I do agree with some of the things that you say.
Chavez must leave power in December 2011. He is only allowed to serve two terms in power, and each term lasts 6 years. His current second term began in December 2005.
If you speak to many of the locals, as I have, you will find that most of the support is for Chavez's opposition party who are very much right wing. Even Chavez himself has recently admitted that he will be leaving power and that he does not want to be remembered as a dictator type leader, which his comments shocked the nation. There are even suggestions that he will stand down from power before his term is up, but that would be remained to be seen.
Our properties are purchased in Euros and all future selling on can be done in whatever currency the client wishes. The only way to achieve this is to set up off-shore companies (ours are registered in Wyoming as non-trading limited liability companies) and as long as you are not a registered American tax payer, you do not have to file a tax return in America annually, just renew the registration each year.
Secondly, the American hotel chain, Geneva Hospitality, who are offering the Bonded guaranteed rental system are not going to offer two ten year guaranteed rentals, first at 7% net (reviewable after 5 years to increase to 8.25%) and then 9% net (reviewable) for the second 10 years, if there was a high risk that they could be booted out of the country.
Clients monies are bonded by Chubb Insurance annually for $10,000,000 and each client is a named beneficiary on the policy. So, if for some reason, Chavez orientated or not, Geneva could not fulfill the contract, each owner is paid their money. Working that out on a €100,000 property, the minium return over the 20 years that the client gets back is €160,000 making clear profit of €58,000 (2% is purchase costs, including the setting of the company in the US). If Chavez does not go completely nuts and boot out every foreign company out, then owners will make a profit of €58,000 plus they will still have their property worth whatever it is worth in 20 years time.
Secondly, announcements are being made this summer with regard to the construction of a Formula One Grand Prix Circuit on the Island of Margarita. The total cost of this project is $1.3 billion, of which $800 million will be financed by Bernie Ecclestone. The rest will be financed by the local government. If this project is announced to be going ahead, this is yet another reason why some of your theories are a little extreme.
There is a shortage of 110,000 beds on the island as tourism rates on the island in recent years have soured. In 2005, 1.5 million tourists visited Margarita and in 2006, this figure rose to 2.4 million plus an additional 1.1 million tourists visited on day trips from the cruise ships as 50% of all Caribbean cruise ships now stop in Margarita. This brings in massive money into the island and again, anything that would harm this income would have huge effects on the country and on the mood of the local people. From the local people that I have spoken to, both general public and people in local government, they are fed up with Chavez and they want him out. The true result of the referendum last December was 70:30 against Chavez. This true figure Chavez denied as he did not want the world to see that his own people are completely against him.
Every property purchase in the world has an element of risk, and believe me, there are far worse than Margarita a lot closer to home, such as many of the corrupt mafia run eastern block countries, however, I would totally agree with you that Venezuela would NOT be a good investment, but Margarita is NOT Venezuela and far from it. It is even not governed by Chavez. This is not your normal development either, in that we have secured an iron tight contract for the protection of all clients and if you saw the contracts, you would know exactly what I mean. Even down to if a client of the hotel trashes the property, it would be the responsibility of Geneva to replace everything and re-instate the property to its original condition.
Saying that, it is good to give people both sides of the argument and I welcome your comments, even though I do not agree with some of them.
I do apologise, I forgot to comment on your theory of the properties being worth 2.5 times less than the market price, because of the black market currency exchange rates.
This, I completely disagree with as nobody is dealing in that kind of sum of money on the black market and this would have to carried out in cash. No sane person would purchase a property with cash in a suitcase, that to obtain that kind of exchange rate, they would have to carry that sum in a suitcase. The market exchange that you mention that tourists and locals use is a very risky one as you are dealing with street traders ultimately employed by the drug trade, so it is the drug barons who control it. The normal sums of money that is traded in this way is not normally more than $1,000 used in increase your spending money on holidays, nothing more! And I would strongly advise anyone not to deal in this way for any amount as you are associating yourself in criminal activities. Once the drug traders exchange their local currency into, and they prefer dollars, they carry out this cash in their pockets by means of couriers to places such as Panama and deposit it into dollar accounts. This is why it exists as when removing money from Venezuela requires paperwork and proof of where the money has come from. If you sell your property, you have proof of where your money has come from, for you will have notorised paperwork for that said transaction. This system also exists in most European countries, including Ireland, Spain, etc. and is in existance for a very valid reason, to stop money laundering! If you have exchanged even €10 whilst on your visit to Caracas on the street in this way, then you have assisted in laundering money and therefore committed a serious crime.
So, for transactions such as property purchases, etc. all transactions are carried out through banks in the normal way at the official exchange rates and I do not think that you could find me one single person that has carried out a property transaction who obtained 2.5 times their money by taking that cash to a street trader and then taking that cash to a bank, deposited it and then transferring the sum to the vendor and this is exactly what you are suggesting.
You did indeed state that you cannot remove your money from Venezuela, which is completely untrue and I do realise that you are now saying that you did not literally mean it, but then you should not make such a statement in the first instance. How many meanings can "you cannot remove money from Venezuela" have? I can only see one meaning.
Taking money out at its true value is at its true value for all of the above reasons to do with property purchases. Do you think that USA is purchasing their oil from Venezuela by bringing their dollars over in suitcases, exchanging on the street and then paying the government with laundered money so they get a better rate for their dollar?