U.S. concern grows over possible Venezuela meltdown: officials
WASHINGTON | BY MATT SPETALNICK
The United States is increasingly concerned about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela, spurred by fears of a debt default, growing street protests and deterioration of its oil sector, U.S. intelligence officials said on Friday.
In a bleak assessment of Venezuela’s worsening crisis, the senior officials expressed doubt that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro would allow a recall referendum this year, despite opposition-led protests demanding a vote to decide whether he stays in office.
But the two officials, briefing a small group of reporters in Washington, predicted that Maduro, who heads Latin America’s most ardently anti-U.S. government and a major U.S. oil supplier, was not likely to be able to complete his term, which is due to end after elections in late 2018.
They said one “plausible” scenario would be that Maduro’s own party or powerful political figures would force him out and would not rule out the possibility of a military coup. Still, they said there was no evidence of any active plotting or that he had lost support from the country’s generals.
The officials appeared to acknowledge that Washington has little leverage in how the situation unfolds in Venezuela, where any U.S. role draws government accusations of U.S.-aided conspiracies. Instead, the administration of President Barack Obama wants “regional” efforts to help keep the country from sliding into chaos.
“You can hear the ice cracking. You know there’s a crisis coming,” one U.S. official said. “Our pressure on this isn’t going to resolve this issue.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-idUSKCN0Y42MT
And this spectacular example of failed socialism is in a country that from a natural resources perspective, should be wealthy beyond anything else in the whole of Latin America.
Feel the Bern!
Fools…
If the Venezuelan government is so anti US. Why the hell are we still doing buisness with them?
11:22am, did you ever see the photograph of the bro-tastic fist bump shared between P_resident Obama and Hugo Chavez in the wake of the Democratic takeover of the federal executive branch in 2009? The Obama administration has proven to be just as anti-US as Venezuela has been in its recent history as a soft socialist dictatorship under Chavez, and later under Maduro. No wonder the US and Venezuela have been so comfortable in “doing business”, as you say!
@11:22am: I’ll try and give you the short answer.
Many countries are anti-US, but we do business with them. Now you have to understand the difference between the U.S. Govt. doing business with foreign countries, and American-owned private companies (e.g. oil companies) doing business with Venezuela. Unless the U.S. Govt. has issued sanctions (think countries like Cuba, North Korea, etc.), private companies are not prevented from doing business with any country. I hope this helps.
Yes 1238 I get the picture. Thanks