Venezuela ranked as the most corrupt country in Latin America (english)

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.eluniversal.com/economia/131203/venezuela-ranked-as-the-most-corrupt-country-in-latin-america

Venezuela and Paraguay are still viewed as the most corrupt countries in Latin America, while Uruguay and Chile are seen as the leaders in transparency, according to a report by German NGO Transparency International (TI) released on Tuesday.

This year's edition of the now traditional Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of TI provided a regional ranking with few changes.

On a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (highly transparent), the transparency ranking is headed by Uruguay (73), Chile (71) Puerto Rico (62) and Costa Rica (53), followed by Cuba (46), Brazil (42) and Salvador (38).

In the lower end, which includes the most corrupt countries in the region, there is Venezuela (20), Paraguay (24), Honduras (26), Nicaragua (28) and Guatemala (29).

[truebluegreen]

1. Key word is "viewed."

In the same study, the US is seen is relatively clean. Of course, our corruption is less obvious, at the lobbying / billionaire / corporate purchase of government level.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. its the viewpoint of the residents of their own respective countries. nt

[truebluegreen]

3. I get that: it is entirely subjective.

Sorta like white Christians feeling persecuted in this country is subjective. In either case, what is the evidence?

[Bacchus4.0]

4. why bring the race and religion into this? Norwegians and Swedes dont think theircountries are too

corrupt, Venezuelans do.

[truebluegreen]

6. <sigh> an example of subjective thinking. That's it.

[Bacchus4.0]

9. why not use flavor of ice cream as an example then instead 8f a stereotype? nt

[truebluegreen]

10. You must be bored with the lack of attention this post has gotten.

I know I am.

[Bacchus4.0]

12. you should move along and take your bigotry with you nt

[Marksman_91]

5. Gee, I don't know, maybe the highest inflation rate in the world?

And the fact that despite the state controlling almost all means of production in the country, many products that you'd find easily in any other LatAm country are scarce? The fact that crime rate just keep getting worse? That there's 90% impunity in most criminal cases? The fact that there's a prison massacre every few months or so? Take your pick, I got more

[truebluegreen]

7. Any other Latin American countries having any troubles?

I can name at least one....

I just find it odd that so many are so ready to jump on our political opponent Venezuela and yet, regarding closer neighbors and allies, or countries where we bear much of the responsibility for troubles...not so much.

BTW, is the inflation rate a result of corruption? If so, can you explain that? And what is your plan for fixing the production/supply problem? Just curious.

[Marksman_91]

11. Other countries don't have the oil bonanza that Venezuela has

By the way, just to get it out of the way, I'm Venezuelan myself, and I sure as hell can tell you the difference between the Venezuela today and the Venezuela from 16 years ago, before the Dead Commander came into power.

Despite having enjoyed oil barrel prices at above $95 for over a decade, the country is still going down the shambles. Most of that oil revenue is not really being distributed properly towards improving Venezuelans' lives, they're being siphoned by the high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan government. Are you really that naive that you're not gonna accept that Diosdado Cabello and his family, as well as the Chávez family, and pretty much all those other figures in the inner circle of the PSUV leadership haven't amassed an immense wealth since the Chavista regime began? It doesn't take a genius to notice it, buddy.

And as for the inflation rate being so damn high being related to corruption: well, I can't say it's just corruption, but also sheer incompetence and negligence of the government. They have no idea about how to handle the industries and businesses that they've expropriated throughout the years. It's all one big mismanaged mess. All the assholes that the government has put in charge of running those businesses are military types and thugs who only require to be loyal to the PSUV instead of actually having any proper experience and qualifications to run it. If you have a central bank printing so much cash geared towards businesses and industries that aren't producing shit, then that is obvious grounds for inflation.

Which brings me to another reason why they can't produce: the chavista regime has been implementing an currency exchange control for years now which makes it really hard for citizens and businesses to exchange bolivares for dollars at the official exchange rate instead of the black market one, which is, I don't know, like 20 times more? It's really not clear at this point, the bolivar's value is just fluctuating from worse to worse these days. The first version of this exchange control is run through CADIVI, which this website can explain to you: https://katydasilva.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/cadivi-for-dummies/

In 2003, Venezuela’s government decided to create an Institution which main goal is to control currency exchange… and screw Venezuela’s economy. Every Venezuelan who wants to travel abroad for any reason, to any country, has to go through the arduous process of begging government to allow them to buy foreign currency with their own earned money. For example, students who have been granted an F-1 Visa, and need to exchange Venezuelan currency to dollars or euros, have to prepare a folder with A LOT of documents. Some of these documents are copies of their ID, passport,VISA, and plane tickets; letter of acceptance from the school, as well as schedule of activities, and curriculum; a letter explaining the reasons of your major of choice, bank references and other legal requirements.

Subsequently to submitting the folder to the bank, it’s sent to Cadivi for evaluation. And this is the start of an inefficient process which could take 2, 3, 4 months or even more, before you finally receive an email informing you of their final decision. After that moment, there are two possible scenarios.
First Scenario: CADIVI approves the request

Nowadays, getting consent by Cadivi can be compared to winning a lottery, no one really understands the process or the factors which are being taken into consideration for the decision making. Although this scenario should be the only one, it happens and the majority of Venezuelans don’t trust the process because rumors of corruption are everywhere.

