In a surprise announcement, [President Nicolas] Maduro said on Sunday that the 100-bolivar note, worth about 2 US cents (£0.015) on the black market, would be taken out of circulation on Wednesday.
The president said the aim was to tackle transnational gangs which hoard the Venezuelan notes abroad, a move he has in the past described as part of the "economic war" being waged against his government. [...] He said part of the plan was to block any of the 100-bolivar notes from being taken back into the country so the gangs would be unable to exchange their hoarded bills, making them worthless.
"I have given the orders to close all land, maritime and air possibilities so those bills taken out can't be returned and they're stuck with their fraud abroad," he said speaking on television.
Venezuela's currency has fallen dramatically amid skyrocketing inflation.
[...] Analysts say the move is likely to worsen the cash crunch in Venezuela, where people have already been limited in the amount of cash they can take out at automated teller machines. Venezuelans have only been given 10 days to exchange their 100-bolivar notes for new coins and bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 bolivars due to be introduced from 15 December.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday December 14 2016, @04:40AM
The Socialists there have control of the courts, which found that the recall effort against President Maduro cannot proceed [aljazeera.com] due to fraudulent collection of signatures. So if they are removing elections as a path to change, the next steps could be bloody.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 14 2016, @02:19PM
If the collection of signatures was fraudulent, then the court's decision was correct, the petition is not valid, and that particular recall petition should not go through.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 16 2016, @05:44AM
If the collection of signatures was fraudulent
"If". Courts are controlled by the current government. So why would they rule any other way?
As to an earlier thing you wrote:
The basic problem in Venezuela is something mostly outside the control of Maduro or anybody else in Venezuela: the price of oil has dropped by 70% in under 2 years [weforum.org]. Since oil is by far the most important export from Venezuela, that's a serious problem, no matter who is in charge. Imagine what would happen to you and anybody you are financially tied to if the income available from your profession dropped by 2/3.
It's not a secret that there's massive fluctuation in the price of oil. If I were a major player in the oil industry, I'd be looking at counter-cyclic strategies (like buying oil producing assets when the market is down) and figuring out how to buy cheap and sell high (like how to store oil from cheap years and sell it in expensive years).
Venezuela isn't even trying. It made some bad decisions when oil was good and held to those decisions when oil went south.