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Kim Jong-Il had to win over his father with gifts (also get rid of his step-brother) before Dad would let him play with the country.  At least he put some effort into it!What I could see happening in the future is Colombia and other neighbours sending in cash and food so the regime doesn't collapse so that they won't have to deal with a humanitarian crisis. Kinda like Japan and South Korea with their crazy neighbour.
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Nov 2, 2015 10:26
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Isn't it more likely that at some point in the more or less near future the PSUV leadership will just grab everything they can and fly out of the country?
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Nov 2, 2015 10:47
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Uh, there is one way Venezuela can easily get out if this situation. $100/bbl oil. Is there any historical examples of what happens to Venezuela oil output during social upheaval?
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Nov 2, 2015 11:55
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WitchFetish posted:Isn't it more likely that at some point in the more or less near future the PSUV leadership will just grab everything they can and fly out of the country? I'm pretty sure that's their end plan, really. They've been sucking funds for years and when things are unsalvageable for them, they'll just grab whatever's not nailed down and disappear. Only the few idealist still left will remain, the poor bastards.
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Nov 2, 2015 12:40
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To add to what I was saying earlier about malnutrition/shifting eating habits, the Centro de Documentacion de Analisis Social de la Federacion Venezolana de Maestros released a report today in which it says that the price of the nutritious food basket for a family sat at Bs. 97,291.86. In other words, you need ten times the minimum monthly salary to feed a family of five. Over the last year, the price of the nutritious food basket for a family has risen 283.3%. Itt's not just a matter of finding food. There's also the real possibility that you won't be able to afford what you need to eat to be healthy. JohnGalt posted:Uh, there is one way Venezuela can easily get out if this situation. $100/bbl oil. This begs the question: where did all the money that Venezuela made when oil was at +$100/bbl go? Every oil producing country is feeling the heat from the lower prices, but Venezuela is the only one that's at the point of complete collapse as a result. The investigation into former PDVSA head Rafael Ramirez seems to indicate that a lot of that money was looted and is sitting in European bank accounts. As to your second question, it depends on what you mean by "social upheaval". The last time that oil production was severely affected by social unrest was during the 2002-2003 general strike. PDVSA essentially stopped working (although the lock-out wasn't universal) and production fell accordingly. That's an event that involved PDVSA directly, though, and I think it's unique in that respect. If you're talking about a non-PDVSA event, you can look back at the 1992 coups and the Caracazo in 1989. Before that, though, the only social unrest I can think of that might have affected oil production would be the coup of 1958, but PDVSA wasn't even around then. I have a couple of books that might provide an answer to this. I'll have to take a look at them and get back to you.
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Nov 2, 2015 14:22
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Chuck Boone posted:This begs the question: where did all the money that Venezuela made when oil was at +$100/bbl go? Every oil producing country is feeling the heat from the lower prices, but Venezuela is the only one that's at the point of complete collapse as a result. The investigation into former PDVSA head Rafael Ramirez seems to indicate that a lot of that money was looted and is sitting in European bank accounts. Certainly corruption was a significant factor, but in all honesty, it has to be the price control system in the first place. There is no way to account for the money of money that is being spent, Venezuela pumps over, buys imports for billions a month and hands them over for a fraction of their real costs. From the article you posted: quote:La diferencia entre los precios controlados y los precios de mercado es de 1.367,08%. If market prices are 1,376% higher than controlled prices, it is no wonder the system is completely and uttered hosed. Venezuela is leaking money like a sieve to purchase imports and then basically re-sell them for less 10% of the actual prices. No country on earth could survive a gap like that for long. If anything it is a sign of just how little the government understands what is going on, or alternatively, they understand what is going on and they are doing it on purpose. Of course the thing is, sometimes moderate temporary price controls can work but what is going on just loving bonkers. Even the Soviets knew some of their limits, and in comparison the PDVSA are practically full accelerationists. The only smart political answer I can think of, is that they are literally lighting the country of fire in order to hand the mess over to the opposition then hoping for a mass price shock and/or civil war. Probably the only way Venezuela is going to make it out is significant international financing with limited strings attached (yeah doubtful...) and/or oil prices spike.
