Venezuela: The Game Changed Last night (some REAL S*** is going down there)

[KevinNYC]

Here's an article about their economy from November.

The slump in Venezuelan oil prices is depriving the South American nation of its main source of revenue and threatening bondholders already suffering the worst losses in emerging markets.

Average prices of Venezuelan crude exports, responsible for 95 percent of the nation’s foreign currency earnings, fell to a 16-month low this month and ended last week at $93.98 a barrel. Each $1 dollar decline in a barrel of oil costs Venezuela about $700 million per year, according to estimates from state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

and it's only gotten worse.

Inflation is up to 50%, there's a black market of people exchanging their money for US dollars, there's shortages in the markets.

[Lebowsky]

My guess would be that without Chavez you still have all the repression with none of the cult of personality.


Protestors are leaving these in the streets to protect against the motorcycle thugs.

That's right. Maduro has no charisma or appeal to the masses, unlike Chavez. Now factor in the economic situation getting beyond critical, corruption and street crime running rampant, state repression tightening, and here's the result.

Things are getting really bad. 6 dead in a week of protests. They arrested one of the main leaders of the opposition under crazy made up charges and put him in a military prison. The government is arming and funding street gangs to attack protesters. Cuban intelligence agents are starting to arrive in the country. Things are looking really dire, it's about to blow up.

[KevinNYC]

I don't know about y'all but between this and the Ukraine and Aleppo, I'm feeling fortunate that I don't have to confront those issues.

[Dictator]

America should have bombed Venezuela off the face of the Earth when Hugo was still alive. These Latin American countries are ripe with corruption and human rights abuses. Now the worlds police will eventually have get involved somehow because people don't know how to govern themselves.

Eat a snickers, you turn into a dumbass when you're hungry.

[Lebowsky]

i was just reading about this after seeing a friend post this video on facebook, which is making serious waves around the web and actually comes straight from the blog (caracaschronicles) cited in the op.

it's worth reading up from as wide a variety of sources you can. too often when people take to the streets, our instinct as secure and insulated westerners is to jump on the side of the people and decry everything about the state. and as usual, whether we're talking about ukraine, venezuela, thailand, or egypt and syria in recent years... that's a mistake. i found some more reasonable accounts at places like human rights watch and amnesty international. the independent and christian science monitor also had more balanced takes. there's a democracynow interview with a professor that comes off as a bit of a maduro/chavez whitewash but nevertheless highlights the nuances of what's happening right now.

the bottom line imo is that students are pissed off, as they should be, because the economy does appear to be in shambles. i don't believe economic policy is strictly to blame but i don't have the background to take a strong stand on that.

a major mistake is to presume supposed "leaders" -- i'm specifically talking about leopoldo lopez now -- are the good guys fighting the big bad commie takeover government (that won substantially in municipal elections not three months ago bear in mind). check into his background. btw, another thought to bear in mind, his party has been supported for years now by the american "civil society funding" initiatives, which is code for foreign electioneering by the NED and its republican (i think) counterpart.

as for lopez' imprisonment, nobody has any idea right now if the charges against him, which range from inciting murder to arson, are backed by any evidence whatsoever. it's worth noting that when he turned himself in, a week after the government issued its warrant (and he wasn't hiding), he was joined by thousands of supporters, and actually given a megaphone to address them before he was taken away.

i think accusations of government repression are overblown. i read the word totalitarian in one article, which is completely disrespectful to the people who actually were forced to live under such a regime. the media takeover is apparently also somewhat distorted in the western media. the colombian station (supposedly one of the few anti-govt stations left) was taken off the airways recently. but as to maduro owning and operating or coercing every media outlet in the country... it's farfetched. heres a publication by jimmy carter's org that details the media as of the presidential election back in april. worth a look.

the maduro government is not responding as it should. he issued a declaration that all violent action against nonviolent protest will be acted upon by his own forced... but police, national armies, and paramilitaries which i know nothing about (and nobody else seems to either) are acting on their own accord. there are realities here on the ground, from the past many years, that need to be addressed. progress has been made since chavez came into power, that much is undeniable, but these students need to get a personal and genuine response from their president. i sincerely hope he brings it. and i sincerely hope they (the protesters) aren't usurped by leaders with ulterior motives that will unquestionably lead to even more dissatisfaction.

