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I can't believe the guy is actually telling people who can't buy basic proteins or toilet paper that they might not have enough computers if they don't stay the course. This sort of out of touch canned rhetoric can only make people angrier at the regime.
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Nov 25, 2015 02:55
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Chuck Boone posted:We have experience when it comes to that. It wouldn’t be anything new. 
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Nov 25, 2015 15:54
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IVAD published more poll results this morning, this time relating to the election. When asked "Who do you want to vote for on the December 6 parliamentary election?", respondents answered:
The same poll found that 62.3% of respondents agree with this statement: "The government is not democratic and is becoming a dictatorship". It looks like the results of this poll come from the same sample that I mentioned in my last post. IVAD sampled 1,200 Venezuelans across the country between November 10 and 20, and the margin of error is +/- 2.37%. The poll is in line with what I've been seeing since the start of the year. Voting intention at +70%, support for the PSUV below ~30%. This reality helps put in context the threats and other outrageous statements PSUV officials have been making recently. Maduro telling the opposition to "pray for a PSUV victory or else!" and Diosdado Cabello telling people that if the opposition wins they will lose "absolutely everything" are clear examples that the party knows they're heading into a loss.
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Nov 25, 2015 16:34
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The smart move for the PSUV would be to allow the opposition to get control and pass some painful fundamental economic reforms and then regain the majority when the country recoils from those reforms. But Maduro and company can't because of all the narcotrafficing.
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Nov 26, 2015 05:23
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A few posts ago I talked about how a colectivo armado (pro-government armed group) attacked an opposition rally in Caracas on Monday. About three hours ago, a colectivo armado attacked another opposition rally, this time in Altagracia de Orituco in Guarico state, and assassinated an opposition politician Details are still coming in about the event, which happened at around 7:30 PM local time. Henry Ramos Allup - the leader of AD - said through Twitter that Diaz was killed "by a firearm" and blamed "armed PSUV groups [who fired] from a vehicle". Allup also said that Diaz was on stage alongside Leopoldo Lopez's wife, Lilian Tintori, when he was assassinated. Earlier in the day, Tintori was in Margarita state attending other events, and she said that she was followed throughout the day by a group of 10 "aggressive" men who refused to say who they were or what they were doing when she confronted them. El Nacional reports that a witness said that Diaz was assassinated by someone connected to a gang called Del Picure. The newspaper is also reporting that there were several shots fired, and that the crowd dispersed in panic. This is a picture of the crowd that turned up to the rally:  Earlier today, a colectivo armado attacked an opposition rally in San Felix, Bolivar state. One opposition supporters was injured in the scuffle that broke out. A local opposition leader, Nelson Reyes, described what happened: quote:Armed groups who attacked opposition supporters… in the Primero de Mayo neighbourhood were identified by wearing the logos of the PSUV and the Tupamaro [a pro-government armed group] movement. On top of that, they were being escorted by Bolivar State Police and the National Bolivarian Guard. Today's events mark the third time in as many days that pro-government armed groups have attacked opposition rallies. I believe that as was the case during the 2014 protests, the government has no interest in containing this kind of violence against the opposition. I'm not convinced that the government is directly controlling these armed groups, but it is beyond a doubt allowing them to operate more or less unhindered. It's in the government's best interest to allow this kind of violence to continue to intimidate the opposition and its supporters into staying home on December 6. JeffersonClay posted:The smart move for the PSUV would be to allow the opposition to get control and pass some painful fundamental economic reforms and then regain the majority when the country recoils from those reforms. But Maduro and company can't because of all the narcotrafficing. I agree. The country is such a mess that if I were the PSUV I'd be more than happy to hand it over to whoever wanted to come along and grab the hot potato. Aside from the reason that you've outlined, I think the PSUV might be afraid that if the opposition get into a position of power and the world doesn't suddenly end, people might begin to get the wrong idea that maybe someone other than the PSUV can govern the country. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Nov 26, 2015 |
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Nov 26, 2015 05:36
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M. Discordia posted:I can't believe the guy is actually telling people who can't buy basic proteins or toilet paper that they might not have enough computers if they don't stay the course. This sort of out of touch canned rhetoric can only make people angrier at the regime. This is basically SOP for deformed socialist regimes. Witness the North Korean car commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM3UAnCH5IE Pretty much no one except the party elite could even get the gasoline required to run this car, let alone the car itself. (and considering that most of the people who would have cars would likely have the ubiquitous black S-Classes of oligarchs worldwide, was there any purpose to this vehicle except as a vanity project for the regime?)