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Nov 2, 2015 15:31
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Ardennes posted:Certainly corruption was a significant factor, but in all honesty, it has to be the price control system in the first place. There is no way to account for the money of money that is being spent, Venezuela pumps over, buys imports for billions a month and hands them over for a fraction of their real costs. I agree. I realize the amount stolen must be a relatively small amount compared to what you've pointed out. I can't remember which book I read this in, but in the early-mid 2000s, Chavez created a fund with PDVSA revenues with the purpose of using it as an off-the-books piggy banks to pay for social services, support for overseas sympathizers, etc. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, that's a part of it: money that comes in to the country, gets put into an invisible account, and then ends up being used who knows how. Also, to go back to JohnGalt's question: the next wave of social upheaval is likely to be directed to the PSUV. What does a self-declared roja, rojita PDVSA do in a Venezuela that turns against the PSUV? What happens to a 100% pro-PSUV company when there is no more PSUV?
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Nov 2, 2015 15:58
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An oil price spike will not save Venezuela. It may be able to prolong things slightly but it can't save it. I work in the oil industry in Alberta, which has many of the same types of formations and has the same technical challenges to extract the oil. I know many people (older than I) who have at one point or another worked or consulted for oil companies in Venezuela, they like trying to recruit up here because the skill sets match so well. Not one of them thinks that Venezuela will be able to grow their production or even reduce production costs any time soon. The oil companies have been a piggy bank for so long that they haven't been reinvesting in their production capacity, the money they need for reinvestment is being eaten by social programmes. Critica infrastructure is being run long past when it should have been replaced. You can do this, and companies do it all the time in lean times, even for years and years, but you can't do it forever. Equipment failures will start to cost you rediculous amounts of money and will cripple your production eventually.
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Nov 2, 2015 16:10
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Chuck Boone posted:I agree. I realize the amount stolen must be a relatively small amount compared to what you've pointed out. I can't remember which book I read this in, but in the early-mid 2000s, Chavez created a fund with PDVSA revenues with the purpose of using it as an off-the-books piggy banks to pay for social services, support for overseas sympathizers, etc. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, that's a part of it: money that comes in to the country, gets put into an invisible account, and then ends up being used who knows how. That would be Fonden I think, there's a spanish report for Reuters here (http://es.scribd.com/doc/108528270/Fonden-Reuters-Espanol-Venezuela), while it existed nearly a third of all money that went into Venezuela ended up there, according to the report it gobbled up approximately $100 billion during the 2005-2012 period, completely off the books and with no oversight. I say "while it existed" because as far as I know they supposedly unified all those off-the-books funds into a single one sometime this year, but I suppose there must still be some permutation of it out there.
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Nov 2, 2015 16:31
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Labradoodle posted:That would be Fonden I think, there's a spanish report for Reuters here (http://es.scribd.com/doc/108528270/Fonden-Reuters-Espanol-Venezuela), while it existed nearly a third of all money that went into Venezuela ended up there, according to the report it gobbled up approximately $100 billion during the 2005-2012 period, completely off the books and with no oversight. Yes! This is it. Thank you. Money well-spent, obviously.
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Nov 2, 2015 16:38
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-Troika- posted:Venezuela is well on it's way to becoming the second North Korea. North Korea is partially backstopped by being difficult to invade without a ton of effort, and by having its entire citizenry being about to become the needynew citizens of the country next door when the war's over. Additionally, its rich mineral wealth requires a ton more investment to exploit after the war. Meanwhile Venezuela is relatively easy to invade by a regional let alone world power, the population isn't going to all become the responsibility of Colombia or whatever and the oil can be pumped again with relatively minimal effort after the war.
