Venezuela’s mega-protest against the Maduro dictatorship: Venezuelans take to the streets again today for a march of potentially historic proportions.
The PanAm Post is blogging live about the event both
here and on our
Spanish site.
On April 19, Venezuela celebrates the 207th anniversary of the start of its independence movement against Spain, prompting the democratic opposition against dictator Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship to organize marches in the streets of Caracas. The country remains under economic chaos, marked by severe shortages of food and medicine, hyperinflation, and an inept system of central planning controlled by Maduro’s cronies in the armed forces. Last week, Maduro sent helicopters to drop tear gas on protesters. This week, he announced plans to provide arms to 500,000 members of an untrained militia with the intention of combatting what he considers an “illegal effort” to topple his regime. These policy choices, coupled with pressure from the Organization of American States’ (OAS) increased effort to implement a Democratic Charter and the Supreme Court’s
coup d’état against the National Assembly, have increased tensions in Venezuela.
10:15 PM
It has been reported that a member of the Bolivarian National Guard was killed in San Antonio de los Altos. Three dead after today’s protests.
9:48 PM
The #NicolasMaduroASESINO etiquette is now trending worldwide.
9:30 PM
Demonstrations and strong repression are reported in San Antonio de Los Altos, Miranda. The Bolivarian National Guard is launching tear gas bombs at housing complexes and demonstrators.
8:50 PM
A group of Venezuelans in Peru has taken to the streets of Lima to protest against the Maduro regime.
8:10 PM
400 people confirmed arrested during a day of massive nationwide protests.
8:08 PM
Protests in the la Florida neighborhood.
7:30 PM
The Venezuelan opposition announces march plans for tomorrow, with 26 meeting points along the march route, culminating in front of the Venezuelan public defender’s office.
7:15 PM
Protesters in Bogota amass outside the residence of the Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia, in the north of the city.
7:00 PM
The Democratic Unity Party (MUD) issued an official announcement in the wake of the protest marches and government repression this Wednesday. Governor Henrique Capriles announced a demonstration for this Thursday, April 20, at the Public Defender’s office.
“We can not allow the government to set the agenda…Tomorrow at the same time and in the same place!” concluded Capriles.
6:20 PM
Veneuelan forum on criminal law announces: more than 270 detained in protests this Wednesday.
6:15 PM
Opposition protesters managed to reach the public defender’s office in the states of Barinas and Carabobo.
6:10 PM
The Colombian senate passed a resolution declaring that Venezuela’s democratic, constitutional order has been broken under the Maduro regime and asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take concrete diplomatic measures:
6:05 PM
Security forces have arrested at least 137 protesters in the last few hours in Venezuela.
5:58 PM
Pollster Meganalisis states that 2.5 million people marched against Maduro today in Caracas and over 6 million marched nationwide. “The people are hungry and sick (of the regime).”
5:55 PM
With more and more clashes between the security forces and civilians, opposition protesters keep on resorting to improvised barricades to protect themselves from state violence. These images are from the city of Mérida:
5:45 PM
OAS chief Luis Almagro has condemned the Maduro regime’s use of repression and violence today:
5:40 PM
The Chávez-Maduro regime has taken numerous news outlets off the air. The latest victim of their censorship: Colombia’s
El Tiempo Televisión.
5:35 PM
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has expressed his concern about today’s events in Venezuela:
4:35 PM
A member of Venezuela’s feared National Guard spontaneously joined the anti-Maduro protests in Valencia. If more servicemen follow his lead and disobey their superiors, could this become a
Harald Jaeger moment?
4:15 PM
The
PanAm Post‘s
Orlando Avendaño says that today’s protests in the city of Valencia are the largest in recent history:
4:10 PM
After protesters filled the streets of Valencia, the Chavista authorities shut off access to all major roadways, the
PanAm Post‘s
Orlando Avendaño reports.
4:05 PM
The Venezuelan press reports that the young woman killed in San Cristobal was the victim of Chavista paramilitary groups.
4:00 PM
Anti-Maduro protesters have torn down a fence at an Air Force base in eastern Caracas. The regime has responded with aggression from the start, and some demonstrators are not intent on keeping today’s protests entirely peaceful.