Most importantly is to say that people work hard to save the money in order to apply for CADIVI exchange rate and it’s not something that the government is giving for free.

For the lucky ones, the next steps would be going to the bank, have the money in the account and wait for the exchange.
Second Scenario: CADIVI denies the request

Although you did everything exactly as they asked, Cadivi still denied your request. Massive denials are being received by students around the world, particularly in the last month.

Sadly, you only have 3 options

Try again and introduce a “reconsideration”.
Go to the “black market” to get the foreign currency you need.
Go back to Venezuela.

1. Reconsideration

Going through reconsideration is a lost war. Your legal representative (mom, dad or the person in charge of your legal matters back home) has to go to the bank with a letter explaining your current situation; which they already know because it was one of the first requirements. Your legal representative probably has to submit more documents to support your request. Once again, you will need to wait 2, 3 or 4 months for their decision.

2. The Black Market

The only way besides CADIVI to have access to a foreign currency is going to the “black market” for selling/buying dollars in this case. This means buying dollars from independent people sources instead of those from the Central Bank. This is not legal but it’s the common practice.

You may be asking by now, why would people decide to go back to Venezuela if they have the option of getting dollars on the black market? Right? Here is the answer:

Math, simple math (Dollars vs. Bolívares — Venezuelan currency)

The Venezuelan Bolívar (Bs) is the currency of Venezuela (VEF). There are different exchange rates depending on what it is going to be used for. For academic purposes, for instance, the official rate is US $1.00 which is equivalent to Bs. 6.30.

In the Black Market the price for buying or exchanging bolivares into dollars is in constant change. There’s a popular website called dolartoday.com in which Venezuelans check, daily, the cost of the dollar.

According to DolarToday.com, October 22nd $1.00 is equivalent to Bs.100.52

That means that any Venezuelan needs to have 15 more times the amount of bolívares to get the same amount of dollars than going through Cadivi.

Insane, right? That explains why many students around the world are facing difficult times when being denied by Cadivi.

Finally, let’s see an example.

Master of International Business at Hult Business School

This example shows the life’s cost for an International student at Hult Business School for a one year Master program.

tabla bn

(*)Cadivi limits students to spend maximum $1,300.00 per month for personal expenses.

In Venezuela, with Bs. 379,890.00 you can buy a KLR650 Kawasaki motorcycle.
In Venezuela with Bs. 6,030,000.00 you can buy a 70m² apartment in Caracas (the capital of Venezuela).
In Venezuela, the minimum wage is Bs. 4,251.78/month.
In Venezuela, a professional with a Master degree and 5 years of work experience could expect to earn Bs. 25,000.00/month.

For collecting the money for the Master Program at Hult, after being denied by Cadivi:

Venezuelan students need to have and sell 15 Kawasaki motorcycles.
Venezuelan students need to have and sell an apartment in Caracas.
Venezuelan students need more than 100 years to save the money with a regular job.
Because no one lives more than 100 years, Venezuelan students need to find a really good job and save money for around 20 years.

Although Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserves and it’s the fifth oil exporting country around the world, crisis is everywhere, affecting the future of the ones who live there and the ones who have to go back.

3. Back to Venezuela

After seeing the cost of living for students who got rejected by Cadivi, it’s easier to understand why most of them have to give up their dreams and go back to Venezuela. The amount of bolivares that they need to finish their studies is absurd, and few families can afford it.

Another example for this is students who study abroad who must also request dollars through this system in order to be able to pay for tuition.

So as you can imagine, since the bolivar is losing so much value, the government has seen itself forced to open up other systems to approve dollars for other businesses at other exchange rates. If businesses cannot obtain these dollars, they cannot obtain the materials needed from outside of Venezuela to carry out production. This is one of the reasons why the automobile assembly factories in Venezuela have been gradually producing less and less, and why people are seeing less products in the markets, to the point that they have to make lines that last hours to obtain a product that they could have easily obtained a couple of years ago. And, of course, you can imagine how the primary figureheads of the government use this system to make themselves insanely rich: they obtain the dollars at the official exchange rate, then resell them at a blackmarket price of the bolivar, and make a killing, but of course, who's gonna point the finger at them? They have the entire judicial, police, and even electoral system in Venezuela bought off with their wealth.

As for how would I solve the inflation problem? I don't know, I'm not a bloody economist, but that's why I would actually hire people trained and experienced in micro and macro economics to run my government instead of corrupt thugs who never really had a formal education in the field they're working for in an oil-rich state. If I were president, I'd sure as hell listen more to the advice of the best economists rather than the most loyal dumbfuck.

Never in Venezuela's history has its government been run by the most inept, most unqualified pack of resentful and hate-spewing rats like the PSUV. They claim to be all about socialism and giving back to the poor, but they sure as hell wouldn't go back to living the way they used to before obtaining power. A guy like Pepe Mujica? Now THAT'S a guy who knows about humility and living modestly and actually giving opportunities to people. The Chavista leadership though? They only care about perpetuating themselves in power, and they're willing to take advantage of the ignorance of the poor majority to convince them to vote for them, even if it's against their own interest.

[Bacchus4.0]

8. I say eveyone of them has problems. That doent mean he poblems

in Ven are not more severe.