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Nov 2, 2015 16:52
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If things go to poo poo, I'd be more worried about Venezuela invading its neighbors than being invaded. They've got some pretty respectable Russian systems (SU-30, T-72BV1, BMP-3, BuK, ToR, and S-300) and are getting more. They certainly out-class Colombia, which has zero modern fighter aircraft, zero modern heavy SAMa, and zero tanks. I think the only military they don't outmatch on the continent is Brazil, and they definitely hold a quality advantage there too. If I were Colombia i'd be looking for some military aid and quick.
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Nov 2, 2015 17:26
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JeffersonClay posted:If things go to poo poo, I'd be more worried about Venezuela invading its neighbors than being invaded. They've got some pretty respectable Russian systems (SU-30, T-72BV1, BMP-3, BuK, ToR, and S-300) and are getting more. They certainly out-class Colombia, which has zero modern fighter aircraft, zero modern heavy SAMa, and zero tanks. I think the only military they don't outmatch on the continent is Brazil, and they definitely hold a quality advantage there too. If I were Colombia i'd be looking for some military aid and quick. Do you see an Argentinan-type invasion of their neighbors in an attempt to shift focus away from local problems and to obtain additional resources? You don't have to produce anything I'd you can physically take it from everyone else 
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Nov 2, 2015 19:20
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On the one hand, there is a fair bit of difference between invading a group of islands in the rear end end of nowhere, 20,000 miles from the country actually claiming it, compared to invading an immediate neighbor. On the other hand, who would they invade? Colombia? I can imagine the squeals of glee emanating from the American Republican party if a socialist government invaded an American ally. Brazil? Venezuela isn't that dumb (I hope). Curacao or Trinadad? could be interesting. One involves Europe and the other the US again. I guess Guyana is the only option. Except that it involves an unholy jungle war in a totally undeveloped area. Sounds fun! (and expensive)
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Nov 2, 2015 19:34
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Gorau posted:On the one hand, there is a fair bit of difference between invading a group of islands in the rear end end of nowhere, 20,000 miles from the country actually claiming it, compared to invading an immediate neighbor. On the other hand, who would they invade? Colombia? I can imagine the squeals of glee emanating from the American Republican party if a socialist government invaded an American ally. Brazil? Venezuela isn't that dumb (I hope). Curacao or Trinadad? could be interesting. One involves Europe and the other the US again. I guess Guyana is the only option. Except that it involves an unholy jungle war in a totally undeveloped area. Sounds fun! (and expensive) Assuming all the stupid stuff they've already done to themselves I believed that it would also extend to their military choices.
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Nov 2, 2015 19:40
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The most obvious potential flashpoint, like Goaru's pointed out, is over the Essequibo region, which both Guyana and Venezuela claim. A few months back both Venezuela and Guayana conducted military exercises along their shared border. Neither country seems willing to back down, with David Granger in Guayana saying that this is a non-issue as far as he's concerned because practically everyone on earth accepts that the region belongs to Guayana, and Maduro putting a lot of his eggs in the "protecting the sovereignty and integrity of Bolivar's Land" basket. Maduro in particular has been beating the "peaceful resolution" drum pretty hard, so I don't see him getting into a physical fight over the Essequibo. There might not be a need for an armed conflict for Maduro to make some strategic gains. There are about 23 municipalities along the Colombian border under a state of exception (with severe restrictions to constitutional freedoms like freedom of assembly, protest, etc.). What the official opposition has been saying for a while is that not only is this measure a direct attempt to disrupt the electoral process in those areas, the vagueness and ease with which a state of exception can be declared opens the possibility that other municipalities will be affected. We already "know" that Colombian paramilitary hit squads are operating with impunity around the country - maybe a state of exception in Maracay, or Valencia, or somewhere in Miranda might be what the government needs to finally put an end to that.
