DR: ‘stability’ candidate wins
However much of a stink “Hurricane” Hipólito Mejía may want to kick up over supposed electoral fraud, Danilo Medina (pictured) will be the Dominican Republic’s next president after wining elections on Sunday.
“Daddy”, as the populist former president chose to style himself in his election campaign, did not come home as promised – and the markets breathed a sigh of relief. Continue reading »
Venezuela’s GDP grows amid sustainability worries
If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then “chavistas” (followers of Hugo Chávez) are from Mercury and their opponents are from Neptune.
Like the radically contrasting opinion poll data being released these days, that’s also the impression you get from the differing interpretationsof Venezuela’s first quarterly GDP results released today.
Celebrating the fact that the economy grew 5.6 per cent during the first three months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, officials gushed with optimism about the state of the economy, which planning minister Jorge Giordani ventured could grow by as much as 7 per cent in 2012 (double some analyst expectations), talking of “a new phase of expansion”.
Venezuela: racing for the revolution
Being something of an elite sport, Formula 1 racing may not be a pursuit that one immediately identifies with socialism.
But that doesn’t seem to bother Hugo Chávez’s socialist government, which has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into sponsoring Pastor Maldonado, the self-professed “chavista” who won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. Continue reading »
Venezuela: Chavez or Capriles?
More bizarre poll results from Venezuela. As if people weren’t uncertain enough about their country’s political future, what with the government treating the precise condition of Hugo Chavez’s health as a state secret, opinion polls are just making things worse.
Two poll results out on Tuesday offer astoundingly different versions of the state of public opinion in the Opec country: one says Chávez will win the presidential elections in October by a huge margin, while another actually gives the opposition candidate a slight lead. Continue reading »
Venezuela: subsidised drugs for all
While many will praise the noble intentions behind the Venezuelan government’s inauguration of a nationwide network of subsidised pharmacies on Monday, just as many will reject it as a populist stunt ahead of October’s presidential elections.
Perhaps it’s a bit of both – but will it work? Continue reading »
Jamaica: to bond or not to bond
Jamaica may have one of the biggest debt burdens in the world, but a new issue of some US $250m-$500m is rumoured to be just around the corner.
Although it was expected to be announced last week, it never was, seemingly because of difficulties in deciding what pricing the international market might find most attractive. Still, with any luck it won’t be too long now. Continue reading »
PDVSA eyes $3bn issue
Hugo Chavez’s management of Venezuela’s economy may be a trifle unorthodox – to put it kindly – but there’s no doubting he has some competent technocrats on his economic team.
Whether the socialist leader pays any attention to his market-savvy advisers is another matter, of course, but this time it looks like he might have: the timing of a forthcoming debt issue could hardly be better. Continue reading »
Venezuela: when a drop in inflation is not a drop
After falling for five straight months, with April figures showing the slowest increase in prices in the last four years, Venezuela’s economic officials seemed to suggest on Thursday that they were finally beginning to get inflation under control.
It would be nice if that were the case. But it hardly seems likely. Continue reading »
Venezuelan oil: bring it on to Asia
It’s no secret that the Chinese are after Venezuela’s oil. If it wasn’t proof enough that China has lent Caracas $32bn in the last five years – most of it to be repaid in oil – on Friday construction began of an $8.3bn refinery in China’s Guangdong province able to process 400,000 barrels a day of extra-heavy crude from Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, in a 60/40 joint venture between China National Petroleum Corp and PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company.
But it’s not just the Chinese who want to tap into the OPEC country’s vast oil riches. In the last week alone, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have all signed major deals with Venezuela that will help it increase sales to Asian markets and diversify its oil exports away from its biggest client – and ideological enemy number one – the US. Continue reading »
Chavez: he’s back! (again)
And… he’s back – again.
But after a deafeningly silent 11-day absence in Havana, this time Hugo Chávez returned on Thursday from his radiotherapy to greater speculation than ever that his cancer is more serious than he has so far let on. Continue reading »
A ray of hope for Haiti
You could hardly argue that things have been going well lately for Haiti. Quite apart from being cruelly ravaged more than two years ago now by an earthquake from which it is still struggling to recover, more recently the Caribbean country’s president was struck down by a pulmonary embolism, while a rogue band of paramilitaries stormed parliament in his absence, and is still refusing to disband despite repeated demands from the government.
But there are one or two more positive developments. Continue reading »
Chávez: I am not dead
So Hugo Chávez isn’t dead. Once again, the doom mongers’ dire prophecies were wrong.
But that doesn’t mean that the cancer stricken president is not seriously ill, nor will it put a stop to the country’s highly active rumour mill, which understandably got more and more excited for every day that Chávez’s most recent silence while in Cuba for radiotherapy, which lasted for 10 days, continued. Continue reading »
Can a fugitive judge bring down Chavez?
Poor old Eladio Aponte. It had all been going so well. But since his fall from grace, not a single person in Venezuela’s political establishment has a nice thing to say about the fugitive judge who was once such a powerful figure that he apparently received telephone calls from Hugo Chavez himself asking for favours. Continue reading »
Chávez: humility but no plan B
On Wednesday, Hugo Chávez’s followers will flood the streets of Venezuela’s cities to commemorate the tenth anniversary of a coup d’etat that temporarily saw their president removed from power.
Like Christ, on the third day Chávez returned; but after the histrionic leader’s almost desperate exhortations to Christ during Easter celebrations this year, Venezuelans are increasingly doubting whether he will overcome his current trial – cancer. Continue reading »
Dominican Rep: ‘Daddy’ comes home?
“Here’s Daddy!” (Llegó Papá!) is the battle cry of Hipólito Mejía (pictured left), a former president of the Dominican Republic who is hoping to beat the ruling party candidate, Danilo Medina, in elections in about six weeks time.
Whether or not “Daddy” returns home will probably pass by relatively unnoticed compared to the other elections in the region this year in the US, Mexico and Venezuela. It shouldn’t. Continue reading »
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