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Ah yes. It’s that time of year when people start talking about Christopher Columbus again isn’t it?Here’s the thing: when people condemn Christopher Columbus for his atrocities, they aren’t doing so on an anachronistic basis. Columbus was widely recognized as a bad dude within his own lifetime and by his own people. In fact, he was so notoriously brutal during his time as governor of Hispaniola that he was actually removed from his position by the Spanish crown.The dark side of Christopher ColumbusThe main reason why Columbus is so controversial is primarily because of his brutal and sadistic mistreatment of the native peoples of the land he explored. Many people are vaguely aware that Columbus did some bad things, but few are aware just how horrifying some of the things he did really were. We will start at the beginning, with the mildly depraved and work our way up to the downright appalling. Columbus himself describes his first experience with the native Taíno people on San Salvador in a letter written to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1493 on his way back to Spain from his first voyage:“They have no iron or steel, nor any weapons; nor are they fit thereunto; not because they be not a well-formed people and of fair stature, but that they are most wondrously timorous… such they are, incurably timid… They are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as noone would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts……Their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they may need, with very little aid which their Highnesses will give me; spices and cotton at once, as much as their Highnesses will order to be shipped, and as much as they shall order to be shipped of mastic… and aloe-wood as much as they shall order to be shipped; and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped.”In other words, no sooner had Columbus finished praising the natives for their generosity than he was already beginning to think of ways to capture them to bring them back to Europe as slaves. In his journal, he wrote, “…the people here are simple in warlike matters… I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I pleased.”These tyrannical aspirations would soon be fulfilled. For the time being, however, Columbus was forced to settle for merely capturing the natives and selling them into slavery. On his first voyage, Columbus captured twenty-five Lucayo people to bring back to Europe to sell into slavery; all but seven of them died of disease on the voyage back across the Atlantic. Capturing slaves and selling them in Europe became a major objective for all of Columbus’s future voyages.To this end, Columbus and his men ultimately played a pivotal role in establishing the trans-Atlantic slave trade. American historian James W. Loewen states, “Columbus not only sent the first slaves across the Atlantic, he probably sent more slaves – about five thousand – than any other individual… other nations rushed to emulate Columbus.”ABOVE: Imaginative portrayal of the landing of Christopher Columbus on San Salvador on 12 October 1492, painted in 1847 by the American Neoclassical painter John VanderlynFor his second voyage, which set out from Cádiz, Spain on September 24, 1493, Columbus was given seventeen ships and over 12,000 men. His primary objective for this voyage was to establish permanent colonies in the New World in the name of Spain. His crew included soldiers, farmers, priests, and others from a diverse array of occupations. On November 3, Columbus and his men spotted the island of Dominica and then Marie-Galante. They journeyed north through the Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, past Puerto Rico, and back to Hispaniola, which he had visited on his first voyage.Michele da Cuneo, a childhood friend of Columbus who accompanied him on his second voyage, proudly describes how Columbus gave him a native woman as a sex slave, who was at first unwilling to let him ravish her, but he tortured her until she agreed to let him do whatever he wanted to her:“While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral [i.e. Columbus] gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.”If you think that is horrifying already, just wait; things get way, way worse. In a letter written in around 1500 to Doña Juana de la Torre, the sister of one of his leading crew members on his second voyage, Columbus himself boasts in his own words of one of the ways in which he made money on his recent third voyage, in which he had continued exploring part of the Caribbean and begun exploring the northeast coast of South America. Columbus writes, as translated by George F. Barwick:“Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the mines. A hundred castenelloes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”That is right. Apparently Columbus was not just a sex trafficker, but a child sex trafficker.Christopher Columbus was not only brutal in his enslavement of native peoples; he was also cruel to his own Spanish subjects. A forty-eight-page report written by Francisco de Bobadilla, Columbus’s successor as the governor of the colony of Hispaniola, contains eyewitness testimony from twenty-three of Columbus’s Spanish subjects on his behavior during his seven-year governance of the colony. The report describes in horrifying detail how he frequently employed maiming and mutilation as punishments, even for minor offenses.For example, the report states that Christopher Columbus once punished a man for stealing a piece of corn by having the man’s nose and ears sliced off and selling him into slavery. When a woman showed the audacity to insinuate that Columbus might be of lowly birth, his brother Bartolomeo had her paraded through the streets naked and then had her tongue cut out. Christopher praised Bartolomeo for “defending the family.” When the native subjects rebelled against him, Columbus brutally massacred them and had their bloody and dismembered corpses paraded through the streets to discourage future revolts.Things ultimately ended badly for Christopher Columbus and his brothers’ rule of Hispaniola. In August 1498, his subjects rebelled; they were incensed at the discovery that the New World was not overflowing with mountains of gold, as Columbus had deceitfully promised them to convince them to come with him. Meanwhile, sailors and colonists who had returned to Spain were lobbying the king and queen to have Columbus removed from power, telling them of his disgraceful mismanagement and tyranny. Columbus responded to this situation by having some of the rebel colonists hanged.Meanwhile, Columbus was beginning to attract criticism from some Catholic clergy. You see, the church in those days prohibited Christians from being taken as slaves and, if a slave converted to Christianity, he or she was required to be set free. According to some critics, Columbus wanted to capture as many slaves as possible to make as much money for himself as he could, so he was deliberately avoiding converting native peoples to Christianity so that he could sell them into slavery.In 1500, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sent emissaries to remove Columbus from his position as governor of Hispaniola, arrest him and his brothers, and bring them back to Spain. Columbus and his brothers were thrown in prison, where they stayed for six weeks until King Ferdinand ordered them to be released. The king and queen met with the Columbus brothers shortly thereafter and agreed to fund Columbus’s fourth and final voyage, but they refused to reinstate him as governor of Hispaniola.Apart from the report from Francisco de Bobadilla, even more horrifying information about Columbus’s mistreatment of native peoples comes from the book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, written in around 1542 by Bartolomé de las Casas (lived c. 1484 – 1566), an early colonist in the Americas whose father had been one of Columbus’s crew members on his second voyage. Las Casas was a passionate defender of the native peoples and fierce advocate for their rights and human dignity.In his book, Las Casas claims that, at one point, after Columbus’s slave workers quickly began to die at an exponential rate due to mistreatment and disease, Columbus himself issued a decree that every native over the age of thirteen was required to supply him with one hawk’s bell full of gold powder every three months. Those who brought the proper amount of gold were given copper tokens to wear around their necks. If any Spaniard caught a native without a visible copper token, he was required to chop the native’s hands off and leave him to die of blood loss.ABOVE: The Spanish colonist Bartolomé de las Casas provides us with horrifying, although possibly exaggerated, accounts of Columbus’s alleged cruelty to the native Taíno people of the Caribbean.To be clear, Bartolomé de las Casas was not an unbiased reporter, since he had a polemical agenda to portray current Spanish policies towards the natives as cruel and inhumane and thereby prove the need for drastic reform. Many historians believe that many of his accounts of the cruelty of Spanish colonists are probably somewhat exaggerated, but much of what he tells us about Columbus squares well with what we know about Columbus’s cruelty from other sources (particularly with his apparent fondness for dismembering people).Christopher Columbus’s dark legacyIf the things Columbus himself did were not horrible enough, his legacy was even worse. Bartolomé de las Casas gives extensive accounts of the brutality of the Spanish colonists in the Caribbean who followed in Columbus’s footsteps. The following passage is just a brief representative example:“They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were so many sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual’s head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers’ breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting, ‘Wriggle, you little perisher.'”Las Casas filled his entire book with reports just like this one. Once again, while these lavish descriptions are probably greatly exaggerated, they do reflect the grim reality that the colonists generally had very few reservations about maiming and killing the native inhabitants of the lands they were colonizing.Meanwhile, the first European colonists in the Americas brought with them the same diseases from the Old World that had ravished the population of Europe for over the past two millennia: smallpox, typhus, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, mumps, yellow fever, pertussis, and dozens of others. Most Europeans by the 1500s had evolved at least some level of protective immunity to these diseases, because everyone who was especially vulnerable to them had already been killed in massive pandemics such as the Antonine Plague (165–180 AD), the Plague of Justinian (541–542 AD), and the Black Death (1347–1351), each of which is thought to have killed roughly between 30–60% of Europe total population, as well as in smaller, local epidemics.All these diseases, however, were completely foreign to the New World and the native peoples had no immunity to any of them. As a result of all these diseases being introduced at once, the native Americans almost immediately began to drop like flies. The diseases rapidly spread across the Americas in a matter of just a few years to all parts of the continents, including ones Europeans had no idea even existed, killing millions of people as they went.The sheer levels of death and disease can hardly even be fathomed by people today. By 1600, just over a century after Columbus’s arrival, the indigenous population of the Americas had plummeted by perhaps as much as 90% in some areas, a death toll that far exceeds that of any other pandemic in all of human history. To exaggerate only a little bit, by the time the bulk of English settlers began to arrive in the future United States in the late 1600s, the Americas were like a post-apocalyptic world.ABOVE: Illustration from the Florentine Codex (compiled between 1555–1576), showing Nahua people of modern-day Mexico suffering and dying of smallpox during the era of the Spanish conquestOf course, no one could have possibly known what devastating effect that European diseases would have on the native population beforehand. Certainly neither Columbus nor anyone else had any idea what massive death and devastation that his colonies and the ones following immediately afterwards would cause. Nonetheless, in hindsight, knowing what we do now about the carnage and death left behind by the introduction of European diseases should give us serious doubts about wanting to celebrate the man who inadvertently started it all.ObjectionsI have heard a lot of objections and excuses for why, in spite of all the awful things Columbus did, it is still appropriate that we should honor him. Here is a sound debunking of a just a few:“Well, Columbus may have been a bit of a jerk, but we should still honor him for all the good he did.”First of all, “kind of a jerk” is a serious understatement when describing a man who captured and sold thousands of people into slavery and routinely had his subjects dismembered and executed in horrifying ways as punishments for relatively minor crimes. Second of all, accidentally stumbling across the Americas does not make up for the hundreds of people he sold into slavery, mutilated, and/or killed.“Well, the native Americans killed each other and engaged in behavior equally as savage as what Columbus did, so why are we blaming him?”It is true that many of the native peoples Columbus encountered were violent towards each other, but that does not in any way excuse what he did to them. Whether one person’s actions are morally justifiable is not determined in relation to other people’s actions. Furthermore, different native tribes in the Caribbean had different cultures and some were generally more peaceful than others, so we cannot generalize that they were all violent.