Venezuela slashes US dollar allowance for Florida travel to safeguard local greenback supply

[hack89]

Source: AP

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Nicolas Maduro's government is slashing the amount of U.S. dollars Venezuelans traveling to Florida and other popular destinations take with them under decade-old currency controls.

Travelers just to Florida will be allowed to charge a maximum of $700 annually on their Venezuelan credit cards and will be allowed to buy no more than $300 in cash. That compares with limits of $2,500 in credit and $500 in cash they were previously allowed for trips to Florida, an amount that will be maintained for the remaining 49 US states.

Venezuelans have been flocking to south Florida and other easily-accessed international destinations to shuttle abroad as much hard currency as they can under the rigid foreign currency exchange system. The demand for air travel has overwhelmed airlines, which are sold out months in advance, and contributing to capital flight that has drained central bank reserves by 30 percent over the past year.

The government is also cutting to $300 from $500 the amount that Venezuelans can spend annually on Internet purchases from overseas merchants.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-cuts-dollar-allowance-florida-151019655.html

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Things are getting desperate in Venezuela.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. These guys are driving airlines crazy

People book an airline ticket, use their travel itinerary to get USD so they can actually buy shit in Venezuela and then cancel their flight.

[EX500rider]

6. On top of that Venezuela is stiffing foreign airlines bigtime...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25873355

"Ecuadorean airline Tame has suspended flights to Venezuela, demanding $43m (£26m) in overdue payments for tickets.

Some 80 passengers were left stranded on Thursday at the airport in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito.

Tame says the Venezuelan Central Bank has not transferred any money to its account in Ecuador since April 2013.

Tough foreign currency controls make it difficult for foreign airlines to repatriate money obtained from ticket sales in Venezuela.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro is believed to owe more than $3bn (£1.8bn) to several airlines, according to Venezuela's Airline Association"

[DFW]

2. The Socialists tried the same thing in France in 1981

They limited the amount French citizens could take out of the country to 2000 francs (about $300). All they did was speed up capital flight. Mitterand wised up pretty quickly, and stopped the nonsense. Things calmed down as a result.

Hollande has done some of the same, having Gestapo-like units of customs officers stop people on the street and empty their pockets to see if there is anything they might confiscate. I know one shop in Paris where they went in and audited the guy's books for three weeks, harassed him about the quality of his coffee, and then accused him of having a black slush fund when he offered to get them coffee from the café next door. The guy's no millionaire, and was in no danger of crossing the 75% tax threshold, but even so, he gave up and left the country.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. Mitterand wasn't insane, Madugabe is. Hollande might be.

[DFW]

4. A fair assessment.

Hollande is also essentially lazy. He has ALWAYS lived off taxpayer-supplied paychecks.

[dipsydoodle]

5. I can remember when the UK had exchange controls.

No big deal.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. You can't seriously compare the crisis in Venezuela to the Sterling area

Venezuela is turning into Zimbabwe on the other hand.

[dipsydoodle]

8. I wasn't drawing that comparison.

Just commenting on the subject of exchange controls.

There is no valid comparison between Venezuela and Zimbabwe who experienced hyperinflation. when it hit 230 million percent.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. Venezuela and Zimbabwe are looking more alike that not.

In that prosperous and region leading economies were ransacked into poverty and dysfunction by ideological crackpots, to the benefit of nobody.

[hack89]

9. The UK did not have massive capital flight

due to skyrocketing inflation. Why do you think people in VZ are so desperate to get their money out of the country?

[7962]

11. Sad thing is, there are a lot of folks here on DU who are all for stuff like this.

And the result would be the same. The wealthy will always find a way out. Or move their cash somewhere else.

[Archae]

12. I just read Maduro has increased the numbers of his bodyguards.

Not surprised in the least, dictators always do that.