Tag Archives: Latin America

Argentina Devaluation Sends Currency Tumbling Most in 12 Years

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“Argentina devalued the peso the most in 12 years after the central bank scaled back its intervention in a bid to preserve international reserves that have fallen to a seven-year low.  President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who said May 6 that the government wouldn’t devalue the peso, is struggling to hold onto dollar reserves which have fallen 31% amid annual inflation of more than 28%.  Fernandez has put into effect more than 30 measures to keep money from leaving the country. Her policies have included blocking most purchases of foreign currencies, taxing vacations abroad and online purchases, banning units of foreign companies from remitting dividends, and restricting imports.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/argentina-s-peso-plunges-17-as-central-bank-scales-back-support.html

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Argentina restricts online shopping as foreign reserves drop

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“Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected.  The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.  Argentina’s reserves of hard currencies dropped by 30% last year.  The government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has introduced a number of restrictions on transactions with foreign currency.  Items imported through websites such as Amazon and eBay are no longer delivered to people’s home addresses. The parcels need to be collected from the customs office, to make it easier for customs officials to enforce the import tax.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25836208

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Cigar Industry Receives Bitcoin Boost

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“Australia’s largest premium cigar retailer, Brisbane-based Fine Cigars Australia began accepting the currency.  The company’s general manager, Matthew Mroczek, said he and the company were already comfortable with bitcoin by that stage. ‘We have been using it for several months now to pay some of our suppliers in places like Mexico and Nicaragua because it is simply a far more efficient method of payment,’ he said.  ‘To go through normal banking channels it would take two days for them to get the money, which delayed the delivery to our customers. Not to mention the problem with currency movements over such a time period.'”

http://www.coindesk.com/cigar-industry-receives-bitcoin-boost/

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Toilet paper shortage because ‘Venezuelans are eating more’: govt

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“The head of Venezuela’s stats office, INE, Elias Eljuri came up with the argument on revealing that the latest households’ budget poll showed that Venezuelans now ‘were having three meals a day and even more’.  According to the survey released by Eljuri, ‘95% of the Venezuelan population, estimated in 29 million, now feed three to four times a day’.  The poll triggered an immediate reaction of anger and fits of laughter in the country transformed by the Bolivarian revolution.  On the one side people were furious because INE released the information in the midst of one of the moments of greatest scarcity with supermarket shelves virtually empty.”

http://en.mercopress.com/2013/05/24/toilet-paper-shortage-is-because-venezuelans-are-eating-more-argues-the-government

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Venezuelan president Maduro gets power to rule by decree

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“Maduro requested a month ago to be given expanded power to enact laws without consulting congress for up to a year.  Maduro in recent days has ordered the military to seize dozens of appliance stores, slash prices on imported electronics and arrest more than 100 business owners for alleged price gouging.  the Venezuelan unit of General Motors was fined the equivalent of US$85,000 for allegedly overcharging and practicing ‘usury’ in the sale of car parts to local concessionaires. The government also asked Twitter to take down accounts of users posting the illegal black market exchange rate for Venezuela‘s bolivar currency, which is trading at about one-tenth of the official value.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/maduro-power-rule-by-decree

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South America Gets Its First Bitcoin ATM

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“Mercado Bitcoin’s CEO Rodrigo Batista said the ATM would be installed at one of the 300 booths at the massive annual technology gathering, which is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors. The machine will be available to the public for the duration of the event, which runs from 27th January to 2nd February.  Mercado’s Bitcoin ATM is a Lamassu unit, so it only converts fiat currency to bitcoin, and not the other way around. The machine will charge a 2.5% fee for each transaction, which is the same amount Mercado Bitcoin customers pay.  Batista said the machine would be installed permanently somewhere in São Paulo’s financial district after the event.”

http://www.coindesk.com/south-america-first-bitcoin-atm/

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Venezuelans blocked from taking flights out by capital controls

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“Under Venezuela’s foreign exchange controls, access to dollars is tightly restricted. International airlines serving the country are currently owed up to $2.6 billion in dollars for bolivars that they have turned in to Venezuela’s Cadivi foreign exchange agency.  Air Europa is owed upwards of $160 million, it said. A company director is flying to Caracas on Monday to meet with the country’s foreign exchange agency to discuss the problem, the airline said Friday. The company operates its Madrid-Caracas-Madrid route six times a week.  Most other international airlines are taking other steps to limit their exposure to Venezuelan bolivars, which aren’t convertible outside the country.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/10/venezuela-airline-cancellations-europa/4405109/

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Chilean Nightclub to Pioneer Bitcoin in Latin America

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“California Cantina in Santiago will become the first restaurant in Chile, and the first nightclub in all of Latin America, to accept bitcoins.  Officially launching on January 8, the restaurant will be a bitcoin ‘pioneer’ for Latin America. The club has received significant interest on social media regarding the restaurant’s decision to accept the digital currency, in addition to Chilean pesos.  The restaurant will utilize an application developed by Coin4ce, the most prominent company for buying and selling bitcoins in Chile. The application will allow patrons to make purchases through their smartphones, by scanning QR codes generated by restaurant iPads that facilitate the process.”

http://panampost.com/joel-fensch/2014/01/07/nightclub-chile-bitcoin-pioneer-latin-america/

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Who Needs Bitcoin? Venezuela Has Its ‘Sucre’

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“The late Venezuelan president created the sucre, a virtual currency designed to dethrone the dollar as the main trading currency used with his country’s regional trading partners: Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.  The sucre is managed by a board of central-bank representatives, which has helped bolster its use.  Ecuadorean companies exported $737 million worth of goods to Venezuela using the sucre system in the first nine months of 2013, an 80% increase from the same period in 2012, according to Ecuador’s central bank. That growth has drawn attention from the country’s regulators, which are cracking down as fraud involving the virtual currency rises.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304202204579256062854362716

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Uruguay may have started a marijuana legalization storm

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“It’s barely been a month since Uruguay moved to legalize marijuana, and yet the effects of the decision are already being felt well outside of its borders.  Neighboring Argentina, a long-time proponent of keeping marijuana illegal, gave its first indication that Uruguay’s pivot has tempted it to at least consider legalizing the drug.  There are signs that Mexico is pondering legalization too.  Chile already allows adults to privately consume drugs, and may be on the verge of mulling further legalization of marijuana.  An overwhelming majority of Argentine, Chilean, and Mexican youth are in favor of legalization—81%, 79%, and 73%, respectively.”

http://qz.com/161903/uruguay-may-have-started-a-marijuana-legalization-storm-in-latin-america/

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