Topic: Real Time Socialist Train Wreck (again) Happening Now in Venezuela - page 4. (Read 42657 times)

This is a lesson for all the oil producing nations (including Saudi Arabia and Qatar). They should have made wise investments when the oil price was high (some of them, like UAE and Norway did that in the form of sovereign wealth funds). In case of Venezuela, they squandered away all the oil money, thinking that the high oil prices will last for ever.

Venezuela Sends In The Army To Deal With Desperate People Chanting, “We Want Food!”, One Killed…







Venezuela’s military has taken control of security in the coastal city of Cumaná after the latest bout of looting and food riots that led to the arrest of 400 people, many of them minors.

Violence engulfed the Caribbean city on Tuesday as looters swarmed over 60 shops after a rally of protesters demanding food got out of control.

Milagros Paz, an opposition legislator from the area, told reporters on Wednesday that one person died and 25 people were injured in the clashes. Unconfirmed social media reports have claimed there were several deaths.

Sucre’s governor, however, said that none of the alleged deaths were related to the unrest, at the same time as he announced a ban on the use of motorcycles in the city for the next three days.

“There were only 400 people arrested and the deaths were not linked to the looting,” Luis Acuña, from the ruling Socialist Party, told Globovisión. The governor blamed the violence on vandals paid to wreak havoc by right-wing politicians.

With desperate crowds of people chanting “We want food!,” protests and melees at shops have spread across Venezuela in recent weeks, fueled by severe shortages. Three people were shot dead in separate incidents last week, with a policeman and a soldier arrested in two cases.


https://news.vice.com/article/venezuela-sends-in-the-army-to-deal-with-food-shortage-protesters?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

See:
Socialist health care, socialist retirement funding, socialist housing, wage controls, Obama, Hillary, Bernie, etc.

Progressive = socialist
Environmentalist = socialist
US liberal = socialist

That is why socialism is a failure. No conspiracy. That exchange between you two is proof enough. Bad management of resources. Lack of vision. No nimble economical flexibility (centralized by bureaucrats who will never be on long lines to get food for their families and their connected friends), etc, etc.

People love to control other people. If small towns out in the country are probably living life as usual were too unimportant for the bureaucrats, they had to fend for themselves from the beginning. Now, because they knew how to grow their own food, because they could not afford cars, expensive flat TV etc. They are suffering less that people in Caracas who have been fed a whole slew of lies by their corrupted socialist propagandists.

Surprisingly, a lie is not a good source of protein and carbs. That is why they are starving now.

My thoughts exactly. I suspect also that there is a lot of resources and intelligence that has gone on behind the scenes to destabilise Venezeula (what with them holding the 2nd largest reserves of crude in the world right on the doorestep of the US, that great guzzler of the black gold).


You've lost me there though 

Do keep in mind that there will be a lot of propaganda around this. The west will want to hold Venezuela up as an example of a failed socialist state (which is ironic because the west loves socialism). Like all propaganda they will point to the instances of radical mayhem and infer that this is happening throughout the country. Most likely the worst is in the major cities while the small towns out in the country are probably living life as usual (with some more efforts than usual).

It is a good example of what will come and helps to demonstrate how to prepare. But if you watch that video of the Venezualan pageant women, it shows a bustling city without panic on the streets.

Such panic is a symptom of a bigger problem much in how Ferguson in the US is a symptom of our impending economic crisis. It hits some before it hits others. It's just more sensationalizing to report on those that it hits first.

States Of Undress - Venezuela

Empty pockets. Will take quite a while for the refill, unfortunately people are starving now.

I thought by now the situation would have improved. The Brent crude prices are hovering around $50 per barrel for the past few weeks, and the Venezuelan government must be getting quite good amounts of Forex now. Seems like the governing elite is diverting the money to tax havens, and planning to escape from the country.

Venezuelan Woman Shot In The Face After 500 Looters Storm Food Warehouse



Several weeks ago, when we showed dramatic scenes from a Venezuela looting in which countless people were wounded after 5,000 looters stormed a supermarket, looking for food...


... we said that at this rate it is only a matter of time before we get the first casualty of Venezuela's "social apocalypse."

Unfortunately this prediction came true today when Reuters reported that a Venezuelan woman died on Monday after being shot in the face when looters raided state food warehouses in the latest unrest in the crisis-hit OPEC nation. Relatives of hotel worker Jenny Ortiz, 42, said she died in hospital after being shot during the melee late on Sunday in San Cristobal, a town near the border of Colombia, where looting and anti-government protests have been occurring in recent months.






What makes this tragedy worse is that according to the victim's family, including her mother-in-law Carmen Rosa, 58, who said she saw the incident, that a policeman shot Ortiz.Authorities did not comment on that accusation, though local police said armed criminals had fired on police and an investigation was underway.

"The warehouses were supposedly full of food and the people need food," Rosa told Reuters at the morgue where her daughter-in-law's corpse was taken, saying about 500 local residents had descended on the premises. When security forces chased some of the crowd after they broke in, "they jumped down a bank to protect themselves, and a policeman who was pursuing them shot her. They shot her in the face," she added.