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Nov 2, 2015 19:49
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Given the Venezuelan governments competence when it come to protecting/distributing food to it's own citizens and the fact that the army is hardly more competent I just don't see a military campaign being possible. The best play by any country they attacked would be to fall back a bit and wait for the entire thing to fall apart. Coupled with the fact that either they attack west into jungle or east into mountains which are hardly the best terrains for quick victory. As well as while they may have bought a lot of expensive weapons the ability for the army to use them/ training/ officer competence may not be the highest. I mean look at the Iraqi army fall apart. All the fancy equipment doesn't matter if you are stuck in the cold half way up a mountain with no food and your officers have buggered off. The only semi military alternative is to drop money and guns on separatist groups which both Venezuela and (now less so) Colombia already do.
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Nov 2, 2015 20:36
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euclidian88 posted:Given the Venezuelan governments competence when it come to protecting/distributing food to it's own citizens and the fact that the army is hardly more competent I just don't see a military campaign being possible. The best play by any country they attacked would be to fall back a bit and wait for the entire thing to fall apart. Coupled with the fact that either they attack west into jungle or east into mountains which are hardly the best terrains for quick victory. Yep, that's hitting the nail in the head. Venezuela could have death lasers in low orbit, but its organization is complete poo poo, the training lacking, and a big part of the military is there only to gain power over the citizens and lots of money and privileges, not to defend their country.
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Nov 2, 2015 21:15
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JeffersonClay posted:If things go to poo poo, I'd be more worried about Venezuela invading its neighbors than being invaded. They've got some pretty respectable Russian systems (SU-30, T-72BV1, BMP-3, BuK, ToR, and S-300) and are getting more. They certainly out-class Colombia, which has zero modern fighter aircraft, zero modern heavy SAMa, and zero tanks. I think the only military they don't outmatch on the continent is Brazil, and they definitely hold a quality advantage there too. If I were Colombia i'd be looking for some military aid and quick. In a perverse way I'd like to see how America would be blamed for it Gorau posted:On the one hand, there is a fair bit of difference between invading a group of islands in the rear end end of nowhere, 20,000 miles from the country actually claiming it, compared to invading an immediate neighbor. On the other hand, who would they invade? Colombia? I can imagine the squeals of glee emanating from the American Republican party if a socialist government invaded an American ally. Brazil? Venezuela isn't that dumb (I hope). Curacao or Trinadad? could be interesting. One involves Europe and the other the US again. I guess Guyana is the only option. Except that it involves an unholy jungle war in a totally undeveloped area. Sounds fun! (and expensive) maybe jungle war would be a nice break from all the desert wars.
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Nov 2, 2015 21:40
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Chuck Boone posted:I agree. I realize the amount stolen must be a relatively small amount compared to what you've pointed out. I can't remember which book I read this in, but in the early-mid 2000s, Chavez created a fund with PDVSA revenues with the purpose of using it as an off-the-books piggy banks to pay for social services, support for overseas sympathizers, etc. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, that's a part of it: money that comes in to the country, gets put into an invisible account, and then ends up being used who knows how. I don't know the profitability of Venezuelan plays but it seems to be the only industry separating the country form Haiti. I
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Nov 2, 2015 22:01
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You're right about that. 96% of the country's export earnings come from oil.
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Nov 3, 2015 01:13
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Kurtofan posted:maybe jungle war would be a nice break from all the desert wars. They don't make wars like the 'nam days anymore!
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Nov 3, 2015 09:11
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The government's drive to force down prices in every store seems to have begun with clothing, in the past days I've seen a few stores in shopping malls and heard of others having forced sales at ridiculous prices. It's too little to have any meaningful impact on the elections, but I'm concerned about what will happen if they choose to try this with the small grocery stores and non-government controlled supermarkets in Caracas that somewhat alleviate the pressure. In the past, they've stuck mostly with clothes and electronics to buy votes. Aside from their old tricks, they're really stretching their imaginations this time around to drum up new votes. Namely, they literally hijacked an opposition party (the one next to the MUD's spot on the ballot), kept the oppo sounding name — MIN Unidad — their color scheme and are literally running ads that criticize themselves in order to trick people to cast votes for them.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:49
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Labradoodle posted:Aside from their old tricks, they're really stretching their imaginations this time around to drum up new votes. Namely, they literally hijacked an opposition party (the one next to the MUD's spot on the ballot), kept the oppo sounding name — MIN Unidad — their color scheme and are literally running ads that criticize themselves in order to trick people to cast votes for them. See? Cartoon villains.
