Venezuela, The Starving Socialist Dystopia (Part 1)

[Arkain2K]

Venezuela is sliding into anarchy
By Mariana Zuñiga and Nick Miroff | May 24, 2017​

An opposition activist throws a molotov cocktail in clashes with riot police during a march by doctors and other health-care personnel in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 22.​

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s crisis has taken a dark turn in the past few days.

Rioting and looting have exploded in the rural state of Barinas, leaving seven dead and dozens injured. In one of Caracas's main plazas on Saturday, a lynch mob doused a young man with gasoline and set him ablaze. And in several neighborhoods of the capital, masked protesters have been setting up smoldering street barricades known as “guarimbas,” demanding payment from passing cars.

After seven weeks of near-daily protests, the incidents point to spreading anarchy in Venezuela, as both the government and opposition leaders — who urge nonviolence — appear to be losing control.

Venezuelan security forces and the pro-government motorcycle gangs known as “colectivos” have met the unrest with escalating force, and in some cases, lethal gunfire, making matters worse. At least 55 people have been killed in the past seven weeks, including protesters, members of the security forces and bystanders caught in the fray. About 1,000 have been injured, according to the latest tally by authorities, and 346 businesses have been looted or burned.

“The danger is that a spiral of violence will overwhelm the capacity of either side to control it,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, adding the mayhem of the past several days appears to have “crossed another threshold.”

“The more people die, the more the anger grows and the more willing the government becomes to respond even more violently,” Gunson said.

This sort of downward spiral was always one of the possible outcomes of the protest movement challenging President Nicolás Maduro with calls for early elections and a return to democratic rule. But Maduro has remained obstinate, the demonstrations have intensified amid a severe economic crisis and a negotiated solution looks more remote than ever.

More violence may be in store after election authorities said Tuesday night that a vote would be held in late July to elect a "constituent assembly” with the power to rewrite Venezuela's constitution. Maduro's opponents are boycotting the assembly, viewing it as a final blow to Venezuelan democracy, and they urged protesters to return to the streets Wednesday.

An opposition demonstrator argues with a National Guard riot police officer during a march in Caracas, May 22. ​

In an interview, opposition leader Henrique Capriles said the government — not protesters — is to blame for the deadly turmoil. He accused Maduro of orchestrating the violence and outbursts of looting.

“The government wants to discredit the protests,” Capriles said Tuesday. “But the government has a credibility problem. People hear Maduro speak and don't believe anything he says.”

Venezuela’s opposition has organized huge marches with hundreds of thousands in the streets, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful. But smaller groups of protesters — typically young men in hoods and gas masks — have been hurling molotov cocktails at police, using slingshots to bombard them with jars of excrement or setting fire to government vehicles.

Or worse, setting fire to people, according to the government. In horrifying scenes captured by photographers last week, masked attackers in a crowd pummeled and stabbed 21-year-old Orlando Jose Figuera, knocking him to the ground and splashing him with gasoline.

He was suspected of being a pro-government spy, according to some versions. Others alleged he was a thief.

In the photographs, Figuera appears to struggle to get to his feet. Then two masked figures approach from behind and set him on fire. Figuera runs, half-naked, with flames leaping from his back.

He suffered first- and second-degree burns to 80 percent of his body, but he survived.

Maduro claimed Figuera and others have been targeted for merely expressing support for the late Hugo Chávez, the president who set Venezuela on the socialist-oriented course that the current government has pursued. He called the lynching attempt “a crime against humanity,” and last week said he and other members of the government “are the new Jews,” referring to Nazi-era persecution. His comments were widely condemned.

Capriles and other opposition leaders say such violence and chaos play into the government’s hands, by allowing Maduro to cast himself as the country's guarantor of law and order. Yet they appear to be struggling to rein in the more militant wing of the protest movement, and seem powerless to stop others who take advantage of the chaos to ransack stores.

Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against the government of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, May 20. ​

In the state capital of Barinas, Chavez's home state and the so-called cradle of his “Bolivarian” revolution, the alleged killing of a protester sent crowds into a fury, attacking government buildings and looting stores.