3:55 PM
A 24 year-old woman has been killed during protests in the western city of San Cristobal. This is the Maduro regime’s second known casualty today following the death of a 17 year-old economics student shot in the head in Caracas.
3:40 PM
In a speech to his followers (awfully few compared to the anti-Chavistas protesting at this very moment across Venezuela), dictator Nicolás Maduro
blamed today’s violence on Julio Borges, an opposition congressman who was himself attacked by Chavista paramilitaries last year, and threatened him with legal action. Maduro added that, today, he is “more Chavista than ever before.”
3:34 PM
Protesters flee from tear gas attacks in Maracaibo:
3:29 PM
The western city of San Cristobal, located near the border with Colombia, is also the scene of massive protests against Maduro.
3:26 PM
A young man who suffered a wound to the head is evacuated via motorcycle:
3:22 PM
Civilian opposition groups set up a barricade to protect themselves from official Chavista forces. Paradoxically the communist regime is forcing the democratic opposition to adopt the tactics of the Paris Commune.
3:15 PM
Several members of the National Guard drag a Venezuelan woman on the street.
2:45 PM
Members of the opposition denounce the presence of armed paramilitaries standing next to the National Guard in Caracas:
2:37 PM
The protests in the gulf city of Maracaibo have turned into a street battle between demonstrators and the Chavista forces:
2:33 PM
Venezuelans are giving the world a lesson in courage today as the anti-Chavista marches proceed despite the regime’s thuggery.
2:30 PM
This scene is from Caracas today. Those who called today’s protest “the mother of all marches” likely did not exaggerate.
2:25 PM
More scenes from Maracaibo’s massive protests against dictator Maduro. The Chavista regime faces a nation-wide movement which appears to be venting its frustration as seldom before. How long can Maduro resist without turning to even worse repressive measures? Tear gas alone seems to have failed to intimidate the opposition and civil society.
2:20 PM
Lilian Tintori, wife of Leopoldo López, a political prisoner, warns that protesters in western Caracas are trapped as Chavista forces launch tear bombs against them from two flanks:
2:15 PM
Things are turning ugly in the city of Maracaibo as Chavista forces attack protesters:
2:10 PM
Citizens of Valencia show their own strength in numbers as they gather against the Chavista regime:
2:01 PM
Venezuelans are not cowed by Maduro’s aggressions. The Francisco Fajardo Highway in Caracas is full to the brim:
1:58 PM
Despite the regime’s heavy-handed tactics and widespread use of tear gas, the Venezuelan opposition to the Maduro dictatorship has mobilized an impressive number of citizens today:
1:55 PM
Medicine students aid a wounded demonstrator in Caracas:
1:50 PM
Anti-Maduro protests gain strength in Valencia:
1:48 PM
The National Guard repels protesters with high-powered water hoses, from a vehicle nicknamed “The Whale”, on Francisco Fajardo Highway in Caracas:
1:45 PM
17 year-old economics student Carlos José Moreno confirmed dead after receiving a gun shot in the back of the head during today’s anti-Maduro protests.
1:42 PM
The Venezuelan citizenry comes out en masse against the Maduro dictatorship:
1:40 PM
Members of the National Guard refuse to allow opposition congressmen and their followers to pass through their blockade.
1:37 PM
The streets of San Cristobal turn violent as the Maduro regime’s forces march against the civilian opposition.
1:32 PM
Protesters in Caracas throw themselves into the Gauire river in order to escape the tear gas which the Maduro dictatorship has used the entire day against peaceful demonstrators:
1:14 PM
The tally of injured protesters rises:
1:10 PM
Lilian Tintori, wife of Leopoldo López, a political prisoner, calls for peaceful protests as the Maduro regime steps up its repression:
1:06 PM
The current state of Francisco Fajardo Highway in Caracas:
1:05 PM
Strong showing for the opposition in the city of Valencia:
1:01 PM
Protesters in the city of Maracaibo also face the Maduro regime’s violence and generous use of tear gas.
12:55 PM
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles tweets about “heavy repression” on a Caracas highway, where citizens who oppose the Maduro dictatorship face attacks from the security forces.
12:50 PM
Journalist Melanio Escobar accuses members of the Venezuelan National Guard (GNB) of launching bombs filled with tear gas against private buildings and inside homes:
12:47 PM
An economics student was injured by gunfire during the protests. He is undergoing surgery in Caracas.