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Nov 26, 2015 07:04
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The current government will never leave power peacefully because they know the minute the opposition gains power they are all going to be tried for all their human rights violations, drug trafficking and blatant corruption.
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Nov 27, 2015 04:35
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El Hefe posted:The current government will never leave power peacefully because they know the minute the opposition gains power they are all going to be tried for all their human rights violations, drug trafficking and blatant corruption. Not if they tap into their secondary hidden international embezzlement accounts and skip the country!
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Nov 27, 2015 04:41
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My university's student council's newspaper mentioned yesterday's attack as a false flag operation by the unified right. "No matter what, the revolution must keep going; otherwise Venezuela would be back to colonial times under an unpatriotic government" 
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Nov 27, 2015 04:58
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Azran posted:My university's student council's newspaper mentioned yesterday's attack as a false flag operation by the unified right. "No matter what, the revolution must keep going; otherwise Venezuela would be back to colonial times under an unpatriotic government" This is what leftists in Western countries were like during the height of the Soviet period -- there are no purges, there is no gulag, any day now my band of English grad students will rule this excuse for a society, etc.
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Nov 27, 2015 05:15
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El Hefe posted:The current government will never leave power peacefully because they know the minute the opposition gains power they are all going to be tried for all their human rights violations, drug trafficking and blatant corruption. Execute the PSUV inner circle & force every socialist who has posted in a Venezuela thread in D&D since 1998 to watch, IMO.
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Nov 27, 2015 05:16
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The government's reacted to the Diaz assassination, and it's got two theories going: 1. Diaz was a criminal, and he was murdered by a rival gang People's Defender Tarek William Saab suggested this option yesterday during a press conference when he said: quote:Among the strongest motives for the murder of Luis Diaz, one noteworthy one is the links to construction unions (...) the authorities have already identified the mastermind of the crime, who is connected to a rival union. Maduro also pushed this theory yesterday during an event in Portuguesa state: quote:My condolences to the family of the deceased. The investigation has begun. The Minister of the Interior has evidence that this was an assassination, part of a grudge between criminal gangs. Venezuela is renowned throughout the world for the skill of her investigators and the justice system's ability to quickly and effectively solve crimes, so it's not at all suspicious that less than 24 hours after the fact, the case has been solved and its results have been communicated to Maduro and other government officials. 2. The attacks are false flag operations paid for by the opposition As if to say, "And even if I'm wrong and Diaz wasn't a criminal...", Maduro also suggested yesterday that the opposition was paying people "$30,000 and $50,000" to dress up in PSUV shirts and attack rallies. Here's a video of Maduro's comments along with my translation below (note how at 0:25, the camera zooms in to Maduro's hands. This is because at this moment, Maduro is saying "I have evidence right here in my hands...". His hands are empty. How poetic!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-tVoX6qGS4 quote:Don’t let yourselves get sucked into political violence. I have some information right here in my hands – and I’m going to take preemptive measures, within the law so that they can’t say later that they’re political prisoners — I have in my hands first-level, direct information that some so-called leaders of the extreme right-wing are paying $30,000 and $50,000 to buy people to make them act. But also, to try to unleash between Saturday and Sunday and all of next week acts of sabotage against the electrical system, criminal acts, or violent acts at political events. I’m warning you about this war. Now you know. Diosdado Cabello also forwarded this theory on Wednesday night during his weekly television show. He said that the reason why the opposition is saying it is being attacked is to cover for the fact that no one is attending their rallies. Cabello said: quote:The trend now is that pro-chavismo armed groups are attacking John, Louise and Mary. They’re liars! We already know that. This is the story they want to push for the whole world to see. It’s lies. Here, on December 6, groups that love our homeland will come out, groups armed with tolerance because we will win. All of this is extremely worrying, of course, because the national government saying that 1) the people getting killed had it coming, and 2) the opposition are actually attacking themselves, means that they have absolutely no interest in stopping these attacks from taking place in the future. Maduro's childish "You know what I mean by, 'by any means necessary', right?" comments are further evidence of this. Azran posted:My university's student council's newspaper mentioned yesterday's attack as a false flag operation by the unified right. "No matter what, the revolution must keep going; otherwise Venezuela would be back to colonial times under an unpatriotic government" Your university's student council's newspaper staff demonstrate a complete lack of critical thinking skills and should be ashamed of themselves. They're wasting their time in university if these are the kinds of arguments they come up with. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Nov 27, 2015 |
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Nov 27, 2015 14:15
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So is this a directly sanctioned PSUV attack or just extreme PSUV supporters acting alone. Either possibility is pretty scary if they lose the election.
