurchase its shares, it needs to use onshore cash and as we learned above, getting that offshore cash onshore means paying the repatriation tax.But some enterprising investment bankers figured out a while ago that instead of repatriating the cash, Apple could come up with the cash by issuing onshore bonds that are indirectly collateralized by all of that offshore cash (and all of the other assets of the business). Because it’s Apple, the interest rates are almost negligible. Now Apple can take this newly raised onshore cash and buy back its shares without having to pay the repatriation tax.On top of share buybacks, Apple pays dividends on a quarterly basis. In FY2018, Apple paid out close to $14 billion in dividends. November 8th, 2018 was the most recent ex-dividend date for Apple shareholders[22]. The cash showed up in my brokerage account a week later. For every share you held prior to that date, Apple paid out 73 cents.Since announcing its original Capital Return program in 2012[23], Apple has returned approximately $249 billion to its shareholders via share buybacks and $74 billion via dividends. These share buybacks have allowed Apple to reduce the number of shares outstanding by 25% since 2012. This creates value for shareholders because it means that one share you hold today entitles you to a much larger share of future profits than one share that you held back in 2012 (split-adjusted, of course).The vast majority of Apple shares are held by Americans, either directly or indirectly via index funds, mutual funds, hedge funds or their pensions. This means that Americans have disproportionately benefited from the enormous amount of value created (and partially returned) by Apple over the years.SummaryThank you to the brave few that have stuck with me on my journey all the way to the end. Your reward is the last, and most important table — how all the various money flows get split up by country:As you can see very clearly, the United States takes the highest share of economic value-add. This is even in the scenario we imagined above where the iPhone is sold overseas (i.e. the U.K.) in a jurisdiction that charges relatively high consumption taxes.For iPhones that are sold here in the United States, the fraction of economic value-add that circulates back into the American economy is over two-thirds once you factor in the retail operations.Think about that for a minute: Apple has 132,000 employees (note: this figure includes many lower-paid retail workers), many of whom are located overseas. Yet the American economy is able to capture over 70% of the economic value of an iPhone. Foxconn has well over a million people in China working to assemble iPhones and other Apple products — yet is only able to capture 13% of its value. Let’s keep this in perspective next time we hear complaints about how advanced economies are getting “screwed over” by globalization.Finally, one of the big ironies is despite the massive surplus value that Apple clearly creates for the American economy, the way that global supply chains and international trade accounting work, Apple products actually add to our bilateral trade deficit with China[24]. This is why it is so important to understand how the money flows really work — so that you can avoid enacting trade and other policies that can end up completely backfiring.Explanatory Notes[Note i] The average ASP per iPhone sold was $766, not the £999 retail price. 5.4% of $766 is $41.[Note ii] On top of hardware sales, Apple also collects significant ancillary revenue: its 30% cut of iOS apps and in-app purchases, search fees from Google[25], etc. Operating margins on iPhones sold in the store should also have slightly lower margins than those sold online due to lower overhead costs. Finally, margins on iPhones are typically higher than margins on iPads, Macs and other Apple hardware products.[Note iii] With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, changes in the tax system have reduced the disincentive for companies to repatriate taxes back to the United States[26]. Following this, Apple announced that it was going to start repatriating its cash over an 8-year period[27]. While it seems likely that this change the onshore/offshore cash dynamic, history has shown how the amazing creativity of investment bankers and accountants when it comes to creating new and sophisticated tax structures.Footnotes[1] iPhone Xs UK release - Best deals, prices and how to pre-order new Apple flagship[2] VAT rates[3] How China Built ‘iPhone City’ With Billions in Perks for Apple’s Partner[4] Electronic design automation - Wikipedia[5] IHS Markit Teardown Reveals What Higher Apple iPhone 8 Plus Cost Actually Buys[6] Samsung's OLED iPhone display supply dominance challenged[7] China breaks into Samsung's OLED dominance[8] Apple Park - Wikipedia[9] How Much Is The Average Salary Of An Apple Employee? | Cult of Mac[10] Glenn Luk's answer to Is Vietnam likely to implement the economic system that China currently uses and the Asian Tigers as well as Japan formerly used?[11] Apple is spending $1 billion on a new campus in Austin[12] How did NYC woo Amazon to Long Island City?[13] From Windfalls to Pitfalls: Qualcomm’s China Conundrum - MacroPolo[14] Qualcomm's patent deals aim to ease Apple, regulator tensions, exec...[15] Chinese court upholds Qualcomm's complaint that Apple infringed on two patents[16] US Corporate Income Tax Now More Competitive | Tax Foundation[17] Economy of the Republic of Ireland - Wikipedia[18] Celtic Tiger - Wikipedia[19] Ireland as a tax haven - Wikipedia[20] https://s22.q4cdn.com/396847794/files/doc_financials/quarterly/2018/Q4/10-K-2018-(As-Filed).pdf[21] Are you a robot?[22] Apple Inc. (AAPL) Ex-Dividend Date Scheduled for November 08, 2018[23] Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program[24] Glenn Luk's answer to What can the US do to bring back 25% of the manufacturing being outsourced in China right now in 10 years?[25] Google is paying Apple billions per year to remain on the iPhone, Bernstein says[26] Evaluating the Changed Incentives for Repatriating Foreign Earnings[27] Apple's plan to repatriate $285 billion in cash to the US could be a big boost for investors

Thanks for the A2A, Raghu Nath.About forty five days ago, I answered a question here on Sterlite[1]. In it, I said Sterlite Kills. It has been slowly killing people for the past 25 years. However, I never expected it to end this way. I never thought people will be shot at and killed for the sake of an individual or a company.This is horrendous. I am brimming with anger and frustration. A sense of helplessness has set in. How can innocent people be shot at ? How can someone have the will to kill a 17 year old girl ? Have the police been reduced to status of command dogs ?I’m extremely saddened at the massacre and I cannot even begin to understand what the residents of Thoothukudi and surrounding areas must be going through right now as I write this. No one in his right mind would have ever imagined something like this to have happened. Do those who were shot at even look like people with an hidden agenda ? If police intended to just disperse the crowd, why have all of them been shot in their torso/head ? And is this kid some kind of a terrorist ?Sterlite - the killing machineEver since its founding, Vedanta and Sterlite have been doing everything to make life for people not just in Tuticorin, but everywhere around the world. It has violate every single rule and regulation, contaminated with soil, water and air by dumping toxic substances without every treating them. Tuticorin has turned into a graveyard thanks to Sterlite.In 1991, Vedanta decided to set this factory up in Ratnagiri, Maharastra[2][3]. After the farmers in the regions protested, Sharad Pawar cancelled the deal and sent them packing. After investing about 200 crores there, Sterlite moved out and turned it sights towards Tamil Nadu, ruled by the rampantly corrupt Jayalalitha (she was convicted for disproportionate asset accumulation during this tenure[4]). Withing a year, Sterlite acquired all necessary licenses, albeit through questionable means and by 1996, the plant was up and running, without proper licenses. Soon, it was discovered that the plant, aided by both DMK and ADMK governments, had violated every single regulation in the book.The violations:Sterlite had constructed the factory within 14 Kms from the Gulf of Mannar (GoM), a bio-reserve, when the distance should have been at least 25 Kms[5].It had set up no green zone.It did not submit Environment Impact Assessment(EIA). The government, in a gross violation, issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) even without the EIA.It violates the production limit by over 400 % in its initial years. Produced 170,000 tonnes as opposed to the limit of 40,000 tonnes.Over the course of 20 years, has contaminated soil and water with untreated toxic waste including cancer causing arsenic and cadmium.The plant has suffered toxic gas leaks at least a half of dozen times.It has produced products it was not authorized to.It is believed to have tampered with online air monitors installed at the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).Against orders, carried out multiple expansions over the years. Even though it was asked to stop its expansion, Sterlite had gone about expanding even during the last 100 days when it has been shutdown.Sterlite was found guilty by the SEBI on a “insider trading” charge and was barred from acquiring capital market for two years in 1998.Anil Agarwal, the founder, harassed an employee to falsify numbers. He was convicted and was asked to pay $1.2 million in damages[6] .The impact:Over the years, many organisations, both government and otherwise, have conducted various studies to understand the impact of Sterlite pollution on land, water and soil. Here is a summary of their findings[7][8][9] .Iron content of ground water in surrounding villages was high.Hardness of water around was very high than the surrounding region.High levels of iron, arsenic, cadmium and nickel, all of which are toxic, are found in the soil samples collected in the region.Water samples collected vicinity shows high level of sulfate and calcium. It is an indication that Sterlite has contaminated water supplies. The water is unfit for direct consumption or agriculture.The salinity of water in the open well (7854mg/L) were over four times higher than levels that can cause crop damage.Another water sample showed