12:45 PM
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate, calls Maduro a compulsive liar before several news organizations including the
PanAm Post:
12:35 PM
A Chavista gang of motorcyclists head toward Plaza Venezuela in Caracas in order to confront critics of the Maduro dictatorship.
12:30 PM
Protesters in Carabobo state march toward a highway as soldiers prepare to clash with them.
12:20 PM
Supporters of Voluntad Popular, the political party led by Leopoldo López, a political prisoner of the Maduro regime, protest in the state Zulia:
12:15 PM
Protesters in the coastal city of Cumaná:
12:10 PM
Twitter users denounce the regime’s repression against protesters, this time in the state of Guayana, where security forces assaulted a woman demonstrator.
12:08 PM
Prominent Venezuelan journalist Kiko Bautista speaks to the
PanAm Post‘s Sabrina Martín about the prospects for today’s demonstrations:
12:00 PM
Opposition leader María Corina Machado tweets an image of several nuns joining the march against Maduro.
11:54 AM
Venezuela’s Attorney General calls on the security services to respect citizens’ right to protest.
11:15 AM
Opposition demonstrators gather in Altamira square in Caracas as they prepare to march on the adjacent highway:
Efforts to repeal Obamacare have bogged down because GOPers are willing to deal with 
Economic growth has been reduced by an average of 0.8 percent per year from 1980 to 2012 due to regulatory accumulation. Regulations force companies to invest less in activities that enhance productivity and growth, such as research and development, as companies must divert resources into regulatory compliance and similar activities....Compared to a scenario where regulations are held constant at levels observed in 1980, the study finds that the difference between the economy we are in and a hypothetical economy where regulatory accumulation halted in 1980 is approximately $4 trillion. …The $4 trillion dollars in lost GDP associated with regulatory accumulation would be the fourth largest economy in the world—larger than major countries like Germany, France, and India.
That being said, who cares about finger pointing? What matters is that the economy is being stymied by excessive red tape.
Before getting too excited, remember that the annual cost of regulation is 
As bad as this flip-flop is, his excuses for doing so are downright pitiful.
As a candidate in August 2015, Trump categorized the bank as “feather bedding,” adding, “I don’t like it. I think it’s a lot of excess baggage. I think it’s unnecessary. And when you think about free enterprise, it’s really not free enterprise.”
He was right, of course, but that was then.
If the two are confirmed, the bank will return to full operation after 21 months without a board quorum—which prohibited deals exceeding $10 million.
And that means billions of taxpayer dollars to foreign firms and foreign governments with which to purchase exports from favored multinational companies such as Boeing, General Electric, and Caterpillar.
The best course of action would be to eliminate the bank altogether. There is no shortage of private export financing, and the subsidies distort credit and labor markets.
Perhaps worst of all, unsubsidized American companies are placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to the foreign firms collecting Ex-Im subsidies. (Delta, for example, loses out when Air India gets a sweetheart deal from Boeing by way of Ex-Im.)
A Meritless Flip-Flop
The White House is making much of the fact that Garrett has been a critic of Ex-Im, twice voting against renewal of the bank charter. That supposedly portends reform, although Congress has previously tried to do so without appreciable effect.
No amount of bureaucratic tinkering can shield taxpayers from bailouts in the event that bank reserves run dry—as occurred in the 1980s—nor protect American businesses from the disadvantages of the U.S. government subsidizing their foreign competitors.
In an April 12 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump acknowledged that he had been “very much opposed” to the bank but changed his mind because “lots of small companies will really be helped.
“But also maybe more importantly,” he said, “other countries give it, and … we lose a tremendous amount of business.” He also added, “So instinctively you would say it’s a ridiculous thing but actually it’s a very good thing and it actually makes money. You know, it actually could make a lot of money.”
All of which is nonsense.
Bank proponents focus on small firms to deflect attention from the fact that the vast majority of Ex-Im beneficiaries are titans of industry that are well-positioned to prosper without Ex-Im subsidies.
They do not lack access to private capital, and most have billions of dollars of backorders with which to keep production going.
In recent years, the bank supported less than half of 1 percent of small businesses—which in many cases aren’t so small.
(The bank’s definition of “small business” includes manufacturers with as many as 1,500 employees and service firms and retailers with as much as $20.5 million in annual revenues.)
