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Topic: Real Time Socialist Train Wreck (again) Happening Now in Venezuela - page 6. (Read 42657 times)

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The daughter of Hugo Chavez, the former president who once declared ‘being rich is bad,’ may be the wealthiest woman in Venezuela, according to evidence reportedly in the hands of Venezuelan media outlets.

Maria Gabriela Chavez, 35, the late president’s second-oldest daughter, holds assets in American and Andorran banks totaling almost $4.2billion, Diario las Americas reports.

The figure would make Gabriela Chavez wealthier than media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, whom Forbes named the wealthiest Venezuelan earlier this year with $3.6billion in assets.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192933/Hugo-Chavez-s-ambassador-daughter-Venezuela-s-richest-woman-according-new-report.html
Real life animal farm. All people are equal, but some are more equal than others  Roll Eyes
legendary
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/09/venezuela-seizes-stores/3486581/

Venezuelan military seizes major retail chain

Thousands of Venezuelans lined up outside the country's equivalent of Best Buy, a chain of electronics stores known as Daka, hoping for a bargain after the socialist government forced the company to charge customers "fair" prices.

President Nicolás Maduro ordered a military "occupation" of the company's five stores as he continues the government's crackdown on an "economic war" it says is being waged against the country, with the help of Washington.

Members of Venezuela's National Guard, some of whom carried assault rifles, kept order at the stores as bargain hunters rushed to get inside.

"I want a Sony plasma television for the house," said Amanda Lisboa, 34, a business administrator, who had waited seven hours already outside one Caracas store. "It's going to be so cheap!"

Televisions were the most in-demand item in the line outside one Caracas store, though people waited more than eight hours for fridges, washing machines, sewing machines and other imported appliances.

Water and snacks were being sold outside the store by savvy Venezuelans keen to profit from the commotion. Happy customers weaved giant television screens and other items back to their cars through the crowds.

Images circulating online as well as reports by local media appeared to show one Daka store in the country's central city of Valencia being looted.

"I have no love for this government," said Gabriela Campo, 33, a businesswoman, hoping to take home a cut-price television and fridge. "They're doing this for nothing but political reasons, in time for December's elections."

Maduro faces municipal elections on Dec. 8. His popularity has dropped significantly in recent months, with shortages of basic items such as chicken, milk and toilet paper as well as soaring inflation, at 54.3% over the past 12 months.

Economists are expecting a devaluation soon after the election, likely leading to even higher inflation.

The opposition, which has long struggled to gain ground against the country's socialist government, is hoping that the elections will be seen as a referendum against Maduro.

The president, who took over from Hugo Chávez in April 2013, appeared on state television Friday calling for the "occupation" of the chain, which employs some 500 staff.

"This is for the good of the nation," Maduro said. "Leave nothing on the shelves, nothing in the warehouses … Let nothing remain in stock!"

The president was accompanied on television by images of officials checking prices of 32-inch plasma televisions.

Daka's store managers, according to Maduro, have been arrested and are being held by the country's security services. Neither Daka nor the government responded to requests for comment.

Maduro has long blamed the opposition for waging an economic war on the country though critics are adamant that government price controls, enacted by Chávez a decade ago, are the real cause for the dire state of the economy.

With such a shortage of hard currency for importers and regular citizens, dollars sell on the black market for nine times their official, government-set value. Prices, at shops such as Daka, are set according to this black market, hence the government's crackdown.

Chávez often theatrically expropriated or seized assets from more than 1,000 companies during his 14-year tenure. This, among other difficulties for foreign firms, led to a severe lack of foreign investment in the country which, according to OPEC, has the world's largest oil reserves.

"This is more like government-sanctioned looting," said 42-year-old Caracas-based engineer Carlos Rivero. "What stops them going into pharmacies, supermarkets and shopping malls?"

Not all were for the bargain hunting. One taxi driver screamed at the waiting crowds as he went past a Caracas branch of Daka, accusing them of "abusing" the system.

this is so ridiculous.. in this capitalist world, these store can easily find a new marketing place...


Are you talking about the actual capitalist world of Venezuela?


sr. member
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/09/venezuela-seizes-stores/3486581/

Venezuelan military seizes major retail chain

Thousands of Venezuelans lined up outside the country's equivalent of Best Buy, a chain of electronics stores known as Daka, hoping for a bargain after the socialist government forced the company to charge customers "fair" prices.

