To our Venezuelan followers: We would like to dedicate this article to you. Our hearts break for what you are going through and we pray that you are all ok. For what it’s worth you are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. After what was supposed to be a day of researching turning into almost a week of discovering devastating fact after fact we have to admit that this was one of the hardest articles we have had to put together. Our hope is that we can bring some attention to the conditions of your country and not offend.
To our other followers: This article is to make the world aware of what Venezuela going through with their corrupt Government that is in power. Please find it in your heart to spread the word. We as a whole need to help them. Their own government is not and from the outside looking in, may be deliberately setting them up for failure. Keep in mind if this is happening to them, it can happen in your country as well.
Venezuela is currently facing the worst economic crisis in history. The conditions that they are living in and what they are facing daily are beyond our very worst nightmares. Their economy is in a chaotic state and has all but totally collapsed! Some have even gone on record and stated that it's "beyond the point of no return". What was once labeled as South America’s richest country is now running out of money at an insane rate, prices are soaring, and it seems
as if nobody knows if or when it will stop. During 2016 consumer prices rose 800% and the economy diminished by 18.6% then nearly 75% of the population was report (according to studies) to have lost an average of 19.4 pounds (8.7 kg) in weight (in 2017 the weight loss was on average 24 pounds) due to their food storage and lack of proper nutrition (deteriorating diets which are deficient in vitamins and protein).
Some might ask, how can this be since Venezuela holds the world's largest supply of crude oil? There are multiple reasons for this and we will start by stating the obvious and saying "oil itself".
Crude Oil: In 2014 the price of oil was about $100 per barrel which prompted several countries to start pumping too much oil. Oil that was previously inaccessible was able to be pumped due to new drilling technologies. At the same time more, gasoline was not being purchased globally. To much oil pumped caused the price to drop to about $26 a barrel in 2016. Today it is roughly about $60, which cut their income to about half.
Economy: The country turned toward socialism in 1999, with the election of Hugo Chavez as president. President Chavez wanted to end poverty in the country due to the inequality that had grew extreme. (However a small elite class controlled everything while the increasingly impoverished masses fumed.) When President Chavez passed away, President Nicolas Maduro tried to continue "Chavez's vision". Maduro blames a big part of the economic issues on the U.S Sanctions placed and went on record to say that these sanctions are proof that the U.S is waging an "Economic War". In 2014 the nations poverty rate was at 48% which almost doubled as it later rose to 82% in 2016. In 2017 the minimum wage had to be raised 3 times!!! The latest increase had brought the minimum wage up to $97,531 bolivars a month… sound like a lot right? WRONG! That is about $12.53 USD in 2017 however as of today it is less than $3 USD! Right now, about 90% are living in poverty. The IMF has predicted that the economy will decrease another 15% and inflation will reach an all-time record high of 13,000%.
(But wait, there's more)
Food and Medical shortages: Venezuela imports food from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico because the government stopped cultivating its rich farmlands years ago. For the first five months of 2017, food exports from those countries to Venezuela were down 61% when compared to the same period in 2015. In May 2017 the government was providing a subsidized monthly bag of food. The monthly food bag, worth 10,000 bolivares ($0.30 USD), included rice, milk, pasta, beans and a few other items. People had to wait hours in line just to buy everyday basics like flour and sugar. To help you better understand what they are facing, a dozen of eggs would currently run you about $150 USD while most people are lucky to get the equivalent of $49 USD per month! The hospitals are no exception to this crisis either. Some people take their own medicine (what they can get their hands on at least) to the hospital with them. Hospitals cannot afford to provide meals while you are there and more times than not cannot even help you due to a depleted supply of medical supplies and medicine. Some took part in a protest demanding that the government tend to the country's health crisis, in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 8, 2018. Shortages of medicine, medical supplies and services were responsible for MANY avoidable deaths.
Currency: In 2010 1 USD was worth about 8 bolivars… today 1 USD would fetch you around 33,499 bolivars. The bolivar has lost 98% of its value since 2017 which means they wait for hours to get what some of us would consider to be pennies out of the bank. Elorza, Apure began to issue its own currency this month to alleviate the hyper-inflationary country’s cash crisis. It is called Elorza and is being sold in the municipality’s offices to ensure that thousands of tourists and residents can trade but will only be valid in the city of Elorza. The currency can be exchanged for rice which has been grown and harvested by members of the community.
(This is what you will need to have to purchase a bottle of water.)
Is there hope with Crypto?