very high levels of Sulfate and Calcium.A soil sample showed high levels of iron that can cause severe poisoning in a child.Arsenic levels in the same location were quite high.Cadmium that can cause lung cancer and other kidney issues was ten times the average.Kalangarai odai (a stream that runs through Sterlite) showed very high concentration of iron - 477 times above those that can cause serious health issues.The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has conducted many studies and has found that the plant had grossly violated every single operational regulation over and over again. NEERI found high concentration of copper, lead, cadmium, arsenic, chlorides and fluorides in a sample of groundwater taken from the plant’s neighborhood.As a result of these violations, the plant has been temporarily shutdown for small duration by various local courts in the state. However, Vedanta has taken this to the Supreme court every single time which has always overturned the decision of lower courts.The effect:A study conducted between 2006 and 2008 concluded that:Among the 80,725 individuals studied within a radius of 5 Kms from the plant.Respiratory illnesses like asthma are more prevalent in the region due to increased air pollution.Females in the region suffer from more menstrual disorders.Alcohol consumption and smoking is common among Sterlite employees due to the high stress environment they work in.General body pain is widely reported.ENT problems are more prevalent in the region.In recent times, increase in cancer rate around the plant has also been established.History of protests:Ever since Sterlite was issued permission to setup a factory at Thoothukudi, there has been protests against it.1994 - Early protests by locals were systematically dismantled by the Tamil Nadu government with the help Thirunelveli District collectorate and police.1996 -A small group of fishermen try to prevent materials arriving from Australia reach the plant. They are swiftly brushed aside by government. Through the year, multiple complains of water and air pollution are raised with district collectorate. All of them are silenced. National Trust for Clean Environment (NTCE) files a case for permanent closure of the plant.1997 - Agitations picked up steam again in 1997 when news about toxic gas leaks from the plant after routine maintenance reached locals. Over 100 people were affected and half of them were hospitalized. Preliminary inquiry by TNPCB ascertains that it was caused by Sulfur Dioxide emissions from the factory. Demands for closure of the plant continues. In August 1997, George Fernandes and Vaiko inaugurate protests organised by NTCE demanding permanent closure of the plant.1999 - More complaints on toxic gas leaks were reported only to be brushed aside by District administration.2001 - Locals complain to TNPCB about the release of arsenic laced toxic waste water by Sterlite. No action taken.2003 - A public hearing is held on the unauthorized expansion of copper refinery. By then, Sterlite was using the expanded units and the authorities led this slide2004 - 2010 - Sterlite continues to violate laws. During this period, it is the highest donor to the Congress party.2013 - On March 23, over 5000 people are affected by two bursts of massive toxic gas leak from the plant. On March 29, Madras high court order the plant to close down citing violations of pollution control[10]. This decision is also overturned at the supreme court. While supreme court agrees that Sterlite had violated pollution prevention acts, it simply fines the company 100 crores[11]. In May the National Green Tribunal rules in favour of the plant, allowing it to reopen[12].2014 - A PIL filed at the Delhi high court reveals that both BJP and Congress had been receiving large sums of money from Sterlite and other subsidiaries of Vedanta as political donations.2017 - Sterlite proposes another expansion that would put is just 200m away from Kumarareddyiapuram, increasing its capacity from 420,000 tonnes to 800,000 tonnes. It quickly obtains all clearances from TNPCB and MoEF for this expansion and begins expansion that threatens livelihood in the region.2018 - Nityanand Jayaraman, an activist and his NGO, publish a scathing report on how the Government helps Sterlite violate the law[13]. He has also written a series of articles on newsminute detailing the effect Sterlite has on Tuticorin and other surrounding regions[14].Protests erupted once again demanding immediate stop to expansion and permanent closure of the factory in February 2018. The protests continued well into May 2018. Despite order from the court, Sterlite continued to expand even during this time period when the factory was shutdown and protests were raging.Anil Agarwal - the demonRight from the start, Anil Agarwal, the founding chairman of Vedanta, has shown no interest in human welfare. He is a money making demon who will and did kill if anyone stands in his way. He has indulged in all possible illegal activities, not just in Tuticorin, not even within the country, but around the world.MALCO, a subsidiary of Vedanta, was illegally mining bauxite in Kolli hills for 12 years without any license[15]. It was also dumping a toxic by-product called red mud, beside reservoirs.In Orissa, Vedanta has used all tactics to silence villagers and other local tribes protesting against its bauxite mining plant[16][17][18].Its copper mining operations in Zambia polluted majors rivers affecting the livelihood of several thousands[19].He has also violated all human rights and environmental laws at his various mining plants around the country like in Goa, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh[20].Whenever there was a problem, the demon called Anil Agarwal has managed to pay off the politicians involved from all parties[21], even when it was illegal. In 2010, Forbes ran on piece on him, finding him to be ethically and morally compromised[22]. They could have simply said that he was a money making demon.Since 2014, Anil Agarwal has tried to set himself close to Modi, by adopting some of Modi’s pet projects. On April 19, 2018 (with the protests raging at Tuticorin), he meet Modi in London and allegedly spoke to him in person). Only a couple days later, he tweeted that “vested interest” were impeding the growth of the country by stopping his copper and bauxite mining.Tuticorin - Fateful May, 2018Ever since the Tamil genocide in Srilanka in 2009, there is greater awareness among people about happenings in Tamil Nadu and India. These people slowly began to realize that their natural resources were being overly exploited for the benefit of the handful. They also started realizing that the local DMK and ADMK governments were either corrupt or inept at different levels and as a result, the central governments were dumping things on them that no one else in country wanted. Examples: Sterlite copper, nuclear power plant at Kudankulam, GAIL pipeline, etc. Also, things that were promised, things that would benefit people, ex AIIMS, were never set up.With both the state and the central governments deceiving and abandoning them, Tamils had to retort to own means to fight for their rights. As a result, there was an increase in the number of demonstrations and protests held across the state in the last few years. This even increased after the Jallikattu protests of 2017 (one of most rational protests, well organised, apolitical, and successful). The politicians knew that that success would trigger more protests and that was why on the final day of the protest, the protesters were lathi-charged. To dispel other protesters from initiating one.That however did not stop the protesters at Tuticorin. Since February, 2018, they continued to protest against the Sterlite factory, demanding it permanent closure, for over three months. They were not satisfied with the temporary closure and empty promises made by politicians. They wanted to see it through. And that proved fatal.May 16, 2018:Sterlite moved to Madras high court demanding additional security around the plant. Sterlite asked the court to direct the collector and SP to impose section 144 (unlawful assembly) on May 22, 2018 because it foresaw violence[23][24][25] and alleged that miscreants were planning to burn down the factory.May 19, 2018:Allegedly Anil Agarwal tweeted about reopening the factory soon. I couldn’t find this tweet on his page, but I have seen this on social media. He also apparently told the media the same.The Madurai bench of the high court directs the collectorate the consider the plea of Sterlite after assessing the situation.May 21, 2018:On the eve of the 100th day of the protests, people and organisations who had been coordinating the protests called for a march towards the collectorate. They hoped to meet the collector and submit a petition, demanding the permanent closure of the factory. However, when the anti-Sterlite committee sought permission for this, they were denied. They were given permission to protest at only one location near the old bus stand. While the protesters were not satisfied, they had to live with it. It is alleged that one set of protesters were too unhappy about this.That same day, the district collector imposed section 144 on certain parts of the city between 10.30 PM on May 21, 2018 and 10 AM on May 23, 2018.May 22, 2018:On the morning of the fateful day, people gathered in various places in the city. One such was under the leadership of the DMK. Thoothukudi’s DMK MLA, Geetha Jeevan, arrived there and was taken into custody quickly. She waved at her followers, smiled for the cameras and was whisked away safely.Many others gatherings had people with genuine concern and they began marching towards the collector’s office despite the 144. They already had been told not to raise slogans against the state and central governments and the crowd obliged. The protest was largely peaceful. As the march progressed, more people joined in.The protesters reached a church called called Our lady of snows[26]and continued to march towards the collectorate. This is where the trouble seems to have started. According to eyewitnesses, police began lathi-charging the crowd a few minutes later. Despite this, the march continued. At one point, the lathi-charging became more severe, which seemed to have some significant injuries (including visible bleeding) to some protesters who had been peaceful all along. Angered by this, some people in the crowd are believed to have hurled