“Columbus was a product of his times and, those days, everyone was brutally sadistic.”I agree that we should judge historical figures by the standards of their own times rather than anachronistically imposing modern conventions on them, but, in this case, it is abundantly clear that people in Columbus’s time knew full well that the way he was behaving was tyrannical and wrong. That is why his Spanish subjects rebelled against him, why the king and queen removed him from his position as governor, and why Bartolomé de las Casas railed against him for his mistreatment of the natives.“Sure, Columbus did some bad things, but George Washington owned slaves, so are you going to say we should stop celebrating George Washington’s Birthday (which is also a federal holiday)?”The problem here is that, yes, George Washington owned slaves, but he also played a pivotal role in helping the United States win and retain its independence and in shaping our country’s constitution and the presidency. There are plenty of good things Washington did that we can justly honor him for. With Columbus, on the other hand, the only thing he did for our country was the result of a ridiculous mistake that he never even admitted. That is not even mentioning the fact that Columbus actually never set foot on any part of the land that would later become the mainland United States, since his explorations were confined to the Caribbean and South America.ABOVE: Map of all four of Christopher Columbus’s voyages. He never actually set foot on any part of the land that would later become the mainland United States.The origins of Columbus DayAt this point, you all may be wondering, “How did we even start honoring this man to begin with?” This is actually a very interesting question, because, during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in the British colonies that would later become the United States, Columbus was not generally seen as particularly important in the history of North America.Columbus was not totally obscure in colonial America; plenty of people during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries had heard of him. Nonetheless, the Italian explorer John Cabot (lived c. 1450 – c. 1500), who sailed under the sponsorship of King Henry VII of England, was honored as the true discoverer of America, because he explored the northeast coast of North America in 1497, which made him the first European known at the time to have explored any part of mainland North America.Then the Revolutionary War changed everything. The American patriots fighting for independence from the British crown needed a historical figure to rally behind as their hero. This hero needed to be stubborn, persistent, a rebel with a cause, and, above all, he needed to be someone who was neither British nor in league with the British. Christopher Columbus, an Italian employed by the Spanish Crown, fit the bill. That is how our nation’s capital, the District of Columbia, was named after him.The publication of Washington Irving’s A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in January 1828 popularized the already growing fame of Christopher Columbus in the United States. Irving transformed Columbus from a small-time explorer with a legacy championed by a small, but growing, number of prominent devotees into a full-fledged national hero—a lover of adventure and exploration and the ideal paragon of the American spirit. The true, historical Columbus was forgotten, supplanted almost entirely by Irving’s glamorized idol.In the late nineteenth century, when Italian Catholic immigrants came over to the United States in large numbers, they were widely hated by the Anglo-American Protestants who were already living here. Italian-Americans were mostly confined to lower-paying jobs involving difficult manual labor and they often lived in unsatisfactory parts of cities and towns. They were widely seen as lazy and unprofitable members of society. Their Catholicism in particular was widely seen as a dangerous threat to the national security of the United States.Many Americans believed that Catholics were incapable of loyalty to their new country, since they maintained a higher loyalty to the Pope in Rome. In effort to show that Italians had made important contributions to American society, Italian immigrants seized Christopher Columbus as their patron. For instance, they held a massive celebration on October 12, 1866 in New York City in honor of Columbus’s first voyage. In 1882, the Irish-American Catholic priest Michael J. McGivney founded a Catholic fraternal organization in New Haven, Connecticut, called the “Knights of Columbus.”Columbus’s popularity, however, received a massive boost in 1893 when President Rutherford B. Hayes advocated that every American should celebrate October 12 of that year as the four hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in San Salvador. It was as part of this nation-wide celebration of Columbus that the socialist activist Francis Bellamy wrote the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance. This pledge was recited by students all across the country for the first time in honor of Columbus. This cemented Columbus’s already existing associations with patriotism and the American spirit in the minds of an entire generation of schoolchildren. That same year, the city of Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair in honor of Columbus’s supposed “discovery” of the “New World.”Columbus Day was first declared a state holiday in Colorado in 1905 and it became a statutory holiday in 1907. In 1934, the Knights of Columbus and the Italian-American community of New York City, led by the businessman and newspaper magnate Generoso Pope, lobbied extensively for Congress to pass a bill requesting the president to make an annual declaration of October 12th as Columbus Day. Congress passed the bill in April and it was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.The bill signed by President Roosevelt did not make Columbus Day a federal holiday, but, in 1966, an Italian-American named Mariano A. Lucca began lobbying to make it one. These efforts resulted in success and, in 1968, Columbus Day became an official federal holiday.ABOVE: Advertisement for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in San Salvador. The exposition was a massive boost to Columbus’s popularity.In the years since then, however, many Americans have increasingly come to recognize the terrible effects that our ancestors’ colonization had on the indigenous peoples of this continent. Starting in the 1960s, when the rights of native Americans received invigorated attention, Christopher Columbus’s reputation has steadily declined. Yet, astonishingly, a poll from October of 2017 year shows that 58% of Americans support Columbus Day as a federal holiday, which is 8% more than supported it in 2015.Make no mistake: Columbus was a tremendously historically significant individual and I am not in any way suggesting that we should wipe him out of the history books. We should continue to teach students about him and what he did, but we need to let go of the myths. We should teach Columbus for what he was: a largely incompetent fortune-seeker who just got plain lucky.Above all, it is absolutely baffling why we still have a federal holiday in honor of him, especially when the only two other people who share that honor are George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. (Technically, George Washington’s Birthday is usually replaced with Presidents’ Day, in honor of all presidents past and present, but it is still officially listed as a federal holiday under the name “George Washington’s Birthday.”) I completely understand the desire to honor Italian Americans and the contributions they have made to our country, but we can do that without honoring a man whose actions ought to be morally appalling to any reasonable human being.Some have proposed that Columbus Day be replaced with a generic holiday honoring Italian Americans and their contributions to American culture. I have no problem with this idea. We could create essentially an Italian version of Saint Patrick’s Day. On the other hand, if Italian Americans still want a famous Italian historical figure to celebrate, there are literally thousands of famous Italians who have made invaluable contributions to modern society and who never committed any moral atrocities on the scale of those committed by Columbus (eg. Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarch, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc.).There have been countless Italian and Italian American writers, philosophers, scientists, artists, social reformers, and others who are a thousand times more worthy to be celebrated than Christopher Columbus. You can really just take your pick which one(s) you want to celebrate. Just preferably do not pick someone who raped, pillaged, enslaved, mutilated, and murdered hundreds of people. That should be fairly simple.(NOTE: This answer is mostly an excerpt from a much longer and more detailed article I originally published on my website on 12 October 2018. Here is a link to the full, original article.)

This Petro Caribe is not capitalist propaganda it is Madurocimo …. Propaganda ![The Exportation of Criminality, is what may actually drive this to collapse would be security issues. The violence on the streets of Venezuela’s cities today is at a level that this nation has never, ever seen. The penetration of transnational organized crime into Venezuela’s upper level of government as never seen anywhere before…]Venezuelan Turmoil Insinuates an Uncertain Future for ALBABecause Chavez’s “socialism of the 21st century” and lack of economic freedom [174th out of 179 ranked economies] is destroying the private sector, Venezuela increasingly depends on Chavez’s ability to keep PDVSA on a lucrative course. Yet his anti-American agenda, oil giveaway programmes, corruption, cronyism, and general mismanagement are badly hurting PDVSA’sperformance and drawing resources away to serve political ends.July 20, 2017 COHA ALBA, Mercosur, Sheldon Birkett, VenezuelaAgreements signed at Petrocaribe Summit in VenezuelaMarch 8, 2015[There is no indication as to which countries signed agreements, or the nature of the agreements, but it is understood that Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro urged member countries of Petrocaribe and ALBA to ignore US Vice President Joe Biden’s advice to reduce dependency on Venezuelan oil.]Among the matters discussed at the energy summit were the assessment of the Petrocaribe financing scheme in relation to penalty interest generated from the financing of the oil bill system, the extending of the Alba-Caribe Fund to leverage the social productive development in Caribbean countries and the designation of a high-level commission to establish a Petrocaribe Economic Zone within 60 days.PDVSA Curacao refineryPrime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris and energy minister Ian Liburd represented St. Kitts and Nevis at the summit, which was also used as an opportunity for a memorial service that commemorated the second anniversary of the death of former President Hugo Chavez.In a statement issued earlier, Prime Minister Dr. Harris stated, “It is a pleasure to share in two important events happening in Venezuela, one to memorialize the work and vision of former President Chavez, and secondly to participate in my first summit meeting of Petrocaribe.”PDVSA CuracaoHe further stated that meeting the energy consumption and demands in St. Kitts and Nevis is made possible through the Petrocaribe arrangement.The meeting brought together 17 delegations from member countries to boost the multilateral agenda and progress on integration, cooperation and socio-economic development in the region.Petrocaribe is an oil alliance of Caribbean states that purchase oil and petroleum products from Venezuela on conditions of preferential payment.The alliance was launched on 29th June 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. In 2013, Petrocaribe agreed to link with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) to go beyond oil and promote economic cooperation.Petrocaribe has 19 signatory countries, namely, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness has stated that Jamaica is no longer getting +oil from Venezuela but has avoided saying whether his administration supports the economic isolation of the South American country in the international community. Questioned whether Jamaica would support the US position by boycotting Venezuelan oil, Holness responded that Jamaica does not now import the fuel from Venezuela and suggested the US could be a new source.Jamaica and other Caribbean countries were receiving oil from Venezuela under the PetroCaribe arrangement, but supplies from that country have been declining because of the instability there.Last April, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, said the programme remained in place but that Jamaica has been receiving significantly fewer barrels of oil per day. She said Jamaica's quota of 23,000 barrels per day had significantly declined to about 1,300 barrels.In September, Petrojam In the meantime, Holness said Jamaica and the US both agree that dialogue between the government and opposition in Venezuela is essential to restoring order in the South American country.