To help this crisis, the government is looking towards crypto. Venezuela is the first country to launch its own cryptocurrency backed by tangible assets, many governments have been looking into electronic currencies. The crypto-currency is called the Petro and is said to be backed by Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Each Petro coin is worth $60, roughly the price of a barrel of oil. By selling the coins, which are traded on a platform (currently unknown to us due to recent legislation passed by our U.S president Donald Trump. United States President Donald Trump and other critics have claimed the Petro, is unreliable. Yet in pre-sales alone, which began February 20, Venezuela has already made over $5 Billion USD during this period and, as of March 10th, has recorded more than 186,000 certified purchases. President Chavez is currently calling for his citizens to mine the coin. Venezolana de Industria Tecnológica (VIT) will be assembling mining rigs for installation throughout Venezuela, Ultimas Noticias cited VIT president Jorge Michainaux explains. “He indicated that the company will work on the creation of the Petro Container, which are portable centers for mining. This is great because a program called “Plan Chamba Juvenil Digital (Youth Digital Work Plan),” with registrations set to begin April 15th. The government hopes that “the program will attract at least one million students.” This program was designed to help incorporate young people – including but not limited to university students, the unemployed, single mothers as well as the homeless – into "working life". The project has been created to “guarantee the incorporation of young people in the labor sector and has set a goal of 1 million men and women under the age of 35. Young people make up 60% of the population in Venezuela. It was said that 879,000 have joined the employment program.
What are your thoughts about this crisis? If you are living in Venezuela and would like to share anything at all, we would love to hear it as you do have our full attention. What if this happened in your country? We would like to hear your thoughts, comments and/or concerns about this below. As always, Thank You for reading this article and if you would like to see more of our work visit our steemit page @truthbeyondlies or visit us directly at T.B.L
its been clear for a while the establishment is scared of anything that would upset the order of Edison lol ... goes without saying Trump, despite being elected on the anti-establishment wave is pretty much THE establishment as an established billionaire ... i dont think it matters much what the commander in chief has to say about it. The states are no longer the sole force in the world , and its been like that for a while. Its a bit more scary to me China is starting to spout nationalist rhetoric atm ... i think its a great initiative, shows the will to innovate and the switch to a different perspective as needed, like Darwin said (contrary to popular belief) its not the strongest nor the smartest
but the ones most able to adapt. Those who ban crypto out of fear of the unknown will not be making money off of it, thats a certainty. Those who don't might or might not, thats a risk.
Better than sitting on the fence repeating tactics that worked for the current economic model 200 years ago with the steam engine lol
anyways, i hope it succeeds and others pick up, which means US/EU will be the ones lagging behind.
GG Venezuala !
i wouldnt rank it as conspiracy cos afaics its all fact :p
sig :
viewed, voted, commented, and re-steemed ...
i am not a bot and i only have one account ... and im not half as bad a lunatic as it might appear but i need to hide from the normals or they come to pick my brains
anyone follows me i'll follow back within a few days
if you have complaints please check the link(where did that link go), or else just do that content dictator thing you do i no longer care ... a resteem is a resteem, atm to 357 people, thats 357 chances to have it re-resteemed,
Free speech is either absolutely free or it is not at all. It was meant to be free for everybody : how can anyone grow up in a nanny state?
You are correct, America is no longer the sole force in the world, but in all honesty, I don't think the majority of Americans know this... Gotta love MSM and how they spin things. The masses have been told that while the Petro-Yuan is available and can be used to purchase oil... Don't worry the dollar still good and strong. Don't think about Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia saying that they will support the Petro-Yuan... It is mind blowing just how people will believe ANYTHING that MSM tells them, no matter what evidence shows. This whole China and America back n forth is down right disturbing.
Crypto-Currency is a good way to think outside the normal box to fix an economy issue. A lot of other countries have looked into getting their own coin started, but we are still waiting. What is your take on FED Coin?
Thank you for voting, commenting and re-steeming this. The more people it reaches, the more people will be aware what is happening to Venezuela and hopefully will come to the self-realization that their country could be next.
It is just horrible what people have to go through, all over the world. And all of this misery just because of the greed of a handful of psychopaths. Mind numbing. But regarding the Petro, James Corbett of @corbettreport wrote an interesting article. Corbett's analysis is always very well researched and backed up by facts. Read here...
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@corbettreport/venezuela-s-new-cryptocurrency-is-a-scam
What was failed to be addressed in the @truthbeyondlies's article is that the economic crisis is a result of Nicolas Maduro's corruption & dictatorial regime. Petro is the brainchild of this regime as a proposed solution to improve their financial & economic problems; to show support for Petro is to show support for the regime. Therefore, I'm on the same boat as @corbettreport.