stones at the police. The police teargassed the mob, but that did not deter. They continued to advance.The police retreated to the district collectorate and took positions. The protesters walked into this, possibly into an ambush. The next thing we know of is the breakout of violence. According to the police, the protesters began to destroy public property willfully and began hurling stones at the collector's office. According to the protesters, the police began lathi-charging them severely before some hurled stones at the collector's office. And according to the protesters, it was the police who torched a bus to use it as an excuse to attack. (The latter would have sounded absurd if we did not know what our police are capable of. After all, it was they who torched the humble dwellings of fishermen who offered protection to Jallikattu protesters. It was they who torched and later claimed that the protesters did it. Thankfully, we have video footage for all of this).Either way, tension escalated between the groups. It ended in police shooting at the mob. As bullets started flying by, the scared mob scampered around, trying to find shelter wherever they could. At least 12 people were killed in the shootings in a gross violation of human rights. Several more were critically injured.We have footage of the actual shooting and we see people in mufti using self loading rifles to shoot at people. We also have footage in which one man tells another to kill at least one of the protesters.Eyewitness claim that police targeted certain individuals and it was no random shooting to clear the crowd.After the mob was dispersed, the police began a systematic hunt. They broke into houses and thrashed anyone who they thought were connected to the protests. Some of them were illegally detained. The police did not spare women and children either. The hunt, eyewitness say, continued into the night. I personally have seen one video footage of this break-in at night.May 23, 2018:As soon as day broke, relatives, friends and other people began to gather outside the Government Hospital where the bodies of the martyred were kept. Tension was expected, so there was a large number of policemen stationed there. The people were angry at the police. Their loved ones had been slain. They did not want it to go waste. So, they demanded a written statement from the collector that Sterlite would be permanently closed. The police threatened backlash if they did not disperse. A small clash broke out. People were lathi-charged shootings were also reported. One reporter indicated that the police were taking pictures of those who were shouting slogans against them, possibly to target their attacks on these specific individuals.In a couple of other places, clashes between the police and the people broke out. Police once again retorted to shooing. One 22 year old was killed in this. We have footage of his last moments as he is being dragged by a couple of police down the road after being shot down by them. A few more (15 to 20 of them) gathered around the poor dying fellow, demanding him to quit acting. The police were barbarous at this point. There were not shooting to disperse, but kill. I have seen many videos where the police are willfully destroying public as well as private property.The collector and the SP were transferred and a 3 day curfew was imposed in the city. Power supply has been stopped. Internet and cable services have been deactivated. Media coverage has been banned.May 24, 2018:One eyewitness who was with Snowlin when she was kills alleged that even before the protesters reached the collector’s office, police vehicles inside the campus were on fire. She also told media that she was the intended target of that shooting that killed her friend.May 25, 2018:This video of ground zero emerged on social media. Have a look at the video. It is obvious some clean up activity has taken place, but look at how “all” police vehicles have been toppled before being set on fire. And look at how they are neatly aligned. A raging mob can do that ? I don’t see so. It is always messy when mob goes on a rampage. But this looks too neat ? And why are both the CCTV cameras pointed downwards ? Were they not working earlier ? If so, why wasn’t it replaced ?Who is responsible for this mass murder ?More than pair of hands are bloody at this point and they should be all held accountable.1. Sterlite - The unethical company should shoulder the bulk of the responsibility. It has endangered the livelihood of people for long and it should not be let free. Had the company not demanded 144, it is highly probable that the leaders of the anti-Sterlite committee would have had the situation under control. With 144 in effect and with permissions for a march denied, the situation got out of control. The protests have been peaceful for 99 days, how did the company foresee violence ? And how did Anil Agarwal come to the conclusion that there were “vested interests”. Sterlite, possibly in collaboration with state and central governments, orchestrated this. In less than 24 hours of the shooting, Anil Agarwal once again told the media that that Vedanta plans to reopen and operate Sterlite soon.It is easy see why Anil could have planned this. His stock prices were falling. Investors were losing confidence. Though they were making good profits, they were still suffering from cash flow. Reopening the factory could be a first victory for all the battles he has to fight elsewhere. If rumours are true, Sterlite Copper will be operational in June.2. State government - Complacent, incompetent and possibly a co-conspirator in the killing. Or worse, dumb puppet at the hands of the central government. How idiotic and incredible does it sound when a chief minister declares that he was not aware of the shootings and who ordered it. And why has not even one member from the government visited the site ? Shouldn’t the CM himself have visited it to take control of things ?3. Central government - In the past couple of years, there have been several protests, some very significant, through the state. Has the prime minister ever spoken of it or just even tweeted about it ? When he can tweet about single damn thing happening in the world (some damn right silly and foolish), why can’t he take note of something this serious. He probably this would eventually happen and it is possibly in his advantage. There have been protests against methane extraction and sagarmala in Tamil Nadu, a shooting like this will certainly have consequences in those protests too, possibly deter more from joining these protests.4. District collector - He has been known to impose 144 rather frequently and did so without thought or foresight. Also, is he genuinely foresaw violence, he should have asked for more help to control the crowd. He should have invited representatives from the protesters to hold talks. He rather chose to abscond.5. Police - Police brutality is becoming quite common in Tamil Nadu these days. They have abused power over and over again, but with no consequence whatsoever. During the Jallikattu protests, they thrashed people, many of them teenagers and set alight huts and autos. During protests against tasmac, we saw one SI slapping a lady brutally. He was later promoted. In trichy, a policeman kicked a pregnant woman. Both she and her child did not survive this brutality. Only a few days ago, a video surface where three traffic policemen beat up a guy in front of his mother and sister who were also beaten by the same police. And not, the same has repeated in Tuticorin and in a much worse manner and scale. Standard crowd control procedure doesn’t seem to have been followed. Tear gas doesn’t seem to have been effectively used. Water cannons were not brought. People were not fired below knee. And how did the police go about killing 12 people and injuring more before they stopped firing. If the intention was the disperse the crowd, shouldn’t they have not stopped after firing at one or two below the knee. How many bullets were fired in all ? Why were self loading rifles used ? Why were firing at unarmed civilians from strategic positions ? And on whose orders were they shooting ?I’m very sure every single one of these people I point here will be cleared of any wrong doings in the official findings and the mob will be blamed for it ? That simply doesn’t change the truth though.Conclusion:Sterlite is a unethical company run by a money making demon. The company and the man endangered the livelihood of several thousand people over the years. They have violated all the rules in the book and they deserve to operate. All protests against them are justified. And the factory should be permanently closed. Not just at Tuticorin, but across the entire country and the rest of the world.The Tuticorin massacre was planned murder and more than one party is responsible for it. First and foremost being Sterlite. These 13 people who have died have been martyred for a good cause. They fought for what they believed to be right and they fought for all of us. Let them rest in peace. It is our duty to remember them, honor them and finish what they started.#BanSterlite #SterliteKillsFootnotes[1] Ilavaluthy Mahendran (இளவழுதி)'s answer to What is the truth about the sterlite issue in Tamil Nadu?[2] https://books.google.co.in/books?dq=ratnagiri+sterlite+1993&hl=en&id=ho3rW62qeGoC&lpg=PT285&ots=9mXfKTBFhE&pg=PT285&sa=X&sig=CuadBjYBMT_6KRQTYnf5iLKLE3k&source=bl&ved=0ahUKEwjGytvllqbaAhVBlVQKHaFpC5kQ6AEIZjAJ#v=onepage&q=ratnagiri%20sterlite%201993&f=false[3] Copper unit comes a cropper[4] Disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa - Wikipedia[5] Vedanta got clearance for Tamil Nadu copper smelter by misrepresenting its location, activists say[6] Anil Agarwal's Shady Dealings[7] https://poromboke.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/health-report-sterlite_edited.pdf[8] Sterlite – here’s proof: The data on how the smelter is likely cause for water pollution[9] http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/downloads/Mark_Chernaik_opinion_letter.pdf[10] Sterlite copper plant in TN shut down after gas leak[11] Sterlite Industries (I) Ltd. Etc. ... vs Union Of India And Ors. Etc. Etc on 2 April, 2013[12] Sterlite allowed to restart Tuticorin plant[13] https://tndeltawatch.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/thoothukudi-report-_compressed.pdf[14] Sterlite – here’s the proof: Data on air pollution, and the case of the missing trees[15] Indian High Court halts Vedanta's bauxite mining[16] Vedanta Resources: the world's most hated company?[17] Vedanta investors look into human rights issues in India[18] Forest law violations by Posco, Vedanta being probed: Jairam - Times of India[19] Eight global demos against Vedanta in Afrika, India and London[20] Tuticorin to Zambia: A History of Vedanta’s Legal Misadventures[21] Finance Bill Amends FCRA Again to Condone Illegal Donations to BJP, Congress from Foreign Companies - The Wire[22] https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/2010/04/27/forbes-india-anil-agarwal-vedanta-at-crossroads.html&refURL=https://thewire.in/rights/tuticorin-sterlite-copper-plant-vedanta-modi-human-rights&referrer=https://thewire.in/rights/tuticorin-sterlite-copper-plant-vedanta-modi-human-rights#71cc9d6f32aa[23] Sterlite moves HC for addl security in view of May 22 protest[24] Vedanta for ‘no protest zone’ around Sterlite unit[25] Sterlite moves HC for addl security in view of May 22 protest[26] Basilica of Our Lady of Snows, Thoothukudi - Wikipedia

