Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Sunday that President Nicolas Maduro’s adversaries were “not afraid” even though he was briefly detained by intelligence agents, days after announcing he would be willing to replace the increasingly isolated leader.
Mr Guaido’s comments on Friday led some opposition sympathisers to conclude that he had declared himself interim president, prompting several government officials to say he should be arrested for treason.
Intelligence agents on Sunday pulled Mr Guaido from his car on the way from the capital, Caracas, his wife and opposition MPs said.
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Venezuela opposition calls for protest to oust Nicolas Maduro
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He was released shortly thereafter, they said.
“I want to send a message to Miraflores [presidential palace] – the game has changed,” Mr Guaido, 35, said from a stage surrounded by cheering supporters. “Here we are! We are not afraid!”
The government said it had identified four officers of the Sebin intelligence agency who had acted in an “an irregular and unilateral manner” against Mr Guaido as part of an “attempted media show”.
“The officials involved are being rigorously investigated, have been suspended from their posts and will be subjected to the most severe legal and disciplinary sanctions,” according to a statement read out on state television.
Mr Guaido said the response was a sign that the government had lost control of its own security forces.
Asked whether he should be considered interim president, Mr Guaido responded: “That has been clarified several times.”
Venezuela’s fractured opposition has made numerous failed attempts over the past 20 years to remove the ruling socialists. Opposition leaders have called for a transition to a new government, but have not drawn up a clear plan for how to do so.
The US State Department on Saturday called on Venezuelan security forces to respect the “safety and welfare” of Mr Guaido and other MPs.
Mr Maduro was sworn in for a second term on Thursday, defying critics in the US and Latin America who called him a usurper of a nation where economic chaos has brought about a humanitarian crisis.
A regional bloc, known as the Lima Group, that opposes Mr Maduro’s leadership, said it condemned the “arbitrary detention” of Mr Guaido. It added it would reject any pressure on congress or its members.
The once-booming OPEC member’s economy collapsed following the fall of oil prices in 2014. Inflation is close to 2 million per cent and about 10 per cent of the population emigrated since 2015.
Mr Maduro says Venezuela is the victim of an “economic war” led by his political adversaries with the help of Washington. He insists the 2018 election was legitimate and that the opposition boycotted it because it knew it would lose.
The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X
Price, as tested: Dh84,000
Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm
Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km
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The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
The biog
Favourite film: The Notebook
Favourite book: What I know for sure by Oprah Winfrey
Favourite quote: “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness” Nelson Madela. Hometown: Emmen, The Netherlands
Favourite activities: Walking on the beach, eating at restaurants and spending time with friends
Job: Founder and Managing Director of Mawaheb from Beautiful Peopl
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
