STATE DEPARTMENT WARNING AGAINST TRAVEL TO VENEZUELA INCREASES COUNTRY RISK

The US State Department has issued a formal Travel Warning, for US citizens, to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The reasons fill up an entire page of the Warning, from crime, to food shortages, to arbitrary arrest of Americans without legal cause, to restrictions upon the amount of assistance the US can provide to its nationals in Venezuela.

If you have not already raised your calculation of Country Risk for Venezuela, to the highest levels, you are advised to do so now. In addition to the above threats, journalists working inside Venezuela,
whom we have relied upon to give us objective news about the country, and its slide into economic chaos, are under attack by the security apparatus. We can no longer expect to have sufficient information from inside Venezuela, with which to make decisions, about compliance, and about risk, meaning that any attempt to conduct proper due diligence about Venezuelans, individuals or corporate entities, does not have the necessary tools available.

The runaway inflation, making the Bolivar essentially worthless, against the US Dollar, serves as further deterrent to the conduct of any international trade, and increases the chances that new clients with dollars may be either organized crime figures, or corrupt PEPs who do not identify themselves as such. Until Venezuela stabilizes, disengagement is the best course of action.