Yes ….1,000,000 % Hyperiflation = Oil is the Devil's excrement;Dr Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo Venezuelan, Founder of OPEC: saw it all coming. The infamous lines: "ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil's excrement ; 'The Devil's Excrement' - February 3, 2003The ultimate outcome seeing corruption, poverty, war, pollution and all this revolving around a grim speculation… Oil the Devil's excrement…the case all along was that we had never been in control of oil, it’s oil that’s been in control of us. A Spanish economist said of his homeland, "What makes her poor is her wealth"--a suitable lament for Venezuelans who have been waiting so long for their ship of money to come in.Money itself cannot obtain objectives. It must he used wisely with an eye to the future. A wave of money can destroy as well as create, and it often does. Will building the biggest and best‐looking schools create the best education?”“Because of the sharp rise in the price of oil, if Venezuela cut its production it would still be earning just as much money,” he said.“If we don't cut production we will have economic indigestion. We will have too much money that we will not be able to put to good use creating super high hyperinflation , corruption and the highest level of crime.”Financial collapse and hyperinflation make Venezuela an economic disaster zone.The crisis is no longer confined to one nation: refugees and migrants are streaming by the millions into neighbouring countries. |Venezuela epidemics and violent crime are spilling over all borders, endangering Colombia’s fragile peace process in the frontier regions.As Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro looks to cement his hold on power, his country is sinking into a trough of misery.Hyperinflation has compounded the scarcity of food and medicines. Epidemics of preventable diseases and a child malnutrition crisis are increasingly deadly. Violent crime has spiked.As seriously estimated over four million Venezuelans have emigrated, with hundreds of thousands crossing the border with Colombia each month in search of a new home. Venezuela’s neighbours, once bystanders to its domestic tensions, face a catastrophe on their doorsteps involved with international drug trafiking , extrosion, fraud, thief and murders.It’s the Oil, Stupid!!!“it’s the oil, stupid!” makes sense without being really true. Certainly, as the embodiment of immense wealth and energy, oil appears to be a force capable of defining the destiny of modern nations. Yet this appearance is deceptive. Oil conditions but does not determine the social life of these nations. To understand this, it is enough to observe that oil has radically different effects in different oil producing societies—for instance, the United States and Canada, on the one hand, and Nigeria and Venezuela, on the other. Given its exceptional power, it is necessary to remind ourselves of a true truism: oil does not do anything by itself, but as it is transformed and used by people under given cultural frameworks, specific historical situations and global economic contexts. For this reason, it would be truer to say, “It’s the society, stupid!”As an extraordinarily valuable commodity, it is hard for people to control it, particularly when it undergoes its most dramatic metamorphosis: when it becomes money.As money, oil tends to have similar effects in societies where it is in fact the main source of money. In effect, as the major source of foreign exchange of many oil exporting countries, oil money typically brings about an erosion of their industrial and agricultural production, leading to 70% expensive imports is the generalization of various forms of “corruption,” and the concentration of political power in their states.Venezuela's Inflation Rate: Causes and SolutionsVenezuelan has been suffering from high inflation rates for many years. The figure has been between 25 and 30 % per year. Inflation has continued to rage even though GDP growth has been negative in 2009 and 2010, and will likely be negative to neutral in 2011.The high inflation rate led the government to impose price controls. Controlled prices range from the price of foods to what a parking lot owner can charge per hour. In some cases, prices have been frozen for years, leading businesses into poor maintenance, causing the inability to hire more workers, and driving some to near or full bankrupcy.Price controls have also led to spot shortages. Fresh milk, for example, isn't easy to find - beacause its price is controlled. Long duration milk is found easily because its price isn't controlled. Powdered milk has been difficult to find this week. Sometimes the government tries to attack shortages by importing food. This means we have seen chicken shortages, but later we saw lots of chicken in the markets, some of it in poor condition. Hundreds of thousands of tons of food have been found rotting in import containers held by the state owned company PDVAL. This appears to be caused by a broken supply chain - they bought the food but didn't figure out how to set up the distribution system to get it to the markets. According to analysts, food inflation is largely due to the fact that supply does not meet demand, even though the financial system has dramatically increased loans to the agricultural sector.As long as the government is tossing around money to buy votes, or printing it to pay its bills, then there's going to be excess money floating around, and the price of just about anything they don't control by fiat is going to increase. Their response has been to increase their controls. They want to control housing rental prices. They of course control the salaries of government workers (who are now very underpaid and are starting to complain). Now there's even talk by the Chavez suppporters in the Assembly of controlling the salaries of workers in the private sector - they don't like to see private sector labor making more than government sector labor, so they're going to "equalize" everybody into poverty.The bottom line is inflation continues to rage, they think they can keep on printing their monopoly money forever, price controls are being extended, and the country continues to suffer from both inflation and recession. I know some of you like to gloss over reality, and seek comfort in all those nice statistics about how Venezuelans are such happy people under Chavez. But this is getting really ugly, and you don't do anybody any good pushing feel good propaganda when things are getting this bad. Please go tell somebody somewhere to talk some sense into the Chavistas, because nobody is going to win when the country collapses and people start to riot.The erosion of productive activities as a result of the massive inflow of energy money has been commonly called the “Dutch disease,” a syndrome baptized as such to refer to the negative effects of windfall profits coming from North Sea gas exploitation on manufacturing activities in the Netherlands. I have preferred to call it the “neocolonial disease” not only because these consequences are far more pervasive and pernicious in the narrowly diversified economies of postcolonial nations, but because they include the reproduction of relations of colonial dependence between these formally independent nations and metropolitan centers (as I argued in The Magical State: Nature, Money and Modernity in Venezuela, p. 7).In these nations, these effects also involve the proliferation of different forms of corruption, ranging from the imaginative creation of myriad paths for privately appropriating public wealth, to the less visible and more pernicious consolidation of political and economic relations that trap these nations as mono-exporters; despite projects that claim to diversify their economies, these countries typically remain, as in colonial times, primary commodity producers for the international market. In Venezuela, this has happened under very different political administration, where all imported product was the rule of quality.Clearly, maintaining this skewed international division of labor requires the collusion of politics and business, and thus the formation of a social system and political culture deeply implicated in legitimating and consolidating the vast set of formal and informal mechanisms through which oil is produced and oil money is appropriated. If in capitalist nations based on the generation of value through human labor the business of politics is business, in oil exporting societies based on the extraction of rents through the capture of natural riches, the business of business is politics. This explains why in Venezuelan public life politics occupies such a central space. Of course, politics everywhere entangles vital collective issues with private interests, but in Venezuela the state has become a particularly privileged path to status, power, and riches.Oil fortune has unfortunately helped make Venezuela a typical exemplar—or patient—of this “neocolonial disease. ” This fortune has also turned its state into an incarnation of charismatic powers that appear to be providential—a “magical state.”From the outset, Chávez was critical of PDVSA’s oil policy. Instead of maximizing production, he sought to increase prices and to strengthen OPEC. What’s your evaluation of this aspect of his energy policy? However, whilst in a very severe over supply situation, cutting back production to