New US Human Rights report highlights violations amongst US allies
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🇻🇪 VENEZUELA | POLITICS
“We’re all trying to find the guy who did this.”
Venezuelan oil minister resigns amid corruption crackdown
Briefly: Venezuela’s oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, resigned suddenly on Monday amid accusations of corruption at the state oil firm PDVSA. Later that evening, President Nicolás Maduro went on TV to announce a corruption crackdown.
But experts query Maduro’s motives. El Aissami is considered the architect of the sanctions evasion scheme that has helped keep Venezuela’s oil sector afloat, while lining the pockets of top officials. So the term “firing El Aissami for corruption” is a little like “firing LeBron James for basketball”.
Instead, El Aissami’s ouster was probably an olive branch to the US. Washington might be more inclined to lift sanctions on PDVSA now that El Aissami, a designated drug trafficker with a $10M bounty on his head, has stepped down.
Intrigue’s take: In his speech on Monday, Maduro urged Venezuelans to “go on the offensive against the corrupt, the bandits, the delinquents, the criminals.”
They might start at the top. In his decade in power, 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country, the GDP per capita has dropped by 87%, and oil output has collapsed from 3.5 million barrels per day in 1999 to 700,000 last year.
Meanwhile, the US has sanctioned Maduro’s son, stepsons and other confidants for their alleged involvement in money laundering, bribery and beyond.
Also worth noting:
Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, yet its people live on $1.90 per day.
Venezuela doesn’t publish inflation data, but prices likely surged 300% in 2022.
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What we’re reading (and listening to) about a potential US TikTok ban.
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Beer-ly beloved…
Beer is one of the most beloved alcoholic beverages worldwide, but nobody will be surprised to hear our Czech friends love their Lager just a little more than everyone else: they drink over 135 litres of brew per capita. And that’s actually the country’s lowest beer consumption since the 1960s.
Yesterday’s poll: Who gains more from closer China-Russia ties?
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🇷🇺 Russia: without Beijing, Moscow would've folded long ago (33%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🇨🇳 China: Russia is keeping the West bogged down in Ukraine, while China gets cheap Russian energy (45%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚖️ It's pretty balanced, actually (23%)
Your two cents:
🇨🇳 S.F: “First, China is not at war and can trade profitably with both sides. Second, as Russia declines, Russia's hold on Siberia weakens and Russia's influence on formerly Soviet Central Asia falters.”
⚖️ D.W: “In the short term, Putin appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the great photo op. But in the long term, Xi will use the cheap Russian fuel and the west's focus on Ukraine to continue to expand China's influence.”