This is a scary development.
It is the first time, at least that I am aware, that a government is urging people to use Twitter to spy and report on people.
Today, President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelans to use Twitter to fink on currency speculators and announced that police raids on illegal traders would continue as Venezuela's government tries to defend the crashing bolivar, reports HuffPo.
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The socialist leader asked Venezuelans to send messages identifying illegal traders. He described them as "thieves" who must be punished for currency speculation, which he blames for rapidly rising inflation.
"My Twitter account is open for you to denounce them," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program. "We're going to launch several raids. We've already launched some raids, thanks to the complaints from the people."
Of course, the only reason that there is a black market in the bolivar is because Chavez has a legal fixed exchange rate between the bolivar and other currencies, a fixed rate that has nothing to do with reality given that Chavez is printing new bolivar at a spectacular rate.
On the black market, the bolivar has been steadily sliding , increasing in recent weeks to about 8.20 bolivars to the dollar – almost twice the official rate of 4.30 applied to nonessential goods. This is an indication of huge Venezuelan money printing.
Keep in mind this is the Bolivar "Fuerte" (Strong Bolivar.)
ReplyDeleteThe Bolivar Fuerte was introduced a couple years back because he had destroyed the previous Bolivar by massive inflation.
Check out the comments section on the link. Very depressing. A few intelligent people vs a large number of hardcore socialists. The socialists were of course, blaming the problems on Yankee imperialism. Imperialism is evil, no doubt, but so is a socialist like Chavez.