Rather than hoping Petro & crypto will improve the country's problems, it's my personal opinion that they need to uproot the main cause of their despair: Maduro. He & his administration are the larger problem at hand, and until their government & leadership changes, there's no short-term solution that can fix their longterm problem. In addition, pre-sale performance is no preliminary indicator of a coin's longevity or future performance.
President Trump is right in his decision to not only sanction Venezuela (as a means to protest Maduro's failed leadership), but to also ban American citizens from purchasing Petro. Don't get me wrong: I'm in full support of helping Venezuela's citizens & fixing their economic crisis, but I'm not in support of their dictator; the same dictator who's proven to be the main cause of the country's problems & the root of all evil.
What I do not understand is the benefit of sanctions. They only hurt the people, never a corrupt government. At best they can create civil unrest. But it's the innocent who suffer, never the guilty.
When was the last time a corrupt politician caved in to sanctions? Never. All that will be accomplished is to impoverish and starve the population. So, sanctions are a "good" move because they hurt the population even more? That is just bizarre...
Oh so true. Sanctions never hurt the corrupt government, just the citizens. Which is why we feel that no government should be able to stop it's citizens from trading with any person. If you reside in a country which the US has put trading sanctions on, that should just apply on a government level. If you as a person have goods we would like to buy then we should be able to trade. (In a just and equal world I know, keep dreaming ;-) It is like two families fighting telling their children they can no longer be friends. Just because you have some kind of issue with them does not mean I do nor should we miss out due to someone elses psuedo irreperable differences that they force on a population of people as a whole rather than handling this like....adults. This seems like another cunning ploy (order out of chaos) by the elite and when you sit back and think about how they have such wantonly destructive behavior, who is to say that this is not being used as a major distraction to weaken the people of this nation whilst and even deeper agenda is carried out behind the scenes? Two of the most effective tactics ever used in the history of warfare is to cut off the enemies 1: Communication 2: Food/Water Supply but that is just speculative food for thought.
I think you hit the nail on the head. If you look at history, it always hits the people only.
It is a strategy to reduce and control the population and transfer their wealth. No matter what war you look at, only the people suffered while the one on the top are best friends. We are nothing but slaves. Moronic "human resources".
I just did some research on the US sanctions against Venezuela, it seems they will now also sanction the Petro Crypto currency created by the Venezuelan Government in some way.
President Trump signed and executive order about this. The order bans “all transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token,” issued by Venezuela's government
Maduro and his administration is the source of the problem, there is no arugment there. They are down right evil and are not for their people in the slightes! We did not want the focus of this article to shift to him... we wanted this to be about the citizens. They are starving and what does Maduro do about it?
He eats an empanada during a live TV broadcast! So your people are starving and have lost an average of 24 pounds in a year and then there is :
Because that what leaders do! Such a jack*** (sorry rage was setting in there)!
Now to the Petro. Yes the the coin is the "brain child" (like the way you put that) of the government but there could be a way to still help the citizen with it. Venezuelan will be able to use this coin, so if the price is up that means they could get more bang for their Petro... just a thought. Now with that being said, there is still a risk in thinking like that because keep in mind that this is the same government which has made the bolivar the mess that it is today.
We get where you are coming from by supporting President Trump's bans however, Americans should have the choice to purchase whatever... We don't think that ANY Government entity should have the right to stop their citizens from trading with any other countries (we don't like being told what we can or cannot do) but that is a subject for another time.
You attack a man for eating food because you don't like his politics.
I believe that they are attacking a man who is eating food, in front of a nation of people who can no longer afford food due to his politics. There is a difference. If your people on average have lost 24 lbs in body mass due to your poor politics, the best course of action would be to at the very minimum not indulge on the tax payers funded food during live television.
@imjustsaying RIGHT. When I seen that picture, I think my jaw actually dropped. What type of person would do something like that?
We did not attack him over his politics...nor because he ate food. His citizen are starving so as a leader, or anyone that has the slightest bit of compassion would NOT get on Live TV and eat an empanada. What type of person would even do that?
Venezuela is a tropical country so if he is outside for a long time at a political rally he is bound to get hungry. I would love to ask whoever took the picture exactly what it is that they think they were doing. But judging by your reaction the propaganda is effective. In any case his big belly should be more provocation than the food in his mouth, it is however possible the hidden body armour may be making him look fatter than he actually is.