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Nov 27, 2015 15:43
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M. Discordia posted:This is what leftists in Western countries were like during the height of the Soviet period -- there are no purges, there is no gulag, any day now my band of English grad students will rule this excuse for a society, etc. Check out some more European politics threads, dude. That is what leftists in Western countries are like right now.
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Nov 27, 2015 15:44
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JohnGalt posted:So is this a directly sanctioned PSUV attack or just extreme PSUV supporters acting alone. I'm not entirely convinced that the PSUV is directly planning, organizing and conducting these types of attacks. I just haven't seen any evidence of this yet. One big caveat: it is evident that a part of the PSUV machine includes colectivo groups, as is the case for example with the Tupamaro movement. The colectivos of today are probably a spin-off of an earlier program called circulos bolivarianos, which were community organizations that acted as militias in their communities. It's also the case that one of the pillars of Bolivarianism, the union-civico militar, calls for a diffusion of the boundaries between the military and civilian spheres. One of the most direct results of this is the growing number of militia groups that see civilians armed, trained and prepared for armed conflict. However, these facts do not necessarily lead to "the PSUV is directly organizing violent attacks against the opposition", hence my hesitation to jump to that conclusion. What is much more likely, and what there is much more evidence for, is your second theory: that these attacks are being carried out by extreme PSUV supporters. In this scenario, the government is most certainly responsible for this violence by virtue of not condemning it unequivocally, along with the fact that the rhetoric they've been spouting against the opposition since day one is conducive to violence. When the PSUV says (as Diosdado did earlier this week) that you will lose absolutely everything that you have - your home, your children's school, your access to health care, "absolutely" everything - some people are going to take that to heart. When the PSUV says (as Maduro did yesterday) that we must win the election "by any means necessary", some people are going to take that to heart. The PSUV is fully aware of this and intends on this type of violence taking place. This way, they're not directly responsible for it (insofar as they didn't sit down to plan it), but they're most certainly indirectly responsible.
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Nov 27, 2015 16:21
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I would like to point out the irony in that Lopez was convicted for subliminal incitement to violence in his speeches, in the same country where the president outright threatens the opposition with violence if they win an election.
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Nov 27, 2015 16:43
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I wonder how long it's going to be before Maduro decides to take a page from Assad's book and set the military directly on the opposition. 
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Nov 27, 2015 16:52
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-Troika- posted:I wonder how long it's going to be before Maduro decides to take a page from Assad's book and set the military directly on the opposition. Triggering a US invasion doesn't sound like a very good idea.
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Nov 27, 2015 17:23
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-Troika- posted:I wonder how long it's going to be before Maduro decides to take a page from Assad's book and set the military directly on the opposition. He already did that Not on Assad's scale but anyway
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Nov 27, 2015 17:37
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Chuck Boone posted:Venezuela is renowned throughout the world for the skill of her investigators and the justice system's ability to quickly and effectively solve crimes, so it's not at all suspicious that less than 24 hours after the fact, the case has been solved and its results have been communicated to Maduro and other government officials. Funny thing is Chuck when I pointed out the systematic killings of Chavistas by paramilitary gangs, you dismissed it as simply part of Venezuela's crime statistics. Yet when a politician with deep connections to organized crime gets killed by unidentified assailants, why you guys have clearly determined it's political intimidation without any facts to support that theory.