President Nicolás Maduro ordered a military "occupation" of the company's five stores as he continues the government's crackdown on an "economic war" it says is being waged against the country, with the help of Washington.

Members of Venezuela's National Guard, some of whom carried assault rifles, kept order at the stores as bargain hunters rushed to get inside.

"I want a Sony plasma television for the house," said Amanda Lisboa, 34, a business administrator, who had waited seven hours already outside one Caracas store. "It's going to be so cheap!"

Televisions were the most in-demand item in the line outside one Caracas store, though people waited more than eight hours for fridges, washing machines, sewing machines and other imported appliances.

Water and snacks were being sold outside the store by savvy Venezuelans keen to profit from the commotion. Happy customers weaved giant television screens and other items back to their cars through the crowds.

Images circulating online as well as reports by local media appeared to show one Daka store in the country's central city of Valencia being looted.

"I have no love for this government," said Gabriela Campo, 33, a businesswoman, hoping to take home a cut-price television and fridge. "They're doing this for nothing but political reasons, in time for December's elections."

Maduro faces municipal elections on Dec. 8. His popularity has dropped significantly in recent months, with shortages of basic items such as chicken, milk and toilet paper as well as soaring inflation, at 54.3% over the past 12 months.

Economists are expecting a devaluation soon after the election, likely leading to even higher inflation.

The opposition, which has long struggled to gain ground against the country's socialist government, is hoping that the elections will be seen as a referendum against Maduro.

The president, who took over from Hugo Chávez in April 2013, appeared on state television Friday calling for the "occupation" of the chain, which employs some 500 staff.

"This is for the good of the nation," Maduro said. "Leave nothing on the shelves, nothing in the warehouses … Let nothing remain in stock!"

The president was accompanied on television by images of officials checking prices of 32-inch plasma televisions.

Daka's store managers, according to Maduro, have been arrested and are being held by the country's security services. Neither Daka nor the government responded to requests for comment.

Maduro has long blamed the opposition for waging an economic war on the country though critics are adamant that government price controls, enacted by Chávez a decade ago, are the real cause for the dire state of the economy.

With such a shortage of hard currency for importers and regular citizens, dollars sell on the black market for nine times their official, government-set value. Prices, at shops such as Daka, are set according to this black market, hence the government's crackdown.

Chávez often theatrically expropriated or seized assets from more than 1,000 companies during his 14-year tenure. This, among other difficulties for foreign firms, led to a severe lack of foreign investment in the country which, according to OPEC, has the world's largest oil reserves.

"This is more like government-sanctioned looting," said 42-year-old Caracas-based engineer Carlos Rivero. "What stops them going into pharmacies, supermarkets and shopping malls?"

Not all were for the bargain hunting. One taxi driver screamed at the waiting crowds as he went past a Caracas branch of Daka, accusing them of "abusing" the system.

this is so ridiculous.. in this capitalist world, these store can easily find a new marketing place...
legendary
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Socialism Works: Venezuela to Pass 700% Inflation









 If the whole "trying to become president" thing doesn't work out for Bernie Sanders, maybe he can head over to Venezuela. Socialism worked so well over there that basic staples are missing from stores, the army occupied toilet paper factories and the money has become worthless.

    The International Monetary Fund says Venezuela inflation will blow past 700 percent this year.

    In a note published Friday, IMF Western Hemisphere Director Alejandro Werner said inflation would more than double in the economically struggling South American country in 2016, reaching 720 percent.

    Venezuela already suffers from the world's highest inflation rate. The IMF estimates that inflation here was running at 275 percent last year.

This is your country. This is your country on Socialism. The Bolivarian revolution has destroyed Venezuela. So Maduro, despite just getting whomped in legislative election, is running his emergency economic decree backed by a Supreme Court that his party packed. The newly free market legislature is defying him. Think Obama vs. Republicans all over again.

    Venezuela's opposition said on Friday it would not approve President Nicolas Maduro's "economic emergency" decree in congress as it did not offer solutions for the OPEC nation's increasingly disastrous recession.

    Maduro's decree, issued a week ago, would give the socialist government wider powers to control the budget, companies and currency.

