{"id":84228,"date":"2017-03-06T13:48:32","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T13:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/?p=84228"},"modified":"2017-03-07T14:26:20","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T14:26:20","slug":"venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro next to a portrait of Hugo Chavez in February 2013. Credit – Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Under different circumstances, one would expect Venezuela to be one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, if not the world. This, of course, is largely thanks to the South American nation\u2019s massive oil reserves, considered to be the largest in the world<\/a>. However, for much of Venezuela\u2019s history, that oil has done little to benefit everyday Venezuelans or even its government as U.S.-based multinational corporations \u2013 such as ExxonMobil and Conoco \u2013 have historically maintained most of the control over and reaped most of the profits from the nation\u2019s oil production.<\/p>\n

However, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez worked to change all that by seizing control<\/a> of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry so that the nation\u2019s most lucrative resource would benefit the Venezuelan people and not foreign corporations. Of course, this earned him the ire of the U.S. corporations he ejected as well as that of the U.S. government, then led by former President George W. Bush. Chavez\u2019s previous reforms<\/a> \u2013 among other factors \u2013 had already led him to be the target of a failed CIA coup attempt<\/a> which was later proven<\/a> to have had the full blessing of the Bush administration. Emboldened by the failed coup, Ch\u00e1vez went on to nationalize<\/a> Venezuela\u2019s oil as well as other industries and utilities, including telecommunications and electricity, further strengthening the corporate establishment\u2019s desire to remove Ch\u00e1vez from power. This, of course, led the Venezuelan government to later accuse the U.S.<\/a> of inducing the cancer that ultimately claimed Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s life in 2013 as a covert means of assassination.<\/p>\n

Since Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s untimely death, current Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has been fighting waves of destabilization attempts<\/a>, attempts which seek to remove pro-Ch\u00e1vez politicians like Maduro from power in order to \u2013 once again – privatize all of its rich resources for corporate gain. Much of the destabilizing events that have rocked Venezuela have been economic in nature, largely manifesting in shortages of goods and basic necessities as well as high inflation. In addition, the manipulation of the price of oil to artificial lows in recent years \u2013 an effort led by the U.S. and its ally Saudi Arabia<\/a> \u2013 also crippled Venezuela\u2019s oil industry in some major ways, forcing to the oil-rich nation to actually import<\/a> oil.<\/p>\n

The manipulation of the price of oil is not the only \u201cartificial\u201d part of Venezuela\u2019s crisis. In 2014, it was discovered that a majority of the shortages of goods that had been fueling civil unrest and causing a massive economic slow-down was a direct result of businessmen hoarding goods and basic necessities<\/a> \u2013 including food and medicine – in warehouses to create the appearance of scarcity while reaping major profits by raising prices and smuggling goods to Colombia. This same strategy was previously employed by U.S. interests<\/a> in Chile prior to the 1973 coup that ousted socialist president Salvador Allende as a means of generating widespread social unrest. Venezuela, not surprisingly, has seen major bouts of unrest<\/a> in recent years due to these shortages and related economic hardships. Of course, Western media blames these hardships almost entirely<\/a> on the Ch\u00e1vez and Maduro-led government.<\/p>\n

Though Venezuela\u2019s resilience is commendable under the circumstances, it may not be able to hold out much longer. Venezuela now has only $10.5 billion<\/a> in foreign reserves, according to data recently released by its central bank. During 2017, the vast majority of those savings – $7.2 billion \u2013 will be consumed by outstanding debt payments it owes to various creditors, chiefly China<\/a>. These latest figures show the toll that U.S.-led economic sabotage has had on the country. For instance, in 2015, Venezuela had $20 billion in reserves and, in 2011, it had over $30 billion. Clearly, this cannot continue for much longer, with the country now set to run out of cash entirely within a year or two. However, the day of reckoning could come even sooner if the U.S. and Saudi Arabia continue to keep the price of oil artificially low as oil shipments represent 90% of Venezuela\u2019s total exports. If Venezuela runs out of cash and the Maduro-led government collapses as a result, it will only be the latest casualty of the nearly century-old U.S. government effort to stamp out Latin American socialism and democracy<\/a>, replacing it with regimes that are \u201cfriendly\u201d to U.S. business and geopolitical interests.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on Venezuela’s economic crisis?<\/i> Please comment below and share this news!
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

This article (Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of its Economy<\/a>) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons<\/em><\/a> license with attribution to the author and True Activist<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under different circumstances, one would expect Venezuela to be one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, if not the world. This, of course, is largely thanks to the South…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3071,"featured_media":84229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,66,3,4985],"tags":[5155,1766,5152,5156,4998,1794,5153,1764,5054,5154,541],"yoast_head":"\nVenezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Under different circumstances, one would expect Venezuela to be one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, if not the world. This, of course, is largely thanks to the South...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"True Activist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrueActivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/whitneywebbwriter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-06T13:48:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-07T14:26:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/maduro_diosdado_chavez_reuters.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1317\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Whitney Webb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Whitney Webb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/\",\"name\":\"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-06T13:48:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-07T14:26:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1df31e813b0b1ddae882303b2fe784f4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/\",\"name\":\"True Activist\",\"description\":\"Exposing the truth one lie at a time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1df31e813b0b1ddae882303b2fe784f4\",\"name\":\"Whitney Webb\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3173a9022358dcb2a01503777ef37811?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3173a9022358dcb2a01503777ef37811?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Whitney Webb\"},\"description\":\"Hi! I'm a permaculture farmer and writer covering environmental, political, and economic issues in English and Spanish. Like my Facebook page to follow my True Activist articles.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/whitneywebbwriter\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/author\/whitneywebb\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist","og_description":"Under different circumstances, one would expect Venezuela to be one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, if not the world. This, of course, is largely thanks to the South...","og_url":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/","og_site_name":"True Activist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrueActivist","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/whitneywebbwriter","article_published_time":"2017-03-06T13:48:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-07T14:26:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1317,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/maduro_diosdado_chavez_reuters.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Whitney Webb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Whitney Webb","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/","url":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/","name":"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy - True Activist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-06T13:48:32+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-07T14:26:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1df31e813b0b1ddae882303b2fe784f4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/venezuela-cash-reserves-dwindle-amid-external-sabotage-of-its-economy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Venezuela Cash Reserves Dwindle Amid \u201cExternal\u201d Sabotage of Its Economy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/","name":"True Activist","description":"Exposing the truth one lie at a time","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1df31e813b0b1ddae882303b2fe784f4","name":"Whitney Webb","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3173a9022358dcb2a01503777ef37811?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3173a9022358dcb2a01503777ef37811?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","caption":"Whitney Webb"},"description":"Hi! I'm a permaculture farmer and writer covering environmental, political, and economic issues in English and Spanish. Like my Facebook page to follow my True Activist articles.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/whitneywebbwriter"],"url":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/author\/whitneywebb\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}