-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 This is a political analysis written by people in the DC8 .ve Team, and discussed in the Debian Venezuela mailing list. It addresses common questions made by foreigners visiting our Country or willing to do that. We truly believe that our current political condition, whether it fits our political ideas or not, does not affect our ability to host a Debconf event. It was discussed (in spanish) in Debian Venezuela mailing list [1].
1. Migration: There are no plans to impose restrictions on the free transit of international visitors at short term. Venezuela has always been a very attractive country for tourism and it's actually one of the Latin American countries with the less restrictions on taxes and visas. Baggage checks in airports and bus stations are normal and should be expected, as well as checks to particular vehicles in road and sea transport. Underage people can't travel inside the Country without parental permission (in order to avoid parent kidnapping). Therefore, underage international visitors will need a special permit in order to travel inside Venezuela. There are embassy or consulate representations of most European and Asian countries, as well as the USA, and they will give financial, political and legal aid to their citizens if needed. Those consular relationships should still exist in 2008. 2. Economy: prices will be high but still accessible for most foreign visitors. Our current exchange control will probably be extended and paying with debit and credit cards from other countries should be possible (as it is now). In the worst case, it might be mandatory to pay cash and people should be able to exchange any amount of money into Venezuelan Bolivares. The actual dollar exchange rate is set at 2150 VEB per USD. In case the government lifts the exchange control, the rate could go up to 4500 VEB. That's bad for Venezuelans but good for foreigners, who are able to get "more VEB for their USD". 3. Connectivity: a State company will hold about 70% of the market share on commercial Internet. Besides this company, we've asked other ISPs to help us like CVG Telecom, Movistar and Savvis. 4. Abstract: let's study the worst case scenario: <apocalyptic>Venezuela becomes a second Cuba. All companies now belong to the State or are mixed companies. The exchange control is kept, and the inflation is controlled. Most countries maintain their diplomatic representations. Even if all of that happens, we'll still be in better economic and technological conditions than Cuba, and even considering that, Cuba is still visited by thousands of foreigners from several first world countries and everyone leaves Cuba alive.</apocalyptic> [1] http://solve.net.ve/pipermail/debian-ve/2007-January/001557.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFx/GVvcJ3jPsnhKERAuRpAJwI2RZ0wRwl3Z3AOfwrEiXPLxQ+RQCdFAph tzaUBfuRPs562GWsy/P8qGo= =n66X -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Debconf-team mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
