Latin America Initiative

Most U.S. businesses are already holding off on new investments in Venezuela because of the poor business climate and inability repatriate profits or purchase inputs needed to operate a business in Venezuela.

The U.S. was prepared to take a bit of a risk with the new [Venezuelan] government to try to see if there was a possibility of having a more productive relationship with them, but that quickly fell apart.

The basic issue with the exchange rate is that the demand for dollars in Venezuela is actually quite high...A lot of importers have to go to the black market to get dollars.