At least seven people were killed and more than 50 others wounded in the violence Monday and Tuesday, according to Venezuelan authorities, including more than two dozen hit by gunfire.

As many as 200 businesses were gutted, said shopkeeper Samuel Guerrero, reached by phone in the state capital.

“Things are chaotic here,” he said. “There was not enough food in Barinas, and now with the looting it’s going to be even worse.”

The government said it was sending reinforcements to pacify the state. Guerrero said he didn’t know how he would feed his family.

Rafael Uzcátegui, the director of the Venezuelan rights group Provea, said the growing violence appears to be the result of both protesters’ frustration with the political impasse between the government and the opposition, as well as an emotional response to escalating force by police and national guard troops.

Bolivarian National Guards face off with protesters in Caracas on May 10. Opponents of President Nicolás Maduro threw glass jars filled with fecal matter at security forces. ​

“This is a government strategy to transform a movement that has been peaceful, up until now, into one that is violent,” he said. “It’s a strategy to discredit the movement and facilitate its criminalization.”

Uzcátegui said what his group has observed is that the violence typically occurs in response to a crackdown by security forces on peaceful demonstrators. “It’s impossible to guarantee that 100 percent of those who protest will be peaceful,” he said. “But that’s why it’s important for us to condemn acts of violence.”

Gunson, of the International Crisis Group, said he did not think Venezuela’s opposition leaders could control the spreading turmoil or turn down the temperature. “Only a decision by the government to de-escalate would do it, and there is no sign of that,” he said. “Quite the contrary.”

“I think we will start to see curfews, mass arrests, a higher daily death rate and even worse violations of human rights,” said Gunson.

Authorities Tuesday also set Dec. 10 as the date for regional elections that were supposed to be held in 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/24/venezuela-is-sliding-into-anarchy/

 

[Arkain2K]

 

[Arkain2K]

 

[Space]

The great irony in all of this is that now the only thing that can save Venezuela is US intervention and an eventual return of her European-descendant leadership and upper class.

My family moved to Venezuela in 1997, pre-Chavez. It was far from perfect then, but it also was nothing like this. The Italo-Spanish-German upper class was in firm control because the average IQ in Venezuela hovers around 85. Chavez was elected in a landslide to fight back against this racism; well, guess who fled, was run out of the country, or imprisoned? All those smart non-mestizos. Socialism, poor management, brain drain, corruption and putting all their eggs into the oil basket later and we get modern Venezuela.

 

[Arkain2K]

The great irony in all of this is that now the only thing that can save Venezuela is US intervention

I'm in favor of helping Venezuela rebuild, for a price, but they gotta sort out this domestic mess in-house first.

It would be unwise for the West jump into this septic pit and be accused of "invading Venezuela for oil", THEN Maduro would have an excuse to run over his own people with tanks after accusing them of being "enemies of the state", like many other Socialist dictators before him.

 

[Arkain2K]

Goldman Buys $2.8 Billion Worth of Pdvsa Bonds at 70% Discount
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. | MAY 30, 2017

Protesters at Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York on Tuesday opposed its purchase of bonds issued by Petróleos de Venezuela. ​

Venezuelan bonds would seem to be an unlikely target for global investors.

The country is in near revolt and has barely enough ready cash to feed its people, much less pay the billions of dollars in debt that the government owes to its foreign lenders.

Yet bonds issued by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or Pdvsa, have attracted some of world’s most sophisticated investors. They are betting that the government will use its dwindling supply of dollars to pay bondholders instead of importing food and medicine for its people.

Now, Goldman Sachs’ decision to snap up $2.8 billion worth of Pdvsa bonds maturing in 2022, at a 70 percent discount to the market price, has struck a nerve.

The investment has caused a political uproar in Venezuela, where opposition forces have taken to the streets to protest the autocratic rule of the nation’s unpopular president, Nicolás Maduro. Nearly 60 people have died in clashes, mainly between protesters and the police, in Caracas and other cities in recent months.

Julio Borges, the opposition lawmaker who heads the National Assembly, wrote a letter of protest to Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, accusing the Wall Street firm of looking to make a “quick buck off the suffering of the Venezuelan people.”

