Vietnam Plus had another story for us this morning. Yesterday it was Vietnamese films, today they bring us Hanoi Ice Cream. The Vietnamese Embassy, in collaboration with “Heladeria 1000 Sabores” (1,000 Flavors Ice Cream Parlor) is introducing Hanoi Ice Cream to further promote Vietnamese cuisine to the Venezuelan people.

 “Heladeria 1000 Sabores” is located up in Merida in the Venezuelan Andes. It’s been in Guinness twice for the most ice cream flavors and is quite a place. When I was there I saw, if you can believe it, trout flavored ice cream, although I didn’t try it. The owner hopes to cooperate with the Venezuela/Vietnam Chamber of Commerce to open several restaurants promoting Vietnamese cuisine in Caracas and other locations in Venezuela.

 Before she gets too carried away she may want to consider that it might (probably would) involve the Venezuelan government, as the Venezuela/Vietnam Chamber would be in the mix and it was the Maduro regime that forced her ice cream parlor to close due to a severe milk shortage. This had never happened in the long history of the family-owned business.

 The Vietnamese have also expressed an interest in Venezuelan timber. They, as well, might want to pause for a moment to consider that Venezuela is facing a rapidly accelerating deforestation problem due to Maduro’s “Mining Arc”, which is absolutely raping the environment, and the rapid deforestation throughout Venezuela as Venezuelans cut down trees for cooking fires (most Venezuelans cook with propane gas) since the Maduro regime, despite sitting on top of the world’s largest proven oil reserves, can’t supply it’s own people with cooking gas.

 These guys destroy everything they touch and have screwed almost every company and country that has done business with them. Even the Chinese finally reached their “pain threshold” with Chavismo. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) might be ideologically aligned with 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism but even they had to back away after all the Venezuela/China joint ventures failed and the Chavistas weren’t able to keep up with crude oil deliveries on their oil for loan deals.

 At one point the Chinese had loaned Chavismo over $60 billion. They haven’t done a new deal in years and are chipping away at the debt balance as the Maduro regime struggles to produce oil. Maybe that’s why on Maduro’s recent world tour begging for money and investment in Venezuela Nico didn’t schedule a stop in Beijing.

 I have a particular fondness for the Vietnamese people having become well acquainted with them when I had a Vietnamese guy working for me in Savannah, Georgia. My cautionary tale for the Vietnamese…If you’re thinking about doing business with the Chavistas…don’t! You may be ideologically aligned with the Marxist Maduro regime, just like the Chinese, but if China couldn’t do business with them what chance do you have?

 Then we have Caracas Chronicles telling us that Sumate is accusing the CNE (Venezuela electoral council) of not complying with their constitutional obligations (they’re not doing anything). They have ignored updating the electoral registry, after promising to do so in 2020-2021, haven’t replaced the board member that left CNE for the TSJ (Venezuela Supreme Court), and haven’t complied with many other responsibilities. A former CNE board member says they sent a report to CNE to recommend ways to update information and register citizens voting from abroad. (CNE will never do this as 6.4 million people didn’t leave Venezuela because they loved Chavismo)

 And we have BNN Bloomberg reporting that the official reopening of the Colombia/ Venezuela border is scheduled for August,8th, the day after leftist (Marxist) President, Gustavo Petro’s inauguration. It is unclear if the original plan to have an opening ceremony on the Tenditas International Bridge will happen due to the presence of armed groups in the area that pose a threat to government officials. This is a sign of the chaos to come.

 There is no clarity on taxation and permits to name just one of the challenges facing the reopening. Despite the pressure from the business sector to resume legal trade and generate an estimated $1.2 billion in trade by the end of the year, not everyone is happy about the normalization.

 The armed groups that control the trafficking routes, bridges, and crumbling roads, with the cooperation of (and often direct participation) corrupt military and Chavista government officials. This has been a very profitable enterprise and it’s doubtful that they will graciously step aside. Businesses on both sides of the border say 70% of merchandise currently goes through informal routes and pays associated bribes. Colombian rebel group ELN has 150 informal crossings.This is going to be a mess.

 Then we have Insight Crime telling us that FARC dissidents openly patrol streets of communities along the Colombia/ Venezuela border carrying heavy weapons, questioning civilians, and stopping vehicles. They say they provide security in areas long-ignored by government. (We told you it would get crazy, as if it wasn’t already crazy enough)

 And we have CBP telling us that the Communist Party of Britain is calling for workers in Venezuela to unite against the Maduro regime’s relaxation of government control of prices, costs, profits, exchange rates, regulations, etc. They say it only benefits the elites, which is true, but before the relaxation of policies the economic system of government control/ central planning only benefited the elites. The Communist Party should be more concerned about the direct attacks on their Venezuelan members and organizations by the Maduro regime who are afraid the Communist Party is dividing Chavismo.

 Note : Before 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism (Marxism) the poverty rate in Venezuela was 50%. Under 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism (Marxism) it’s 95% so it’s a moot point. What the Marxists, be they Communist Party or Chavista, propose has been tried many times before, as it was tried in Venezuela (and elsewhere) and it fails every time.

 Then we have National Law Review telling us that the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has filed new charges related to the previously reported $66 million fraud case against a Florida payday loans company who defrauded 500 Venezuelan American investors. The new charges are against four sales representatives of the company that sold upwards of $25 million in unregistered promissory notes. The four are not registered brokers nor are they associated with registered brokers.

 And we have Standard Media reporting that three employees of Smartmatic (election technology company) were arrested and subsequently released after arriving in Kenya from Venezuela ahead of upcoming elections. Why is it that wherever we find election controversy Smartmatic always seems to be around?

 More tomorrow….