My name is Manuel Rangel, I am a Venezuelan journalist and I have suffered firsthand the self-

destruction that Venezuela has experienced in the last 20 years. As we went from being one of the
countries with the most potential in Latin America, to a nation sunk in misery and almost in slavery.

Certainly, before the arrival of Hugo Chavez to political power, Venezuela was not perfect. In fact, it
had many problems. Corruption and criminality already had quite high rates. And without a doubt,
poverty was increasing. Chavez saw in poor people the ideal target for his electoral campaign.
Chavez showed himself as a redeemer who would save the country. In this way, Venezuelans
supported him massively and he won his first election in 1998.

However, Chavez would soon take off his mask and he began to divide the society. He fired many
well prepared venezuelans from public institutions and replaced them by loyal men, many from
Cuba, without any kind of preparation. In those years I was a child and I saw how my parents and
relatives had quite strong discussions about politics. In 2002, there was the first attempt to stop the
advance of Chavez's totalitarianism, however, serious mistakes made by the opposition allowed
Chavez to return and consolidate its power.

In 2003, Chavez declared himself openly Socialist and a follower of Fidel Castro's Cuban model. In
my opinion, that was always his plan, just he hid it while he managed to have all the political control.
Sadly, oil prices began to rise steadily, which allowed Chavez to create a false welfare through an
immense network of subsidies.

Many Venezuelans preferred to stop working, to start receiving government benefits. In addition,
Chavez bought wills and financed countries with socialist governments such as Cuba, Bolivia,
Nicaragua, etc. Meanwhile, Chavez felt more powerful than ever. He closed mass-media, took a lot
of prisoners for political reasons and began expropriating hundreds of private companies.

That false welfare ended in 2012. The state was so large that it no longer had the capacity to
maintain subsidies. The private sector barely worked. Some products began to disappear and the
qeues were already seen in supermarkets. Chavez could not see the results of his misery promotion
policies due to his death. Nicolas Maduro, his successor, did not have high oil prices, so the whole
system began to collapse quickly. In 2014, the food shortage was already evident. Getting basic
medicines was an odyssey, and Criminal Rates and Inflation broke their own barriers.

My whole generation feels that we have lost our youth. Unlike young people from other countries,
we have not been able to enjoy and live this stage of life. At least half of my highschool friends have
left my nation. Growing up in a socialist country is not easy. No matter how hard someone works
and studies, that does not open doors within Venezuela. There are no opportunities.

I thank God because at least my family can still eat. However, there are many Venezuelans eating
from garbage. Many of my friends have lost weight in the last two years, and having a serious illness
is practically a death sentence.

And the worst thing is that Venezuelans do not see a solution on the horizon. Chavism is clinging to
power, and opposition leaders are a disappointment. They are more concerned about maintaining
their little spaces of power, than to lead a real movement to overthrow Maduro. In fact, one of the
"opposition" presidential candidates is a "not-madurist but chavist," and besides of that, he is also
a socialist.
We could say that Socialism has made people more selfish. Before, Venezuelans were a very friendly
people who collaborated with others, but nowadays, some of us have become greedy persons who
do not care about rest of the people. However, not everything is bad, the Venezuelan is also a very
creative demonym who has always looked for new options to continue fighting and surviving. Also,
most venezuelans abroad are doing their best.

If I have to say something that has saved Venezuelans, it is that at least Socialism took power at a
time when the Internet was growing. Internet has been the only way in which Venezuelans have
been able to have some freedom. We have spread on the web all the wickedness that this
government has done against us. Only in 2017, 150 Venezuelans were killed protesting against the
Chavism. I myself was in several protests and saw how the National “Guard” shot directly at people.
If Socialism had took power 20 years earlier, tyranny and repression would be much greater, no
doubt at the level of the Soviet Union.

In this complex scenario, in which the minimum wage is only 3 dollars, many Venezuelans, including
me, found in Cryptocurrencies a salvation. As a journalist I barely earn twice the minimum wage,
just 6 dollars. Therefore, looking for alternatives to earn money through internet, and literally, not
die of hunger, I found some articles about Bitcoin, and I started to investigate it in depth.

However, it also scared me. Many Venezuelans who mined cryptocurrencies had been persecuted
and imprisoned, as much than those who had been for political reasons. Socialism hates prosperity,
and therefore, the government wanted to eliminate all those who could have an income that would
allow them to live a “decent” life in the country.

Between 2014 and 2016, at least weekly it was reported in the news that a miner was imprisoned.
In 2017, the persecution of Venezuelans who worked with cryptocurrencies had dropped a bit. I
believe that this was because they were preparing the scenario for the Petro.

That same year, as a journalist, I was able to attend a conference of the Dash community in
Venezuela, which was expanding rapidly. And there I ended up being convinced and started to invest
the few savings in bolivares I still had in them. I have to admit that it was a very good decision,
because thanks to the cryptocurrencies, the value of my savings was kept and even increased, which
has allowed me at least to eat decently, as I did in old times.

That is why I have recommended to all my friends to invest in cryptocurrencies. It is the best they
can do in a country that in 2017 its inflation was over 2000% and this 2018 economists estimate that
it will be more than 15,000%.

In relation to the Petro, as a Venezuelan that has suffered 18 years of Socialism, I could say that this
government will never do anything for the good of the people. Sadly, they are not creating Petro to
improve the economic situation in Venezuela, but a desperately way to look for external funding to
continue with the control of our people and as a new way of corruption.

First, it is a centralized cryptocurrency issued by an untrustworthy and tyrannical government, so, it

is not ethical to acquire Petros. It is all against the philosophy of liberty promoted by the
cryptoworld. Secondly, it had a lot of inconsistencies between its white paper and its presale. They
first said that it would be a token on Eth and then changed to NEM. Also Maduro said that he had a
meeting with Nem Foundation, but this was a lie. Nem Foundation denied this.
Maduro explained that Petro will be supported by an Oil Barrel. But by our Constitution, this is
illegal, (Our natural resources cannot be put as a guarantee) and also, the idea of Cryptocurrencies
is to get beyond commodity money and fiat money. I mean, supporting the money in the trust of
the people on the revolutionary Blockchain technology, and nor in words, neither in a commodity
as Gold, or in this case, Oil.

So, the Petro goes totally against the spirit of cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the government said
that they collected more than 750 million dollars, but the Blockchain showed just few transactions
in Petros, so, another big lie.

For me Petro is the biggest SCAM in the cryptoworld nowadays, and is very sad that the government
of Maduro has taken something so interesting and beautiful as the cryptocurrencies to make
propaganda and swindle people who loves the cryptoeconomy.

At this time, any political and economic proposal should focus on solving three aspects: food
shortages, criminality, and hyperinflation. The Petro is not aimed at any of these, but basically is a
cryptographically backed debt instrument that will serve Chavism to obtain financing from its
accomplices and many unsuspecting cryptolovers to continue repressing and murdering
Venezuelans.

Also, we should remember they had incarcelated miners since years and now they want to show
that they are promoting cryptocurrencies. Just Hypocricy.

This is just the humble opinion of a Venezuelan who has lived 18 years of this disaster.