Venezuela

In an incident that is oddly reminiscent to the "failed coup" in Turkey from last June, late on Tuesday a rogue Venezuelan police helicopter strafed the Supreme Court and the interior ministry on Tuesday, in what President Nicolas Maduro called an attack by "terrorists seeking a coup" and which major news agencies said was an escalation of the OPEC nation's political crisis, although to some local Venezuelans this was a staged attempt to justify ongoing repression at Venezuela's National Assembly.

The boost in foreign reserves Venezuela enjoyed after Goldman Sachs investment arm picked up $2.8 billion of bonds from the state oil company is almost gone.

"We're gonna need another boost..." - time for some more Goldman 'swaps'?

As Bloomberg notes, the country’s cash hoard has fallen $326 million this week to $10.2 billion, near the 15-year low reached last month before the windfall.

The public-safety infrastructure in Venezuela has been degraded to such a degree that citizens now take justice into their own hands. Agence France Presse reported that lynchings have risen sharply over the last year and a half as political and economic instability in the crumbling socialist republic has worsened.

Authored by Haley Zarumba via OilPrice.com,

As Venezuela’s oil industry goes down it flames, it’s looking like it may just take Cuba down with it.

Venezuela, once the crude powerhouse of South and Central America, is no longer able to produce enough oil to sustain its own economy, much less those of other countries. Cuba is frantically drilling in search for new reserves and reaching out for new suppliers, but there is no guarantee they’ll be able to stabilize their oil income any time soon.

Authoired by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

As protests against Venezuela’s “democratic socialist” government roll into their third month, Dr. Henrique Montbrun, who oversees the triage post in the municipality of Baruta, says the violence in the country has reached unprecedented levels. “It’s madness,” he says.