Sorry, Ridonks, but most of your post is fairly misguided. While I do agree with some of your points, others do come across a bit naive.

Students (but not only them) are pissed of, and rightfully so, because a potentially wealthy country is going down the shitter due to corruption and incompetence. Economic policy is indeed to blame. Their minister of finance used to be an old-school communist up until recently (Giordani). They've robbed the country blind of its means of production by confiscating private companies who wouldn't bend to their desires. Those once succesful businesses have been completely run to the ground, to the point they currently have to import an overwhelming majority of what they consume. In a country that depends on oil income, that's an extremely risky position to hold. To make it worse, their currency is pegged to the dollar, so people and businesses can't freely buy dollars to finance their imports, which has led to the extreme shortage of basic goods they have.
On top of all that, the Government is extremely corrupt. They are robbing the country blind, plain and simple. To give you an example,years ago, some foreign independent reporters traced accounts in some Swiss banks to Diosdado Cabello, one of PSUV's main leaders, in excess of USD21M. Imagine how much he has by now. And that's just one case.

Then you also have the state-sponsored paramilitary groups, the mindblowing murder rates, the tolerance towards FARC and ELN terrorists operating in Venezuela, the Cuban interference in their national affairs...

Regarding the elections you mentioned, it was proven beyond doubt that the results were rigged by PSUV, I thought that was common knowledge. Nobody from the opposition acknowledged the results. They demanded for the results to be independently audited, and then the electoral commision enacted a ridiculous charade. There is no separation of powers in Venezuela, the PSUV permeates all and rules all.
I'm not sold on Leopoldo Lopez as a leader either. Capriles looks like the perfect guy to lead the country out of the shadows, and he should be doing that now if not for the massive electoral fraud.

People have been passive long enough, but they are tired and they want a change. I don't know how it will end, but at least is something.

[fsvr54]

I'm part Venezuelan on my dad's side, I was born there.

[christian1923]

Damn that capped miss venezuala. What's wrong with these ppl

[netsfan549]

Do you guys see Obama getting in this?

[KevinNYC]

Do you guys see Obama getting in this?

Since this is almost purely domestic, I don't think so.

With the Ukraine, you have the situation of where the government wants to get close to Putin and the population seems to want to join the EU. We might do sanctions against them....we may even still have some in place. You would think that Obama would be on the side of the protesters and given our recent history with Venezuela, our getting overtly involved would discredit the protesters.

If you remember a couple of years ago when they were having the protests in Iran, folks wanted Obama to endorse one of the reform candidates. This probably would have been a terrible idea for the reasons this Iranian journalist lays out[QUOTE]As the demonstrations grew, the two main opposition leaders

[MightyWhitey]

fukk you , war mongering , assh0le

Grow up. Venezuela is nothing more than a dictatorship that should've been torn down years ago.

[MightyWhitey]

Do you even know our history with Latin American countries? I really hope you do although that statement is stupid anyway.

Idiot.

Sure do know about it. And now the United States of America has another leader to install in power in another troublesome country. Or we could just bomb the hell out of them and teach them a lesson in Statecraft and human rights abuses.

[cuad]

USA sponsored paramilitary*.

We comin' for dat oil, Venezuela.

[Big_Dogg]

Grow up. Venezuela is nothing more than a dictatorship that should've been torn down years ago.

Funny how countries are a dictatorship in America's eyes when the countries leader tells America to go fu(k itself coz they won't give up the rights to their oil reserves

[MightyWhitey]

Funny how countries are a dictatorship in America's eyes when the countries leader tells America to go fu(k itself coz they won't give up the rights to their oil reserves

[Big_Dogg]

Don't tell me you're stupid enough to think it was for other reasons