No doubt the man gets hungry, but at a time when the majority (90%) can not afford to eat on a daily basis, one would think that you could at the bare minimum wait until you are not on camera to eat a bite of food... His people lost on average 24 pounds in 2017. Good point, he is bigger in the stomach than 99.9% of the people... could be body armor, or could be all the fine food he gets to eat. It is just one of the many things that is wrong with his regime.
The partner here ^^ - Yes it is horrible and it is looking like more countries are falling in the same direction, none are as extreme at the moment, but no one should turn their head at this point. Just a handful of greedy people can bring a country like Venezuela to its knees is something to be terrified about.
Thank you for the link you provided. It is not surprising that they would say the coin is backed by oil... That is what they are known for, but even Maduro himself said he wanted to create this coin backed by oil yet somehow never give up a drop of oil for it... so people need to keep that in the back of their minds. I think that it is safe to conclude that if Maduro is not willing to really give up oil for the Petro, he is not going to give up gold for the ‘Petro Oro’. This is the part where we bang our heads against the wall right?
Honestly I am clueless about what's really going on there in Venezuela. But isn't it essentially the same all over the world? The people get fucked by psychopaths in the government. Some more, some less. And it is getting worse every day
It is fundamentally the same, but what is going on there is far worse than we have ever seen. They really got messed up in all of this mess that these psychopaths created. Yet there are warning signs that this is just the start, we will be hear about and seeing this more and more. Even our own economy has shown signs that we are going to crash...
I was wondering...do you think a possible big war could "save" us from a collapse or do they plan to have both, a war plus collapse? Both seems to be possible...
Partner here - I think that both are planned. I think we will see WW3, then the collapse (maybe during the war). Your thoughts?
All I can offer is wild speculation. There appears to be two major possibilities.
It could be that the top of the pyramid is more like a snake pit with different agendas and neither one of them has enough power to make their plans happen. That would mean, we are observing a big power struggle at the top.
What does not fit into this option is the fact that we have Zionist on all sides, same pedophilia, same satanic symbols.
Another possibility could be that "nuclear" is not we we believe it is. There is some evidence that atomic bombs do not contaminate for centuries. Hiroshima is a bustling city. The test sites in Nevada are not so radio active as one would assume. I've seen a documentary about people living in Tschernobyl. If this is true, it is possible to have a world war which destroys mostly "human resources", but leaves selected property intact. The emergence of underground bunkers for the elites could also be an indication that they are planning to have a place to go back to once the storm is over. It is also possible that they use weapons we have never heard of and again destroy mostly "human resources' but leave key infrastructure intact. If you look at deagel.com it would suggest that not total annihilation but a major culling is the plan. In that case, both is possible. War and financial crash to kill off people and transfer their wealth but also have the legal frame work and infrastructure already in place when everything is over and Phoenix rises out of the ashes...
Guess we will find out soon...
Las esperanzas de Venezuela son sus profesionales, sus habitantes, los que se han quedado decididos a enfrentar el problema, y también los que se han ido para salvar a los suyos que se quedan, y también a los que se llevan por un mejor futuro. Está crisis que muy bien describes, traspasa lo económico, político, social, llega hasta lo humano y el principio básico de libertad. El mundo debe mirar para aprender y que esto no suceda en otros países. Dios mediante Venezuela en algún momento se recuperará de este régimen que la somete. En cuanto al respaldo de la moneda que pretenden crear, está como el soporte inorgánico de la moneda actual, está en suspenso.
Del país y la situación hay mucho que contar, pero espero que el mensaje sea al final de un país que tome algún día fuerzas para superar todo.
Gracias por la publicación.
The crisis does indeed extend beyond the economic, political, and social aspects seen observed at the forefront. We could not agree with you more! The world needs to be made aware of what is happening to Venezuela so that it does not continue to go unnoticed by so many.
There is a lot more than meets the eye with this crisis, in our opinion but we do pray that the citizens of Venezuela will recover from this, and emerge stronger and better.
Amén. Gracias por las oraciones.
A devastating situation we all follow closely. We always got our fruit and veggies from Venezuela but Maduro closed the borders to the islands nearby.
They stopped growing their own food altogether from what we understand which is a real shame. There are rich farmlands there and if the people could just harvest from them the food shortage would not be as bad.
