We took a plane from Incheon International Airport via France and arrived in Venezuela in about 17 hours.
My first impression of the airport wasn’t too bad.
The Venezuela in the newspapers I read was a country where 97% of the people fell into poverty, but the Venezuela I saw in person was an ordinary developing country.
‘Is Venezuela’s economy still functioning normally?’
The information that can be known only from the scenery of the airport is extremely limited. In original dictatorships, even if the pillars of the country rot, the gates are decorated with gold.
As I continue to look around, Jesse, who was walking beside me, murmurs.
“The airport looks so shabby.”
“okay? I don’t know.”
“It’s because Woohyuk doesn’t know what Venezuela was like before. When I was young, it was full of people from this passage to the immigration counter.”
She looks around the deserted airport and puts on a bitter expression.
“Everyone was wearing fancy clothes and carrying shopping bags in both hands… … Now there are more cops cracking down on drugs than passengers.”
Venezuela was once a country that lived well enough to rank fourth in the world GDP rankings.
The standard of living in such a country fell from the ceiling to the floor in an instant, and the loss of the locals is indescribable.
“What’s even sadder is that this country can’t afford to go back to those days.”
“It will get better if the price of oil goes up.”
“Everyone is holding on to that hope, but it’s just a vain delusion.”
She points to the buildings visible through the dark windows of the airport.
“Can you see all the lights are off in the residential area over there? I forcibly turned it off because there was not enough electricity. What does it mean to run out of electricity in a country with plenty of oil?”
“Does that mean that oil extraction is not going well?”
“that’s right. Venezuela today does not have the capacity to pump oil. The technicians have all fled overseas. What are they going to do when there is no fuel to run the drilling machine?”
“… … .”
“People are so starving that they have to eat rotten meat, but the government says they are implementing a two-day work week as a countermeasure. There is no hope in this country. It will only lead to ruin.”
Jesse had an accurate grasp of Venezuela’s reality and future. That’s probably why they asked to hurry up the introduction of an unverified virtual currency payment service.
* * *
At the entrance of the airport, three men were waiting to greet us.
one is a driver. The other two are bodyguards.
Jessie said that Venezuela’s security hasn’t collapsed yet, but it’s still a good idea to have bodyguards with you.
After moving for a while along the winding road, the capital, Caracas, came out.
The sight of old, low-rise houses clustered close to each other in a high mountain area reminded me of Korea’s 80’s Daldongne.
It was dark everywhere because of the blackout and we couldn’t go anywhere, so we went straight to Jesse’s house.
“Everything has arrived. That’s our house.”
Surprisingly, Jesse’s house was a mansion with a garden the size of a playground.
I knew I would be the daughter of a wealthy family when I came to Korea to study, but I never thought I would live in such a big mansion.
“oh! Jessica!”
As we approach the entrance of the mansion, a large bear-like man walks out from inside the gate.
The man smiles broadly and waves at Jessie, but when he sees me following behind him, his expression hardens.
“Mierda!”
He’s excitedly talking in Spanish, but I can’t understand what he’s saying.
Jesse kicked the bear man in the thigh with all his might to silence him before taking me into the mansion.
“Who were you just now?”
“Your second brother. I’m an idiot, so don’t worry about it.”
She leads me across the garden to a small building adjacent to the mansion. It’s small compared to the mansion, and the place I was guided to was bigger than most detached houses in Korea.
While I was unpacking and changing into comfortable clothes, someone came to the front of my room.
It was a man who looked exactly like Jesse and her.
“You have worked hard to come this far. My name is Simone Romero, Jesse’s fourth brother.”
This time he spoke to me in English, so I was able to answer.
“thank you for the invitation. This is Daniel Shin from WHTS Company.”
“I heard a lot from Jesse. He’s running a very cool thing called cryptocurrency.”
“Do you know virtual currency?”
“Everyone knows. It is a cryptocurrency using blockchain technology. I think that technology is the key to getting Venezuela out of the quagmire.”
I glanced at Jessie sitting next to me, and she elaborated on it.
“The person who came up with the idea to use a virtual currency service in Venezuela is Simon’s brother.”
He nods and continues talking.
“When I found out about cryptocurrencies, I was really surprised. There is no real thing, so it’s a currency without restrictions to cross borders! Isn’t this the currency of the future?”
“I appreciate that you rate virtual currency highly, but is it too much to say that it is the key to saving Venezuela?”
“Never overdo it. Cryptocurrency, among them Acorn Coin, is the perfect currency for Venezuela.”
He opens his wallet and takes out a bunch of bills. It was a bundle of bolivars, the currency of Venezuela, and a bill of 100 dollars.
“Last year, 1,000 bolivars were enough to change 100 dollars, but this year, 4,000 bolivars are needed.”