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Nov 3, 2015 15:29
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Labradoodle posted:Aside from their old tricks, they're really stretching their imaginations this time around to drum up new votes. Namely, they literally hijacked an opposition party (the one next to the MUD's spot on the ballot), kept the oppo sounding name — MIN Unidad — their color scheme and are literally running ads that criticize themselves in order to trick people to cast votes for them. Wow. You're not kidding. Can you tell which one of these is the logo for the official opposition? I'll give you a hint: the slogan for the group on the right is, "We are the opposition".   If you said, "The one on the right is the official opposition", you're wrong! It's the one on the left. This is a big deal because the CNE has put the two logos right beside each other on the electoral ballot. A split-second lapse of concentration or judgement and you've accidentally voted for the wrong people.  Free and fair elections, folks.
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Nov 3, 2015 18:24
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The mere fact that they're resorting to these ridiculous mind tricks shows that they're worried.
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Nov 3, 2015 20:26
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http://en.mercopress.com/2015/10/31/chavistas-will-not-surrender-the-revolution-even-in-defeat-in-december-s-elections-warned-maduro More informed opinions please shed light
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Nov 4, 2015 00:37
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JohnGalt posted:http://en.mercopress.com/2015/10/31/chavistas-will-not-surrender-the-revolution-even-in-defeat-in-december-s-elections-warned-maduro This latest example is at least the fourth time in the last 3-4 weeks that Maduro's made these silly, vague comments. He's been saying things like, "We need to win the election 'by any means'. You know what I mean by that, right?", and repeating that line: "win by any means". Exactly what that means is speculation, but it's clear that he has no intention of letting a defeat in December slow him down. Whereas a serious political leader might take a beating at the polls as a humbling experience and cause for reflection, Maduro looks like he's ready to double-down if the PSUV loses in December. His comments are all the more absurd if you remember that just recently he was beating up on the opposition because they refused to sign a document promising that they would respect the election results. Maduro signed it, attacked the opposition for not signing it, and here he is saying that no matter what happens in December he'll come out the winner. Welcome to Venezuela. JohnGalt, I think it was you who asked how the oil industry has dealt with social unrest in the past. There's a book called Venezuela Before Chavez: Anatomy of an Economic Collapse by Ricardo Hausmann and Francisco Rodriguez that contains pieces by different authors covering a wide range of topics in the pre-Chavez era. One of the pieces is by Osmel Manzano called "Venezuela After a Century of Oil Exploitation" that tracks oil production and output over the 20th century. Anyway, according to Manzano, the short answer to your question is that the oil industry in Venezuela is influenced much more by macro-factors than by unrest in the country. His main argument is that oil production per capita is closely related with fluctuations in GDP per capita. My sense is that the capital-heavy nature of the oil industry and the fact that extraction is an intensive process that requires long-term vision means that "micro" events such as social unrest are not likely to affect it much (huge asterisk here which I'll get to later). In fact, oil production remained apparently completely unaffected by the transition to democracy following Juan Vicente Gomez's death in 1935, the ousting of Marco Perez Jimenez in the coup of 1958, the Caracazo of 1989, and the coup attempts of 1992. Huge asterisk: PDVSA is today an extension of the PSUV. We saw how Chavez turned it into the party's piggy bank through the creation of FONDEN. A good chunk of the company was replaced in 2002-2003 with pro-PSUV people. So, if I could tweak your question a bit, I would ask, "Is there any historical examples of what happens to Venezuelan oil output during anti-government upheaval, given that PDVSA is a decidedly pro-PSUV organization?" The answer is, "No", and I'm not sure what it could be. I don't know how PDVSA would react in a situation where the PSUV is forcibly removed from power, or even in one where it is voted out.
