Venezuelan government jails 11 bankers and takes over 2 "top 5" banks in the country.
"How can we earn more money than if we successfully pulled a bank robbery?"
"How about we just steal the whole bank?"
"Sounds like a plan!"
I tried to write this post 3 times already and I haven't found a way to say it less directly: I'm scared for my economic freedom. What if the government decides to take over all the banks? How will I exchange my cryptocurrency for Bolivars, our national currency? How will I use my money to buy a ticket to some other place? 85% of my money is in cryptocurrencies, 15% in USD.
We saw the Military Counter-Intelligence yesterday and we were wondering what they were doing in front of a building surrounded by almost a hundred black SUVs. The SUVs still had their drivers, all of them, inside. We knew they were drivers for rich people, but why so many?
It was still sunny when it was confirmed that they had intervened BOD too. It's the 4th biggest bank. On May 3, the government took over Banesco, the biggest bank. Not only that, they jailed 11 top executives. No problem, right? Banksters are tyrants, after all, right?
This is what the DGCIM (Military Counterintelligence) disguised themselves as a couple years ago to go people-hunting:
I can only imagine what the 11 bankers went through that day. Did they come in with those terrifying masks? Did they throw smoke grenades? Did they get dragged through the porch in front of their despairing families and into black vans? The word of the street is that they're chained to walls in the SEBIN headquarters, and then they're going to be sent to jail. The president of Banesco himself has come to show his face. Will he make a difference and save his companions?
The government has gotten bold.
Years ago, they wouldn't have dared to go against the richest of the rich in the country. Now they went and did it, and it's only a matter of time before they dive deeper. There are rumours that they are taking over Provincial next (2nd biggest bank). I already made a post 9 days ago describing how they were taking over and jailing the executives of foreign currency exchanges.
Exchanging from one currency to another is illegal here. We aren't free to do what we want with our money; instead, we have to let the government check our purses and take out whatever they feel like they need more than we do. And now, in an unexpected turn of events, they have blamed bankers themselves as "improper currency exchangers" and participants in the "economic war" about which the government has been complaining for years.
They sent their terrifying hounds from the DGCIM and jailed the previously called to be the "most powerful people in the country", who are at the same time the main facilitators of our economic freedom by letting us store and exchange our money. Without banks, we would be left carrying enormous bags of worthless bills that are worth more in paper than as money.
What can we expect?
It may be inaccurate, but some expect that during this 90-day intervention, the government will follow their normal modus operandi and empty the facilities. All office utilities, electronic devices, pieces of art, desks and chairs (the way they have done in previous takeovers) are expected to be removed and probably sold or redistributed before the banks are "given back" or before it is announced that they will be "expropriated" (that the government will change their name and board of directors with puppets) as they have done in repeated occasions in the past.
There is a new board of intervention on the BOD. They're the ones in charge of researching the "crimes" of the bank (emptying the facilities). The leader of the board is a woman (yay feminism). She's an architect who specialises in tourism (wait, what?), but well, friendship connections have been shown between her and Tarek William Saab (leader of the bank-takeover operation called Manos de Papel [paper hands])
Will we see more black market institutions rise against the tide and begin exchanging currencies without government authorisation? Or will we be embargoed from the inside? I would like the first option, but the second option seems to be getting closer every day.
For those who are waiting for the next chapter of my story, I'll publish it tomorrow. I tried to write it today but I am too moved by these events to pay attention to anything else.
Holy crap. I didn't know it was this bad in Venezuela and that they were going after the rich. You say you're worried you won't be able to buy things with crypto? Soon enough everyone will have crypto backed credit cards. Fiat currencies will be obsolete. It's crazy how the government is essentially a large terrorist and criminal organization. Nevertheless, I'm glad you finally got the article out haha.
In here? If all the banks are taken over by the government and they actually import crypto-credit-card machines, I don't think I'll want to let the government know that I have cryptocurrencies.
They have been kidnapping bitcoin miners for a few months now and I don't think that they'll stop at that in order to steal and control.
They are. Government officials often post selfies with known criminal bosses. Iris Varela, the one tasked with managing prisons, was publicly friends with a couple convicted criminals (who were still supposed to be serving their sentences, but instead were hanging out at rich-people parties with Iris and other government officials).
Is it an option to 'simply' use Steem or SBD to trade food or other things?
Between people who have crypto...
say i sell bread to you for 1 steem
you sell a few apples to someone for 1 steem
your neighbour sells tomatoes for 1 steem
as long as everyone agrees on the value of 1 steem then steem can be your currency without id being bullshitted by a government or black marked
Now this is not without risk. and to some degree experimental. But, to what degree could it be used?
If your neighbour needs help, sick child, whatever.. could i help with a few steem so that you can tun that into medicine somehow?
Just trying to figure out what hurdles are in the way to turn steem into REAL aid.
IF steem is used to trade food and holds a stable value, then we could then trade food against medicine in this scenario.
Theoretically...
Any idea's?
Producers of those goods don't use crypto as far as I know. And if they do, they're more likely to be on the imported-goods side and that's very, very expensive. It's like the cost of buying it at a supermarket in the US + importing fees + taxes + personal interests because of unavailability (supply and demand; if there's no supply and everyone wants it, you can sell it at any price and get all the profits you want, yay government regulations that block national production).
If it could be implemented, it would be wonderful. I'd love it and use it, but... the government has other plans for us. They're promoting Petro, and anyone using cryptocurrencies officially (or any other currency, including dollars, pesos, etc.) will get bullied, kidnapped, robbed, incarcerated, fined, etc., if it's not with their authorisation. There have been plenty of bitcoin miners and traders incarcerated already.
