Venezuela

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com,

Venezuela can’t pay its millions of dollars in debt to Indian pharmaceutical companies, say Indian officials, so officials are considering a proposal that would see the Latin American country swap oil for its drug debts.

After an unlucky gamble on India’s part that Venezuela’s emerging economy would be a good place to hawk Indian pharmaceuticals, the debt is now mounting and poor crisis management coupled with the long-running oil price slump has left Venezuela too cash strapped to pay up.

The conflagration that is the collapse of a socilaist utopia continues to escalate in Venezuela today. With morgues overflowing, medicines running out, and apocalyptic scenes playing out across the nation, Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas today - at the behest of the opposition - demanding a recall referendum to end Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist rule. The troubled nations leader was not happy and security forces fired tear gas and shut subway stations to block the thousands of protesters.

As reported over the weekend, in what may well be one of Maduro's last desperation steps, the Venezuela president announced the would implement a state of emergency, and also threatened to seize closed factories as well as arrest their owners. 

During an impassioned rally, the embattled Venezuela ruler boomed: "Comrades, I am ready to hand over to communal power the factories that some conservative big wigs in this country have stopped. An idled factory is a factory handed over to the people. We are going to do it, fuck it!"

Over the past several days, things in Venezuela have not only taken a palpable turn for the worse, but now seem to be moving at an accelerating pace toward the inevitable endgame for the Maduro regime and whatever happens next.

With nearly $37 billion loaned to Venezuela since 2008, China (via its China Development Bank) had long been a source funding for the socialist country. It was easy to see how a partnership between the two would be mutually beneficial, as China would have a closer relationship with the country that as of 2015 supplied 4%-5% of its oil import needs, while Venezuela would have a virtual piggy bank to fund projects such as infrastructure.