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Nov 4, 2015 01:47
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I know orwellian vets thrown too casually sometimes, but Maduro seems to be trying really hard. I appreciate the insight.
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Nov 4, 2015 03:40
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JohnGalt posted:http://en.mercopress.com/2015/10/31/chavistas-will-not-surrender-the-revolution-even-in-defeat-in-december-s-elections-warned-maduro I just want to know WTH a "negated hypothetical scenario" is supposed to mean.
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Nov 4, 2015 07:46
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beer_war posted:I just want to know WTH a "negated hypothetical scenario" is supposed to mean. It's just the guy mangling the Spanish language, his words were "en un escenario hipotetico negado". When I saw the clip I remember thinking "how the gently caress could that be translated?", but I suppose the meaning would be something like " hypothetically, if the opposition were to win the elections, which is a scenario we are not entertaining in the slightest, but you know, hypothetically...".
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Nov 4, 2015 14:40
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-Troika- posted:Venezuela is well on it's way to becoming the second North Korea. they would have to effectively replace the media and internet with state-controlled knockoffs to prevent the masses from going apeshit when they can't login to facebook or watch the world cup. North Korea didn't have this problem back when they started their regime. I doubt the psuv would do that, way too much effort. The psuv is so incompetent that it makes the north korean government look like geniuses. wiregrind fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 21:13
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There's a bit of a controversy stirring right now over the fact that the one international observer missions Maduro agreed to hosting, the one from UNASUR, has yet to receive official clearance to come to the country. I don't have the link handy, but a few days ago the head of the electoral section of UNASUR said that the mission was "at risk" of not happening due to the delay. Back on October 20, the Brazilian delegation pulled out of the UNASUR mission because Maduro blocked Brazil's appointment to head the mission. Today, the head of the Consejo Nacional Electoral, Tibisay Lucena, said that she hoped "things could work out" so that the mission might participate in the election. On a related topic, Lucena was on a television show doing an interview, and the host asked her about the fact that PSUV National Assembly candidates use state resources/appear in events with Maduro. Sometimes, the candidates would personally hand over public works to communities. The host asked her if this was a fair practice. Lucena's answer was essentially that since the campaign hasn't technically started, it's OK. Here's the exchange she had with the host, Vladimir Villegas: quote:Villegas: It'd be good if there were similar electoral conditions when it comes to public resources. You've called the government out on that, right? I do not know when the "official" campaign begins, since I could have sworn that it started months ago. wiregrind posted:they would have to effectively replace the media and internet with state-controlled knockoffs to prevent the masses from going apeshit when they can't login to facebook or watch the world cup. North Korea didn't have this problem back when they started their regime. I remember that during the early stages of the protests last year some websites were blocked from Venezuela, most notably the Colombian news network NTN24. I'm not sure if it's since been unblocked. I also remember Twitter reporting weird outages, but I'm not sure if that was due to government action. EDIT: I should clarify that I'm not entirely clear who is to blame for the UNASUR thing. I think it's possible that UNASUR is shuffling its feet on this and that Venezuela is not in any rush to crack the whip. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 21:41
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Chuck Boone posted:(...) I also remember Twitter reporting weird outages, but I'm not sure if that was due to government action. I think there's no doubt that the connection will be partially or completely cut during key moments I just doubt that they would have the guts to do a permanent block. wiregrind fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 22:15
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wiregrind posted:I remember talking to friends in Venezuela who would mention the ISP blocks. Apparently someone contacted twitter support from outside of the country and twitter replied that it was indeed the ISP cutting the connection and not a server failure. Some news sites reported on it. Agreed! It's happened before and the government certainly has the ability to do so (CANTV, the telecommunications company, is owned by the government). I just saw that La Patilla is reporting unofficial, internal figures at the Banco Central de Venezuela that put the inflation rate for October at ~12%. If true, it means that the annualized inflation rate is at 198.4%. The BCV hasn't published official figures all year, so it's hard to pin the exact number down. This most current figure is not inconsistent with the estimates I've been seeing all year from financial institutions/economists.