We have exchanges, so yeah. There are plenty of foundations, orphanages, etc., and it's very easy to trade Steem and SBD into bolivars (our national currency). So if you find someone you trust and who has the means to provide donations for those institutions, you could potentially send them Steem and SBD and have them make those donations in your behalf.
It's simple as long as you find someone you trust and find institutions that are transparent and doing real humanitarian work and not faking it for profit.
We are already very deep on our way to dollarisation. Did you know that the biggest population of Latin Americans here is probably Venezuelans? Everyone here has heard of dollars, cryptocurrencies and the great overall good this could bring into our nation. I think that Venezuela has one of the most interested populations in this market, so I don't doubt that people will move toward that.
We could likely help to accomplish that by holding conferences and such about Steem, cryptocurrencies and ways to empower people through the use of international and decentralised blockchain technologies. I have talked with friends about hosting these but we have come to no solid conclusions. If you would like to talk more about this topic and perhaps helping us plan or fund these, I'm willing to talk it over.
First of all,
Thanks for the detailed feedback, it looks like we can make this work.
We need to carefully think this trough.
A few options i see:
We first need to generate enough funds to work with, i would prefer to help a number of people or projects with small amount. so that the word goes around a bit and that things work both ways.
Dollarisation seems to be a risk as well. It would be weird to become dependent on a currency of a nation that is 21trillion in debt itself. I annoyed myself that steem 'value' is depicted in Dollars. If the US economy goes in panic mode then my steem looses value due to the US market. Even Euro seems silly. Best would be to see the value of the currency in something different. Anyway it is what it is, we now need to work with whatever becomes standard
When our currency (Dutch Guilder) was replaced by the Euro everything got twice as expensive, and after that the inflation went up fast. The bankers really know how play with money for their own gain. Thanks for mentioning dollarisation as this is something we should keep in mind
I think we can find a few people we can trust. The risk is always there, and there are many greedy people out there, we need to build up relationships and that takes time. But that's what we do right now, this will slowly take shape.
Most important is safety and security for the people who are involved.
I indeed didn't know that Venezuela had such a large population I thought Brazil had the largest number of citizens.
I would like to make this project as decentralized as possible (If that is even possible) Still thinking how this could be done. More on this later... For now i just need to see what comes next ,as i never done such project before. I'm glad to see people putting in brainpower.
Thanks to all of them!
The status of this miserable region remains the same with the expected inclination down the hill while the ignorant and coward military force look away, grabbing their tips (little bags of food). It's so cheap to buy them.
Anyway, I wonder how long it will take people to realize that those organizations like UN, which are supposed to defend the people's rights, are just fronts... facades.
Or do we have to offer them something in return, because as we all know, if there's no incentive, the don't act. It's just the complete definition of shame. That's how we make the world, the way it is!
They're the lucky bunch from the uneducated poor. If you don't have any hope for life and they promise you security, stability and power, and all you have to do is follow their orders (and most of them have already been brainwashed into supporting the regime), I think that most people would do the same.
I don't know if I would. I was luckily born in relative safety from hunger and despair.
Wow, I can't even imagine, what it would feel like to have all of that happening nearby.
Stay safe.
It's pretty surreal. Even watching all of this happen in front of my eyes is like being inside a dystopic movie. I feel like I'm dreaming until I see the specifics and I'm back, like PTSD, to the times I've been mugged and beaten up, and everything suddenly seems more real and terrifying, living under a government that is like those criminals that still haunt me.
That's how we all feel. At least the majority. It is frustrating to read comments from people defending tyranny and blaming others, when facts like this show who are the real culprits of our tragedy. I say this because I just read one in a post on steemit
Lead me there.
Las respuestas que recibe me parecen las mas acertadas, lo cual en parte me reconforta.
https://steemit.com/steem/@aggroed/steem-impact-forum-venezuela#@edicted/re-aggroed-steem-impact-forum-venezuela-20180504t230922543z
This is totally alarming Sharon! I do hope that you can get out of there soonest.
I hope that I'm not that harsh but your government is playing GOD!
I'm just sad that these people would go this low just to get more money and put it on their own pocket!
Really looking forward to leaving this place to move somewhere else where I can feel safe at last from these greedy hands.
I'm super giving you my moral support on this. It's getting worse every day.
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for sharing this story. It sounds like very scary times there. You have my sympathy and hopes.
Indeed, it's a very uncertain landscape and we aren't very sure of what's to come or whether we'll be free and safe in the long run. Thanks. :)
Wow. Dark storm troopers.... Feel like black market can't be shut down effectively but who knows. It certainly would always be risky unless everything can be done online through careful untraceable means.
Really terrifying. I don't know what they were thinking, since this is not flattering at all for a government that doesn't want to look fascist, I think. But in the end, their supporters don't say anything. Maybe they think it's cool to terrify their enemies or something like that. Human rights? What's that?
Go blockchain! I'm still yearning for the time when shops will accept cryptocurrencies.
Holy shit girl 0_0. We are prisoners to our governments, but when its that scary and in your face its another thing. Those masks are too much, I hope you never have too see one close up. Hopefully we are creating a world that is more fluid, not less, that is the dream with crypto, right <3
Horibru 😱😱😱
I really hope that blockchains will become known and well-spread in order to make this dream come true. :)
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This is horrible, many families here in Venezuela depend on money transfers made by their relatives in other countries through banks such as Banesco and the Provincial. Without that, they would simply not be able to eat.
We will not have any escape to devaluation. This has me really worried, thanks for sharing the information sharon.
Yeah, now we don't know whether our funds will be safe, or whether the banks will keep working nicely as they had been working before. Maybe Banesco, BOD and Provincial will turn into new useless banks like Banco de Venezuela and Bicentenario where nothing works the way it should.