$ (3) bilions USD missing funds in Petro Caribe Haiti. {Venezuela et Haïti vont réactiver le programme Petro-Caribe pour financer de nouveaux projets.]The basics are here. To recap, under the scheme, Venezuela sells Caribbean countries oil on credit. At current prices, receiving countries pay fron 40% to 70% up front;Petrocaribe accord required members to pay cash for just 40 percent of every shipment, and let them finance the rest for 25 years at low interest rates, or make in-kind payments with products ranging from rice to blue jeans. the rest they can pay off over 25 years at 1%. (Some of the new adherents to the agreement pay 2%.) In addition, the recipients can pay in kind, if they desire: Guyana has paid in rice and the Dominican Republic in beans. (Page 6.The Caribbean buyers have to establish state-owned entities to handle their end; the price difference, in effect becomes a long-term cheap loan to the entity, which uses it to finance development projects. That is how Nicaragua uses Venezuelan money to pay for the prep work on the Gran Canal.Occasionally the Venezuelans give an even bigger subsidy than that. In 2011, for example, Caracas decided that countries participating in its subsidized oil schemes would not be liable for the royalty payments that PDVSA owed the Venezuelan government. That effectively transferred $13.1 billion to Venezuela’s putative allies. (It is not well-known that Venezuela has extended this arrangement to non-Caribbean countries: frex, here is Uruguay’s. Here is Paraguay’s.) And what does Venezuela get?Not much. Caricom just declared that they support Guyana in its border dispute with Venezuela. (It is a big border dispute; Caracas claims half the country.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 PetroCaribe agreement, Venezuela sells petroleum to Central American and Caribbean nations on favorable terms. Venezuela inaugurated the plan in 2005 with Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas , Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Guyana – which subsequently pulled out, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, 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. 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 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.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, which it operated in an agreement with the Curacao government.CITGO USAPDVSA on Friday, was operating Isla 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 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.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.The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and guided by the principles of solidarity and cooperation.Under the agreement, Venezuela accepts payment for hydrocarbons by various means, offering special prices for different goods and services.As former Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said: “We’re not talking about discounts… We’re talking about financial facilities, direct deliveries of products, infrastructure.”Under Petrocaribe, the short-term partial payment period for 60 percent of the Venezuelan oil bill increased from 30 to 90 days. The remaining 40 percent can be paid through a 17- to 25-year financing agreement with 1 percent interest if oil prices are above US$40 per barrel. Venezuela has successfully leveraged Petrocaribe to exert political influence throughout the region for the past nine years."Petrocaribe is slowly drying out," said Peter Schechter, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. "Anybody who has traveled to any of the receiving countries in the past year has heard the concerns about the future of Petrocaribe from government and business. Everybody is seeing a consistent decline in Venezuela's oil production. Every day, these nations receive stricter credit terms, and this has serious implications for the region," he said. "This is a policy opportunity for the United States to step up and be a helpful partner," said Schechter."The United States has become the dominant supplier of petroleum products to the Caribbean, amid an incredible domestic shale oil boom," said David Goldwyn. "Now is the time for the administration to help the region transition from high carbon fuels to natural gas, by creating a fiscal safety net if Venezuelan support dries up, organizing financing mechanisms for small-scale gas liquefaction and power plant conversion, and by considering accelerating this transition with declaring the export of liquefied natural gas and crude oil, to be in our national interest," he said."A national interest declaration would provide a cost competitive, reliable and proximate source of alternate energy supply. These steps will facilitate private-sector efforts to market US supply to these nations, offering them a credible, viable alternative supply source, as well as a means to insure themselves against the shock of a Petrocaribe cut-off," said Goldwyn.In exchange for oil, Venezuela accepts payment in goods and services at lower price: Cuba pays part of its bill through medical, education and sport services, while Nicaragua pays with meat and milk, and the Dominican Republic sends black beans.Venezuela to Forgive Antigua and Barbuda DebtPrime Minister Gaston Browne said the PetroCaribe debt had reached E.C. $375 million (approximately USD $139 million).Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that the Venezuelan government will write off 50 percent of its debt through their PetroCaribe oil deal.“I just spoke to a Venezuelan official who confirmed that a letter will be sent very shortly in which the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will confirm the forgiveness of up to 50 percent of the PetroCaribe debt,” Browne told reporters. He said the Venezuelan government had made the commitment to forgive the debt during the pledging conference for hurricane-hit Caribbean countries, which occured in New York last November, according to The Daily Observer.This is only the latest failure in Venezuela’s attempt to buy influence. In 2009, the Caribbean countries politely told the Bolivarian Alliance that they were not interested in military integration, they would stick to their own Regional Security System, thank you. In 2010, when Nicaraguan troops blundered into territory claimed by Costa Rica, the West Indian nations backed Costa Rica rather than their fellow Bolivarian in Managua.Hey! St. Lucia is backing Caracas against U.S. sanctionsADDENDUM (March 15): No, not Security Council membership. In the 2014 UNSC election, Venezuela won its seat on a vote of 181-1 with no serious opposition; Caribbean support was entirely irrelevant.Jun 13, 2018Mexico to Caribbean:”You Don’t Need Venezuela”MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s foreign minister will travel to Jamaica, Grenada and Saint Lucia in March, a Mexican official said, as part of efforts to erode Venezuela’s oil-based influence in the Caribbean. His message will be “Venezuela is not the only country that can help the Caribbean,” the official said.St. Kitts and Nevis was one of several Organization of American States member to help defeat a bill against Venezuela at an OAS conference in June.Meanwhile, Cuban diplomats will visit Mexico in March to discuss the regional impact of the crisis in Venezuela, the official said.The Cuban embassy in Mexico City said the trip was not yet confirmed but that the two countries have regular bilateral meetings. Mexico was looking at the possibility of replacing Venezuela’s Petrocaribe programme that provided cheap loans for oil to Caribbean nations – and has helped Maduro retain diplomatic support in the region.However, the Mexican official said it was still not clear how Mexico could furnish Caribbean nations with cheap energy, given the country’s struggling domestic fuel production, and that Mexico relies on oil income for about a fifth of the government budget.The energy ministry remains unconvinced by the oil diplomacy plan…Still, there are no signs that Cuba, a steadfast ally of Caracas, is ready to turn its back on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray’s planned trip follows a visit to Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this month by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who announced plans to study how possible oil sanctions against Venezuela could be mitigated in the Caribbean.The Mexican foreign minister’s trip represents the latest development in U.S.-led pressure on Maduro, who retains loyalty from some Caribbean nations that have long benefited from Caracas’ oil largess and have been unwilling to shun the country in regional diplomatic efforts.“The message is: Venezuela is not the only country that can help (Caribbean nations), that if there’s a crisis in Venezuela, they have more friends,” said the Mexican official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the as-yet undisclosed trip.In a statement, Mexico’s foreign ministry said Videgaray was planning trips to the Caribbean.“The foreign ministry is eager for those trips to be arranged, and so possible dates are being sought,” it said, adding that several Caribbean countries had invited the minister for work visits since last year.Videgaray has led Mexico’s efforts to try and improve cooperation with its top trade partner on security, immigration, and foreign policy, hoping to convince the United States to take a softer stance on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that underpins the majority of Mexican exports.Petrocaribe Program Comes to an End, Belize’s Agreement with Venezuela Remains IntactA report in the Antigua Observer is causing shivers in some parts of the Caribbean. The report states that the island has received word that the largesse of the Petrocaribe is coming to an end. This, according to the report, is due largely to the deep fall in the production of crude oil from Venezuela. Last year in September, G.O.B. indicated it would suspend Petrocaribe because Venezuela was not able to supply fuel on time and that the South American country was in fact turning to other sources to buy crude to meet its commitment. But after a visit from PDVSA, things went back to normal. According to the recent reports, PDVSA is indefinitely suspending a combined thirty eight thousand barrels a day of refined products deliveries to Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In the case of Belize, John Mencias of APBEL confirmed to News Five today that due to the corresponding bank issues and sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Venezuela, Belize has been unable to meet payments in US dollars as stipulated by the agreement. The programme has therefore been suspended but the agreement remains in place until a fix can be found. That, however, is not anticipated in the foreseeable future.Under the PetroCaribe program, Belize and the 22 other members received fuel from Venezuela through a special price arrangement….25 years to pay back . The program was also able to generate monies for the Government of Belize. However, the US sanctions against Venezuela has impacted the program. Financial Secretary, Joseph Waight explains.Belize owes $200 Million USDJoseph Waight – Financial Secretary: the problem with Petrocaribe is that there is although there may be a willingness on the part of the Government of Venezuela to PDV, to continue supplying. The problem is the sanctions have really taken effect, The U.S. sanctions and we unfortunately we just have to be collateral damage in that regard, sanctions mean that we cannot pay them. They have shut down the international banking system as far as Venezuela is concerned so we are unable to pay for any fuel we buy.Waight said that Belize owes Petrocaribe two hundred million US dollars.The declared exit of Venezuela from the Organization of American States (OAS), the suspension of Venezuela from MERCOSUR in 2016 for its failure to “conform” to the bloc’s “democratic principles,” and the unification of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in defiance of a United States partisan resolution, raises the question whether the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) can be an alternative to the OAS as both a social and economic platform for Venezuelan dialogue. [i][ii]The OAS Permanent Council meeting on March 28, 2017, cited reasons to invoke the Inter-American Charter against Venezuela. The meeting revealed the demarcated political divide within the OAS; for instance, Saint Lucia voted yes to invoke the charter, whilst simultaneously benefiting from the Venezuelan Petrocaribe initiative under ALBA. [iii]The Canadian ambassador to the OAS, Jennifer May Loten, took one of the strongest stances to invoke the charter against Venezuela and called for a truth commission to be formed to “guide liberation of political prisoners [in Venezuela].”[v]It is unclear if the principles of solidarity, complementarity, justice, and cooperation of Bolivarian Alliance will persist amongst political dissidence. Foreign intervention in the relationship between Venezuela’s popular power and the state is signaling the beginning of the end for Bolivarian “participatory and protagonistic democracy”.[vi]ALBA is an intergovernmental organization focused on establishing social, economic, and political cooperation among its member states. ALBA is inspired by Simón Bolívar’s revolutionary ideal of greater solidarity and integration in Latin America. Bolivar believed in a unified South American nation ruled by one caudillo adherent to the opposition of foreign imperialist states.[vii]ALBA was initially established in 2004 between Venezuela and Cuba, under the leadership of both Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, to facilitate the exchange of Cuban medical services for Venezuelan petroleum. Today, ALBA consists of eleven member states — St. Vincent & Grenadines, Ecuador, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba — and three observer states, Haiti, Iran, and Syria, with Suriname admitted as a guest member in 2012 [viii]The bloc’s monetary union showcases the autonomy of 21st century south-south cooperation from Washington’s political influence.