- FINANZAS
Stripe framed its role in the dollar virtual accounts that UglyCash and Airtm offer in Venezuela as part of earthquake relief.
Licencia general 60 vigente hasta el 23-oct-2026 · declaración de FinCEN, hasta el 29-ene-2027 · banco: Lead Bank
affects anyone sending or receiving dollars into Venezuela through digital platforms
- INSTITUCIONAL
The Government and 2015 Assembly delegations created a council that will vet the credentials of Supreme Court candidates.
Consejo de 7 juristas · Comité de Postulaciones de 23 miembros · tercer ciclo a mediados de octubre
affects local contractors and employers with cases before Venezuelan courts
- ENERGÍA
The international oil and gas summit opens in Caracas, with the US embassy, bp, Shell and Repsol on the program and a panel on how to finance the new barrel.
Cartera de toda la banca a junio: US$3.948 millones · plan de las mixtas de Chevron: más de US$7.000 millones a cinco años · del 28 al 30 de septiembre
affects operators and suppliers seeking financing to produce in Venezuela
October 23 is the date that matters for anyone moving dollars into Venezuela. That day the earthquake license expires — the one Stripe cited to explain why its infrastructure serves users in the country — and UglyCash's contract already restricts those accounts to humanitarian aid. It is a channel with its expiry date written into the permit that sustains it. Judicial reform runs on a different clock: on Friday the dialogue table named the people who will vet Supreme Court candidates and left the timetable in the National Assembly's hands; elections were left within constitutional deadlines, with no date. The first thing that could change the calculation is General License 60 extended or replaced before October 22.
↳ It is the second round's first commitment with an announced day; whatever is published measures whether the joint statement is carried out.
↳ It is the week's first public forum on credit to oil, under banking rules in force since September 15.
↳ The fiscal formula for Dragon gas remains unwritten.
↳ The association claims nearly $5 billion; if the state company answers in writing, the liability will have a figure acknowledged by the other side.
↳ It is held behind closed doors in the Capitol's secure room: there is no public testimony or published agenda, and anything that emerges will come through senators' statements.
↳ Venezuela reported 1,201,000 barrels a day to OPEC for August; the committee is the forum that reviews the group's production data.
↳ Without those standards there is no benchmark against which to measure whether an oil company meets the requirement to generate its own power.
The rise in the official exchange rate between the end of August and the Monday, September 28 value date.
The rate went from 794.99 bolivars per dollar at the end of August to 857.01 with today's value date; over the whole of August it had risen 6.5%. The split within the month is uneven: 5.9% through September 15 and 1.8% since. That day the central bank's new reserve-requirement and interest-rate rules took effect, and since then the rate has moved a little over one and a half bolivars per business day. For anyone restocking this week, the monthly average overstates the pace of the last two weeks.
In statements published on Sunday the 27th, Stripe acknowledged that it serves programs with users in Venezuela under the earthquake-relief framework, whose license expires October 23.
UglyCash and Airtm offer users in Venezuela virtual accounts with US account numbers, which receive dollar transfers and convert them into dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies. The infrastructure belongs to Bridge, a Stripe subsidiary, and the bank behind it is Lead Bank. Asked about those programs, Stripe said Washington created a licensing framework for earthquake relief, that Venezuela remains a high-risk market and that it works with a small number of developers reviewed one by one. UglyCash announced its return on July 31, citing the humanitarian channel.
Stripe — vía Fintech Business Weekly ↗GL 60: vigencia hasta las 00:01 EDT del 23-oct-2026 · FinCEN: 27-jul-2026 a 29-ene-2027 · plataformas: UglyCash y Airtm · banco: Lead Bank · exclusiones del anexo: petróleo, minería, oroGeneral License 60 authorizes every transaction related to earthquake relief until October 23 and lets the bank rely on what the originator declares. UglyCash's addendum, dated July 11, requires certifying each deposit as humanitarian support and excludes funds tied to the Government, oil, mining and gold. FinCEN, the Treasury's anti-money-laundering unit, committed not to penalize banks under the Bank Secrecy Act through January 29, 2027.
UglyCash and Airtm, which run the channel, and anyone receiving money from relatives abroad: at UglyCash it is withdrawn in bolivars through Pago Móvil, the phone-to-phone transfer system.