Goldman Sachs has defended the deal, saying that many other investors, including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, own the bonds and that its asset management division bought the securities on the secondary market, without interacting with the Venezuelan government.

Nevertheless, the transaction highlights the extent to which investors are willing to take on increasing levels of political and economic risk as they seek high-yielding investments when interest rates still hover near zero.

“There is a lot of interest in this trade,” said Carlos de Sousa, an economist at Oxford Economics, a research company based in London. “We are in a low-rate environment, and these are dollar bonds with really high yields.”

Among the large holders of Pdvsa bonds are BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and Ashmore, an emerging market specialist based in London.

But none of those firms carry Goldman’s reputation for being politically influential and financially opportunistic — a combination that has made it an easy global punching bag.

At the root of what makes the bonds so attractive to investors, beyond their more than 20 percent returns, is the crucial role played by the Venezuelan oil company in providing foreign exchange to the embattled Maduro government.

While Venezuela has been in economic crisis for more than two years, the surge of people to the streets began after its Supreme Court, which is loyal to Mr. Maduro, tried to dissolve the country’s National Assembly in late March. The group of lawmakers, controlled by opposition parties, is considered the only government institution independent of the president.

Mr. Maduro’s growing authoritarianism is only the beginning of mounting grievances against Venezuela’s ruling leftists, who have governed since President Hugo Chávez took control of the country in 1999.

Falling petroleum prices and years of economic mismanagement when oil revenues were high, have led to triple-digit inflation and left a majority of Venezuelans hardly able to buy sufficient food and other necessities. Even those who can afford meals most days have trouble finding basics like bread, eggs and sugar because of rampant shortages.

Pdvsa brings in about 95 percent of the economy’s dollars, so foreign investors believe that the government, even in a worst case, will do all it can to keep the company functioning.

Mr. de Sousa also points out that unlike pure sovereign bonds issued by the government, Pdvsa securities lack legal mechanisms, like collective action clauses, which can help a government negotiate favorable terms with foreign bond holders if it defaults on its debt.

Moreover, investors have noted that in the last year, as Venezuela’s economic situation has deteriorated sharply, the government has paid out billions of dollars to foreign investors holding the oil company bonds.

The Pdvsa trade is the latest sign that foreign investors are becoming bolder in investing in the bonds of governments in far-flung locales.

In recent months, higher risk countries such as Turkey, Russia and Brazil have been at the forefront of this trend.

Driving the bet, analysts say, is a view that emerging market economies, regardless of their political and economic challenges, are no longer willing to face the wrath of bond investors by defaulting on their debts.

That is because global investment giants like BlackRock and Goldman have become ready sources of financing, quick to lend billions in dollars or even local currencies, to governments in Africa, Latin America and Asia that in the past relied on banks.

Perhaps no country is as reliant on the kindness of risk-happy foreign bond investors as Venezuela. According to the research firm Exotix, Venezuela has a financing requirement of $17 billion in 2017, yet its central bank reserves are a paltry $10 billion.

As investors see it, if you can buy a Pdvsa bond at 30 cents on the dollar, which also provides a double-digit yield, even if this government — or another for than matter — has to default, the gains made on the investment would be enough to overcome any loss.

While Goldman Sachs defended its trade by saying that it bought the bonds on the open market from a broker, bankers and traders say the money ultimately ended up in Venezuela’s treasury because the seller was an institution with ties to the government.

Nonetheless, the threat by Mr. Borges, the opposition leader, that a new government would not make good on these bonds seems unlikely.

That is because these bonds carry covenants aimed at preventing an issuer from favoring one bond holder over another. So paying BlackRock or JP Morgan and not Goldman would open Venezuela to lawsuits.

All of which suggests that, despite the controversy over the Goldman trade, foreign investors will keep lining up to buy Pdvsa bonds.

