Briefing

Seeking Remittances

Your daily briefing for Wednesday, August 29, 2018. Translated by Javier Liendo.

Naky Soto
Photo: El Universal

The Bureau of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) ratified the information disseminated this Monday on social networks about the new restrictions designed by the national government to force Venezuelans to make transactions through them.

Superintendent Antonio Morales said that remittances must be sent through authorized exchange houses, that they can’t be sent through transfers between natural or judicial persons, adding that non-compliance with these measures may carry legal sanctions. The cutest part? Morales replaced the term “force” with “encourage”, claiming that the goal is to encourage the use of exchange houses. In his imagination, dealing with the most corrupt government in our history is a gratification. There’s still much to say about this matter. The government knows that the black market is as stubborn as they are. Even more serious is that official figures reveal that monetary liquidity reached four quadrillion bolívares fuertes (Bs.S. 40,167,000,000.) A week after the reconversion, liquidity grew by 19.19%, the most important variation in the Central Bank’s economic history.

More on economy

What Sudeban doesn’t know is how the payment for pensioners through the “mobile wallet” will be made, according to Emilio Lozada, head of the National Federation of Retirees and Pensioners, after his meeting with Sudeban representatives. The Customs and Tax National Service (SENIAT) announced the dates for early payments of the VAT and Income Tax, which must be made between September and December 2018, restating that VAT retentions will be declared weekly and that payment will be demandable on the same day of the declaration. The Industry and National Production Ministry created an organizational structure in the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, which will temporarily coexist with the current structure to “energize” the processes; more bureaucracy and new names for a sector destroyed by chavismo; as if new names could increase the production of iron, steel and aluminum. By the way: the main oil post in Venezuela, Jose, is partially operational after a ship crashed against a dock during the weekend, reducing PDVSA’s capacity to export enhanced crude and to receive imported diluents. Todo bello.

Briefs and serious

  • Starting on September 1, CLAP boxes will cost Bs.S. 150 (Bs.F 15 million.)
  • Interior Minister Néstor Reverol announced that the prohibition to carry firearms will remain in place for another year, as if it had helped at all to reduce our crime rates.
  • José Rafael Baldó, vice-president of the National Association of Garage and Parking Lot Owners and Managers (Anpage), said that fees could be adjusted up to Bs.S. 50 (Bs.F 5 million,) blaming the VAT increase (16%) for the huge adjustment.
  • Venezuelan academics and scientists issued a statement condemning Nicolás’s proposal of a new “Health System Plan,” which deals with the transformation and integration of the Public Health System with the focus of the Barrio Adentro programme, emphasizing among other terrible ideas, the removal of basic academic requirements that integral community “doctors“ must fulfill in order to access specialization courses and post-grade studies.
  • Finance vice-minister Nathalia Fong said that the period granted for banks to publish the referential indicators for the petro will expire on September 3.

Newsicolás

Exploiting the sensible void of a dismantled opposition, Nicolás has increased the rhythm of his TV speeches to “set the pace” even if it’s with absurdities and lies, in a terrible update script for his economic “recovery” plan, rotating the company, while Cilia Flores keeps dyeing her hair a little lighter each day. This Tuesday’s show included calls for business owners and investors to understand the country that chavismo deinstitutionalized as a land of opportunities; that’s why he extended the invitation for business owners to save in gold (certificates) and claimed that the oil, petrochemical and gas industries will give the country “the resources to expand productive forces,” announcing the signing of seven agreements (for $430 million) of a total of 14 currently in process.

He restated the message for Venezuelans “who are enslaved (…) return to Venezuela and stop cleaning toilettes abroad, come to live in the country.” Henrique Capriles retorted: “It’s criminal to mock Venezuelans who leave the country. Cleaning toilettes isn’t unworthy, what’s unworthy are the corrupt authorities who looted the country.” But Nicolás won’t listen.

We, migrants

The authorities of Colombia and Peru, the countries that receive the largest number of Venezuelan migrants, announced that they’ll share a database (with figures about health, education and security) of the citizens that enter, remain and leave their territories to facilitate decision making and implement mechanisms to tackle this phenomenon, seeking and orderly and safe migration. Meanwhile, Peru declared emergency for 60 days in three district bordering with Ecuador—Aguas Verdes, Zarumilla and Tumbes—due to the increasing Venezuelan migration and how the volume is affected health and sanitation services. Ecuador announced that they’ve extended until September 30 “the declared emergency” that facilitates activities involved in the management of the migration situation. Brazil announced the transfer of 278 Venezuelans to six cities as part of the migrant “interiorization” process. Later, President Michel Temer ordered the army to mobilize to protect the border with Venezuela, announcing that he’ll seek international support to face the crisis that, according to him, “threatens the harmony of the entire continent.”

Also yesterday, OAS chief Luis Almagro called for more sanctions against Nicolás’s dictatorship. A detail: in a technical table about Venezuelan migration in Bucaramanga, a new problem was discussed along with citizen insecurity and invasion of public spaces, and it’s that infidelity cases have spiked due to the arrival of “young attractive women that can cause this kind of situations.”

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We go on.

Naky Soto

Naky gets called Naibet at home and at the bank. She coordinates training programs for an NGO. She collects moments and turns them into words. She has more stories than freckles.

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