So sad to hear the economic condition of Venezuela worsening day by day. The medical sector is also very poor. People have to even take their own medicine? I think this sector needs more improvement and development in Venezuela. I hope the oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro will circumvent economic sanctions and hyper-inflation. It will attempt to bring the country out of the financial crisis. This is a very genius way to boost a failing economy. If it works, other countries can expect with financial difficulties to follow suit🙂
The medical sector needs supplies so very bad. This is beyond disturbing. At this point if the Petro can help the citizen in any way then it is worth a shot. Personally we would have bought into this but atlas the US said no. Any gain from this would surly help the citizens...right? We think we will be seeing a lot more counties turn to crypto-currencies in the near future... Fiat money will be a thing of the past before too long.
I agree with you. Every currencies will be digitalized in the near future. Cryptocurrencies will help to democratize the economy. We can see successful case with Zimbabwe, the hyperinflation crisis during 2008 and 2009 cause many citizens to lose huge amount of savings and they were in need of to secure their own savings. And now, bitcoin have accelerated their economic growth rate. I hope there is gonna be positive news of country legalising cryptocurrency as national currency.
We agree, Crypto-Currencies will be the currency of the future, and not a distant one. Unfortunately this is the beginning of a one world currency.
Raising awareness is the chamba I can DO!!!! Suerte paraustedes... Gracias para compartir esso con nosotros @truthbeyondlies
Thank you! We appreciate your support in getting the word out.
Read the wikileaks and you will see US embassies all over the world doing things to mess with venezuela. That is not the only cause of Venezuela's problems but it is important. America is a very powerful country and if they want to destroy you you are in big trouble. Why is China which is a communist country atleast politically why are they so successful?
The USA complains about alleged Russian meddling in the US election whilst they are meddling all the time in Venezuelan politics, hypocrisy.
It is a shame but yes America is deploying all kinds of tactics to mess with Venezuela (as hard as it is to admit, America appears to be the bully in this situation). China is successful because they will blow you to pieces if you mess with them... they have the "Putin" attitude.
Russia did not mess with the elections, this was already addressed and we thought put to rest but the MSM needed a good narrative to distract it citizens so why not bring it back up since it seems to work so well against our divided nation the first time? They gave it some time and people seem to have already forgotten that the government said they investigated and Russia did not hack the election.
This is all so very sad. Yeah it would seem that the US gov backed bankers are playing a major role in picking on really everyone who is not apart of the bankers agenda. I just wish that the citizens weren't always the ones to pay the price with their own flesh. It all makes me sick.
It is horrible. It was hard to admit that America has played its part (a big part at that) in what is going on there. This is the worst economy crashes to date, but it is just the beginning. Other countries (including the US), are already showing signs of their economies crashing as well. People really need to wake up and stop listening to what the main stream is telling them because it will be to late to change anything.
Really good writting skills thanks for blog
Thank you for reading our article and commenting.
If adoption of petro is a good move depends on how the coin is set up. If it can be freely mined, then the government would basically be giving away their oil for free. Then why not instead adopt bitcoin, or some less popular one with cheap transaction fees (byteball??).
So there is something wrong and there probably something in the petro to make is another maduro scam.
Is the petro open source? Anyone know some details?
Venezuelan's did start mining BitCoin but their government was not going to allow a citizen to get rich. They had to start registering that they where mining all the while miners where being hunted by the government. Police have arrested BTCmine operators on spurious charges.
The scam of the Petro is Maduro said he would make a coin backed by oil but never plans to actually give any oil...
Wow " 1 USD was worth about 8 bolivars… today 1 USD would fetch you around 33,499 bolivars." That is insane , and the cost of a dozen eggs around $150 usd. One has to wonder how did it come to this?
The introduction of the Petro currency seems to be a good move but I can imagine the same elites manipulating the currency for their own gain. i'm surprised so many people purchased the petro, where did you get this information?
In my country Jamaica 1 USD is worth 126 Jamaican dollars, the economy continues to be crippled by the IMF's debt trap, the minimum wage is $6,200 JMD ( $49 USD) per week. This situation has caused a tremendous increase in crimes and brain drain. Every year it gets tougher , and for a country with such a strong brand, this should not be the case. I doubt Jamaica will ever reach the levels that are talking place in Venezuela. I hope the people will rise above this.
Venezuela was the richest country in South America.. makes one think that it does not matter how rich one country is, it can always fall. We are sorry to hear that Jamaica is experiencing their own economic issues. Would you say you seen this coming or was it surprise?
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Amazing writting sir thanks @truthbeyondlies for info,news&blog
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Thanks a bunch.
This post is resteemed and upvoted by @bestboom
Every resteem is greatly appreciated... the more people that get to see this article, the more that are made aware what Venezuela is going through.