“This is the only source of foreign currency the government has,” said Mr. de Sousa, the Venezuelan expert at Oxford. “So I think the government will continue to sell more of these types of bonds to foreign investors.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/...of-venezuelan-bonds-and-an-uproar-begins.html

 

[Arkain2K]

Venezuelan opposition condemns Goldman for $2.8 billion bond deal
By Brian Ellsworth and Davide Scigliuzzo | CARACAS/NEW YORK | Tue May 30, 2017​

(Reuters/IFR) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's statement that it never transacted directly with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro when it bought $2.8 billion of bonds for pennies on the dollar was dismissed by the country's opposition on Tuesday as an effort to "put lipstick on this pig."

Goldman, in a statement late Monday confirming the purchase, said its asset-management arm acquired the bonds "on the secondary market from a broker and did not interact with the Venezuelan government." (A look into Venezuela's economic crisis here)

The New York-based investment bank came under fire from Venezuelan politicians and protesters in New York opposed to Maduro, who said the deal provided the cash-strapped government hundreds of millions of dollars in badly-needed hard currency. The deal, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, made Goldman complicit in alleged human rights abuses under the government, they said.

"As hard as it may try, Goldman Sachs ... cannot put lipstick on this pig of a deal for Venezuelans," the head of the opposition-led congress Julio Borges said.

Goldman Sachs did not respond to an email requesting comment on Borges' statement. In its original statement, Goldman had said: "We recognize that the situation is complex and evolving and that Venezuela is in crisis. We agree that life there has to get better, and we made the investment in part because we believe it will."

The opposition-led National Assembly later on Tuesday voted to ask the U.S. Congress to investigate the deal, which they called immoral, opaque, and hypocritical given the socialist government's anti-Wall Street rhetoric.

Goldman shares fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday and were the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell 0.24 percent.

With Venezuela's inefficient state-led economic model struggling under lower oil prices, Maduro's unpopular government has become ever more dependent on financial deals or asset sales to bring in coveted foreign exchange. Venezuela's international reserves rose by $749 million on Thursday and Friday, reaching around $10.86 billion, according to the central bank.

In New York, about two dozen protesters chanting "Shame on you Goldman Sachs" picketed outside of Goldman's headquarters in lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

"By giving $900 million to a dictatorship, they are funding a systematic human rights violator, they are funding immorality and for Maduro to stay in power while he keeps killing people," said Eduardo Lugo, 23, a Venezuelan attending college in New York and a leader of the protest.

Another protest was planned for Miami, home to a large community of Venezuelans who have fled the country's economy crisis, on Thursday.

In Venezuela, Maduro's critics have for two months staged street protests, which have left nearly 60 people dead, to demand he hold early elections. Maduro says the protests are a violent effort to overthrow his government, and insists the country is the victim of an "economic war" supported by Washington.

Meanwhile, emerging market bond market participants familiar with Venezuelan debt said there was no effective secondary market for the bonds in question, which were first issued by the state-owned oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL.] in 2014 and held entirely by the country's central bank until recently.

Goldman paid 31 cents on the dollar for the bonds, which mature in October 2022, Borges' letter said. At that price, the bonds would yield more than 40 percent compared with their stated coupon of 6 percent.

Goldman acquired the bonds from Dinosaur Financial Group, two sources familiar with deal told Reuters.

A person answering the phone at Dinosaur's New York office said the firm had no comment on the matter.

Opposition lawmakers said they wanted to investigate intermediaries in the deal.

"We're going to put a magnifying glass on this financial middleman. This small company called Dinosaur, who is behind it, what power does it have?" said lawmaker Carlos Valero before the vote.

One U.S. broker deeply involved in trading Venezuelan securities told Thomson Reuters IFR that fair value for the bonds should be around 44 cents to 46 cents on the dollar, based on where other bonds issued by PDVSA and the Venezuelan government were trading on Tuesday.

The broker said he did not expect the bonds to trade unless Goldman chose to sell them. At $2.8 billion of face value, the firm now owns the vast majority of that series of bonds originally issued by PDVSA, which totaled around $3 billion.

Most Venezuelan bond prices were up in Tuesday trading.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-goldman-sachs-idUSKBN18Q1D6

 

[Arkain2K]

Protesters demonstrate outside of Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York after the company purchased Venezuelan bonds for 31 cents on the dollar.

