Venezuela, Reuters investigation on oil money

Flanked by the largest river in Venezuela and surrounded by thousands of acres of fertile savannas, the remote town of Caicara Orinoco is called by President Hugo Chavez to be one of the most important centers of development of oil country.

But after five years and $ 312 million invested in the fabled “City of Aluminium”, just shows the enormous skeleton of the first steel mill, a few scattered sheds and a couple of billboards with the image of socialist president-washed weather and sun.

The work, which looks virtually paralyzed, is funded by the National Development Fund (Fonden), the most important item extrabudgetary oil boom fueled by discretionary managed to push the president strategic projects.

An investigation by Reuters on Fonden, which since 2005 has seen some 100,000 million, showed that there are gaps between the resources it receives, which accounted for, and progress of works financed. In many cases it was impossible to determine the evolution of investments given the limited public information. Read Article