Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Venezuela’
October 29th, 2020 at 10:37 am
CFIF Letter to White House: Keep Targeting Rogue Venezuelan Regime, But Protect U.S. Enterprises Operating There
Posted by Print

Less than twenty years ago, Venezuela was Latin America’s wealthiest nation.  In the terrifyingly brief time since then, however, the rogue socialist regimes of Hugo Chavez and now his successor Nicolas Maduro have reduced it to a dystopian rubble more akin to starving Cuba.  For that, the United States justifiably isolates and targets the Maduro regime for its ongoing corruption, theft and human rights abuses.

Amid that effort, however, we must also protect vulnerable American companies that have conducted business in Venezuela since long before the Chavez and Maduro regimes.  By granting those American businesses specific waivers to continue operations, we protect them from suffering asset seizure at the hands of Maduro and his cronies.  The alternative of denying that latitude would suddenly force U.S. enterprises to surrender their assets, thereby strengthening the Maduro regime by allowing it  to commandeer those valuable assets for the benefit of Venezuelan state-owned enterprises or even handing them over to Chinese or Russian competitors.

In a new letter to the Trump Administration, we at CFIF highlight these realities and urge it to continue renewing U.S. business licenses to operate in order to protect their assets against Maduro expropriation:

American companies actually serve a positive capacity when allowed to continue operations in Venezuela.  Numerous U.S. enterprises have operated in Venezuela for decades, preceding both the Maduro and Hugo Chavez regimes that have wreaked such havoc that once made Venezuela Latin America’s wealthiest nation.  Not only do they visibly represent American values and the possibility of prosperity for the people of Venezuela, but they also provide well-paying jobs and labor protections that would evaporate if state-owned enterprises took over operations.  Those American companies also support communities where the Maduro regime has failed to act, by providing healthcare and nutrition for needy Venezuelans, who continue to rely upon foreign support for humanitarian needs due to Maduro government failures.

It’s therefore critical that your administration send a clear signal to the Maduro regime that it cannot confiscate U.S. business assets, and that we will not allow it to enrich itself via American enterprises.  The way to send that signal, and to protect U.S. businesses, is to grant those enterprises licenses to continue operations and protect their assets.”

The Trump Administration has shown leadership throughout its tenure in isolating the Maduro regime, and our letter urges it to protect American interests by renewing licenses for U.S companies to continue operations in Venezuela.  That will allow those companies to protect their invaluable assets and investments, while signaling that the United States remains committed to the democratic and free market values that we represent.

 

 

Tags: ,
January 25th, 2019 at 11:48 am
Notable Quote: American Incomes Versus Supposedly Superior European Counterparts
Posted by Print

The myth of superior livelihoods in supposedly more enlightened European nations remains a curiously persistent one, but Mona Charen’s latest commentary today provides a refreshing corrective:

Median household income reached $61,372 in 2017, which is higher than comparable countries like Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Denmark, and exceeded only by a handful of tiny rich nations sitting on oil (Norway) or numbered bank accounts (Switzerland and Lichtenstein).  U.S. median household size, meanwhile, has declined, so individual wealth has increased even more than the income numbers reflect.”

Something to remember the next time Bernie Sanders or latest leftist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez alleges that “democratic socialist” nations of Europe somehow offer a superior alternative, nevermind that Venezuela actually offers a better illustration of socialism in practice…

August 15th, 2017 at 10:20 am
Rationing in Venezuela
Posted by Print

Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

June 21st, 2016 at 12:20 pm
Global Misery Index: Socialist Venezuela Occupies High End, Free-Market Singapore Occupies Low End
Posted by Print

How do socialism and free markets compare in the real world?

In our recent Liberty Update piece entitled “Socialist Paradises?  More Scandinavians Migrate to America than Vice-Versa” we show how Scandinavian countries aren’t the socialist paradises that Bernie Sanders fans seem to think.  This week brings just the latest illustration that free economies work, while socialist economies fail.

In the latest annual Index of Economic Freedom, Singapore ranks second-freest in the world, slightly below Hong Kong and ahead of New Zealand, Switzerland and then Australia.   Coming in nearly last at 176 of the 178 nations measured was socialist Venezuela.  And the real-world result?  A new Bloomberg piece notes that Singapore now enjoys the lowest (i.e., best) spot on the worldwide misery index.  Meanwhile, socialist paradise Venezuela holds the top (i.e., worst) spot:

Singapore has dropped below Thailand on the so-called Misery Index for the first time since December 2014, meaning the city-state has the lowest combination of consumer-price inflation and unemployment in the world.  Singapore’s most-recent CPI rate was negative 0.5 percent and its official jobless rate was 1.9 percent, ranking it 1.4 percent on the misery scale, compared with 1.5 percent in Thailand and 2.9 percent in Japan, based on the latest-available official figures.  Venezuela ranks as most miserable among more than 70 countries on which Bloomberg compiles data, as the South American country battles triple-digit inflation.”

As they would say in Latin, res ipsa loquitur – “the fact speaks for itself.”

December 6th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Unintended Juxtaposition of the Day — Hugo Chavez Edition
Posted by Print

Courtesy of a story from UK Reuters:

President Hugo Chavez blamed “criminal” capitalism on Sunday for global climate phenomena including incessant rains that have brought chaos to Venezuela, killing 32 people and leaving 70,000 homeless.

Worst hit is the coastal area of the South American OPEC member nation where millions live in precarious hillside shantytowns and mudslides have been toppling rickety houses.

Hmmm, an oil-rich nation with millions living in shantytowns? How often do you think that happens in capitalist societies, Senor Chavez?

October 19th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
From Tehran, With a Warning

A parallel alliance between the world’s governing thugs continues to follow a James Bond movie scenario: buffoonish villains pursuing absurdly dramatic evil.  Other than a shared penchant for casual clothing and over-the-top rhetoric, however, there’s nothing funny about the increasingly close alliance between Venezuela, Iran and Russia.

This week, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is traveling to Russia and Iran to secure cooperation agreements on nuclear enrichment, oil production and other stick-in-the-eye measures to America and its allies.

At some point, Americans will wake up to a clutch of hostile nations that have nuclear weapons in volatile regions.  Hopefully, the Obama Administration is doing much more strategic planning than waiting for a Felix Leiter-type CIA operative to save the day.