[ix]The principal strength of ABLA is the SUCRE. The SUCRE is a regional unit of account, that allows the facilitation of regional trade without being dependent on the United States dollar. The central purpose of the SUCRE, as an international unit of account, is to stabilize current account transactions among member-states. Balanced national current account, and ergo capital account, transactions between countries are central to elevating unfair shifts in purchasing power due to unbalanced trade.PVDSA CURACAOIn effect, balanced current account transactions between ALBA member countries would increase domestic demand and direct investment, without having to be at the mercy of US currency speculation for importing and exporting goods and services. In addition to opening up room for domestic investment, through a balanced current account, member countries’ foreign debts are self-contained within ALBA. Central to the self-containment of the SUCRE, is the fact that member countries would not owe debts to foreign countries, instead they would owe credit or debit to ALBA’s monetary bloc. The endogenous structure of ALBA’s foreign currency exchange, through a regional currency, denominates the bloc as financially self-contained from U.S. currency manipulation.ALBA is also approaching monetary unity in partnership with socio-economic development initiatives.ALBA’s initiatives include, Cuba’s Sí, Se Puede, Nicaragua’s Programa Hambre Cero, and Venezuela’s PetroCaribe focusing on literacy, nutrition, communications, and fair economic cooperation.Perhaps the most significant of these initiatives has been PetroCaribe, a program that provides Caribbean states their energy needs at a fair and reasonable rate. Under Petrocaribe the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), provides 100 percent of member countries’ energy needs at market price, with nearly 50 percent of consumption loans payable over 25 years at an interest rate of two percent.Venezuela’s PetroCaribe initiative is fiscally more competitive, and attractive, than other alternatives for the Caribbean community.Unlike the MERCOSUR trade bloc, ALBA promotes democratic trade agreements in which the autonomy of member states is of central importance (See Figure 1). ALBA was created in 2004 as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), but has since developed into an ideological alliance.At the 14th ALBA summit on March 6, 2017, Venezuela President Maduro remarked “[the] great challenge of this generation and the coming generation will be to have the same capacity of achievement, construction, and success in building a productive model that will give us independence.”CITGO ARUBAMaduro outlined the need for greater south-south cooperation amongst Latin American countries, speaking against the harsh neoliberal policies instituted during the 1980’s, famously known as Latin America’s “lost decade.” ALBA’s autonomy is essential for member states to sustain progressive integration, and to maintain economic autonomy from countries that have a superior productivity advantage. However ALBA has to set-up its game, as Venezuela’s top three largest trading partners are the United States, China, and India, none of which are ALBA member states.Misguided US Sanctions on Venezuela: What Future for ALBA?The current challenges facing Venezuela come at a time when Latin America’s political climate is turning sour. The days of military interventions instituting “puppet” regimes with support of the United States have drawn to a close since the failed coup attempt against former President Hugo Chavez in 2003. Though, the United States still uses political and economic leverage against Venezuela to further degrade the country’s preferential access to its ubiquitous oil reserve. In May 2017, Goldman Sachs investment bank bought $2.8 billion worth of bonds from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for 31 cents on the dollar, Goldman Sachs only paid $865 million for the bonds.The oil bonds purchased by Goldman mature in 2022, therefore Goldman took advantage of Venezuela’s dire economic situation, and the value gained on the bonds could be used for political leverage over Venezuela if the country decides to buy back the PDVSA issued bonds. Furthermore, in January 2017, Obama renewed an executive order declaring Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national security.More recently, the Trump administration is considering imposing sanctions against the state owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.The United States can either place a blanket ban on all Venezuelan oil imports, or bar PDVSA from bidding on United States government contractsGiven the United States economic and political hegemony over the hemisphere, it is entirely possible that the United States could use its economic leverage over Venezuela to its own advantage. Unless other ALBA countries utilize the SUCRE as a means of balancing Venezuela’s trade deficit, the deflationary effect on the value (not price level) of the Bolivar fuerte will continue.Building on Hugo Chávez socialist Bolivarian ideals based on “solidarity, in fraternity, in love, in justice, in liberty, and [in] equality,”ALBA’s philosophy encapsulates progressive socialism for Latin America in the 21st century. ALBA’s trade initiatives, such as PetroCaribe, present preferential trade for energy with low interest financing….something they cannot find a way to supply 1 million barrel per day.Although ALBA’s trade initiatives can aid the Venezuelan economy, Venezuela’s fiscal and monetary policies fail to address export dependency as the root cause of Venezuela’s economic instability. On Venezuela’s fiscal policy, expenditures mainly consist of increases in public sector spending financed directly through PDVSA. Additionally, the National Development Fund and the joint China-Venezuela Fund provide additional financing for the country’s social programs.Taxation in Venezuela has increased on corporate and income tax from 2 percent of GDP in 1999 to 3.2 percent of GDP in 2006: Venezuela’s sales tax increased from 9 percent to 12 in 2009.State-run PDVSA financing and taxation reveals that Venezuela’s fiscal policy is cyclical in nature. After 2003, Venezuelan monetary policy has focused on increasing aggregate demand. Strategies have included reducing interest rates and instituting price controls on basic consumption items, which account for 30 percent of the 2009 Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket ensuring that low income households’ consumption needs will be provided. Stringent price controls have increased government subsidies, to mark-up the loss of producer surplus on price-controlled goods, which has further increased the inflation rate.Despite Venezuela’s heterodox fiscal and monetary policies, hyperinflation also arose because of a steep decline in the price of oil, illustrative of the fact that Venezuelan oil accounts for 95 percent of the country’s export earnings. In 2014 oil was over $100 USD per barrel, while in early 2016 it was as low as $33 USD per barrel.(Reuters) - Citgo Petroleum Corp [PDVSAC.UL], the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], said on Wednesday that theUnited States had revoked the visa of its president and chief executive Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez,ASDRUBAL CHAVEZ COUSIN OF HUGO CHAVEZ PRESIDENT CITGO USAAsdrúbal Chávez President and CEOMr. Chávez comes to CITGO with more than 30 years of industry experience. He began his career at the El Palito Refinery in the state of Carabobo, Venezuela, working in the areas of industrial services, distillation and specialties, conversion and treatment, crude and products movement, programming and economics and process engineering. After a one-year assignment with Union Pacific Oil in the United States, Chávez returned to the El Palito Refinery where he managed several expansion and organization projects throughout the 1990s.The rapid fall in the price of oil reduced the amount of foreign reserves available for Venezuela. This limited availability of foreign currency exchange for non-essential imports, resulted in a higher exchange rate for select imports.Additionally, the reduction in the availability of foreign currency reserves led to a budget shortfall, and the Venezuelan state had to fill in the budget gap by printing money. Inturn, this resulted in hyperinflation. Furthermore, the Venezuelan government nationalized monopolistic private enterprises to enforce price controls that are favorable towards increased aggregate demand, while simultaneously turning a blind eye towards the economic realities of hyperinflation eating away at domestic investment. In 2007 Venezuela nationalized four major oil projects in Orinoco crude belt, and in 2010 Venezuela nationalized nitrogen fertilizer producer Fertinitro. Currently Venezuela is seeking to nationalize and institute price controls on Empresas Polar, which is the largest private food producer in Venezuela.Though, simply nationalizing domestic industry will not tame the flight of capital because of preferential exchange rates abroad.In addition to the price control, the Venezuelan government fixed the exchange rate in February 2016 to 10 bolívar fuerte per U.S. dollar to control for inflation. The fixed exchange rate has only further exacerbated inflation, as many of Venezuela’s essential food imports have been sold to Colombia through the black market or private exchange markets. The export of essential food imports from Venezuela is occurring because the black-market exchange rate is close to 4,000 bolívars per U.S. dollar.Therefore, it is more lucrative to export goods outside the Venezuelan state.inflation led to an Increased Pressure on Public PoliciesThe increased pressure on debt-service payments, fixed exchange rate, price controls, and declining foreign currency reserves has led Venezuela to consider paying its creditors at the expense of funding public services. The Venezuelan state is also considering buying back government issued bonds and selling them at a discount price to service its debt, such as how Goldman Sachs bought Venezuelan bonds at a discount of 31 cents on the dollar. It is projected that the Venezuelan state can raise between $5 USD billion and $6 USD billion by reselling government bonds at a discount.It is likely that the Venezuelan government will buy back these bonds as “Venezuela has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep servicing its debt.”Mismanagement of the Venezuelan economy is now diminishing the availability of domestic credit. In the early 2000’s the National Assembly favored lower interest rates to increase the availability of domestic credit for those on the lower end of the income scale.Now it seems Venezuela’s policy of low interest rates to “kick start” the economy has been sabotaged by hyperinflation, eroding the purchasing power of each bolívar.Although ALBA was conceived as a progressive left-wing intergovernmental initiative to help balance trade inequalities in the bolivarian economies, it has failed the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela is far too dependent on oil exports. In response to this dependency the Venezuelan government adopted a two-tiered exchange rate system as an effort to protect critical imports while stabilizing foreign exchange.Despite Venezuelan policymakers best efforts, the country has experienced severe stagflation, with an excess contraction of more than 10 percent in output.The contraction in the Venezuelan economy has resulted in a current account deficit of $5.1 USD billion as of 2015 from a current account surplus of $5.7 USD billion a year earlier.In addition to its current account deficit, high inflation, rising unemployment, and volatile exchange rate; the value of Venezuela’s primary export, oil, is less than half that is required to finance their fiscal account spendingDue to price controls, restrictions on imports, and the falling price of oil, the country is experiencing a hyperinflation rate of over 481 percent coupled with a 17 percent unemployment rate.In addition the government roughly owes $7 billion USD on a debt of $30 billion USD to China.Though exact statistics are disputed, it is evident that the Venezuelan economy is facing a dire situation. Given Venezuela’s stark economic reality, Maduro’s options are increasingly limited. Either Maduro can default on the government debt, or reduce price controls and import limitations in an effort to regain investor confidence in the bolívar.But the predicament may not be as bad as it appears. Despite the critical economic situation, it is important to remember that Venezuela owes no external debt to the International Monetary Fund and sits on the world’s largest oil reservesTherefore, by collaborating with ALBA member countries, restructuring its import regime, and reselling its foreign debt through open market operations (e.g. Ecuador’s 2009 repurchase of defaulted foreign bonds),it is possible that Venezuela would be able to escape its current economic predicament.Political Uncertainty ContinuesIn addition to the choices made by Venezuelan policymakers, the country’s economic fate is contingent on the political situation it is now facing. On July 16, 2017 roughly 7.186 million Venezuelans protested President Maduro’s constituent assembly election on July 30th, many protestors are in favor of the current constituent assembly.This followed from Maduro’s call in April for a “constituent assembly” to write a new constitution, after opposition protests resulted in 35 deaths.Maduro’s call to reevaluate the constitution comes at a critical time when progressive dialogue is needed within the nation’s political system. With approval ratings below 30 percent, the political future of