improve prices is the right practice, maximizing production should be the preferred policy of every oil producing country.This generates employment, increases demand for goods and services and has a multiplier effect on the Gross National Product requiring a high percentage ( 70%) of imports creating hyperinflation. Moreover, very high prices in recent years have not been a result of production cuts. Chávez has made a serious mistake in reducing investment in the oil industry, minimizing maintenance expenditures in a rapidly decaying infrastructure and allowing large production losses at a time when the market (especially the United States) could have absorbed a considerable increase in Venezuela’s production levels, without seriously affecting world oil prices.The so-called Bolivarian Revolution conveys the message that Venezuela dictates the level of worldwide oil prices. Venezuela has not the ability nor capability for disrupting the supply-demand equation at short notice and for a long time, nor has it the lower production costs and significant oil reserves of conventional crudes. Venezuela is a price-taker. Ricardo Hausmann: It is a fact that Venezuelan oil production is way below where it was supposed to be according to the strategic plans Chávez inherited.Today Venezuela should have been producing close to 6 million barrels a day, instead of the current 2.4 million. But under Chávez, the published strategic plans remained very similar. What has happened is a huge increase in the gap between plan and reality. In fact, PDVSA has been grossly overstating the actual level of production. So, it is hard to argue that the current oil production outcome is the result of deliberate policies rather than inability to achieve desired goals. With regards to the international price of oil, Venezuela’s oil output collapse has certainly been a small contributing factor, but commodity prices have been rising across the board, including mining and agriculture. Should Chávez be credited with those price increases as well? In any counterfactual scenario, oil prices would have been much higher now than in 1999.“Sowing the oil” has been the goal of the Venezuelan state since the 1940s. Oil has been treated as a source of foreign exchange to be invested in other areas of the economy. The energy sector itself has also been seen as a field of industrial diversification. Has Chávez managed to “sembrar el petróleo?Far from being a scientific approach to the optimal allocation of oil revenues, the long-time hidden debate on oil revenues flourished. It was first the issue of maximizing oil revenues either by increasing production (vs. decreasing prices) or by increasing prices (vs. decreasing production). A ridiculous trial and error exercise. However, the higher the oil revenues, the more the boasting about nationalism and anti-imperialism. Much ado about nothing. As in the past, but even worse than ever, the sowing of oil became a dictum with no real content….Worse than ever, Venezuela is witnessing hyperinflation, devaluation, production capacity eroded, unemployment, a two-tier exchange rate, poverty, dilapidation and corruption. The essence of the problem Venezuela has, and has had since the 40s, is the optimal allocation of oil revenues. The PDVSA meta-state is not the optimal model for allocating the oil rent nor is the PDVSA para-state. Far from being a scientific approach to the optimal allocation of oil revenues, the long-time hidden debate on oil revenues flourished.It was first the issue of maximizing oil revenues either by increasing production (vs. decreasing prices) or by increasing prices (vs. decreasing production). But it was as well the false debate on increasing the royalties and taxes. In 2001 the oil royalty was set up in 30% (16.6% since the 40s). Why not 31%? Why not 29%? A ridiculous trial and error exercise. However, the higher the oil revenues, the more the boasting about nationalism and anti-imperialism. Much ado about nothing. Ricardo Hausmann: Definitely not.While pre-Chávez policies lead to the creation of steel, aluminium and petrochemical industries, export concentration in oil is at a historic peak. Chávez has even made the export of products other than oil almost a crime. He used the fact that steel and cement companies exported part of their output to justify their recent nationalization. The exchange rate regime coupled with a highly protective trade policy is also antiother exports. There are no plans to create or promote other export industries. Non-oil production is geared to the domestic market and thus is completely dependent on oil as a source of foreign exchange. If the price of oil were to falter, Venezuela would have no alternative industries that could expand to take its role in generating foreign exchange as in 2014.Furthermore, PDVSA Agriculture will complement government activities to provide assistance to farmers and consequently food to the people. PDVSA Agriculture has already started sowing soy on land owned by the company and will soon start sowing sugar cane. This is done with the help of Argentine machinery. PDVSA’s new core business is the People of Venezuela and its new business model reflects this priority. With this new model, we have successfully challenged the existing paradigm of inefficient state owned companies, by demonstrating that while maintaining the status as one of the world’s largest integrated oil companies, PDVSA is also effectively contributing to the development of the Nation. When he became president, Chávez claimed that PDVSA had become “a state within the state”—an enterprise disconnected from the nation pursuing its own interests. Now critics claim that PDVSA has become a“meta-state”: a powerful instrument of the state unaccountable to society. The claim that PDVSA was a “state within the state” preceded the current regime. Chávez, however, placed the state within PDVSA, transforming the company into a “cash cow” to finance government plans not included in the annual national budget, such as 70% of import and distribution of foods, manufacture of consumer goods and government “misiones” (social plans). PDVSA also provides cash for acquiring private companies (Electricidad de Caracas, etc). The few audits of these new activities, more in the nature of a conglomerate than of a company, show inefficiency, mismanagement and financial malpractice.Currently, 18 countries are working with the Venezuelan Petroleum and Energy Ministry and PDVSA to develop the Orinoco Belt. It is well known that Venezuela has 130 billion barrels of proven reserves in this region and, after finishing the certification process trough the Orinoco Magna Reserve Project, our country will have the largest reserves worldwide.The destruction of the managerial capacity of the oil industry and the renegotiation of the contracts with foreign companies (with the departure of those that did not agree with the changes) has diminished the capacity of PDVSA to achieve any desired goal. Contrast this outcome with Petrobras, a company that is now expanding its production internationally, and deploying its proprietary technology abroad. In the meantime, Venezuelan experts are in exile, working for other countries and companies. You would need a very peculiar definition of nationalism to count this as an example of it.Some critics argue that the project of orimulsion was the perfect opportunity for Chávez to use Venezuela’s resources to promote an ecological and socially responsible energy plan—one favoring electricity for people rather than gas for cars.The Orimulsion projects were part of a technological quest to make the best use of the extra heavy crudes. Associating the price of these products with that of carbon resulted in enormous losses for Venezuela. Mixing lighter crudes to obtain, for example, Merey 16—as ExxonMobil did—allowed for great competitive advantages compared to mixing heavy crudes with water. The introduction of new technologies to improve and transform the extra heavy crudes resulted in a commercial breakthrough that has made these products quite competitive. In conclusion, Orimulsion has turned out to be no more than a good technology to transport heavy crudes as was originally conceived.Since recovering from the oil industry sabotage of 2002–2003, PDVSA has played an extremely important role in helping fund necessary social programs in Venezuela. In 2007, the company invested over $13 billion into such programs, which have helped lower poverty and address longstanding social needs. From 2003 to 2007, the poverty rate in Venezuela decreased from 55.1 percent to 27.5 percent, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Furthermore, these programs also helped nearly a million children from the poorest villages obtain free access to education. Secondary education has been made available to 250,000 children whose economic situation previously excluded them from enjoying this right. Adult literacy programs have taught 1.2 million adults how to read and write. These are just a few examples of the many successes we have experienced in Venezuela.On the other hand, Venezuela is a country with almost 100 years of oil production experience; paradoxically, we do not have a national industrial park to provide the goods and services demanded by the current production levels and even less for Venezuela’s oil and gas business plan, “Sowing the oil.”Dismantling the PVDSA irreplaceable machinery of a professional body of more than 10,000 geologists, petrophysicists, production and refinery engineers, researchers and planners. If assessed in the context of a zero-sum game, the loss for Venezuela is a gain for the world, quite a remarkable achievement. The lack of accountability regarding oil activities. Chávez disregarded the technical knowledge and professional expertise required to efficiently run an oil company. His belief that PDVSA is an inexhaustible cash cow. Collaboration between producer and consumer countries is a key part of the solution, framed by changing the developing model of the so called industrialized countries. It challenges the paradigm of what “development” means for developing countries, offering an alternative way to generate social value.Venezuela’s oil policy was dominated by strong actors that led to the internationalization of the oil policy. They were leading the country towards a fully privatized oil industry that would have been controlled solely by these dominant actors. President Chávez managed to