2023-09-14 12:06:21
Venezuela will have presidential elections in 2024 and Nicolás Maduro is trying to accumulate support. The Venezuelan president has traveled to China, one of the main creditors of the Latin American country, in search of more investments with which to alleviate the battered situation of its economy.
This Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro closes a seven-day visit to China in which both countries claim to have increased their level of cooperation and understanding. Maduró visited several cities before arriving in Beijing for the main course, the meeting announced by his counterpart Xi Jinping.
“The more liquid the better”
What is Maduro looking for? As Venezuelan economist Ángel García Banchs explains to RFI, investments in the oil sector, but above all, liquidity: “From a political economy approach it is nothing else but money, resources. The more liquid the better. Well, there are elections that have to be held, and of course they are not enough for the oil bill, given that contrary to China’s objective, which always contributed to Venezuela producing more oil, what has happened in recent years is that “oil production has plummeted.”
According to the Chinese Latin American Research Center, Venezuela’s debt with the Asian giant exceeds 11 billion dollars. For García Banchs, Chinese investments were intended to gain access to Venezuelan oil, but corruption has prevented this aid from boosting the development of the sector in the Latin American country, which now leads to suspicion from Beijing.
“China and China’s relationship with Venezuela is one thing, let’s say, 15 years ago, and today is another thing. The truth is that the promised deliverables never arrived. What were those deliverables? An oil industry that will increase its production to be able to guarantee China, through a bilateral agreement, to obtain oil resources, in this case different commodities that Venezuela has, but fundamentally oil. And this allocation of resources towards corruption instead of towards the development of the industry has meant that evidently the deliverables have not arrived,” the economist says.
“Trust was lost”
On the occasion of the visit, both countries have announced the signing of up to 31 treaties, the main ones of an economic nature. However, García Banchs understands that it is more of a gesture than a real investment.
“Something may come, yes, but what Maduro wants will never come and it will be to maintain relations, but not to escalate them or anything like that. Let’s say, above all, more promises are what can come, more than deliveries of liquidity between now and the elections, for a very simple reason: trust has been lost,” concludes the analyst.
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