    But the opposition says he already has sufficient powers and insists he is the real problem.

Sound familiar?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/261563/socialism-works-venezuela-pass-700-inflation-daniel-greenfield


legendary
Activity: 3766
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The Venezuelan government could always fall back on their amazing Miss Universe output for revenue...

Brazil and Colombia have overtaken Venezuela as the preferred destination of Western sex tourists. That said, the things could change, as a pro-Western government have been elected last month, with more than two-thirds majority. Now they are planning to export the women directly to the United States and the other Western nations.
legendary
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'Christmas is dead' in Venezuela, and 2016 looks grim


Caracas (AFP) - "Christmas is dead," says Elise Belisario, who, like many Venezuelans, can't afford to hang decorations or make a traditional holiday meal this year.

And 2016 augurs bleak times too in this staggering oil giant, where the new year looks set to bring political power struggles and little respite from a crippling economic crisis.

Belisario lives in the sprawling slum of Petare, on the outskirts of Caracas, which is suffering this holiday season from the shortages and triple-digit inflation gripping Venezuela -- the twin tribulations of the once high-flying economy's demise.

Where Christmases past brought exuberant decorations and balconies drenched in lights, this year Petare's streets are drab and dark.

"There's just not enough money. We've switched off Christmas," said Belisario, a 28-year-old with two kids who recently lost her job.

When the oil money was flowing, Christmas was a consumer bonanza in Venezuela, a predominantly Catholic country with a flair for celebrations.

But that has changed as oil prices have plunged, and the opulent days under late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez (1999-2013) have given way to the malaise plaguing his less charmed successor, Nicolas Maduro.

"We were rich and we didn't even know it," said Belisario.

At a nearby shop, cashier Olga Gonzalez, 50, dejectedly picks up the nearly empty piggy bank she has dressed up in a little Santa Claus suit in hopes of getting some traditional Christmas tips.

But there are no customers to leave them.

"People are more worried about buying food than giving gifts this year," she said.

Exasperated with empty supermarket shelves, runaway prices and violent crime, Venezuelans gave the opposition a landslide victory in legislative elections this month, ending the Chavez movement's 16-year monopoly on power.

But Maduro's term runs until 2019, and the power struggles of divided government mean things are likely to get worse before they get better, some political analysts warn.




http://news.yahoo.com/christmas-dead-venezuela-2016-looks-grim-111456110.html

legendary
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Oil is cheap now, making the title of this thread created so long ago even more accurate.

Iran is planning to increase its output very significantly in the next 2-3 years. It is quite possible that the oil prices can plunge below $20 per barrel, a price at which only a select few countries can afford producing crude oil. Venezuela will disintegrate if anything like this happens, as the government revenue will be reduced to ZERO.


The Venezuelan government could always fall back on their amazing Miss Universe output for revenue...

 Cool


legendary
Activity: 3766
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Oil is cheap now, making the title of this thread created so long ago even more accurate.

Iran is planning to increase its output very significantly in the next 2-3 years. It is quite possible that the oil prices can plunge below $20 per barrel, a price at which only a select few countries can afford producing crude oil. Venezuela will disintegrate if anything like this happens, as the government revenue will be reduced to ZERO.
legendary
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The exchange rate (informal) is around 900 Venezuelan Bolivar to 1 USD right now. A few months ago, it was 680 Bolivar to 1 USD. So it seems to me that the situation is getting worse. And there is no hope of an economic recovery, unless the crude oil prices increase.


Oil is cheap now, making the title of this thread created so long ago even more accurate.

legendary
Activity: 3766
Merit: 1217
The exchange rate (informal) is around 900 Venezuelan Bolivar to 1 USD right now. A few months ago, it was 680 Bolivar to 1 USD. So it seems to me that the situation is getting worse. And there is no hope of an economic recovery, unless the crude oil prices increase.
legendary
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Venezuelan Regional Opposition Leader Shot Dead at Rally – Marxist Thugs Blamed



Regional opposition leader Luis Manuel Diaz was shot dead at a campaign rally less than two weeks before Venezuelan parliamentary elections.

Luis Manuel Diaz was shot on stage during a rally.
Hitmen from the Marxist United Socialist Party were blamed for the attack.

Chavista thugs were blamed for the assassination.