On their own, businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 98 percent of all firms exporting goods, and exports have reached high levels in recent years. In fiscal year 2016, for example, U.S. exports totaled $2.2 trillion, with Ex-Im supporting just 0.22 percent ($5 billion).
That makes one thing very clear: Export financing obviously is not a problem for small firms in the aggregate.
This is further validated by the fact that small businesses ranked “Exporting My Products/Services” as the least problematic of 75 business problems assessed in the 2016 annual survey by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation.
(The cost of health care ranked as the most severe problem. The president would do well to focus on that rather than resuscitate Ex-Im.)
In the event that a small business cannot access private capital, it can seek to export through wholesalers or associate its business operations with larger firms or with global supply chains.
The real beneficiaries are the big boys like Boeing (market cap $110 billion), and the extent to which the bank caters to the company is staggering.
As of March 2014, at least 28 percent ($32 billion) of Ex-Im’s total portfolio was devoted to financing wide-body jets. In 2013, the bank authorized financing for the purchase of Boeing aircraft in 25 countries, including China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Subsidies for air transport, in general, comprised more than 45 percent of all export subsidies that year.
General Electric (market cap $256 billion) is another top Ex-Im beneficiary. The company began 2017 with a record backlog of $321 billion. Likewise, Caterpillar (market cap $54 billion) posted a backlog of $12 billion at the end of 2016.
Ex-Im Doesn’t ‘Level the Playing Field’
The claim that U.S. companies will lose sales to foreign competitors without Ex-Im financing is also drivel.
Economist Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center has documented that only about a third of Ex-Im financing—which benefits just 2 percent of all U.S. exports—is designated in bank records as necessary to counter subsidized foreign competition.
A whopping 66 percent of the financing classified as necessary to counteract foreign competition went to Boeing.
In other words, Ex-Im Bank financing counteracts foreign subsidies for less than 1 percent of U.S. exports—with more than half the benefit accruing to Boeing.
Finance costs are only one among a variety of factors that affect a purchaser’s choice of supplier. Availability, reliability, and stability all play significant parts in purchase decisions. There should be no question that U.S. firms are capable of competing successfully without corporate welfare.
The claim of “competitive disadvantage” is further belied by the agreement among 31 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to abide by a set of financing rules covering loan term limits, minimum fees, and other practices.
There is rarely such a thing as a “level playing field” in trade. Every country has advantages that others lack.
The ingenuity and drive of American companies can, in many instances, trump the export subsidies doled out by foreign governments—assuming, of course, that tax and regulatory barriers do not further restrict free enterprise.
It is silly for Ex-Im advocates to cite China’s massive subsidies as proof that Ex-Im is necessary. Do they really want America to emulate a country in which all the largest enterprises are owned by the state?
As reported in The Wall Street Journal, almost 14 percent of China’s listed, nonfinancial companies’ profits are attributable to government support, according to an analysis by Wind Info.
And let’s not forget that Trump campaigned on challenging China’s trade practices. He cannot now claim with any credibility that we must match its subsidies to stay competitive.
An Anti-Market Institution
Perhaps most disappointing, though, is the president’s defense of Ex-Im based on its potential to “make money.” That statement, out of all his others, insults the very concept of free enterprise and limited government.
By that rationale, Washington should assume control of all profitable companies to feed its insatiable appetite for spending.
In any event, the claim that Ex-Im is profitable is illusory: The bank uses “accrual” accounting, which does not factor in the risk of defaults related to bank financing.
For example, under current accounting methods, bank officials claim that Ex-Im will return a $14 billion surplus to taxpayers in the next decade.
But the Congressional Budget Office reported in 2014 that Ex–Im programs, if subjected to the fair value accounting methods required of private banks, actually operate at a deficit that will cost taxpayers some $2 billion over 10 years (in addition to the bank’s operating costs).
Ex-Im advocates offer myriad excuses for maintaining government interference in export financing, including job creation, gaps in private investment, and government subsidies lavished on foreign firms.
Such justifications do not stand up to the facts, and the purported benefits—if any—are not commensurate with the risk to taxpayers.
The president has made a huge mistake on Ex-Im, but it isn’t too late for him to change direction—back to where he was in the first place.