Maduro and his party, the PSUV, is far from certain.But all is not lost for Venezuela. One bastion of hope is ALBA, whose past policy initiatives demonstrate that it is possible for countries in Latin America to cooperate on progressive economic policy. Given the evolving political and economic situation in Venezuela, it is imperative for the Maduro administration to reevaluate regional economic cooperation among the Bolivarian nations. Though, implementing effective economic policy may be easier said than done, as former president Hugo Chávez expressed “only by way of socialism [can we improve the situation] little by little. The terrible inequality created during 100 years of capitalism will not be removed in one year or in ten. [It will not take] as much as 100 years, but at least several decades [will be necessary ]Chávez’s Daughter Is Filthy Rich, and That Shouldn’t Be a SurpriseEspañol The alleged fortune of María Gabriela Chávez, daughter of the late Hugo Chávez, has recently stirred up controversy in Venezuela. Media reports suggest that Chávez’s daughter has US$4.2 billion stored in bank accounts in the United States and Andorra, which might make her the wealthiest person in Venezuela.María Gabriela Chávez’s alleged wealth, and other inequalities present in Venezuela, are not anomalies, or symptoms of a “poorly implemented” socialist system. They are, in fact, the inevitable consequences of socialism.That is a lesson Latin America has yet to learn. while the entire country is hungry……she is now Ambassador…!US arrests Venezuelan president's godson, nephew on drug chargesVenezuela remains a major transit country for cocaine shipments via aerial, terrestrial, and maritime routes. Most flights suspected of trafficking narcotics depart from Venezuelan states bordering Colombia. Trafficking by maritime conveyance includes the use of large cargo containers, fishing vessels, and “go-fast” boats.The Maduro government has now Drug associated 126 identified military officers some seniors involved in extra large drug shipments including out of the Simon Bolivar Caracas airport; and all Venezuelaharbor,Air France 1,4 Tons of cocaine loaded with passengers : Venezuelan Miguel Rodriguez, the country’s justice and interior minister, said that intelligence agents had detained a “first lieutenant from the anti-drug unit of the Bolivarian National Guard” along with two sergeants.The Venezuelan authorities have now arrested 22 people in connection to a massive cocaine haul found on an Air France flight from Caracas .The sentence comes after nearly three years when a ton and a half of cocaine was seized in France after departing from Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport.to Paris.The Bolivarian National Guard members were respectively in charge of a drug-sniffing canine, of operating an x-ray machine and of counting inventory. The other seven sentenced were airport personnel with duties including security and supervision. Eight members of the National Guard and nine Air France and airport staff have been detained on drug charges.The guards were in charge of security at Caracas airport, where 31 suitcases were smuggled on to the Air France plane.About 1.3 tonnes of cocaine were seized at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport earlier this month.The members of the National Guard and nine of the civilians were charged by a court of conspiracy and "aggravated illicit trafficking of narcotic substances."French police seize 1.3 tonnes of cocaine off Air France flight from Venezuela, Caracas La Maquetia Simon Bolivar airport.(31) suitcases loaded on to the plane in the Venezuelan capital, La Maquetia Caracas, an airport tightly controlled by the country’s military. The discovery is a major embarrassment not only for the French airline but for the Venezuelan government.The suitcases came from Caracas aboard an Air France flight to Paris, but did not match any of the passengers on board,Venezuela has indicated that the traffickers must have had assistance from people working within Air France's operation at Caracas airport. According to Rodriguez, it is "nearly evident" that there were accomplices working with the airline and the government Bolivarian army."How can 1,4 ton of cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without drug control going through the normal controls?" he asked.Agents are scrutinizing footage taken from security cameras at the Simon Bolivar International Airport and interrogate personnel that work in the airport luggage area, he said.French police have seized a record haul of 1.3 tonnes of pure cocaine found on board an Air France passenger plane.“How can the cocaine shipment reach France and it gets taken out without going through the normal controls?” he asked.But opponents of Venezuela’s leftist government raised the same question of the military personnel directing security at Caracas Maiquetia airport, and suggested the three officers detained were mere scapegoats. “Proof positive that the National Guard runs drugs out of Maiquetia”, blared the headline of , Caracas Chronicles.The drugs, seized on September 11, had been packed into 31 suitcases, interior minister Manuel Valls told a news conference in Nanterre, outside Paris. Some 900kg of the drugs were seized in the Paris airport while the remainder was taken from a lorry en route to Luxembourg, according to Le Monde.It was the biggest-ever haul in metropolitan France, he added.A source close to the investigation said the flight had originated in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Simon Bolivar La Maquetia airport, adding that the cocaine had a street value of some 200 million euros($287 million).The vast majority of illicit narcotics that transited Venezuela in 2015 were destined for the Caribbean, Central America, the United States, West Africa, and Europe. Colombian drug-trafficking organizations – including multiple criminal bands, or “BACRIM” groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN) – facilitate the transshipment of narcotics through Venezuela. According to media reports, Mexican drug-trafficking organizations also operate in Venezuela, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas.Drugs seized on Maduro family members luxury boat in Dominican Republic.Maduro godson and nephew family members arrested on 800 Kilos of cocaine heading for NY. (18 years in jail.)U.S. law enforcement officials arrested the godson and a nephew of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, traveling on diplomatic passports charging them with conspiring to transport 800 kilos of cocaine to U.S. territory, Campo Flores, 29, who identified himself to the DEA agents as Maduro's godson, was raised by the wife of the Venezuelan leader, Cilia Flores, who is the aunt of Flores de Freitas. Two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were found guilty of conspiring to traffic 800 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S., in a politically fraught case that links the country’s ruling family to the corruption plaguing its economy.Venezuelan President’s Nephews Found Guilty in Cocaine CaseThe arrests come amid several investigations being undertaken by the United States into alleged drug trafficking and money laundering activities being carried out by the top Venezuelan military leadership, the police , military and government officials.The Journal says that Maduro's two relatives got in contact with an undercover DEA informant in Honduras in October and asked for help in smuggling 800 kg of coke to the United States via the Honduran island of Roatan.In subsequent meetings in Venezuela, which were recorded by DEA agents, the two Venezuelans brought a kilo of cocaine to the contact to show him the quality of the promised drug, which was going to be sold in New York.NEW YORK: Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady should serve at least 18 years in prison for their convictions in the United States on drug trafficking charges, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.They said in a filing in federal court in Manhattan that the two men, Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, tried to make US$20 million through drug trafficking so as to keep their family in power and to "enrich themselves while their countrymen starved in the streets."US seeks at least 30 years for nephews of Venezuela's first ladyReferences:EFE Washington 12 Nov 2015By Sheldon Birkett, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric AffairsFeatured Image: Venezuela Protests Flag Taken From: WikimediaPatricio Zamorano, “The OAS and the Crisis in Venezuela: Luis Almagro and his Labyrinth”, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, April 28, 2017, http://www.coha.org/the-oas-and-the-crisis-in-venezuela-luis-almagro-and-his-labyrinth/.“Caracas To ‘Vexit’ From OAS – But Where Do CARICOM and OECS Stand?” The Voice, April 29, 2017, http://thevoiceslu.com/2017/04/caracas-vexit-oas-caricom-oecs-stand/.Mercedes Hoffay, & Karen Mustiga, “OAS and Venezuela: Another Contested Vot nut with Recommendations,” Latin America Goes GLOBAL, March 29, 2017, http://latinamericagoesglobal.org/2017/03/oas-venezuela-another-contested-vote-recommendations/Jeanette Charles, “OAS Fails to Reach Consensus on Venezuela Suspension in Latest Extraordinary Session,” Venezuela News, Views, and Analysis, March 28, 2017, https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13009.Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLE.ALBA Monetary Bloc: ALBA has an independent bank in Caracas and its own currency, the SUCRE, pegged to $1.25 USDMartin Riese, “Reforming the Global Financial Architecture A Comparison of Different Proposals -6.2 John M. Keynes: Proposal for an International Currency Union,” Johannes Kepler Universitat Linz, October 2008,http://www.econ.jku.at/members%5CLandesmann%5Cfiles%5CWS08%5C239339%5CDiplomarbeit_Klaffenboeck_zentrale_kapitel.pdf.Shawn Hattingh, “ALBA: Creating a Regional Alternative to Neo-liberalism?,” Monthly Review, February 8, 2008, https://mronline.org/2008/02/07/alba-creating-a-regional-alternative-to-neo-liberalism/.Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLEAlejandro Bendaña, “Alternative financing for development: Venezuela and ALBA,” CADTM, May 22, 2008, http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?page=imprimer&id_article=3390Joel Hirst, “A Guide to ALBA”, Americas Quarterly, http://www.americasquarterly.org/HIRST/ARTICLE.“ALBA: An example of successful South-South Cooperation,” New Delhi Times, May 15, 2017, https://www.newdelhitimes.com/alba-an-example-of-successful-south-south-cooperation123/.“Goldman Sachs makes an irresponsible deal with the corrupt Venezuela regime,” The Washington Post, June 4, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/goldman-sachs-makes-an-irresponsible-deal-with-the-corrupt-venezuela-regime/2017/06/04/f3e3994c-47a8-11e7-bcde-624ad94170ab_story.html?utm_term=.7b9e88138e42.Tom Buerkle, “In Venezuela, Goldman Sachs Found a Hot Deal and a Moral Mess,” The New York Times, May 30, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/business/dealbook/venezuela-bonds-goldman-sachs.html.“Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats,” Telesur, January 13, 2017, Obama Declares Cuba and Venezuela National Security Threats.Girish Gupta, & Matt Spetalnick, “Exclusive: U.S. Considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil sector – officials,” Reuters, June 4, 2017, Exclusive: U.S. considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil...Girish Gupta, & Matt Spetalnick, “Exclusive: U.S. Considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil sector – officials,” Reuters, June 4, 2017, Exclusive: U.S. considers possible sanctions against Venezuela oil...Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 230.Ludwig Von Mises, “Inflation and Price Control,” Mises Institute, May 27, 2005, https://mises.org/library/inflation-and-price-controlTheodore Cangero, “Venezuela: Socialism, Hyperinflation, and Economic Collapse,” American Institute For Economic Research, March 1, 2017, https://www.aier.org/research/venezuela-socialism-hyperinflation-and-economic-collapse. [xxviii] Ibid, 226“Factbox: Venezuela’s nationalizations under Chavez,” Reuters, October 7, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-election-nationalizations-idUSBRE89701X20121008 .Theodore Cangero, “Venezuela: Socialism, Hyperinflation, and Economic Collapse,” American Institute For Economic Research, March 1, 2017, https://www.aier.org/research/venezuela-socialism-hyperinflation-and-economic-collapse.Julie Wernau, & Kejal Vyas, “Venezuela Poses Investor Dilemma,” The Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2017Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014):226.Current Account: exports minus imports plus net factor income and net transfers“Venezuela Current Account,” Trading Economics, Venezuela Current Account | 1990-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast.“Venezuela,” The World Bank Group, May 2, 2017, Overview“Venezuela’s worst economic crisis: What went wrong?,” Aljazeera, May 3, 2017, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/venezuela-worst-economic-crisis-wrong-170501063130120.html.Robert Khan, “Global Economics Monthly: May 2016,” Council on Foreign Relations, May 4, 2016, https://www.cfr.org/report/global-economics-monthly-may-2016.Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 226.“Ecuador’s winning strategy,” The Economist, June 17, 2009, Ecuador's winning strategy“Over 7 million Venezuelans tell Maduro ‘no’,” Latin News, July 17, 2017.Nathan Crooks & Fabiola Zerpa, “Why Venezuela May Change Its Constitution for the 27Time,” Bloomberg, May 9, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-09/why-venezuela-may-get-its-27th-constitution-quicktake-q-a.“Political Crisis in Venezuela,” Council on Foreign Relations, March 30, 2015, https://www.cfr.org/report/political-crisis-venezuela.Ozgur Orhangazi, “Contours of Alternative Policy Making in Venezuela,” Review of Radical Political Economics 46, no. 2 (2014): 237.Chávez's Daughter Is Filthy Rich, and That Shouldn't Be a SurprisePetrocaribe Program Comes to an End, Belize’s Agreement with Venezuela Remains IntactUS weighs effects of Venezuela oil sanctionsFears over Venezuela’s Petrocaribe grow in Caribbean and Central AmericaAgreements signed at Petrocaribe Summit in VenezuelaPetrocaribe: What is it good for?JAMAICA | Tillerson-Holness May discuss PetroCaribe ArrangementsUncertain Energy: The Caribbean's Gamble with VenezuelaHaiti - FLASH : No more oil from Venezuela for Haiti because of Trump -HaitiLibre.com : Haiti news 7/7French police seize 1.3 tonnes of cocaine off Venezuela flightVenezuela sentences 10 people to 22 years for cocaine on Air France flightTwo Britons charged over Air France cocaine busthttp://notesreport.net/attention-mr-nnd-your-family/Filha de Chávez tem US$ 4 bi e é a mulher mais rica da Venezuela #boato[https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/news/122120.pdf ][This excellent analysis from Princeton University explains how Venezuela prepared the downfall…from Hugo Chavez in 1998 up to Nicola Maduro in 2018.] Noam Lupu Princeton UniversityCONCLUSIONS 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.]Maria Gabriela Chavez manda a decir q sigan votando x la robolucion pq el imperio es muy bueno y yo no quiere volver pic.twitter.com/4PizJQzE1H— Inger Gonzalez (@inger39) December 4, 2015