 

[VivaRevolution]

The great irony in all of this is that now the only thing that can save Venezuela is US intervention and an eventual return of her European-descendant leadership and upper class.

My family moved to Venezuela in 1997, pre-Chavez. It was far from perfect then, but it also was nothing like this. The Italo-Spanish-German upper class was in firm control because the average IQ in Venezuela hovers around 85. Chavez was elected in a landslide to fight back against this racism; well, guess who fled, was run out of the country, or imprisoned? All those smart non-mestizos. Socialism, poor management, brain drain, corruption and putting all their eggs into the oil basket later and we get modern Venezuela.

So Trump/U.N. led intervention in venezuala?

How about we let it fail, and take care of itself instead. Let's call it a free market of democracy, and prevent moral hazard.

 

[Space]

So Trump/U.N. led intervention in venezuala?

How about we let it fail, and take care of itself instead. Let's call it a free market of democracy, and prevent moral hazard.

Well, apparently Goldman-Sachs just infused Venezuela with a ton of cash, so now the country is owned by the Jews.

And LOL at Venezuela taking care of itself. All the smart ones fled, like I said. The ones that are left behind can't run a bakery, much less a country.

 

[Pwent]

so are venezuelan trophy wives 70% off?

 

[Space]

so are venezuelan trophy wives 70% off?

Yep, but going there right now also increases your chances of being kidnapped by 1000%.

 

[Arkain2K]

so are venezuelan trophy wives 70% off?

Only the oily ones.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Well, apparently Goldman-Sachs just infused Venezuela with a ton of cash, so now the country is owned by the Jews.

And LOL at Venezuela taking care of itself. All the smart ones fled, like I said. The ones that are left behind can't run a bakery, much less a country.

I guess my point is who cares........

It isn't the first country to collapse, and it wont be the last, and if the US or UN doesn't show up, the world will keep spinning.

 

[Benjamin Burton]

This is what happens when you elect Bernie sanders

 

[DaPunkMinowaMan]

The great irony in all of this is that now the only thing that can save Venezuela is US intervention and an eventual return of her European-descendant leadership and upper class.

My family moved to Venezuela in 1997, pre-Chavez. It was far from perfect then, but it also was nothing like this. The Italo-Spanish-German upper class was in firm control because the average IQ in Venezuela hovers around 85. Chavez was elected in a landslide to fight back against this racism; well, guess who fled, was run out of the country, or imprisoned? All those smart non-mestizos. Socialism, poor management, brain drain, corruption and putting all their eggs into the oil basket later and we get modern Venezuela.

"and an eventual return of her European-descendant leadership and upper class."

HAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[Fedorable]

Thread is now about sexy Venezuelan protesters.

even that dead one is hot.

 

[Arkain2K]

Goldman Sachs Just Ignited the Venezuela ‘Hunger Bonds’ Movement
By Christine Jenkins and Fabiola Zerpa | Wed May 31 2017​

The Venezuelan “Hunger Bonds” movement made limited progress in its first eight months of existence. Aimed at shaming international investors into boycotting the repressive government’s bonds, or at least raising awareness about the subject, the term was really only known among a small crowd of specialists.

Then Goldman Sachs Group Inc. made a big investment in the debt.

And because every protest movement needs a foil -- a role Goldman has played many times before -- the campaign has suddenly gained a surge of momentum. Demonstrators outside the bank’s New York headquarters Tuesday chanted, “No more hunger bonds, Goldman Sachs,” and the term was flying around the internet, appearing in scores of tweets and memes that featured images of malnourished Venezuelans scavenging for food.

Growing publicity, of course, doesn’t necessarily translate into greater success in implementing the boycott -- and it isn’t entirely clear what it would achieve anyway -- but Jorge Botti, a Venezuelan businessman who started the movement last year, is thrilled.

“I’ve had friends tell me I’m an idiot for talking about this, that capital has never had a heart and that’s why it works so well, but I think that world could find another way of functioning,” Botti said in an interview. “I think it’s going to start resonating a bit more.”

Opposition lawmakers are now joining with academics and activists to decry bond investors’ willingness to turn a blind eye to the chaos that’s overtaking the country in exchange for fat interest payments. The argument is that providing financing to the government props up despots whose corruption and incompetence have ruined a nation that’s home to more untapped oil wealth than any other country on earth.

