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The decision of the Venezuelan coup plotter, Juan Guaidó, to hire debt guru Lee Buchheit, shouldn't surprise us. But it would be interesting to check out the role of Buchheit on the devastating haircut program of the Greek bonds (PSI) in 2012.
The decision of the Venezuelan coup plotter, Juan Guaidó, to hire debt guru Lee Buchheit, shouldn't surprise us. But it would be interesting to check out the role of Buchheit on the devastating haircut program of the Greek bonds (PSI) in 2012.
The PSI case has closed permanently after the program essentially destroyed the Greek insurance funds and transferred the Greek debt from the Greek law to the English law. This was something that put further barriers against debt restructure. Furthermore, PSI severely damaged the ability of a healthy internal lending, as the Greek bond holders have lost permanently their trust on the Greek state. They lost heavily from the PSI haircut.
Buchheit is generally considered the architect of the Greek haircut, which is not a very honorable feature. Especially for the man who prefers to present himself as the Robin Hood of the poor and heavily indebted countries.
The American lawyer is frequently characterized by the international mainstream press as the man who saved countries like Argentina, Russia and Iraq from their heavy debts.
Yet, the 'devil of debt restructure' is hidden in the details. Very few remember that, for example, the Kirchner administration in Argentina hired the law firm in which Buchheit was working, to make a plan for a national debt haircut. However, it made clear that Buchheit should not participate.
The main reason was that the American lawyer had gained a negative reputation for the usurious way he treated the Brazilian government in the 90s, for the benefit of some private creditors. Finally, Buchheit managed to 'invade' Argentina during the neoliberal Macri administration. Recall that Mauricio Macri delivered his country back to the IMF and the US vulture hedge funds.
So now, Lee Buchheit is about to get involved in one of the greatest robberies of public property in the last decades.
Guaidó is trying to establish a parallel government with the help of the United States, which is using funds that have been held by foreign banks. All that stolen money are going to repay American creditors.
All the Venezuelan capital that has been 'frozen' by foreign banks and governments surpasses the amount of five billion dollars (together with the gold deposits held by the UK). All that money could be used to save thousands of Venezuelans who suffer due to the brutal US sanctions.
On the contrary, the real debt restructure could be used by the legitimate government to help the population, not the foreign investors. Yet, such a restructure has been blocked permanently because of the US sanctions under which all the transactions with the global financial system are forbidden.
The great irony is that Venezuela during the last 20 years has written-off millions of dollars of debt from poor countries like Haiti, Guiana and Dominican Republic. Furthermore, Venezuela bought Argentinian national debt bonds worth billions of dollars to help Argentina. Yet, the country has been treated as a debt colony, just like Greece. So, this is how the Western financial mafia and its political puppets 'reward' entire nations.
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