As we have reported over the past month, Venezuela has seen a rise in looting, lynchings and violent protests this year during a deepening economic crisis. There are shortages of food and other basics across the nation of 30 million people, and inflation is the highest in the world. While the opposition coalition blames socialist President Nicolas Maduro and is seeking a referendum to recall him, the government says political foes are fanning the crisis with an "economic war" and seeking a coup against him.

Vielma Mora, a ruling Socialist Party member who governs the state including San Cristobal, confirmed the woman's death and said it happened after several days of looting. "These are plans orchestrated by the right wing," he said. "We hope to capture the person responsible." Of course, if the person responsible is a police officer, the government will simply blame an innocent, starving scapegoat among the looters and that will be the end of it.

As Reuters adds, Venezuelans' patience is wearing thin as they skip meals, survive off yucca or mangoes, and grapple with supermarkets unable to provide food for lines that can stretch into the thousands.

There is no official data, but non-governmental group Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict reported 107 episodes of looting or attempted looting in the first quarter.


As long as Maduro's government remains in power, this tragic trend is unlikely to change, although in reality even with a government replacement, one fails to see just how the economic situation will rebound even over the medium term as a result of not just chronic corruption and crime at the highest levels of political power, but because the nation's coffers have effectively run dry which is paradoxical for the country which supposedly has the world's largest oil deposits.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-06/venezuelan-woman-shot-face-after-500-looters-storm-food-warehouse

Police Fire Tear Gas As Hundreds Of Venezuelans Chant Outside Presidential Palace, “We Want Food!”








CARACAS Venezuelan security forces fired teargas at protesters chanting "We want food!" near Caracas' presidential palace on Thursday, the latest street violence in the crisis-hit OPEC nation.

Hundreds of angry Venezuelans heading toward Miraflores palace in downtown Caracas were met by National Guard troops and police who blocked a major road.

President Nicolas Maduro, under intense pressure over a worsening economic crisis in the South American nation of 30 million, had been scheduled to address a rally of indigenous groups nearby around the same time.

The protest spilled out of long lines at shops in the area, witnesses said, after some people tried to hijack a food truck.

"I've been here since eight in the morning. There's no more food in the shops and supermarkets," one woman told pro-opposition broadcaster Vivoplay.

"We're hungry and tired."

The government accused opposition politicians of inciting the chaos but said security forces had the situation under control.

Despite their country having the world's biggest oil reserves, Venezuelans are suffering severe shortages of consumer goods ranging from milk to flour, soaring prices and a shrinking economy.

Maduro blames the fall in global oil prices and an "economic war" by his foes, whom he also accuses of seeking a coup.

"Every day, they bring out violent groups seeking violence in the streets," he said in a speech at the indigenous rally, which went ahead near Miraflores later in the day. "And every day, the people reject them and expel them."

Critics say Venezuela's economic chaos is the consequence of failed socialist policies for the last 17 years, especially price and currency controls.

The opposition wants a referendum this year to recall Maduro. Protests over shortages, power cuts and crime occur daily, and looting and lynchings are on the rise.

Several local journalists said they were robbed during Thursday's chaos in downtown Caracas.

The government's top economic official, Miguel Perez, acknowledged the hardships Venezuelans were undergoing but promised the situation would improve.

"We know this month has been really critical. It's been the month with the lowest supply of products. That's why families are anxious," he told local radio.

"We guarantee things will improve in the next few weeks."


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-protest-idUSKCN0YO2M9


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A surprising and unexpected development from this socialist paradise...

Controlling the demand is out of question. The market price can be manipulated, if you are the sole producer. Look at the rare earth elements (REE). The Chinese supply more than 97% of them, and they usually indulge in manipulating the market prices. It is not possible with crude oil, as there is fierce competition between various producers.

Strictly speaking no - its not fine just because you are bigger. Just means you are a) even more dependant  and  b) temporarily riding the crest of the wave.

A mono economy is fine when you are controlling the demand and market price, when you are the master.

Dozens of nations around the world are actually mono economies. Look at the GCC nations (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait.etc). All of them are dependant on the exports of petroleum products. The same with Venezuela, Angola, Nigeria, and Azerbaijan as well. Now look at Central Asia. There are countries such as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which are entirely dependant upon the export of blue-collar workers. There is Uzbekistan, which is heavily dependant on the export of cotton. It is not possible to change the system overnight.

What is a mono economy?


a mono-economy is a economy relying on one major export or natural resource to bring most of the currency into the country.



A.K.A. a really, really, really bad idea.

Th problem is that Maduro was not as good as Chavez. The latter almost eradicated poverty in Venezuela, and revolutionized the healthcare system. Unfortunately, Maduro could not build on the good work done by Chavez. And I am not sure whether getting rid of Maduro will do the job, as the alternatives are even worse.

It's really shocking to see something like this in the modern age, in country so blessed and rich with their natural resources, specially oil.
It's really sad to see what happened to this country and its people because of their government and social utopia they proclaimed.
It seems such crazy ideas can live until all money run away.
After that everything collapse.
Venezuela don't have future if they don't get rid from current dictator Maduro.

I don't know why the governments in all these oil producing nations are so stupid. It is the same case everywhere - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Brazil, Angola, Nigeria, Norway.... They were thinking that the $100 per barrel crude oil price was going to stay for ever? Even Qatar (regarded as the richest country in the world) is issuing treasury bonds....