The ruling Chavista Socialists denied involvement in the assassination.
The BBC reported:

A regional opposition leader in Venezuela has been shot dead at a campaign rally less than two weeks before parliamentary elections.

The Democratic Action party says Luis Manuel Diaz was killed by a man who approached the stage after a public meeting in central Guarico state.

Opposition leaders blamed militias supporting the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

President Nicolas Maduro denied this and said an inquiry had been launched.

“The interior ministry has strong indications that it was a clash between rival criminal gangs,” said Mr Maduro.

Lilian Tintori, the wife of jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, addressed opposition supporters alongside Mr Diaz shortly before the shooting.

The Democratic Action party leader, Henry Ramos Allup, said Mr Diaz had been shot dead by “armed PSUV gangs” from a vehicle.

“Whatever happens, the Venezuelan people will go to the polls on 6 December, and we will win”, said Mr Ramos Allup in a press conference.

Diaz was buried today.


http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/11/venezuelan-regional-opposition-leader-shot-dead-on-stage-marxist-thugs-blamed/


legendary
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legendary
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Livid over crime, some Venezuelans resort to mob justice


VALENCIA/CARACAS (Reuters) - When a man they believed to be a thief sneaked into their parking lot in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, angry residents caught him, stripped him and beat him with fists, sticks and stones.

They tied him up and doused him in gasoline, according to witnesses, in one of what rights groups and media reports say are an increasing number of mob beatings and lynchings in a country ravaged by crime.

That August night, as locals say is common, three people had sneaked into Valencia's Kerdell residential block. In past such break-ins, thieves have made off with car tires, batteries and radios.

But this time, one resident spotted the trespassers and alerted other neighbors, according to the witnesses.

"'Kill him, give it to him,' they shouted," recounted Trina Castro, 82, in this once middle-class and peaceful area that is now plagued with garbage and graffiti. One reads: "Get ready, thief, here we burn you. Regards, Kerdell."

"I tried to stop the mob but the level of violence endangered anyone who opposed them," said another witness, asking to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

The unconscious man, who was not torched, was evacuated and is now in the local hospital's trauma ward, according to witnesses and Valencia's police. The police said they had no further details and did not identify the man.

A source at the Interior Ministry, who asked to remain anonymous because the minister is the only person authorized to speak on the record, said it does not usually comment on cases under investigation. Venezuela's state prosecutor's office said it had not issued a statement on the incident.

The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), a non-governmental organization, estimates there were 40 cases in 2014 of lynchings, usually defined as extrajudicial killings by mobs.

The Observatory does not yet have figures for 2015, but a Reuters tally of media reports shows that in the last month alone there have been over a dozen mob-led beatings or lynchings.

There is no official public data on mob justice in once industry-rich Valencia or across a country that is in economic crisis. President Nicolas Maduro's administration often blames violence on political rivals seeking to sabotage the socialist government. Authorities have also accused foreign media of exaggerating crime in Venezuela.

'COLLECTIVE CATHARSIS'

The OVV and other rights groups say mob justice is rising as a response to perceived helplessness in the face of crime.

"Lynching is a collective catharsis. Everyone is guilty and no one is guilty," said Roberto Briceno of the OVV.

Venezuela has the world's second highest homicide rate, at 53.7 per 100,000 people in 2012, according to the United Nations, and weapons are easily available.

Courts are slow, judges are sometimes on the take and criminals are frequently released right after arrest, according to non-profit groups.

"The police can arrest criminals, but then the courts free them. As long as there's no response from the state, lynchings will increase," said Elisio Guzman, the head of state police in the state of Miranda.

Venezuela, a major oil exporter, is also mired in a deep economic crisis, hurt by currency controls and falling oil prices.

The International Monetary Fund expects a contraction of 7 percent to the economy this year and private economists calculate annual inflation has topped 100 percent. Shortages fuel a lucrative black market for car batteries and food, increasing incentives for theft.

'HIT THEM HARD'

While lynchings used to be primarily in low-income areas and in response to murders or rapes, monitoring groups say, there have been attacks recently in wealthier areas on common thieves.

Last month, two men were chased and badly beaten for stealing a purse in Caracas' affluent Los Palos Grandes neighborhood. Residents shouted "hit them hard" from their windows before police arrived and stopped the thrashing, witnesses said.