Goldman says it isn’t handing cash directly to the government. The Wall Street Journal reported the firm’s asset-management arm bought $2.8 billion of securities from the state oil company through a broker at 31 cents on the dollar. But the transaction appeared to boost international reserves, perhaps giving President Nicolas Maduro more breathing room as he clings to power and waits for an upturn in oil prices to bring in more cash.

Goldman rejected the idea of any moral culpability. The bank said Venezuela’s situation “is complex and evolving” and that life there “has to get better. We made the investment in part because we believe it will.”

Venezuela’s opposition parties immediately criticized Goldman, with Julio Borges, president of the National Assembly, saying lawmakers will begin an investigation and evaluate whether “a future, democratic government of Venezuela should recognize or pay on this debt entered into against the interests of our people.”

The term “hunger bonds,” a play on the “Hunger Games” movies in which a teenager leads the resistance against a fictional totalitarian state, has resonance because so many Venezuelans lack for food. A study showed that adults on average lost 19 pounds last year due to shortages.

Botti first used the phrase in October 2016 in a post to his Twitter followers (who today total about 17,000) as part of his effort to raise awareness about suffering in the country. A former bondholder himself, he decided in 2015 that he couldn’t justify accepting the payments and sold his stake.

“The bondholders know that they’re being paid at the expense of the country’s hunger,” said Botti, who runs a business importing hardware. “A lot of people tell me that the bonds don’t have anything to do with people, but I tell them it’s a moral issue.”

This isn’t the kind of dilemma that bond investors typically spend much time fretting over, especially considering that autocracies often outperform democracies in debt markets and that Venezuela has posted some of the world’s top gains.

There are few exact parallels in recent history to the “hunger bonds” movement. The closest initiatives may be the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against investing in Israel and its companies over concern about the country’s policy toward Palestinians, and the “Boycott Gulf” crusade of the 1970s that urged investors to sell stock in Gulf Oil because of its perceived support for Portuguese colonial rule in Angola. The divestment campaign in South Africa during apartheid set an example that has been followed by investors to apply economic pressure in Myanmar and Sudan amid human-rights abuses.

Harvard University professor Ricardo Hausmann, who also gave the “hunger bonds” phrase a boost when he used it in an essay last week, argued that ethics can’t be ignored anymore.

50 Cents

Holding the bonds, most of which trade for about 50 cents on the dollar, risks incentivizing investors to root for payments to be made even as the populace suffers, he says. If there’s a default, bondholders will be agitating for the right to seize Venezuelan assets for payment -- assets that should belong to the Venezuelan people.

Francisco Ghersi, the managing director of the Venezuelan-dedicated hedge fund Knossos Asset Management, thinks the shaming effort is misguided. Venezuela’s problems are caused by corruption and economic mismanagement, not the debt itself, he says.

“What’s happening now is a tragedy, but it’s not the product of two years of paying off bonds,” Ghersi said. “It’s audacious to say that today people are dying of hunger because of the foreign debt.”

Before Venezuela’s international reserves increased $749 million over two days last week in the wake of the Goldman deal, the cash hoard had dropped to near a 15-year low of $10.1 billion. The next big test for debt investors will come at the end of October and beginning of November, when the state-owned oil company has about $2 billion in bond payments scheduled.

Botti says investors trying to guess exactly how long Venezuela will be able to keep making debt payments are being myopic. He wants the world focused on the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, not the outsize returns on its bonds.

“Among my fellow entrepreneurs and economists, there is no reflection on the subject,” he said. “But I think we must insist.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-venezuela-probe-protest-after-bond-purchase

 

[Orgasmo]

In other news, Venezuelan women just became more willing to get with foreigners. The downside being you'd have to expose yourself to potential mugging and kidnapping while there.

 

[ShinkanPo]

In other news, Venezuelan women just became more willing to get with foreigners. The downside being you'd have to expose yourself to potential mugging and kidnapping while there.

Meet them in Colombia instead, I think there are safe ways for you guys to do that.