Venezuela have (2018) over (25) refineries under their ownership, Joint Venture , lease or control; in USA, EUROPE, South America & Caribbeans; The Paraguana Refinery is the second largest in the world after Jamnagar Refinery India with daily production of 1.24 million barrels and it is owned by Reliance Industries, located in Gujarat.Un fuerte aumento en la demanda de destilados siguiendo las nuevas reglas de envío de combustible se desvanecerá rápidamente, dijo el lunes la Agencia Internacional de Energía.Las nuevas reglas implementadas por la Organización Marítima Internacional (OMI) reducirán significativamente la cantidad de azufre que las naves del mundo pueden quemar en sus motores a partir de 2020, lo que lleva a un aumento de casi un millón de barriles por día (bpd) en el gasoil a expensas de combustible de alto azufre.Si bien los buques pueden continuar quemando combustible con alto contenido de azufre si instalan depuradores y también pueden usar motores propulsados ​​por gas natural licuado o nuevas mezclas de combustible con bajo contenido de azufre, la falta de preparación ha llevado a la mayoría a esperar un aumento dramático en el consumo de gasoil marino. ya que es la opción más fácil disponible.Pero la IEA, en su pronóstico de cinco años, dijo que si bien el consumo de gasoil aumentará en cerca de 1 millón de bpd, a 1.7 millones de bpd en 2020, volverá a caer a solo 773,000 bpd para el 2023."Después de un fuerte aumento en 2020, la demanda marina de gasóleo volverá a sus niveles de 2019 para el final del pronóstico", dijo la AIE, y agregó que la mayoría de los transportistas recurrirá a nuevas ofertas de combustible al 0,5 por ciento a medida que se sientan más seguros de su calidad.La AIE también espera que los precios del gas oil aumenten en más del 20 por ciento en 2020, lo que, según dijo, reduciría la demanda en otros sectores.El cambio tendrá un impacto sísmico en la industria naviera y en las ganancias de los refinadores; muchas petroleras, como ExxonMobil y Total, ya han invertido en mejorar sus refinerías para producir más combustibles bajos en azufre, mientras que la casa comercial Gunvor también obtuvo permiso para actualizar su refinería de Rotterdam.** *PDVSA processes crude oil at 20 refineries: (5) in Venezuela (15 ) in the rest of the world.Refinación Petrolera – Grupo 3The Orinoco Oil Belt was divided into four main large areas: Boyacá, Junín, Ayacucho and Carabobo, and these were subsequently subdivided into 45 blocks (including the areas assigned to the Empresas Mixtas). These were quantified as a result of a joint effort between the CVP and the professionals of 24 companies of 19 countries that signed understanding agreements with the national government.During 2016, the total proved crude oil reserves increased by 2,273 million barrels [1,926 million barrels in 2015 and 2,615 million barrels in 2014], as summarized below (in millions of barrels): Year ended December 31, 2016 2015 2014 Ayacucho 2,535 683 784 Junín (1) (1,347) 14 - Boyacá 19 - - Carabobo 515 543 635 Traditional areas 551 649 1,137 Offshore - 37 59 Total incorporation of reserves 2,273 1,926 2,615CARACAS VENEZUELAAmuay, Cardón, El Palito y Puerto La Cruz: the (4) biggest refineries in Venezuela. They use a process for the heavy crude: procesamiento de nuestros crudos pesados (craqueo catalítico) Catalytic ctacker type: ejemplo mundial de eficiencia y seguridad;¿Qué las: nuevas refinerías?VENEZUELA REFINERIAS1-COMPLEJO REFINADOR PARAGUANÁ (CRP): Amuay2-REFINERIA Cardón3-REFINERÍA EL PALITO (Carabobo)4-REFINERÍA BAJO GRANDE (Zulia)5-REFINERÍA DE PUERTO LA CRUZ (Anzoátegui)6-REFINERÍA SAN ROQUE (Anzoátegui)7-Refinería Batalla de Santa Inés,8-Refineria de Cabruta,9-Refineria la del Zulia,10-Refineria de Caripito,11-( PetroPiar, S.A.),12-PetroCedeño, S.A.,13-Petromonagas, S.A.14-Petrolera Sinovensa, S.A.)La Refinería Batalla de Santa Inés (también conocida como Refinería Barinas) 100,000 barriles diarios de crudo será sometida a un escalamiento productivo en virtud de una estrategia de desarrollo de dos etapas. La primera fase incluirá el procesamiento de gasolina regular, diésel y petróleo, mientras que la segunda etapa sumará más capacidad para procesar gasolina premium, queroseno, combustible de aviación A-1 y GLP( Cable: 09CARACAS1465_a ) WIKI-LEAKSThe new refinery in Barinas, near the town of Santa Ines and that the original concept was to build a 120,000 b/d refinery.Frank Gyax (based in Puerto La Cruz). claimed that he personally convinced Minister Ramirez to divide the project into two phases, both with the capacity to process 60,000 b/d.Frank Gyax (CITGO Vice President for New Refineries, Upgraders, and Terminals) and his deputy, Ygor Martinez Acurero are the top peoples.NOTE: Crude oil production from the Barinas region is estimated around 75,000 b/d; it is not an area projected for significant new development. Barinas, is however, is President Chavez's home state.Gyax claimed that the Barinas refinery would ultimately absorb some production from the large extra heavy crude Orinoco heavy tar oil belt .100 megavatios (MW) (2017 ; for La Refinería Batalla de Santa Inés.En funcionamiento la planta eléctrica de 100 megavatios (MW) del Complejo Agroindustrial Santa Inés, ubicado en el estado Barinas y la cual aportará 60 megavatios al Sistema Eléctrico Nacional (SEN), de acuerdo con nota de prensa de la estatal Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.(Pdvsa).El traslado de los nuevos equipos (conformado por seis motores de 286 toneladas de peso cada uno, y que también fueron fabricados en Finlandia) están a cargo de Pdvsa y la empresa estatal china Sinohydro. Se trata de un trayecto de 550 kilómetros de navegación, a través de los ríos Orinoco y Apure, desde la población de Cabruta, estado Guárico, hasta Puerto de Nutrias, en Barinas. El recorrido fluvial se realizará a bordo de tres chalanas en un lapso de cuatro semanas, Esta planta, en la que el Estado venezolano invirtió más de 300 millones de dólares, atenderá la demanda eléctrica de la futura refinería Batalla de Santa Inés y del Complejo Agroindustrial Santa Inés. La obra se ejecuta como parte del Plan Siembra Petróleos de Venezuela..La petrolera estatal venezolana, PDVSA, suscribió un contrato de US $2.310mn con el consorcio de ingeniería Hyundai-Wison por la construcción de la primera etapa de la refinería Batalla de Santa Inés en el sureste del estado de Barinas, según un comunicado de la primera.Wison Engineering provee soluciones de construcción, procura y consultoría técnica para las industrias de petroquímicos y de petróleo. En Latinoamérica ha trabajado en proyectos con la petrolera estatal venezolana, PDVSA, entre ellos la Refinería Puerto La Cruz en 2013 y, recientemente, la Refinería Batalla de Santa Inés.En la primera fase de operación, el complejo producirá gasolina regular, diesel y combustible residual, mientras que en la segunda etapa se incluirá también gasolina premium, keroseno, combustible de aviación A-1 y gas licuado de petróleo (GLP).La Refinería "Batalla de Santa Inés", ubicada en el estado Barinas, producirá -una vez esté concluida- 100 mil barriles diários de crudo y abastecerá la demanda de combustible de los estados Barinas, Portuguesa, Táchira y Mérida.El proyecto forma parte Complejo Agro industrial "Batalla de Santa Inés",cuya estrategia "punti-círculo" permitirá consolidar un desarrollo social planificado, a partir de la utilización de sitios comunitarios "promisorios" adyacentes a la refinería, "para que los núcleos de población vayan creciendo y se vayan estableciendo".Así lo informó el sub gerente del proyecto, Efrain Lovera, quien además enfatizó la vinculación de la iniciativa con políticas que permiten trabajar en armonía con el medio ambiente. "Es compatible el proyecto con la preservación del medio ambiente y para ello hemos hecho todo el esfuerzo en obtener la oportunidad de utilizar esta tecnología francesa".El complejo será referencia mundial gracias a un convenio entre Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) y la compañía Francesa Axens, por lo cual operará con tecnología de avanzada que permitirá producir crudo de alta calidad. La construcción de la Refinería Batalla de Santa Inés, con una capacidad de 100 MBD, permitirá suministrar combustible al mercado local de los estados Apure, Mérida, Portuguesa, Táchira y Barinas.“Esta nueva infraestructura petrolera se construirá bajo el esquema Hydroskimming para el procesamiento del crudo Guafita. En una segunda fase, procesará crudo pesado de la Faja. Actualmente, el equipo de profesionales de Pdvsa labora en la etapa de preparación del sitio donde hasta la fecha se han removido más de 2 millones de metros cúbicos de tierra”, informaron.————————————————————————————————-PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela/(Reuters) - Venezuela’s key Paraguana oil refining complex Amuay’s fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) restarted on Monday, the 645,000 barrel-per-day refinery was operating at only around 360,000 bpd as its flexicoker remained down confirmed union boss Ivan Freites.Amuay creoleLos proyectos de adecuación lo representa el Centro de Refinación Paraguaná (CRP), en el estado Falcón, donde se estima aumentar la capacidad de procesamiento de la Refinería Amuay en 110 MBD para conversión media y profunda de crudos de la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco, que unido a todas las adecuaciones de las otras refinerías existentes, le permitirá al CRP a partir del 2019 consolidar su capacidad de exportación.Paraguaná Refining Center (CRP)AMUAY-CardonThe adjacent 310,000 bpd Cardon facility was processing around 110,000 bpd, added Freites, citing Monday’s internal report of Venezuela’s top refineries in the wind-swept Paraguana peninsula.Las refinerías Amuay y Cardón distribuyen el 75% del combustible del parque automotor venezolano,Amuay largest refinery in FalconPunto Fijo refineryPETROCEDEÑO (Pdvsa, Total, Statoil)San Diego de Cabrutica, Anzoátegui State, Venezuela / Capacity: Processing train: 95 MBPD de XHO. Water treatment Plant: 200.000 BAPD. Electricity Generation Unit: 25 MW. Gas de compression Unit. Water tank: 68.000 Bls. Low Pressure Flare: 120 MPCED. Control room and SCADA.La nueva regla 2020 establece un límite global de azufre de 0.50% en 2020 versus 3.5% permitido hoyRefinería Puerto La Cruz, al nororiente del país.Puerto La Cruz Refinery (RPLC) La refinería oriental ( Orinoco)Venezuela recibe 1.500 mln dlr para financiar proyecto en Refinería de Puerto La CruzINTEVEP, PEQUIVEN(PDVSA)Proyecto Conversión Profunda de la Refinería Puerto La Cruz,PDVSA - San Roque Oil Refinery : belongs to Complejo de Refinación Oriente with Puerto la Cruz Oil Refinery.San Roque Refinery, is using Disol technology to obtain microcrystalline paraffin from gas and increase the plant´s production. This technology, patented by Intevep, will add 50 metric tons of food grade paraffin to the current production of 43 metric tons per day.It will also supply the total domestic paraffin demand, thereby eliminating imports of this raw material and generating important savings for the nation. The plant process about 2 tons of paraffin per day. This project is extremely important because it is the first project related to hydrocarbon derivatives, our nation´s main strength.Oil Refinery : Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) Santa Ana, Anzoátegui; San Roque RefineryInstalled Capacity: 5,800 barrels per day Products: ParaffinSanta Ana, AnzoáteguiPhone: +58 (281) 260 4530 (Puerto la Cruz Refinery)Web: http://www.pdvsa.comWikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petróleos_de_VenezuelaActivity Since: 1952Another project of similar magnitude is also on the works, namely the project to segregate paraffin crude jointly with PDVSA Gas. Once both projects are completed, the San Roque Refinery expects to raise its production capacity to 80 metric tons per day.This plan processes an average of 5,800 barrels of paraffin crude per day, is the only plant to supply paraffin in Latin America, and its current production is ranked fourth in the world. Furthermore, this refinery covers 74% of the nation´s paraffin demand and supplies roughly 76 clients, 98% of which are devoted to the production of candles, and the remaining 2% produces matches and wax polish.