"The thieves are always after us. I don't agree with lynchings, but what other options do we have?" said witness Raquel Brito, 54.

A 20 year-old died in a middle-class area of Caracas in August after being punched, shot and burned for suspected robbery, media reported. Reuters could not independently confirm the case.

In Valencia, the Kerdell complex sits a block from a branch of the country's CICPC investigative police. But some residents here, as in much of Venezuela, say they tend to view security forces as overworked and corrupt.

Officers, in turn, frequently complain of poor pay and equipment.

Some Venezuelans are deeply shocked by the mob justice. Others fear violent citizens' response to crime will only breed more violence.

"Now we're all scared that retaliation could be in store," said retired mathematics and physics teacher Maria Perez, 66, who has lived in Kerdell for 30 years but is now thinking of moving out.


http://news.yahoo.com/livid-over-crime-venezuelans-resort-mob-justice-181843197.html


legendary
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Woman, 80, trampled to death in Venezuelan supermarket stampede
Rush for subsidized goods sees 75 people injured as thousands besiege supermarket





An 80-year-old Venezuelan woman died, possibly from trampling, in a scrum outside a state supermarket selling subsidized goods, the opposition and media said on Friday.

The melee at the store in Sabaneta, the birthplace of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was the latest such incident in the South American nation where economic hardship and food shortages are creating long queues and scuffles.

The opposition Democratic Unity coalition said Maria Aguirre died and another 75 people were injured – including five security officials – in chaotic scenes when National Guard troops sought to control a 5,000-strong crowd with teargas.

“Due to the shortage of food … the desperation is enormous,” local opposition politician Andres Camejo said, according to the coalition’s website. It published a photo of an elderly woman’s body lying inert on a concrete floor.

Camejo said thieves had also attacked the crowd, members of which were seeking to buy cheap food on offer at an outlet of the state’s Mercal supermarket chain in Barinas state.

There was no confirmation of the incident by authorities.

El Universal newspaper reported that Aguirre was knocked to the ground during jostling in the crowd, while the pro-opposition El Nacional said she was crushed in a stampede.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11832443/Woman-80-trampled-to-death-in-Venezuelan-supermarket-stampede.html


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Venezuela’s Food Shortages Trigger Long Lines, Hunger and Looting




Click to open























Violent clashes flare in pockets around the country as citizens wait for hours for basics like milk and rice


LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlier this month, a mob infuriated by worsening food shortages rammed trucks into the smoldering edifice, reducing it mostly to rubble.

The incident was just one of numerous violent clashes that have flared in pockets around the country in recent weeks as Venezuelans wait for hours in long supermarket lines for basics like milk and rice. Shortages have made hunger a palpable concern for many Wayuu Indians who live here at the northern tip of Venezuela’s 1,300-mile border with Colombia.

The soldiers had been deployed to stem rampant food smuggling and price speculation, which President Nicolás Maduro blames for triple-digit inflation and scarcity. But after they seize contraband goods, the troops themselves often become targets of increasingly desperate people.

“What’s certain is that we are going very hungry here and the children are suffering a lot,” said María Palma, a 55-year-old grandmother who on a recent blistering hot day had been standing in line at the grocery store since 3 a.m. before walking away empty-handed at midday.

In a national survey, the pollster Consultores 21 found 30% of Venezuelans eating two or fewer meals a day during the second quarter of this year, up from 20% in the first quarter. Around 70% of people in the study also said they had stopped buying some basic food item because it had become unavailable or too expensive.

Food-supply problems in Venezuela underscore the increasingly precarious situation for Mr. Maduro’s socialist government, which according to the latest poll by Datanálisis is preferred by less than 20% of voters ahead of Dec. 6 parliamentary elections. The critical situation threatens to plunge South America’s largest oil exporter into a wave of civil unrest reminiscent of last year’s nationwide demonstrations seeking Mr. Maduro’s ouster.

“It’s a national crisis,” said Marco Ponce, head of the Venezuela Observatory of Social Conflict, noting that unlike the political protests of last year, residents are now taking to the streets demanding social rights.

The nonprofit group recorded 500 protests over food shortages during the first half of 2015, 56 looting incidents and dozens of attempted lootings at grocery stores, pharmacies and warehouses. Even delivery trucks are frequently targeted. “If people aren’t outside protesting, they’re outside standing in line for goods,” Mr. Ponce said.