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Nov 4, 2015 22:29
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Today I learned Danny Glover eagerly supports the Maduro government. It's a small thing, but disappointing.
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Nov 6, 2015 03:46
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Nckdictator posted:Today I learned Danny Glover eagerly supports the Maduro government. It's a small thing, but disappointing. Venezuela exists for the sake of millionaire leftists in English-speaking countries to preach the virtues of a regime they would never choose to live under themselves.
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Nov 6, 2015 13:50
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Spain's ABC published an article yesterday that appears to reference the same case of massive money laundering reported by the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back. ABC had a chance to review some legal documents from Andorran authorities pertaining to an investigation of the Banca Privada D'Andorra, a bank that is believed to be connected to the money laundering scheme. The article says that it looks like PDVSA and the Venezuelan state laundered €1.4 billion through the bank from 2006-2012. The investigation began back in March. The documents the publication reviewed appear to point to a connection between the money laundering scheme to a Sino-Venezuelan fund created in 2007 called the Fondo de Cooperacion Binacional. The fund was set up to allow Chinese investors to provide credit for projects in Venezuela. One of the suspect accounts in the Banca Privada D'Andorra belongs to Diego "Rolex Hulk Smash" Salazar. The account received payments exceeding €154 million from five different Chinese companies for "assessment services", but it's not clear exactly what that means. ABC points out that the sums deposited in the suspect accounts tend to average about 10-15% the total value of contracts awarded to Chinese firms for infrastructure projects in Venezuela. Aside from all that shadiness, the article also asks a really good (and obvious) question: If all this money was for infrastructure projects in Venezuela, what was it doing in a bank in Andorra? Nckdictator posted:Today I learned Danny Glover eagerly supports the Maduro government. It's a small thing, but disappointing. I'm not sure if Sean Penn supports Maduro, but he supported Chavez. So, I hope you didn't like Sean Penn anyways.
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Nov 6, 2015 14:48
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Chavez made a habit of using state funds to buy American celebrities. Danny Glover got $18M USD to make a film (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/21/film.venezuela). quote:ABC points out that the sums deposited in the suspect accounts tend to average about 10-15% the total value of contracts awarded to Chinese firms for infrastructure projects in Venezuela. lol
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Nov 6, 2015 16:59
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The Secretary General of the OAS wrote a sternly worded letter to Tibisay Lucena regarding "the best electoral system in the world". Turns out he's not impressed:quote:I have been told that the Venezuelan opposition has not been able to participate in the election campaign on equal terms. quote:I have also been informed that the absence of campaign spending caps or controls means that government candidates can, and indeed would, use funds. The government even deploys a large number of civil servants and state resources for campaign purposes. quote:Apparently, this is in addition to the absence of guarantees of access to the media for candidates that get quote:Concerns have been raised with me about the likelihood of the electorate becoming confused by where party candidates are finally placed on ballot papers, based on an announcement made by the CNE in late October. My understanding is that placement on the ballot paper depends on the total number of votes a party obtains per list. I have been informed, however, that the card for the Movimiento de Integridad Nacional (MIN-Unidad) party, which was investigated by the Supreme Court of Justice and was expelled from the MUD, was placed beside the card for the Mesa de la Unidad (MUD). MIN-Unidad had registered candidates independently. The placement of the card, coupled with the use of similar colors and names, could create confusion at the time of voting. Here's how that part of the ballot looks:  quote:In addition, a security plan code-named Operation People's Liberation (OLPL) was implemented. It has been cited by various human rights defense organizations for being responsible for mass arrests and alleged extrajudicial executions. quote:Disqualifications only apply to opposition leaders, who have often had problems trying to present discharges and mount their defense. There have been cases where they were prejudged, with no possibility of getting their defense admitted. And it goes on for 7 more pages. beer_war fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 11, 2015 |
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Nov 11, 2015 19:21
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