Living on or retiring to the tropical island of
Isla Margarita or Margarita Island, Venezuela
Tropical Island Living!

This is the third page of our information on Living, retiring to
and Working on Margarita Island or Isla Margarita.

On this page you will find information about Language, Banking, House help, Nannies,
Gardeners, Security Guards, etc. as well as the Political Situation & Security in the country.

Because of the total amount of information on living in Margarita Island I have broken it down
into 4 separate pages:

Page One:
Climate and Weather, Property Ownership, Exchange Controls,
Starting a Business and working on Margarita Island

Page Two:
Supermarket Food Prices, Utilities including phone, Internet,
Electricity & Water & Cellular phones.

Page Three (you are here):
Language, Banking, House help, Nannies, Gardeners, Security guards,
Political Situation, & Security

Page Four:
Schools, Doctors, Hospitals, Medical Insurance, Buying a Car and Insurance, Driving

Language

It is always best to have a working knowledge of Spanish as few people who you will be dealing with on a day to day basis speak any other language. A few may speak English but not enough for you to get by. There are a number of schools and teachers on the Island who would be willing to teach you for a fee. You should use the 6 months to a year renting to learn the language before jumping in with both feet.

Banking

I do not recommend keeping very much in Venezuelan banks. The banking system is poorly controlled and with regular devaluations, and the occasional failure, any money in Bolivars can be quickly lost.
It is recommended that you use outside banks.
Even keeping a supply of US$ cash or traveler's checks as
"just in case" money is a good idea. 

Withdrawals on foreign credit and bank cards will be at the official rate less charges and commissions -
a loss of more than 75%. 

Please visit this page for information on the currency conversion that happened on January 1, 2008 to the new Bolivar Fuerte. The government deleted three zeroes from the currency.

I strongly recommend to anyone planning an extended stay here that you make sure that your foreign bank allows you to make "on-line" transfers on the Internet to other banks. This sometimes means signing documents at your bank before leaving. Once you have this ability you will find it much easier and faster to obtain local currency at the best rate.
An active "verified" PayPal account is also beneficial.

I recommend using a large bank like Banco Provincial or one of the other major ones. *Under no circumstances use one of the many smaller banks as my experience shows that money can be lost even with signed receipts. One other thing is that, in my experience, the larger the bank the more arrogant and inattentive they get. It's not unusual to find line-ups of 40 or 50 people in line waiting to get to a teller and the bank has only opened 2 of their 10 windows. Unfortunately this is one of Banco Provincial's worst faults. It recently took me 40 minutes to withdraw some money from my own account and I was one of the first ones in when they opened.
Banesco & Banco Venezuela are other horror stories of long lines.

*Dec. 09, As I predicted above the national government has now closed 8 smaller banks because people associated with the government have stolen or lost all the money. More closings are predicated with dozens of high ranking officials now being arrested or fleeing the country.
Banco Provincial continues as one of the stronger banks however due to the other closings
line-ups are longer than ever.

July 2011: There are only a few private banks left in Venezuela. The government has closed or absorbed a large number of banks including the large Banco de Venezuela & Banco Confederado.

Banco Provincial & Banesco are the 2 largest private banks that remain. Long lines continue.

Feb. 2012: The government continues to threaten the few remaining private banks with expropriation.
Banco Provincial is now in the process of converting their branches into ATM transactions only. All deposits & withdrawals must be made at the ATM not the cashier.
Really, really annoying especially when they are not working.

House Help, Nannies & Gardening, Security Guards

It's very easy to find people who will help you out (maids, gardeners, nannies, etc.) at very reasonable cost (see remarks below about working here). The problem is always to find people that you can trust. This does not come overnight. You must use a network of people that you will meet over time to recommend other people of trust that you can hire. I have been very lucky with the people I have, however, you won't go too far to hear some horror stories. I guess the thing is to not be too trusting and naive. Just keep reminding yourself that this is not Canada, Germany, Holland or whatever and you must always take a step back to check things out before making commitments.

If you are considering a watchman or security guard for your new house then you have to be even more careful in your background checks. It's an unfortunate fact of life here that many robberies are assisted by or directly done by the very people you are paying to protect you.

Political Situation & Security

For the last 13 years Venezuela has had a populist president who, depending on your view, is either hated or loved. This has caused a decrease in foreign investment and higher unemployment.
A referendum (Aug. 20, 2004) gave the president a new political life although the opposition claimed that the results were rigged by new electronic voting machines. Regional elections in Oct., 2004 and Aug., 2005 have further entrenched the Chavez government with many additional governors and mayors being elected who support him. Here in Margarita the incumbent Chavez governor was defeated and replaced by an opposition governor, Morel Rodriguez, who had previously been governor of Margarita some years ago. For the Dec. 4, 2005 National Assembly elections much of the opposition refused to participate due to alleged irregularities and confidentiality of the voting system & as a result the National Assembly is almost totally in Chavez' camp.

General elections were held on Dec. 3, 2006. The incumbent president won with a landslide of more than 60% of the vote. He has promised to continue his current socialist revolutionary style of politics and will no doubt be strengthening it now that he is in such a strong position. It is hard to predict where that will lead.
On Dec.2, 2007 there was referendum on changes to the existing constitution & it would be wise for any potential investors to investigate the implications of these changes before investing.
The changes to the reform of the constitution were defeated.

Elections for mayors & governors were held on Nov.23, 2008.
Morel Rodriguez repeated as Margarita's Governor. The "opposition" won 5 state governorships including the major population areas of Venezuela.

A referendum was held on Feb. 15, 2009 which changed the constitution to eliminate term limits for elected officials including President Chavez.

National Assembly elections were held in September 2010. These are the elections that the opposition did not participate in the last time around due to alleged fraud & allowed the current government to have total control of the law making process. The opposition won 52% of the vote but only got 40% of the assembly seats due to changes in the electoral areas which benefited the government.
The President also received special powers for 18 months
which effectively eliminated any power the new assembly members would have.
It's a very complicated situation right now
The President's recent bout with cancer has only added to the uncertainty. (July 2011)

Sept. 2011 - Presidential elections will be Oct. 7, 2012 with governors in December 2012
and mayors & councilmen in April, 2013

Feb. 2012: the opposistion parties will hold a primary election on Sunday, Feb. 12 with 5 candidates vying for the presidential nomination to run against Chavez.
As of today the polls give the edge to Henrique Capriles.
All candidates have agreed to support whoever wins in a unfied effort to unseat Chavez.

For up to date news stories in English have a look at http://english.eluniversal.com/.

The good news for foreigners is that the cost of living is very reasonable in dollar, Euro or Sterling terms. Also Isla Margarita is a very peaceful island. We seldom are affected by what goes on in the rest of Venezuela. Safety and security for tourists here are better than in many other vacation spots and certainly far better than in most major cities throughout the world.

For those of you planning on buying a house or apartment here, you must consider the security features of the property you are about to buy or be prepared to modify it once you buy it to avoid home entries which have become more common. High walls and either concertina wire or electric security fencing are the order of the day.

If you need some time to find a rental place I can recommend my vacation property as an affordable & comfortable place to stay for a couple of weeks / months while you are looking around and getting oriented.

Margarita Tropical Villa Pool

Bed & breakfast in Playa El Agua. 10 rooms with king size beds, A/C, pool, fridges, DirecTV with HBO & CineMax, free Internet & breakfast From US$40 - See www.casatrudel.com for info!

Pool Side Room