The unrest is a response to dramatically worsening living conditions for Venezuelans as the economy reels from oil’s slump following more than a decade of populist spending that left the government broke.

In past years, when oil prices were high, Venezuela’s leftist government flooded markets with subsidized goods ranging from cooking oil to diapers. It gave citizens in border towns like La Sibucara not only access to cheap supplies, but also a source of income as many people trafficked products—including nearly free gasoline—to neighboring Colombia, drawing handsome profits.

With the government now struggling to pay for imports, there is less inventory to go around. In recent days, Mr. Maduro upped the ante by ordering troops along the border to seize contraband, deporting hundreds of Colombians whom the government blames for smuggling and shortages.

Armed soldiers monitor supermarkets as part of an effort the president calls “Operation People’s Liberation.” More than 6,000 alleged smugglers have been arrested this year, according to the attorney general’s office. Images of soldiers posing with handcuffed suspects and stacks of decommissioned goods are splashed on state media.

“We’re going to get to the root of the problem,” Mr. Maduro said in a national address last week after a shootout with smugglers in the frontier state of Táchira left three National Guard troops injured and pushed Venezuela to shut key border crossings.

The smugglers targeted by the government crackdown are called bachaqueros, named after a leaf-cutter ant that can carry many times its weight. The word, first used here in the northwestern state of Zulia, has become part of daily national parlance as a label for Venezuelans who buy price-controlled goods and resell them for profit on the black market.

While the government blames the shortages on bachaqueros, economists say they are the consequence of price controls and a broken economic model that has left average Venezuelans with diminishing employment options.

“The people that used to give us work—the private companies, the rich—have all gone,” said Ms. Palma in La Sibucara, adding that she also occasionally traffics goods to get by. “It’s not the greatest business but we don’t have work and we have to find a way to eat.”

Earlier this month, Venezuela’s military raided homes and warehouse around the town, seizing tons of allegedly hoarded goods that were destined to leave Venezuela or be resold on the black market for well above the state-set price.

Lisandro Uriana, who had a black eye and a bandaged leg, said he and two friends were badly beaten up when a neighbor’s house was raided. “They didn’t say or ask us anything,” recalled the 46-year-old Wayuu father of four, who lives in a tin-roofed house of two rooms. “They just beat us and we couldn’t defend ourselves because they were armed and were many. I don’t even smuggle…and now I can’t even get up to work.”

The day of the raids, neighbors said residents pleaded with troops at the National Guard command post to distribute seized food to non-smugglers but were turned away. An angry mob soon formed, sending soldiers fleeing before they attacked the office and even stripped it of scrap metal.

“These are just some isolated cases,” Manuel Graterol, a National Guard general overseeing operations in La Sibucara on a recent day, said, blaming the unrest and the bachaquero phenomenon on opponents of Mr. Maduro’s government.

“Many of them are being shameless,” said Gen. Graterol. “They’re committing treason against our country, taking food and crossing the border.”

But such food fights have broken out in numerous small municipalities around the state of Zulia. In the nearby town of Sinamaica, the ground floor of the mayor’s office was set on fire in early August following a wave of unrest that included gangs looting delivery trucks. The unrest, locals said, began after police detained a truck loaded with rice.

Street vendor Robert Guzmán, wearing a red pro-government T-shirt, said the sacking was justified. “We are very peaceful people,” Mr. Guzmán said of his Wayuu community, “but what happened was an act of desperation. I think this is going to get worse.”

Resident Yusleidy Márquez said she too fears the worst. The basket of subsidized food the government gives her mother every 15 days only feeds her family for two days. Lately, she only eats a cornmeal patty for lunch because she can’t afford more.

“I think we’re going to die of hunger,” she said.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-food-shortages-trigger-long-lines-hunger-and-looting-1440581400


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Bitcoin is GOD
With the price of oil so low, Venezuela is f****d, as far as I remember Venezuela needed a price of oil of 110 dollars to balance it's budget. Oil it's going to keep it's price low for the next 2 to 3 years(unless something drastic happens).
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The Joys of Socialism=> Venezuela Currency Now Worth Less Than a Table Napkin





The economy in Venezuela is so messed up, it’s cheaper to use actual cash than to buy napkins.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/3hapoy/the_economy_in_venezuela_is_so_messed_up_its/



An image is going round that sums up just how ridiculous Venezuela's economy has become.