break PDVSA dominance, but he nearly lost his life in the 2002 coup attempt. country towards a fully privatized oil industry that would have been controlled solely by these dominant actors.Likewise, Venezuela maintains a tense relationship with its neighbor Colombia, which is closely allied with the United States. Colombia is the second major trading partner for Venezuela, and Venezuela is dependent on imported food from Colombia, especially as food shortages have arisen in Venezuela in 2008. Venezuela’s attempt to control soaring inflation through food price controls and foreign exchange controls, combined with soaring world food demand, led to serious shortages of milk, 5 6 R eVista • fall 2008 eggs, meat and rice. Venezuela also became involved, with the permission of the Colombian government, in negotiating a humanitarian hostage exchange with the FARC guerrillas. After securing the release of two hostages, Venezuela’s negotiating role was cut off by the Colombian government because of perceived intervention in Colombian domestic affairs. Future perspectives At the end of 2007—a year in which Chávez’s anti-US and anti-“capitalist” radicalism reached its zenith—the tide suddenly began to turn against him.Rising inflation, crime and corruption, scarcity of consumers’ goods, growing divisions within the chavista ranks, and the general inefficiency of the administration had begun to erode the prestige of El Lider.On December 2, 2007, he suffered his first electoral defeat, in a referendum on a series of radical constitutional reforms including the possibility of life-long presidential reelection. Later on, new restrictions on democratic rights within Venezuela, as well as the Colombian assertions of Venezuela’s support of the guerrillas, cost Chávez the sympathy of substantial sectors of an international democratic left that had until then granted him grudging support. The time has come for evaluations of the historical role of chavismo and for tentative drafts of what a democratic post Chávez Venezuela might look like. The forces opposing Chávez in Venezuela are united in the desire to restore democratic freedoms, but their differing political philosophies range all the way from conservatism to democratic socialism…..now comes Maduro !After Chávez, a Venezuelan right-wing government would probably cleanse the country’s foreign policy of “third-worldish” elements and go back to a modest diplomacy tending to repair and deepen the nation’s inter-dependence with its traditional foreign friends. Under such a government, Venezuela would concentrate on being a reliable provider and would totally cease to be a gadfly. On the other hand, a slightly more left-leaning democratic administration— supported not only by the present opposition but also by a portion of honest former chavistas— might try to combine the return to traditional friendships with the retention and improvement of some of Chávez’s more constructive impulses, such as: a wide scope of Venezuelan diplomatic presence, a drive to foster the unity of Latin America and a bi-regional dialogue within the Americas, an effort toward more North-South equity and more South-South cooperation, and an active wish to see a wider and better balanced distribution of power among the main regions of the world.Dr Pérez Alfonzo, leader of OPEC who died, aged 75, on 3 September 1979, was one of Venezuela’s greatest political thinkers of the 20th century. He was an eminent lawyer and professor of civil law at the Central University of Venezuela. “He wanted not only to increase the government’s share of the rents, but also to effect a transfer to the government, and away from the oil companies, of power and authority over production and marketing.“For the producing countries, oil was a national heritage, the benefits of which belonged to future generations, as well as to the present. Neither the resource, nor the wealth that flows from it, should be wasted. Instead the earnings should be used to develop the country more widely.Sovereign governments, rather than foreign corporations, should make the basic decisions about the production and the disposition of their petroleum. Human nature should not be allowed to squander the potential of this precious resource.”He was both a visionary and an achiever — a rare combination. The best proof of this can be found here and now, in the shape of OPEC! OPEC was his vision. But he played a big part in bringing this vision to reality.The Petroleum Pentagon, his book is now drawn.The first pillar is reasonable economic participation for the nation, as the owner of the natural resource. The second pillar is the creation of a government body to control the conservation of, and trade in, hydrocarbons. The third pillar is the creation of a state-owned company to handle oil activity directly, both upstream and downstream, as well as internally and externally, and which could simultaneously deal with existing private companies. The fourth pillar is a “moratorium on new concessions” to individuals and a complete review of the prevailing concessionary system which did not favour the host country. And the final pillar is OPEC, the Organization that establishes international cooperation as being indispensable for the effective implementation of the strategy.Today he seems a prophet. When it hit the jackpot in 1973 , Venezuela had a functioning democracy and the highest per-capita income on the continent. Now in 2018` it has a state of near-civil war and a per-capita income lower than its 1960 level. But the Midas myth dies hard.How could that be? For the same reason so many entertainers go bankrupt. Showered with sudden windfalls, governments start spending like rock stars, creating programs that are hard to undo when oil prices fall. And because nobody wants to pay taxes to a government that's swimming in petrodollars--"In Venezuela only the stupid pay taxes," a former President once said--the state finds itself living beyond its means….Hyperinflation: A cycle begins. The economy can't absorb the sudden influx of money, causing wages and prices to inflate and the nation's currency to appreciate (by an average of 50%, according to a World Bank economist's study). That makes it harder for local manufacturers to compete. Incentives, meanwhile, become wildly distorted. When free money is flowing out of the ground, people who might otherwise start a business or do something innovative instead busy themselves angling for a share of the spoils buying 70% imported products. Why slog it out in a low-margin industry when steering some oil business toward a contact could make you a millionaire?Venezuela’s economy will continue to be tied to the country’s great mineral wealth, fundamentally made up of its enormous oil resources. Among the mono-producing countries dependent on foreign trade, the case of Venezuela is typical of how dangerous this situation is for the normal life of a nation, a position that lacks the possibility of control of the events that can greatly affect its whole economy.“In addition to other unfavourable circumstances that mono-production implies, the fact that the predominant product, petroleum, is depletable is a serious aggravating factor.Thus a doubly deadly dynamic: a ballooning public sector, a withering private one "This is a country that can never, ever sustain itself on oil," Terry Lynn Karl, author of The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States, says of Venezuela. "But everyone from the President to the poor believes it can." And therein lies the trap. President Hugo Chavez rode popular rage into office by focusing on corruption. But what neither he nor anyone else will face up to is this: Oil is not an economy. Creative economic activities have spillover effects that become self-sustaining. Oil spills only into a barrel--and from there usually into the hands of a favored few. That's the real reason Venezuela's productivity growth has been roughly half 52% of the Latin American average.http://cepr.net/images/videos/BBC_News_Channel-2018-08-18_02-12-36.mp4Venezuela crisis: Hyperinflation, mass migration, food shortage, increasing number of crimes: murders, kidnapping and grinding poverty has spiralled Venezuela with a total corruption into a deep turmoil.$ 1,583 Million USD for free housing ; Pdvsa reporta la inversión para el desarrollo socialVenezuela, once a rich oil reserve country, is now battering an unprecedented economic crisis. Many in Venezuela blame President Nicolas Maduro for the country’s current condition. Here is a look at the crisis unfolding in Venezuela and how it is now affecting its people…..Dr Juan Pérez Alfonso, Venezuelan, Regarded as Founder of OPEC“I may sadly be the father of OPEC, but now sometimes I feel like renouncing my off spring,” he said wistfully in an interview in 1976.Dr Juan Perez expressed great concern that the flood of money entering Venezuela after oil prices quadrupled in 1974 had undermined the population's commitment to hard work into a group contemplating laziness and made the nation dependent on 70%+ of foreign imports.However, protection within the market and the promise of unfettered wealth arising from Venezuela’s immense oil reserves were undone by what economists came to term the 'natural resource curse'; the sudden influx of money would cause the national currency to dramatically appreciate, wages are driven up, prices inflate, manufacturing significantly slowed ,reduced, requiring up to 70% imports and exports all slump reaction creating hyperinflation.Hyperinflation in VenezuelaThe plummeting oil prices since 2014 is one of the main reasons why Venezuela’s currency has weakened sharply. The country, which has rich oil reserves largely depended on it for its revenue. But when the oil price dropped drastically in 2014, Venezuela which received 96 per cent of its revenue from the oil exports, suffered a shortage of foreign currency. This made 70% of the import of basic essentials like food and medicines difficult.Food and medicine shortage in VenezuelaVenezuela’s cannot produce the majority, now any of the goods and must import over 75% of required goods confirming that imports are down 50% from a year ago, according to Ecoanalitica, a national research firm, CNN reported. Venezuela’s minimum wage is now about the equivalent of $1 a month, making basics unaffordable for many. With a shortage of the import goods, the black market has got a free hand in the country. Prices have been doubling every 26 days on average, according to a report in BBC. According to an Al Jazeera report, many Venezuelans sift through the rubbish and bins in search for food.A survey from February this year found that almost 90% of Venezuelans live in poverty and more than 60% surveyed said that they had woken up hungry because they did not have enough money to buy food, reported Reuters. Apart from food, the country is also facing medicine shortage. The economic crisis has also hit the public health system, making medicine and equipment inaccessible to its peoples.New currency of VenezuelaAmid the growing crisis, the government issued new currency — with new clour notes and denomination — to keep up with the projected inflation. While earlier, Maduro had decided to remove three zeros from the bolivar currency, he later dropped off five zeros. The new currency will be released next month and overhaul would tie the bolivar to the recently launched state-backed cryptocurrency called the petro, Maduro said in a televised broadcast. The new “Bolivar Soberano” currency is worth 100,000 “old” Bolivares.Cryptocurrency experts have said the petro suffers from a lack of credibility because of a lack of confidence in Maduro’s government and the mismanagement of the country’s existing national currency.