“I know that Venezuela has a serious inflation problem. But is the answer to that question correct?”
“Inflation is only a small part of the problem.”
He picks up a $100 bill with two fingers.
“There is no way to earn dollars already within Venezuela. So, Venezuelans go out to neighboring countries to work, to make money through crime or prostitution.”
Jjiik.
He tears off the tip of a $100 bill.
“If you remit the money you earned, the bank deducts 10% as a fee. and,”
Jjiik.
Tear off more corners of the remaining dollar.
“Once again there is a fee for exchanging dollars for bolivars. In the blink of an eye, 16% of the money was gone.”
“Serious.”
“The bigger problem is that counterfeit dollars and bolívars are circulating everywhere.”
Simon shreds the remainder of the $100 bill and reveals the pieces splitting into three or four layers inside.
The $100 bill he tore was the counterfeit I just mentioned.
“Because of these issues, the market prefers barter over currency. It is a very unfortunate situation.”
Counterinflation and fees, and counterfeit money.
Cryptocurrency is relatively free from these three problems. In particular, counterfeiting of currency was almost impossible.
“I understand what Simon wants to introduce virtual currency. However, there are many hurdles to overcome before virtual currency can be introduced into real life.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. With the power of my family, we can spread cryptocurrency payments within three months.”
Judging by the size of the mansion, you can tell that the power of the Jesse family is enormous. Still, wouldn’t it be difficult to spread a new currency system nationally within three months?
As if the other person had read my thoughts, he added his words.
“You might think I’m in too much of a hurry, but here’s why.”
“For what reason?”
“The Maduro regime is preparing for an unreasonable redenomination at the end of the year. I intend to end the distribution of cryptocurrency services before that, if possible.”
Redenomination is a word that means reduction of the monetary unit.
For example, assuming a 100:1 redenomination, a 10,000 won bill would become 100 won, and so on.
“What is the redenomination rate, so are you in such a hurry?”
“It’s 100,000 to 1.”
“her… … .”
Redenomination is a policy taken when the value of the currency has fallen and the unit has risen too much.
In other words, the 100,000 to 1 redenomination meant that the Venezuelan government would print that much money.
* * *
Venezuela’s economic collapse was caused by falling oil prices, but it was politics that fueled the crisis.
While oil prices have plummeted and the country’s economy has been shaken by shale gas, the Venezuelan government chooses to pump more money into the market rather than austerity.
It was crazy to anyone, but politicians sprayed huge amounts of money to get votes.
As a result, money was overflowing in Venezuela, and they were barely able to buy a bottle of powdered milk with their monthly salary, and they had to pay three months’ wages to buy a bag of rice.
What’s more absurd is that the current administration has made plans to release more money even though the market situation is like this.
“what? They’re printing 20 times more high-denomination bills?”
Edwin Romero, a Venezuelan opposition lawmaker, was horrified by the report.
“This is crazy! Sending more money into the market won’t solve anything! nothing!”
He couldn’t hold back his excitement, but the aide who brought the report calmly continued.
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“The government would have had no choice. The moment you stop peddling money, the government will be taken away.”
“sh*t… … That’s why it pisses me off even more.”
Venezuelans have been subsidized by the state since the boom days of the oil business. That is for over 30 years.
So even though the currency was becoming a piece of paper due to inflation, the state subsidy was taken for granted.
‘If we block the government’s distribution of subsidies, votes will drop in the upcoming general election, but if we leave the distribution of subsidies as it is, the country will become a rag.’
To make matters worse, even within the opposition party, internal divisions were arising as opinions were divided in opposition to the support for distributing subsidies.
Only in this way, the upcoming general election was also a complete defeat.
Just then, a thought pops into Edwin’s head.
“Wait a minute, that… … Did you say cyber currency?”
“You mean the introduction of virtual currency suggested by the fourth boy?”
“okay. cryptocurrency. If you use it, you can prepare for inflation and you can remit money overseas cheaply?”
The aide nodded, but his mouth gave a negative opinion.
“Virtual currency has its advantages, but its disadvantages are also clear.”
“What are the downsides?”
“The issuer is a company, not a state. If a company prints unlimited amounts of cryptocurrency, we have no way to do anything about it.”
“That’s not even a problem. Isn’t the regime already printing unlimited cash?”
It was true, so the aide couldn’t come up with any refutation.
“If things go on like this, the election will be lost anyway, and the national economy will be ruined. So I have no choice but to gamble.”
Once Edwin had made a decision, he had the personality to push it like a bulldozer. The aide knew that, so he did not dissuade him any longer.
“Since the fourth said he would do the introduction preparations, I think I can leave it up to him… … Are there any other specials?”
“There are conditions set by the virtual currency issuing company.”
“What conditions?”
“If we come to power in the future, we ask for priority in the oil development project to be distributed.”