————————————————————————————————El Palito Refinery (RELPLa refinería El Palito, municipio Puerto Cabello del estado Carabobo ;El complejo refinador de petróleo, el cual abastece de combustible a 10 estados del centrooccidente venezolano, procesa 130.000 barriles diarios de crudo para el circuito nacional de refinaciónIt currently has a processing capacity of 140 MBD of medium grade crude. It is located in the state of Carabobo. In 2015,the volume of crude processed in RELP was 100 MBD.In addition, 103 MBD of inputs for processes and mixtures were received. With this level of crude and inputs, 203 MBD of products were obtained, of which 86 MBD correspond to gasoline and naphtha, 69 MBD to jet and distillate, 38 MBD to residual and 10 MBD to other products.Of the products obtained in this Refining Complex, 79% are destined to the local market and 21% to the export market, for countries in the Americas and AsiaDividida en cuatro zonas de exploración y producción: Boyacá (otrora Machete), Junín (Zuata), Ayacucho (Hamaca); y Carabobo (Cerro Negro), la gran reserva tiene en la petrolera venezolana PDVSA a su principal accionista.The Orinoco Oil Belt was divided into four main large areas: Boyacá, Junín, Ayacucho and Carabobo, and these were subsequently subdivided into 45 blocks (including the areas assigned to the Empresas Mixtas). These were quantified as a result of a joint effort between the CVP and the professionals of 24 companies of 19 countries that signed understanding agreements with the national government.Petropiar, S.A.,Negro-spiritual SAPetrocedeño, S.A.Petroritupano.SA.Petrozamora S.APetromonagas, S.A.,production of synthetic crude.Petrolera Sinovensa, S.A.,Petrodelta, S.A.,Petrolera Indovenezolana S.A,Petrourica, S.A.; 300 new oil well División Ayacucho;Petrozumano S.A.PetroCedeño, S.A.,Includes Petropiar, S.A. and others that produce diluted crude oil 16 °API (Merey Segregation). (2) Includes Petrodelta, S.A., Petrolera Sinovensa S.A., Petromongas, S.A., Petropiar, S.A., and Petroritupano. (3) Corresponds to transfer between Empresas Mixtas and PDVSA Petróleo [reserves assignment to Petrozamora S.A. Petrodelta, S.A., Petrolera Sinovensa S.A., Petromongas, S.A., Petropiar, S.A., and Negro-spiritual. (3) Corresponds to transfer between Empresas Mixtas and PDVSA Petróleo [reserves assignment to Petrozamora S.A.During 2016, the total proved crude oil reserves increased by 2,273 million barrels [1,926 million barrels in 2015 and 2,615 million barrels in 2014], as summarized below (in millions of barrels): Year ended December 31, 2016 2015 2014 Ayacucho 2,535 683 784 Junín (1) (1,347) 14 - Boyacá 19 - - Carabobo 515 543 635 Traditional areas 551 649 1,137 Offshore - 37 59 Total incorporation of reserves 2,273 1,926 2,615.;Petropiar ; Empresa mixta Petropiar de Petróleos de Venezuela,Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) concluyó con éxito la construcción de dos desaladores de crudo pertenecientes al Proyecto Conversión Profunda de la Refinería Puerto La Cruz, en el estado Anzoátegui, con el fin de optimizar el procesamiento de las reservas de crudo pesado y extrapesado de la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco Hugo Chávez.La empresa mixta VHICOA, filial PDVSA Industrial, fue la responsable de fabricar en un lapso de 8 meses dos gigantescos recipientes cuyo peso total global alcanza 172 toneladas. Su función principal será sacarle el agua y la sal al crudo pesado de aproximadamente 8 grados API, mejor conocido como crudo Merey.Pequiven VENEZUELAFERNITRO VENEZUELACRAY PROJECT VENEZUELAACAY VENEZUELAACRO PROJECT VENEZUELAVINIL REFINERY PLANT VENEZUELAPETROMOR Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) concluyó con éxito la construcción de dos desaladores de crudo pertenecientes al Proyecto Conversión Profunda de la Refinería Puerto La Cruz, en el estado Anzoátegui, con el fin de optimizar el procesamiento de las reservas de crudo pesado y extrapesado de la Faja Petrolífera del Orinoco Hugo Chávez.Producción Temprana de Petromonagas (PDVSA/Rosneft),La empresa mixta VHICOA, filial PDVSA Industrial, fue la responsable de fabricar en un lapso de 8 meses dos gigantescos recipientes cuyo peso total global alcanza 172 toneladas. Su función principal será sacarle el agua y la sal al crudo pesado de aproximadamente 8 grados API, mejor conocido como crudo Merey. El proceso de fabricación de estas unidades en las instalaciones de VHICOA en Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolívar, se planificó por separado, ya que los especialistas iniciaron en paralelo la construcción de la plataforma o piso metálico y el cuerpo del recipiente, a fin de garantizar el ensamblaje de dos desaladores: el denominado “A” de 87,9 toneladas de peso y el “B” de 84,7 toneladas.En estos momentos, el equipo de PDVSA y VHICOA trabaja en la logística para el pronto traslado de estas dos grandes estructuras desde el muelle Alianza de VHICOA, en Ciudad Guayana hasta la Refinería Puerto La Cruz, al nororiente del país. Dicha logística incluye un recorrido fluvial y terrestre de equipos cuyas dimensiones totales, incluyendo las plataformas que los soportan son: 8.517 metros de ancho, 8,1 metros de alto, 37 metros de largo y 238 toneladas de peso….hasta el Puerto de Guanta, con un tiempo previsto de tres días de navegación.Producción Temprana de Petromonagas (PDVSA/Rosneft),PUERTO MIRANDA VENEZUELA—————————————————————————————The St. Eustatius terminal is one of the PDVSA ownedStorage tanks on the island of St. Eustatius, Caribbean—————————————————————————————————————-PDVSA Bonaire BOPEC NV / mixing & stotage for deep water oil; tankers for CHINA & INDIA / 10-million-barrel storage with extra large export terminal on the island of Bonaire,BORCO Berhing BAHAMASStorage and transhipment terminal is located on Grand Bahama Island.PDVSA Venezuela, has a nominal capacity of 971 MBD, and consists of refineries: Amuay (645 MBD), Cardón (310 MBD), located in the Paraguaná Peninsula, and the Bajo Grande refinery in Zulia state, with a capacity of 16 MBD, destined for the production of asphalt.The Eastern Refining Complex, located in Anzoátegui state, has a total processing capacity of 192 MBD of light and heavy crude. It consists of Puerto La Cruz Refinery, which has three main atmospheric distillers (DA- 1, DA-2 and DA-3) with processing capacity of 187 MBD, and San Roque Refinery (SRQ) (DA -4), which processes 5 MBD paraffinic crude, being the only paraffins in the country.Of the products obtained in this Refining Complex, 44% is destined for the local market and 56% for the export market in countries of the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, the RPLC Deep Conversion project is being implemented, focusing on heavy and extra heavy oil processing of the Hugo Chávez Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO).The volume of crude processed in in 2015 was 587 MBD; 91 MBD of inputs for processes and mixtures were received. With this level of crude and inputs, 678 MBD of products were obtained, of which 175 MBD correspond to gasoline and naphtha, 207 MBD to jet and distillate, 177 MBD to residual, 14 MBD to asphalts, 5 MBD to lubricants and 100 MBD to other products.Of the products obtained in CRP, 55% go to the domestic market and 45% to the export market, with products dispatched to the Caribbean, Central and South American countries, Europe and Africa. A new pipeline is in the works to carry production from the limited facilities at Caripito, in San Juan, to Guiria in the Sucra state. In Sucra, PDVSA is building a new processing facility with greater capacity that will be available to all the company's partners.China-Venezuela Mixed Agreements signing On February 13, 2017, the China-Venezuela Mixed JOINT VENTURESThe agreements, endorsed by PDVSA, include the memorandum of understanding of PDVSA’s participation in the Nahai Refinery construction project in China; the engineering, procurement and facilities construction contract to increase extra heavy crude oil production in the facilities of the Empresa Mixta Petrolera Sinovensa, S.A.; the memorandum of understanding for the development of the Petrozumano S.A. Empresa Mixta; and the financing provided by the China Development Bank as part of the Special Fund for oil projects. In the same way, agreements include the memorandum of understanding for a well exploitation pilot test work plan or the Empresa Mixta Petrourica, S.A.; the constitution of the Empresa Mixta Venezolana de Mantenimientos Especializados Remensa, S.A. (VEMESA); the constitution of a Empresa Mixta between PDVSA and Shandong Kerui Chinese company to develop maintenance capacities for the provision of specialized services; and the memorandum of understanding between PDVSA and Shanghai for the corporate insurance and reinsurance program of PDVSA and its subsidiaries—————————————————————————————————Island Refinery CuracaoLocated in Curacao, it was built in 1915 and began operations in 1918. In 1985, PDVSA took over refinery operations through a lease with the Curacao government for a period of 20 years. In 1994, an extension of the lease was agreed until 2019.Isla Refinery has a nominal capacity of 335 MBD; it processes light and heavy Venezuelan crude. The products obtained are mainly supplied to the Caribbean and Central America, while a small portion is delivered to Curacao. The Isla Refinery has a Lubricants Complex for the production of paraffinic and naphthenic bases.PDVSA ISLA Refinery CuracaoCitgo Aruba, Refinery : Storage and blending terminal on Aruba, operated by PDVSA’s / U.S. division CITGO.Crude blend supplies to the United States and Asia could also be sustained if PDVSA’s partners, including U.S. Chevron , Russia’s Rosneft , Spain’s Repsol and China’s CNPC, step in to secure more diluents, as PDVSA has already asked them to do.PDVSA : Republica Dominicana; : REFIDOMSA -RefineryPETROJAM JAMAICAPreviously to be executed by joint funding from Jamaica, Venezuela, and general contractor Sinohydro Corp. Ltd. of China, the proposed $1-billion Petrojam Refinery Upgrade Project (PRUP) seeks to expand the hydroskimming plant into a full-conversion, 50,000-b/d refinery, and alongside the new VDU, was to include upgrades to the refinery’s existing crude distillation, gas recovery, and kerosine hydrotreating units, as well as the addition new unit capacities .PDVSA; Jamaica: Petrojam Ltd RefineryPetrojam Limited - Kingston RefineryOn August 14, 2006, under the PETROCARIBE Agreement, the partnership agreement between PDV Caribe and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) was signed; it was consolidated on January 30, 2008 with the creation of the joint venture Petrojam Ltd (PCJ 51%, PDV Caribe 49%).The Kingston Refinery is located in the Port of Kingston, and since 1993 it has operated profitably in an unregulated and competitive market. The refinery has an installed capacity of 35 MBD. In 2015, the volume of crude processed was 22 MBD, with 3 MBD of gasoline and naphtha, 5 MBD of jet and distillates, 12 MBD of waste and 2 MBD of other products and specialties.PDVSA Cuba -Petroleo Refinery (CUPET ) Cienfuegos CUBAPDVSA trabajaba en la conversión de la planta, los productos de la misma servirían para el consumo interno y las ventas externas de PDVSA, una vez terminado la estatal venezolana también culminaría su participación en la refinería. PDVSA había cedido su participación accionaria, comentó "que la refinería de Cienfuegos trabajó como una instalación arrendada, cuya contraprestación consistía en el desarrollo del proyecto de Conversión Media, con el objetivo de que la refinería procesara crudos de distintos grados API, toda vez que el mercado interno venezolano se beneficiaba de los distintos productos de la refinería".La culminación de un proyecto que desde 2005 tenía como objetivo modernizar la planta de Cienfuegos a cambio de elevar la cantidad de productos derivados en el mercado interno venezolano. De las fases de ese proyecto dependía la participación de PDVSA dentro de la empresa mixta, su papel de acompañamiento técnico fue cerrado satisfactoriamente dejando beneficios para ambos países.Cuvenpetrol, S.A. -Camilo Cienfuegos RefineryVenezuela works together with Cuba Petróleo (CUPET) to increase the potential of the Caribbean energy market, in exploration and production (upstream), as well as refining and marketing (downstream) processes, to promote the social progress of the Caribbean and Central American peoples through free and democratic access to energy at a fair and reasonable price.In 2015, the volume of crude processed was 178 MBD; 5 MBD of inputs for processes and mixtures were received. With this level of crude and inputs, 183 MBD of products were obtained, of which 51 MBD corresponds to gasoline and naphtha, 53 MBD to jet and distillate, 57 MBD to residual, 2 MBD to asphalt, MBD to lubricants and 17 MBD of others products. Operationally, the inputs and products of the Isla Refinery are accounted for within the International Refining System and exchanged with the National Refining System, so the volumes of both systems are not added directly. • Cuvenpetrol, S.A. -Camilo Cienfuegos RefineryOn April 10, 2006, the joint venture PDV Cupet, S.A., was set up to purchase, store, refine and market hydrocarbons and their derivatives. It consists of Comercial Cupet, S.A. (51%) and PDVSA Cuba, S.A. (49%). In 2009, it became the joint venture Cuvenpetrol, SA, with the strategic objective of developing an energy hub in the Republic of Cuba by increasing the refining capacity to obtain high quality finished products using deep conversion and generating inputs for the development of the petrochemical industry. The joint venture implemented the Cienfuegos Refinery Reactivation Project in December 2007, with capacity to process 65 MBD of crude oil.