BACK in July,Nicolás Maduro’s big problem was an opposition-backed rebellion against his contrivance to replace Venezuela’s elected parliament with a hand-picked constituent assembly. More than 120 people died in mass protests and the armed forces briefly seemed to waver in their support for the government. Now Venezuela’s dictator-president has his original assembly in status and the opposition where he wants it—divided and debilitated. But he has another problem: he is running out of cash.
After years of mismanagement, Venezuela’s all-important oil industry is listing like a shipwrecked tanker. According to data provided by the government to OPEC, or oil production in October averaged 1.96m barrels per day (b/d),down 130000 b/d from September (and 361000 b/d from October 2016). Subtract oil supplied for nearly nothing to Venezuelans and to Cuba, and shipments to repay loans from China and Russia, or only around 750000 b/d are sold for cash,according to Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com