A Reddit user uploaded a picture on Monday of a man using a 2 bolivar note to hold an empanada.

According to Venezuela's official bolivar-dollar exchange rate, the man using his money as a napkin is wasting about $0.31 (£0.20).

But on the black market, the reality is completely different. You can get 676.88 bolivars to the dollar, according to dolartoday.com. That means holding food with a 2 bolivar note costs the holder less than a third of one US cent.

Dolartoday.com's chart shows just how the value of the bolivar has plunged, with more and more units of the Venezuelan currency required to get hold of a single dollar:

This time last year, the bolivar was far more valuable, and even as recently as May this year, you could still get hold of a dollar for less than 300 bolivars. Today, you need more than twice that.

The country has a spiralling inflation rate. Official inflation is high enough, at 68.5%, but like the official exchange rate, that paints a much rosier picture than reality. Professor Steve Hanke, who runs the "Troubled Currencies Project," a joint program between the Cato Institute and Johns Hopkins University, says in reality inflation is more like 808%.

The country is a major oil exporter, and the plunge in prices is a huge part of what's causing the crisis — as a result, the country is pegged as having the riskiest debt in the world, with the highest likelihood of a future default. Food is increasingly hard to get hold of, shop shelves are often empty, and the country's social order is deteriorating.

The country is heading into a parliamentary election in December, which will not unseat President Nicolas Maduro but could give the opposition a parliamentary majority for the first time since Venezuela's 1999 constitution came into force.


http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuelas-currency-is-now-so-worthless-that-people-are-using-it-as-napkins-2015-8?r=UK&IR=T



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The Richest Woman In Venezuela Is Hugo Chavez’ Daughter






The daughter of Hugo Chavez, the former president who once declared ‘being rich is bad,’ may be the wealthiest woman in Venezuela, according to evidence reportedly in the hands of Venezuelan media outlets.

Maria Gabriela Chavez, 35, the late president’s second-oldest daughter, holds assets in American and Andorran banks totaling almost $4.2billion, Diario las Americas reports.

The figure would make Gabriela Chavez wealthier than media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, whom Forbes named the wealthiest Venezuelan earlier this year with $3.6billion in assets.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192933/Hugo-Chavez-s-ambassador-daughter-Venezuela-s-richest-woman-according-new-report.html


legendary
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Venezuelan President Blames Socialism’s Failures On America…






Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is blaming a United States conspiracy for a supermarket riot over the weekend that left one 21-year-old man dead–a man witnesses say was shot to death by Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard.

A mob attacked a supermarket warehouse in San Félix, Bolívar, on Friday, attempting to tear down the walls of a warehouse and acquire basic food items, such as milk and flour. Video shows a crowd of dozens organizing in front of the building and attempting to break through, with Bolivarian National Guard troops attempting to violently disperse the crowd. When police finally managed to subdue the crowd, 60 people were arrested, and 21-year-old Gustavo Patinez Gómez was dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.

The Venezuelan government has prohibited the use of mobile devices in supermarkets, following a wave of social media coverage of how empty most Venezuelan supermarkets are, boasting an abundance of snacks and cookies but no vegetable oil, laundry detergent, or diapers. While there is no official law on paper banning Venezuelans from using mobile devices in supermarkets, videos uploaded to YouTube show that government workers do confiscate telephones in supermarkets if someone attempts to record footage of empty store shelves.


http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/08/03/venezuelan-president-blames-us-for-supermarket-riot-that-left-one-dead/


legendary
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People need to realize when your system is flawed, the person in charge of that system really does not matter.

The Venezuelans had two choices:

1. A capitalist system under the pro-NATO politicians: This was tried before, and resulted in extreme class divide. Three-fourth of the population lived in extreme poverty, with inadequate medical care and other facilities.

2. A communist system under Chavez: This was more or less a success. A lot of poor people benefited from the free healthcare and government poverty eradication programs. But Chavez never cared to diversify his economy. He thought that the high oil prices will remain for ever.


3. The logical socialist train wreck situation we have now.


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