Venezuela

Venezuela's Raging Homicide Epidemic Is Going Unrecorded

... extreme. For instance, local officials announced that 17,778 Venezuelans were victims of homicide in 2015. But the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a nongovernmental group, estimated that there were 27,875 murders that year, which would make Venezuela’s homicide rate one of the highest in the world , at 90 killings per 100,000 residents. The group found that the rate climbed higher in 2016, to 92 per 100,000. Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, was proclaimed the most violent city in the world last year by the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, a Mexican research group that tallies an annual index of the world’s most violent cities. The homicide rate supposedly topped 119 per 100,000 residents, the group said. But there are no official statistics to support the claim and, predictably, the Venezuelan government has denied it. Impunity is rife and the cost of murder low, with an estimated 92% of homicides not resulting in a conviction. One reason for the data discrepancies is that the Venezuelan government has ...

Are Gulf Oil Producers Falling Into The ‘venezuela Trap

... that Venezuela is now struggling to make. The problem with loan-for-oil schemes is that it can cost the supplier market share in other countries. For Venezuela, this was India. After years of consistently building its presence in the Indian market – one of the top three in terms of oil consumption – PDVSA was forced to start reducing shipments to Indian refineries in order to meet its oil obligations to China and Russia. Kazakhstan is another country that has turned to loan-for-oil schemes in difficult times. State-owned Kazmunaigaz closed a $3-billion deal with Vitol in 2015 to repay debts. In exchange for the advance payment, the company undertook to transfer to the trader supplies from its 20-percent stake in the Tengiz oil field. The field yields about a third of Kazakshtan’s oil output. Related: Russia Reaches 2/3 Of Oil Output Cut Target. Now Oman and Abu Dhabi are stripped of alternatives: ...

He Went From Being Kidnapped In Venezuela To Training A Kentucky Derby Contender

... He won the Derby and the Preakness and remains a legend in Venezuela. Sano, jockey Javier Castellano and two of Gunnevera’s three owners are natives of Venezuela. They hope to deliver some good news to a country devastated by its crumbling economy, food shortages and high unemployment. “The second time I breezed him, I said, ‘He’s a champion’ because he went right by the other horses with just a little encouragement,” Sano said, imitating the clucking of an exercise rider’s tongue. Sano, who has a soft-spoken, gentlemanly demeanor, stroked Gunnevera’s nose as he discussed his attributes. “I liked the Unbridled line in his pedigree, that style, that height, the long stride and the endurance. “He is for me the opportunity of a lifetime.”. Salomon Del Valle, a construction company owner from Valencia, Venezuela, who owns the horse with son-in-law Guillermo Guerra and Miami businessman Jaime Diaz, who is from Spain, said Gunnevera is “the most clever horse I’ve met in 28 years working with Antonio.”. “There’s a pigeon in the barn that interacts with Gunnevera every day, sits on his back — I’ve never seen anything like it,” Del Valle said. “When I went to see him on ...

Venezuela In Political Crisis After Supreme Court Takes Over Legislature

... kind of scrambling for a new strategy. And we're going to have a big protest probably on Saturday. But I was talking to a girl whose brother was killed in protests a few years ago - killed protesting the government. And she said she's not going to go to that protest because, for her, her brother basically died in vain. There's no use. GREENE: Oh, wow. All right. We've been speaking to Hannah Dreier of The Associated Press. She was talking to us via Skype from Caracas, Venezuela. Hannah, thanks. DREIER: Thank you. Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at __link__ for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb 8 tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with ...

Emerging Markets-venezuela Bonds Tank; Mexico Peso Takes A Breather

... $4 billion bond maturing in September 2027 with a 9.25 percent coupon bid down $3.42, driving its yield up by 1.5 percentage points to its highest since last August, at nearly 23 percent. The move by the country's high court late Wednesday was met with international condemnation and street protests, and on Friday the fallout intensified when Venezuela's attorney general broke ranks with President Nicolas Maduro and rebuked the judiciary for its move. Mexico's peso weakened about 0.5 percent after the nation's central bank slowed the pace of interest rate hikes, raising its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage-point to 6.50 percent, following four straight 50-basis-point hikes. The move followed a 10 percent increase in the value of the peso so far this year, which helped ease inflationary pressures. Bets that U. S. President Donald Trump will not impose big tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States lifted the currency from a slump last year - its steepest since 2008. Lower iron ore prices dragged on demand for Brazilian assets, with shares of miner Vale SA falling more than 1 percent. Losses were limited by rising shares of ...

Venezuela's Supreme Court Takes Over Opposition-controlled Congress

... a dictatorship. OTIS: This political crisis, as well as the country's ongoing economic meltdown, prompted the Organization of American States, known as the OAS, to hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss Venezuela. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro said that elections are the democratic solution for Venezuela, but Diosdado Cabello, a top Venezuelan official, disagreed. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING). DIOSDADO CABELLO: (Speaking Spanish). OTIS: He accused the OAS of paving the way for a foreign invasion. For NPR News, I'm John Otis. Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at __link__ for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb 8 tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the ...

Venezuela’s Socialist Government Seals Its Fate And Makes Violent Revolution Inevitable

... right to transfer them to another authority, meaning, quite possibly, Maduro himself. Its rationale was that the MUD had tried to seat three legislators whose elections were allegedly tainted by fraud, but it could have been anything: tyrannical rule needs only the flimsiest of excuses. Venezuela, once emphatically touted as a redoubt of democratic socialism, has now been plunged into the shadow of one-man rule, with the will of the people extinguished, likely for good. The result was fury and protest, though perhaps not surprise—Venezuelans had become accustomed to the MUD’s impotence against Maduro. Still, the gumption is something to behold. In America, left-wing judges like to pretend that they’re legislators; in Venezuela, they’ve gone and made themselves the genuine article. The president ...

Venezuela Leader Urges Court To Review Ruling On Congress

... in elections in late 2015. Friday brought a second day of condemnations of the ruling by the United States and governments across Latin America. The head of the Organization of American States likened the decision to a “self-inflicted coup” by the leftist Maduro, and the United Nations’ top human rights official urged the high court to reverse its decision. The OAS announced that it would hold an emergency meeting at its Washington headquarters Monday to discuss the situation in Venezuela. Opposition leaders, who have been during 17 years of socialist rule, called on other public officials to follow Ortega Diaz’s example in repudiating the court’s ruling. Some urged the military, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, to defend the constitution drafted by late President Hugo Chavez. “You have a new opportunity to show the country and international community if you are with the dictatorship or want your children and grandchildren to grow and live in a country where there’s democracy and liberty,” said David Smolansky, a Caracas area ...