——————————————————————————————————CITGO owns oil refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, La.; and Lemont, Ill. Through CITGO and its three refineries, the Venezuelan government is the largest foreign owner of U.S. domestic refinery capacity. The refineries account for about 4% of domestic fuel capacity and are major suppliers of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel through a network of pipelines and terminals across 24 states. Independent CITGO-branded retail marketers sell motor fuels through approximately 6,000 gas stations and convenience stores in 30 U.S. states.State-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), owner of CITGO Petroleum Inc., has appealed the court ruling that would allow defunct Canadian mining company Crystallex International Corp., Toronto, to seize shares of CITGO in payment of a $1.2 billion debt, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).August 06, 2014CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) will sell North American unit CITGO Petroleum Corp. if it receives a good offer, Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters on Tuesday, reported Reuters.CITGO has three U.S. refineries with combined capacity of approximately 750,000 barrels per day. They are in Lemont, Ill., Lake Charles, La., and Corpus Christi, Texas."As soon as we receive a proposal that serves our interests, we will exit CITGO," Ramirez said during a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Venezuela's oil production. "This is not something simple like deciding to take off a jacket, this is an issue that we're working on."As reported in a 21st Century Smoke/CSP Daily News Flash, CITGO-branded marketers sell motor fuels through approximately 6,000 gas stations in nearly 30 states.It may be difficult to find a single buyer for all of CITGO's assets as two of the refineries are geared to run heavy crudes from Venezuela and U.S. refining companies are trying to maximize profits by buying cheap domestic light crudes, refinery experts told the news agency.Analysts added that Lemont, the only CITGO refinery that does not process Venezuelan heavy crudes, may be the easiest to sell because of its location in proximity to inexpensive Canadian crudes.CITGO also owns a network of terminals and pipelines that would be highly attractive as demand for energy infrastructure rises on surging output of domestic crudeCITGO USA:Citgo had sales of $42.3 billion last year and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $1.8 billion, according to the bond prospectus.The refining business is very strong, especially in the Midwest, where there is a lot of gasoline consumption,Owns and operates three highly complex crude oil refineries located in Lake Charles, Louisiana (425,000 barrels per day [BPD]), Lemont, Illinois (167,000 BPD) and Corpus Christi, Texas (157,000 BPD). These refineries process approximately 285,000 BPD of Venezuelan crude, including supplies from upgraders in the Orinoco Oil Belt. The combined aggregate crude oil refining capacity of 749,000 BPD places CITGO as one of the largest refiners in the United States. The company owns and / or operates 48 terminals of petroleum products, one of the largest networks in the country.Here is the breakdown of all 13 USA refineries that used Venezuelan crude in 2016, in order of descending amount of crude processed:PDVSA JOINT VENTURES UNDER THE PETROCARIBE AGREEMENT• Antigua and Barbuda: WEST INDIES OIL COMPANY LTD. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 25%, Government of Antigua and Barbuda 51% and Fancy Bridge Ltd. 24%).• Belize: ALBA Petrocaribe Belize Energy Ltd. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 55% and Belize Petroleum and Energy Ltd. 45%).• Dominica: PDV Caribe Dominica Ltd. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 55% and Dominica National Petroleum Company Ltd. 45%)• Grenada: PDV Grenada Ltd. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 55% and Petrocaribe Grenada Ltd. 45%).• Jamaica: Petrojam Ltd. REFINERY(PDV Caribe, S.A. 49% and Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica 51%).• Nicaragua: ALBA de Nicaragua, S.A. ALBANISA ( PDV Caribe, S.A. 51% and PETRONIC 49%).• Dominican Republic: REFIDOMSA - PDVSA REFINERY(PDV Caribe, S.A. 49% and Dominican State 51%).•Saint Kitts and Nevis: PDV St. Kitts Nevis Ltd. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 55% and St. Kitts Nevis Energy Company Ltd. 45%).•Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: PDV Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Limited (PDV Caribe, S.A. 55% and Petrocaribe St. Vincent and The Grenadines SVG Ltd. 45%).• El Salvador: ALBA Petróleos de El Salvador (PDV Caribe, S.A. 60% and the Asociación Intermunicipal Energía para El Salvador ENEPASA 40%).• Haiti: SOCIETE D´INVESTISSEMENT PETION BOLIVAR, S.A. (Petión-Bolívar) (PDV Caribe, S.A. 51% and Haitian State 49%).•Suriname: PDV SURINAME, N.V. (PDV Caribe, S.A. 50% and SURFUEL, N.V. 50%).Europe: (4) REFINERIES ; Operating AgreementsPDVSA : 27 companies from nine countries1-Sweden Nynashamn refinery2-Belgium (Antwerp)3-Dundee, Scotland,4-Harburg unit was transferred from Shell to Nynas,Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). Nynas, which is a 50 per cent PDVSA subsidiary. At the same time, a 100 per cent PDVSA owned and 100% US-based CITGO company .Nynas made substantial investments in upgrading our Nynashamn refinery and in purchasing and converting the Harburg refinery in Germany. By 2017 we had significantly strengthened our ability to ensure a reliable supply of naphthenic oils and bitumen. We have a supply network that is strategically located around the world, to facilitate prompt and reliable customer deliveries. This supports us as we expand into growing markets.The products are sold in markets worldwide.Nynas has approximately 1,000 employees at four production facilities and 27 sales offices. Sales in 2017 amounted to SEK 15.0 billionAB NYNÄS PETROLEUMThree REFINERY – Nynäshamn, Gothenburg and Harburg – are owned by NynasPDVSA and Neste Oil Corporation of Finland have 50% each of AB Nynäs Petroleum, which operates refineries in Sweden, Belgium ,Germany and the United Kingdom & Scotland.Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and Neste Oil are 50-50 partners in Nynas AB, which runs four refineries with a combined capacity of 67,000 barrels per day (bpd).They include Sweden’s Nynaeshamn and Gothenburg facilities, Harburg Germany, England, Scotland, which mostly use Venezuelan crude paraffin to make bitumen and naphthenic specialty products.PDVSA, through its partnership with AB Nynäs, the corporation is increasing its share of the Western European asphalt market. This company owns two refineries: one in Sweden (Nynashamn), another in Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg) and a pair in the United Kingdom, specifically in Dundee, Scotland, and Eastland England. It processes an average of 30,000 barrels of crude per day.http://www.pdvsa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6550&Itemid=903&lang=enPDVSA - San Roque Oil RefinerySan Roque Refinery - A Barrel FullSan Roque Refinery incorporates technology to increase productionRefinería "Batalla de Santa Inés" procesará 100 mil barriles diarios de crudoConstrucción de nueva refinería en Venezuela concluirá en noviembre - Construcción Pan-AmericanaRefinería de Puerto La Cruz muestra un avance de 51%Venezuela recibe 1.500 mln dlr para financiar proyecto en Refinería de Puerto La Cruzhttps://www.nynas.com/globalassets/investor-relations/nynas-annual-report-2017.pdf8Our refineriesServing Jamaica's Energy NeedsPDVSA launches strategy to attract private sectorVenezuela oil refineries face operating woes, PDVSA launches tendershttp://www.pdvsa.com/images/pdf/estado_financiero/pdvsa_ef_ingles_16.pdfRefinación Petrolera – Grupo 3Venezuela loses US refinery as ConocoPhillips ICC award enforced in US courtVerdades y manipulaciones en torno a la refinería de CienfuegosRadio Habana CubaRegión oriental de Venezuela: historia, estados, costumbres, culturaTopics by WorldWideScience.orgVenezuela’s PdVSA seeks over $10 billion in sale of Citgo refining businessPDVSA and ConocoPhillips Reach New, Positive SettlementConocoPhillips signs $2 billion settlement with PDVSA*** Many refineries are no longer under the ownership and or management of PDVSA,1-PDVSA Heiss Virgin Island :PDVSA Virgin Islands, has a 50% stake in the HOVENSA Refinery, located in the US Virgin Islands, in partnership with Hess Corporation; it has a refining capacity of 495 MBD. Hovensa closed operations in February 2012, to operate as a storage terminal for products. In September 2015, HOVENSA began a sale process, pending to cover some claims by the debtors and environmental guarantees to close the sale process, which is expected to materialize in 2016.http://www.pdvsa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6550&Itemid=903&lang=en2-50% of Ruhr Oel GmbH 05 May 2011 /Rosneft announced today that it has closed its acquisition of 50% of Ruhr Oel GmbH from the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).Rosneft Acquires 50% of Ruhr Oel GmbH3-Cuvenpetrol Cuba ( CUPET) Cienfuegos Refinery : Cuba fully operates oil refinery formerly managed in joint venture with Venezuela / refinería de petróleo Camilo Cienfuegos, ubicada en la región centro-sur de CubaRadio Habana Cuba4-PDVSA Conoco Phillips : Venezuela loses US refinery as ConocoPhillips ICC award enforced in US court5-http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4918e.pdf6-BusinessGrenada.com Issue: 6 2013 -20147-http://www.sela.org/media/1950653/evolution-of-petrocaribe.pdf8-http://www.sirronaldsanders.com/Docs/Venezuela%20in%20the%20Caribbean%20-%20Expanding%20its%20sphere%20of%20influence.pdf9-The Waning of Petrocaribe? - Central America and Caribbean Energy in Transition10-https://www.nodal.am/petrocaribe/11-For additional background on Petrocaribe, see David Goldwyn and Cory Gill, “Uncertain Energy: The Caribbean’s Gamble with Venezuela,” Atlantic Council, July 16, 2014, http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/files/Petrocaribe_RDO_18.pdf.12 Petrocaribe’s initial thirteen signatories included Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Granada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.13 The text of this agreement can be read at the following link: http://www.mpdc.es/components/com_mtree/attachment.php?link_id=528&cf_id=39.14 Jorge Piñon, “Petrocaribe: A Supply-Demand Analysis,” University of Texas — Austin Jackson School of Geosciences Latin America and Caribbean Program, Presented by Jorge Piñon in Doral, Florida, June 16, 2014, slide 6.115 “Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere,” International Monetary Fund, April 2014, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2014/whd/eng/pdf/wreo0414.pdf.16 Jed Bailey, Nils Janson, and Ramon Espinasa, Natural Gas in the Caribbean – Feasibility Studies (Volume 1), Inter-American Development Bank, June 30, 2015, http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=39205253, pp 14-15;17 Petrocaribe is cited among the factors that have limited the OAS’s capacity to take a principled stand against the Venezuelan regime’s gross human rights violations and persecution of the political opposition, as exemplified by the weak March 2014 OAS resolution that expressed solidarity with Caracas’ efforts to address political turmoil despite the regime’s systemic crackdown against the political opposition. Francisco Toro, “The Petrocaribe Trap,” Caracas Chronicles, March 31, 2014, http://caracaschronidcles.com/2014/03/31/the-petrocaribe-trap/.18 “IMF19 Sara Schaefer Muñoz, “Venezuelans Get Fridays Off in Government’s Latest Bid to Save Energy,” Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelans-get-fridays-off-in-governments-latest-bid-to-save-energy-1460058607.20 “Moody’s changes outlook on Venezuela’s Caa3 rating to negative from stable; Caa3 rating affirmed” Moody’s Investors Service, March 4, 2016, https://www.moodys.com/research/--PR_344436; “S&P Says Venezuela Has Heightened Risk of Default” Latin America Herald Tribune, February 29, 2016, http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=10717&ArticleId=2406806.21 Katia Porzecanski and Allan Lopez, “Jamaica Sells $2 Billion in Bonds to Repay Petrocaribe Debt,” Bloomberg News, July 23, 2015, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-23/jamaica-planning-1-5-billion-bond-sale-to-pay-petrocaribe-debt; Ezra Fieser, “Venezuela Gets $1.9 Billion as Dominican Republic Pays Debt,” Bloomberg News, January 29, 2015, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-30/dominican-republic-taps-1-9-billion-to-pay-venezuelan-oil-debt.22 Indeed, there are growing fears that PDVSA, whose finances have been thrown into further disarray as its revenues are limited by low prices, will default on the around $5.2 billion owed to bondholders in 2016. For more analysis, see Marianna Párraga, “Deepening default fears cast shadow over Venezuela’s oil flows,” Reuters, February 27, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-pdvsa-debt-analysis-idUSKCN0W00DA.23 Carlos Camacho, “Reckless giveaway of Venezuela’s oil needs to stop, opposition says,” Fox News Latino, December 28, 2015, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2015/12/28/reckless-giveaway-venezuelas-oil-needs-to-stop-opposition-says/.24 More detail on changes to the process is available at the following link, http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2014/06/10-doe-approving-lng-export-goldwyn-hendrix.25 For more information, see “FACT SHEET: U.S.-CARICOM Summit – Deepening Energy Cooperation,” April 9, 2015, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/09/fact-sheet-us-caricom-summit-deepening-energy- ooperation.