Anyone using it to get paid for work or sales: the addendum bars using it as a commercial account. And every user, if October 23 arrives with no replacement license.
INDICADORThe Office of Foreign Assets Control extending or replacing General License 60, or UglyCash, Airtm or Bridge stating under which authorization they keep operating after it expires. · 12:01 a. m. del 23 de octubre de 2026, hora del este de EE. UU.; la declaración de FinCEN rige hasta el 29 de enero de 2027.
The Government and 2015 National Assembly delegations closed their second round on Friday the 25th with a seven-jurist council that will vet Supreme Court candidates.
The joint statement, signed by Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, and Dinorah Figuera, head of the 2015 Assembly delegation, creates a council to review the credentials of Supreme Court nominees; its members include Rogelio Pérez Perdomo and Belén Ramírez Landaeta. The parties agreed that the Assembly will appoint the Preliminary Commission of the Nominations Committee at its next ordinary session and publish the timetable. Rodríguez later said there will be parliamentary, mayoral, gubernatorial and presidential elections within constitutional deadlines, without giving dates.
Delegaciones del Gobierno y de la AN 2015 — vía Infobae/EFE ↗Comunicado del 25-sep-2026 · consejo de 7 juristas · Comité de Postulaciones: 23 miembros, 11 diputados y 12 de otros sectores · Comisión Preliminar anterior: 21-abr-2026Since the September 15 reform, the Nominations Committee that shortlists justices has 23 members, 11 deputies and 12 from other sectors; the seven-jurist council is a prior review agreed at the table. It will be the year's second Preliminary Commission: the Assembly appointed one on April 21 under the previous article 65 and opened nominations for seven days. The Supreme Court decides how taxes, customs and labor matters are interpreted, which a contract with a foreign forum does not cover.
The National Assembly chaired by Jorge Rodríguez: the statement leaves it the appointment of the commission and the publication of the timetable.
Local suppliers, contractors and employers with cases on taxes, customs or labor matters: the court that will decide them still has no appointment calendar.
INDICADORThe National Assembly appointing the eleven-deputy Preliminary Commission and publishing the procedure's timetable, as the delegations agreed on Friday the 25th. · Próxima sesión ordinaria de la Asamblea Nacional; el tercer ciclo de conversaciones está previsto para mediados de octubre de 2026.
The Venezuela International Oil & Gas Summit opens in Caracas this Monday and runs through Wednesday the 30th, with the US embassy, bp, Shell, Repsol, SLB and GeoPark on the program.
Monday is the technical pre-summit day at IESA, Caracas's business school. On Tuesday, at the JW Marriott, the executive summit opens with Michael Garcia, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy, the only government speaker the program names; GeoPark and Hunt follow, then a panel on the new hydrocarbons law and another on making Venezuelan oil bankable, with Banesco and Mercantil. On Wednesday, the gas forum brings together Shell, bp, Repsol and Trinidad and Tobago's energy chamber.
Venezuela International Oil & Gas Summit — programa oficial ↗Mar 29: embajada de EE. UU. a las 9:10 ET y panel de crédito a las 16:40 ET · mié 30: foro de gas · cartera de la banca a junio: US$3.948 millones · mixtas de Chevron: +US$7.000 millones en cinco añosA new barrel in the Orinoco Belt is paid for before it is produced, and the program devotes a panel to who puts up that money. The loan book of Venezuela's entire banking system closed June at almost $4 billion, little more than half of what Chevron's three joint ventures plan to invest over five years. The published program, moreover, names no speaker from the Hydrocarbons Ministry or PDVSA, the counterparty to the contracts.
Oil companies with a license by name and their own cash: Chevron's joint ventures will fund their plan from what they generate, according to its chief executive.
Small operators and suppliers that rely on Venezuelan banks: their credit is granted in bolivars indexed to the exchange rate and, since September 15, pays at least 16% a year on that amount.
INDICADORA contract with an amount and a term announced during the summit, or a date from the Hydrocarbons Ministry for the regulation's technical standards, whose ninety-day deadline falls on October 5. · Martes 29 y miércoles 30 de septiembre en el JW Marriott de Caracas; el plazo de las normas técnicas vence el lunes 5 de octubre.