[PDVSA.USA], said on Wednesday that the United States had revoked the visa of its President chief executive Mr Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez,Mass MigrationAngered by the economic crisis in the country, many Venezuelans have started leaving the country. Of the 4.3 million Venezuelans living abroad, more than 1.6 million have fled the country since the crisis began in 2015, according to the UN. The pace of departures has accelerated in recent days, sparking a warning from the UN. The majority have crossed into neighbouring Colombia and then to Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Others have gone south to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina.The mass influx of people from Venezuela has triggered a strong response from Ecuador and Peru, Panama. According to news agency AFP, Colombia had criticised its two southern neighbours for implementing travel restrictions, warning it wouldn’t stop migration. Ecuador — where close to half a million people have fled this year alone — then lifted its week-long requirement for Venezuelans to produce a passport, all the while helping those migrants reach Peru. Peru’s citizens largely supported the move, though, worried about the impact that the 400,000 Venezuelans already in the country would have. In Brazil, rioters burning camps ans shelter this month drove over one thousand two hundreds back over the border, to Venezuela; reported Reuters.A man gets off the bridge as people queue to try to cross the Venezuela-Colombia border through Simon Bolivar international bridge in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela (Reuters)Colombia says it has already given temporary residence to 870,000 Venezuelans but it can barely cope. In Peru, record 5,100 people entered the country in a single day earlier this month. Colombia has pleaded with its southern neighbours to agree to a combined migration strategy, while Ecuador has called a meeting of 13 Latin American countries next month to discuss the crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will set up a special UN team to ensure a coordinated regional response.Increasing crime rate in VenezuelaAs the country slips into poverty, many are turning towards crime to make money. There were almost 27,000 violent deaths in the country last year, with Venezuela having the second highest murder rate in the world after El Salvador, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a local crime monitoring group. Many Caracas residents refuse to go out at night due to security fears, and wealthier Venezuelans often travel in bullet-proof cars with bodyguards. A recent Gallup study placed Venezuela at the bottom of its 2018 Law and Order index, with 42 per cent of surveyed Venezuelans reporting they had been robbed the previous year and one-quarter saying they had been assaulted, reportedWilson Ramos: Inside KidnappedKIDNAPPING SCENEGetting Kidnapped (And Shot At) In Caracas, VenezuelaThe kidnapping in Venezuela started when I walked off the plane, this wasn’t the Venezuela I remembered. The second I walked through customs there were several individuals that walked up to me to exchange money. Of course I said! Who wouldn’t like to exchange money with a non official random person in a back alley of the airport in the most dangerous city in South America?Oil, & PDVSA State oil Company: Petro Caribbe stocks drainedVenezuela cancelled Oil delivery to 11 International customers in June 2018 incapable to pump 1,5 million barrels per day.Legal actions against PDVSA by U.S. producer ConocoPhillips aimed to satisfy a $2 billion arbitration award also have recently worsened the bottleneck as the Venezuelan firm is no longer fully using its Caribbean terminals to store and export.But an increase in production of diluted crude oil, or DCO, formulated by PDVSA by blending naphtha and extra heavy oils while its crude upgraders are out of service, and shipments from Aruba and Curacao ahead of seizure attempts by Conoco helped PDVSA and its joint ventures deliver more barrels to the United States in June.PDVSA exports have declined in recent months due to a stubborn tanker backlog around Venezuela’s main ports and its fast-declining crude output, which has stopped the firm from complying with supply contracts to almost all of its customers.A U.S. district court judge in Houston last week ruled Conoco can depose Citgo as preparation for a court case against PDVSA and others over alleged asset transfers in the Caribbean that Conoco claims were designed to frustrate its efforts to obtain payment under the arbitration award.Venezuela has begun testing sea-borne oil transfers to ease a severe backlog of crude deliveries from its main terminals, according to sources and data, as chronic delays and production declines could temporarily halt state-run PDVSA’s supply contracts if they are not cleared soon.Venezuela suspends oil delivery to Antigua and Barbuda and othersJune 12, 2018 OBSERVER media Antigua and Barbuda is among countries to be affected as Venezuela’s PDVSA says it is suspending petroleum deliveries to about half of the Caribbean countries in its Petrocaribe agreement.The move comes due to falling crude production and low refinery utilisation, according to a Venezuelan Oil Ministry report quoted on the online news agency Platts.PDVSA, according to the Platts report, is indefinitely suspending a combined 38,000 b/d of refined products deliveries to eight of the 17 countries that make up Petrocaribe: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and St. Kitts & Nevis.However, the report added that PDVSA will continue to supply 45,600 b/d of refined products in June to Cuba’s Cubametales, including 95 octane gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel, LPG, and residual fuel. Cuba has been one of the countries that has most benefited from the PetroCaribe agreement, receiving average deliveries from PDVSA of 95,000 b/d of crude and refined products.Under the Petro Caribe agreement, Venezuela sells petroleum to Central American and Caribbean nations on favorable terms….They pay 50 or 60% and the balance is financed up to 25 years .Venezuela inaugurated the plan in 2005 with Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas , Belize, Cuba Cienfuegos Refinery, Dominica, Granada, Guyana – which subsequently pulled out, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica Petrojam refinery, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic Refinery , St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Suriname.The original agreement contemplated a supply of up to 185,000 b/d of crude oil and products under preferential conditions…50% / 60 days up to 25years financing. In 2017, Venezuelan shipments of petroleum via Petrocaribe dropped by 40%, or 54,400 b/d, from 136,000 b/d exported in 2015. The Oil Ministry report also said even though PDVSA does not have Mesa 30 crude available in June to supply Cuba, it is evaluating the possibility of buying light crude from third parties. In February, March, and April, PDVSA bought 4.2 million barrels at world wide price of Urals crude for Cuba.PDVSA has been operating its refineries below capacity because of a shortage of crude feedstock and various unscheduled shutdowns. PDVSA this month plans to process 499,000 b/d through its refining system, or 31 percent of its 1.6 million b/d capacity.Russian oil bought by PDVSA for Cuba discharges in the Caribbean -dataJune 25, 2018, 02:09:00 PM EDT By ReutersPDVSA has been unable to fully use its refining and storage facilities in the region, diverting cargoes that have contributed to export delays.Aframax tanker Advante Atom originally was to discharge Russian Urals crude in mid-May at PDVSA's Bullenbay terminal in Curacao, where it would be re-exported to Cuba, one of several such cargoes since January.PDVSA exported 765,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products to customers in the first two weeks of June, a 32 percent decline compared with May, excluding shipments by two of the company's joint ventures, which export separately.Manuel Quevedo, Venezuela's oil minister and the state-run firm's president, last week said the country expects to recover a portion of its lost crude output this year. But there are no early signs of a reversal in the declining trend. The number of active rigs fell to 28 in May versus 54 in the same month of 2017.Secondary sources quoted in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' monthly report estimated Venezuela's oil production fell to 1.392 million bpd last month, the lowest since the 1950s.The lack of Venezuelan crude supply has forced the 335,000-bpd Isla refinery, owned by the Curacao government, to seek a temporary operator to replace PDVSA, which has not sent oil to the facility since late April.June’s expected throughput is down 144,000 b/d from the same month in 2017. PDVSA’s system is comprised of five refineries: Amuay, Cardon, El Palito, Puerto La Cruz, and Isla Curacao, which it operated in an agreement with the Curacao government.With the new tankers, Venezuela's fleet stands at 81 ships, up from 12 oil tankers in 2002.Next month PDVSA expects the Boyacá tanker to arrive, followed by the Carabobo tanker and the Junín tanker in April 2014, the release said.PDVSA on Friday, was operating Isla Curacao at just 29,000 b/d, or 8.7% of its capacity, as it was unable to obtain crude supply out of storage, according to a refinery official who spoke with Platts on the condition of anonymity.The alleged suspension in some Petrocaribe shipments is the major second blow to Venezuela’s hobbled oil industry in the past week. A PDVSA official told Platts last week the company notified 11 international customers that it will not be able to meet its full crude supply commitments in June. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said PDVSA is contractually obligated to supply 1.495 million b/d to those customers in June, but only has 694,000 b/d available for export. PDVSA cannot supply 800,000 barels per day sold and paid for by international long time customers.Venezuela’s oil production has continued to shrink, plunging for the 10th straight month to 1.36 million b/d in May, according to a Platts survey. That is down 580,000 b/d from May 2017 and 910,000 b/d from May 2016.The drop in PDVSA deliveries may present an opportunity for US Gulf Coast refiners, who are increasingly exporting refined products throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.US refined products exports to PetroCaribe nations, including Venezuela, averaged 398,000 b/d in March, up from 256,000 b/d in March 2017, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed. The bulk of that increase has been going to Venezuela.Venezuela must import and depends on semi refined light oil for mixing heavy crude from the USA.[ CONCLUSIONS The conventional wisdom about leaders like Chávez is that their electoral successes depend on class voting, particularly the support of poor voters disenchanted with the old political establishment, corruption within traditional parties, and the neoliberal policies of the Washington Consensus. There are, however, intuitive reasons to doubt this interpretation, including Chávez’s conflicts with organized labor, potential middle class benefi ts from some of his economic policies and redistributive programs, and the scholarly contention that Latin American populist leaders generally rely on multiclass bases of support. My results show that this intuitive skepticism is indeed warranted; Chávez’s electoral base is not, in fact, disproportionately poor. That is, I find no evidence of a monotonic class vote outside the election of 1998.]This oligarchy, made up of Chavez's political heirs, is the third major component of the real power in Venezuela. Of course, Maduro; his wife, Cilia Flores; and many of his relatives and associates are part of that oligarchy. In this elite there are different “families,” “cartels,” and groups that compete for influence on government decisions, for political appointments, and for the control of illicit markets—ranging from human trafficking to money laundering. The smuggling and selling of food, medicines, and all kinds of products are just a few of the many other corrupt activities that enrich the Maduro oligarchy as well as the Cubans, the military, and their civilian accomplices.Getting rid of Maduro is necessary. But it's not enough as long as three criminal cartels—who are intermingled in business, corruption, and the exercise of power—continue to control Venezuela.Oil is the Devil's excrement".U.S. Drug Smuggling Trial of Venezuelan Leader Nicolás Maduro'sDrug Trafficking Within the Venezuelan Regime: The 'Cartel of the Suns'Venezuela's National Guard Commander Gen. Nestor Reverol (pictured in Caracas) is named in an indictment in federal court in New York City that accuses him of tipping off cocaine traffickers of incoming raidsNestor Reverol, the former head of Venezuela’s anti-narcotics agency and a long-time ally of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is named in a sealed indictment pending in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, according to the people.He would be one of the highest-ranking Venezuelan officials - and the only one currently in office - to face U.S. drug charges.Reverol, who leads the branch of Venezuela’s armed forces that controls the country’s borders, could not be reached for comment by Reuters.INTERNATIONAL COCAINE CORRIDOR VENEZUELA“The National Guard has been key to opening up the doors into Venezuela for Colombian drug trafficking organizations and subversive groups,” he said. “They have transformed Venezuela into a massive pipeline for cocaine into the United States and Europe.”US government sanctions on Venezuela vice president for drug chargesNicolas Maduro Doesn't Really Control VenezuelaMaduro doesn’t really matter. He is simply a useful idiot, the puppet of those who really control Venezuela: the Cubans, the drug traffickers, and Hugo Chavez’s political heirs. Those three groups effectively function as criminal cartels, and have co-opted the armed forces into their service; this is how it is possible that every day we see men in uniform willing to massacre their own people in order to keep Venezuela’s criminal oligarchy in power.Another important player in today’s Venezuela is the drug traffickers, whose power is also a constraint on Maduro. Venezuela is one of the main drug routes to the U.S. , Europe and Africa. This status is worth billions of dollars, and the country is home to a vast network of people and organizations that control the illicit trade and the enormous amount of money it generates. According to U.S. officials, one such person is Vice President Tareck El Aissami, and so are a large number of military officers and other relatives and members of the ruling oligarchy.Reuters (With inputs from agencies)Venezuela: The Chávez Effect (Fall 2008)( 96p history data )Venezuela’s economy collapses: All your questions answeredVenezuela's Inflation Rate: Causes and Solutionshttps://antiguaobserver.com/venezuela-suspends-oil-delivery-to-antigua-and-barbuda-and-others/Russian oil bought by PDVSA for Cuba discharges in the Caribbean -dataThe launch of the book "The Petroleum Pentagon"Poverty Reduction in VenezuelaThe Economics, Culture, and Politics of Oil in VenezuelaJuan Pérez Alfonso, Venezuelan, Regarded as Founder of OPEBiografía Juan Pablo Perez AlfonsoChina-made oil tankers arrive in Venezuela - BNamericasOil is the devil's excrementVenezuela's first lady says her nephews were kidnapped by U.S.https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/news/122120.pdfNicolas Maduro Doesn't Really Control Venezuela[1] Tugwell, Franklin (1975) The Politics of Oil in Venezuela. Stanford University Press, p.182[2] For example, while Venezuelan individual income taxes during the 70’s made up only 4.1% of total tax income and corporate taxes made up 70.3%, in neighboring Colombia, the tax burden is distributed much more evenly among different sources, so that individual income tax makes up 11% and corporate tax 12.8% of total tax income. (Source: Terry Lynn Karl, 1997, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro States, University of California Press, p.89)[3] Source: OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin, 2001[4] Chávez’ visits to Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi would come to haunt him over and over again, as his opponents would site these visits as reasons for their dislike of Chávez.[5] As was the case of Dutch gas, which is where the name for the problem comes from.[6] World Development Report 2000/2001, p.297[7] Average annual inflation was over 50% between 1988 and 1998.[8] Terry Lynn Karl, p.235. This was a fate suffered by only 19 countries in the world in 1996.[9] Terry Lynn Karl (1997), p.184[10] Fernando Coronil (1997) The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela. University of Chicago Press. p.4[11] [Source?][12] To list a few name changes: Shell became Maraven, Exxon became Lagoven, Mobil became Corpoven , Gulf became Menoven (sp?).[13] An oil industry expert, who briefly served on the PDVSA board of directors in the days leading to the April 11, 2002 coup attempt.[14] Bernard Mommer (2001) “Venezuelan Oil Politics at the Crossroads.” Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Monthly Commentary.[15] www.americaeconomia.com[16] PDVSA ranks #24 in terms of return on assets, #49 in terms of return on sales, and #50 in terms of return on fixed assets.[17] Source: Mark Weisbrot and Simone Baribeau (2003), “What happened to Profits?: The Record of Venezuela’s Oil Industry,” Center for Economic Policy Research paper: www.cepr.net/what_happened_to_profits.htm (their figures are based on SEC filings).[18] Carlos Rossi, “PDVSA’s Labor Problems,” The Daily Journal, April 18, 2002.[19] See: El Nacional, “Cuentas Crudas, Precios Refinados”, November 17, 1998[20] For 2001 outsourced oil fields cost $10.94 per barrel of oil equivalent produced, while non-outsourced oil fields cost only $2.03 per barrel of oil equivalent (in 1997 dollars). Source: CEPR Research Paper, “What Happened to Profits?”[21] See: www.soberania.info/tercerizacion_portada.htm The excess costs averaged about $90 million per year for 1998 to 2000.[22] See: Alexander Foster and Tulio Monsalve, “Quien Maneja las Computadoras de PDVSA?” Venezuela Analitica, December 17, 2002 www.analitica.com/bitbiblioteca/tulio_monsalve/computadoras_pdvsa.asp[23] Alí Rodríguez, the former president of OPEC and current president of PDVSA provides a good summary of the policy in: “La Reforma Petrolera Venezolana de 2001” in Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales, No. 2/2002, May/August 2002.[24] Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Article 303.[25] Ibid.[26] Article 5 of the “Ley Organica de Hidrocarburos.”[27] Alí Rodríguez (2002), p.204[28] Chávez’ visits to Iraq—the first of any head of state since the Gulf War—and to Libya, both members of OPEC, would later be used repeatedly by his opponents at home and in the U.S. as proof for his unreliability and dangerous tendencies.[29] President Caldera had named the son of his chancellor to the board and Chávez’ first appointment to the PDVSA presidency, Hector Ciavaldini came from a lower management position. No protests were voiced against these appointments at the time.[30] Carlos Rossi, “PDVSA’s Labor Problems,” The Daily Journal, April 18, 2002. According to Rossi, PDVSA employees referred to the Caracas headquarters as “Hollywood” because every employee had at least one double that performed the same functions within the company.