First up today we have a story that should surprise absolutely nobody and it didn’t take long. Reuters reports that Venezuela has suspended crude oil shipments to Europe. The Biden administration relaxed US sanctions on PDVSA (Venezuela government-owned oil company) to allow Eni (Italy) and Repsol (Spain) to receive shipments in Europe in return for debt relief on debt incurred by PDVSA. This was intended to help Europe with it’s energy crisis, self-inflicted by it’s over-reliance on Russian energy. (Will people ever learn? This is what happens when you make deals with “The Bad Guys”)

 Now the Chavistas want something a little more tangible than credit on a balance sheet. They say future shipments must be paid by oil swap deals, whole or in part, which are not possible at this time under sanctions. The Chavistas need condensate or light crude to mix with their heavy (much of it extra-heavy) crude to make it marketable so they swap their heavy crude for the lighter stuff.

 Europe needs oil, the Chavistas need money (not just debt relief) , and the Biden administration has already shown it can be accommodating to the Chavistas (despite protestations to the contrary). You have to wonder if the possibility of a deal will be affected by the back and forth between the US-DOJ (United States- Department Of Justice) and the Maduro regime over the “Mystery Plane”?

 Just a quick note before we move on. We’ve said this many times but it bears repeating. The Chavistas have screwed basically every company and every country on basically every deal they’ve ever had. Why anyone would trust these guys on anything is beyond me.

 Then we have CSO telling us that Sandra Quincoses, Senior Intelligence Analyst at Nisos, revealed to a group of Black Hat attendees that Colombian voters were driven to elect new President, Gustavo Petro, (Did you notice we didn’t say “leftist (Marxist) as a qualifier?) by a disinformation campaign launched from Venezuela.

 Her investigative team traced much of the disinformation to an influential Twitter account, @ChalecosAmarill (now suspended) and in turn to Twitter accounts @_Railto and @RailtoDigital (both now also suspended).

 Now we get to one of those “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon” kinda’ deals. Remember that one? You know, you can take anyone and using this relationship to this person who had that relationship to that person and in less than six people connect them to Kevin Bacon?

 Venezuelan national and left-wing supporter, Rafael Nunez, was an administrator of one of the now-suspended Twitter accounts and actively ran the other two. All three can still be found on other social media platforms. Nunez also works for Comunicacion Digital VE, a firm that offers pro- Venezuela regime apps (their Twitter account is also suspended). Oh, and the firm’s CEO has a Venezuela government email address and previously served as Social Media Director of the Venezuela Ministry of Communication and Information (MINCI). Through Nunez, the hands of the Venezuela government are all over bot and sock puppet (manipulation) networks running various pro-Petro campaigns.

 The article also referenced Venezuela’s and Russia’s media agreements and ideological connections , although they found no direct Russian connection, at least not digitally.

 Then we have Caracas Chronicles reporting that workers in the healthcare, education, and public sectors protested (again) against ONAPRE’s (budget department) new rules and to demand better working conditions. Chavismo also held a counter-protest with public workers that support Nicolas Maduro even though their salaries (many are minimum wage, which is less than $24 a month) aren’t enough to survive..

 This is a good example of how Chavismo’s extortion of the population works. The government builds houses for the poor but keeps the titles (contrary to Hugo Chavez’s “no strings attached” promise) so it’s “Do what we want or it’s ‘no house for you’…” The government provides food through the Maduro regime’s corrupt CLAP food program (consisting primarily of low quality items, often past their expiration dates) so it’s “Do what we want or it’s no food for you”. If they weren’t being extorted do you really think people that are starving would participate in a “pro-government” demonstration?

 Then we have, in response to the OPEC report that Venezuela oil production was down 98,000 bpd (barrels per day) in July, a 13% drop from the previous month, Chavista propaganda saying that it has registered significant growth in other sectors and inflation will decrease by December. Here’s a first for ya’…We agree with the Chavistas! The Venezuela economy should show growth this year. Most responsible analysts estimate it will be between 5%- 8% (outlier Credit Suisse puts it at 20%?) which is a positive sign after 8 consecutive years of Chavisa- induced recession. (We had something like this in the US in the 1930s…it was called “The Great Depression”)

 Inflation is also down and hopefully the trend will continue after 4 years of Chavista- induced hyperinflation (the 2nd longest in history). Venezuela is currently #2 in the world in rate of inflation after years at #1.

 The president of PDVSA’s ad hoc board said the company’s assets abroad, controlled by opposition leader, Juan Guaido’s caretaker government, are protected and emphasized that dividends were used to pay off debts acquired by Chavismo. However, several Venezuela oil industry associations expressed concern, and rightfully so, regarding the possibility of losing CITGO, the last of PDVSA’s assets that’s really worth anything, because of delays approving the budget to pay lawyers abroad.

 Then we have our friends at Caracas Chronicles telling us that Ronaldo Soto, councilman of political party Un Nuevo Tiempo, in Zulia, was shot on August 10th. He had been receiving death threats to extort him.

 And, Benigno Alarcon said a Norwegian delegation is in Venezuela. “Being here will give them a more realistic vision of the possibilities of a political agreement that the government doesn’t really want today.” As we’ve said before, at the heart of any agreement between the opposition and the Maduro regime is holding “free and fair” elections. With an approval rating of 13% it’s hard to see Maduro winning a “free and fair” election so, what’s in it for the Chavistas?

 And we have the news that 4 Venezuelan women and a teenager, who were sexually exploited, managed to escape and return to Venezuela. Their cooperation with the investigation led to the arrest of 4 people involved in the human trafficking ring that took them.

 Then we have Law 360 reporting that PDVSA claimed in US 2nd District Court that the creditor (in this particular case, and there are many), Dresser- Rand, is trying to gouge them during a time of humanitarian crisis. They are seeking to appeal the $166 million they have been ordered to pay by the district court after claiming that sanctions made debt payments impossible.

 More tomorrow….