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Nov 27, 2015 18:34
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Borneo Jimmy posted:Funny thing is Chuck when I pointed out the systematic killings of Chavistas by paramilitary gangs, you dismissed it as simply part of Venezuela's crime statistics. Yet when a politician with deep connections to organized crime gets killed by unidentified assailants, why you guys have clearly determined it's political intimidation without any facts to support that theory. I thought it was a false flag attack? Careful Jimmy, or Diosdado will take away your fancy computer.
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Nov 27, 2015 18:40
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-Troika- posted:I wonder how long it's going to be before Maduro decides to take a page from Assad's book and set the military directly on the opposition. As El Hefe alluded to, the National Guard and other state security forces did react with violence to the protests last year, resulting in several deaths. Even earlier this year, a boy named Kluivert Roa was murdered by a National Guard soldier at a protest in Tachira state somewhere. What's changed since the protests last year that could potentially have an impact in any future unrest is a law passed in January that allows any branch of the military to use lethal force against protesters. Before the law, the only branch of the army that could act against civil unrest was the National Guard. It's going to be interesting to see if Maduro pushes this button if civil unrest becomes an issue again. Borneo Jimmy posted:Funny thing is Chuck when I pointed out the systematic killings of Chavistas by paramilitary gangs, you dismissed it as simply part of Venezuela's crime statistics. Yet when a politician with deep connections to organized crime gets killed by unidentified assailants, why you guys have clearly determined it's political intimidation without any facts to support that theory. This is a fair enough point. The fact is that there's no concrete evidence that Diaz was killed by government supporters because he was an opposition politician. However, I'm not convinced that Diaz had "deep connections to organized crime" because I haven't seen definitive evidence that he did. The fact that the government was so quick (just over twelve hours) in "solving" the case makes me hesitant to believe them, given their track record for being less-than-truthful with similar accusations. "Diaz was in a gang and he was killed because of that" is an incredibly expedient and convenient conclusion to make given the climate. Regardless, I take your point: there's no hard evidence linking Diaz's assassination to the PSUV or its supporters. What evidence there is, however, fits with an established trend of violence perpetrated against opposition supporters/rallies by government supporters. El Nacional has an article today in which it outlines eight attacks against opposition supporters/rallies since November 18. I have no doubt that the PSUV is actively encouraging these kinds of attacks because it's in its best interest to weaken the opposition (to quote Maduro) "by any means necessary", given the fact that every single national poll conducted in the last few months has the opposition with a 25%+ lead over the PSUV. I do not believe that there is a paramilitary campaign against campesinos or chavistas. I believe that the "paramilitary campaign" angle is a lie the PSUV has come up with in order to shift blame away from itself for the country's ills. I've seen no convincing evidence that such a campaign exists. In short: Diaz's killing fits an established pattern of violence against the opposition. In the absence of evidence, I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect his assassination is part of that trend. The killings you referred to are, in my mind, unconvincingly attributed to the so-called "paramilitary campaign" against Venezuela, which I simply see no evidence of. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Nov 27, 2015 |
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Nov 27, 2015 19:01
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M. Discordia posted:This is what leftists in Western countries were like during the height of the Soviet period -- there are no purges, there is no gulag, any day now my band of English grad students will rule this excuse for a society, etc. Sadly, I think most people outside of Latin America aren't even aware of what's going on in Venezuela. At most, they might vaguely recognize the name Chavez. Here in Flanders, I don't recall ever hearing anyone spontaneously talk about Venezuelan politics in real life. When are the elections scheduled again, the 6th of December? The chavistas will almost certainly try to rig the vote in some way, and depending on how blatant it is, it might provoke an international reaction.
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Nov 27, 2015 19:06
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Yeah thank you guys for giving a poo poo about us enough to at least make a few posts online about it, I realize there are bigger issues in the world right now but it really seems like no one gives a gently caress about Venezuela.
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Nov 27, 2015 19:10
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Phlegmish posted:When are the elections scheduled again, the 6th of December? The chavistas will almost certainly try to rig the vote in some way, and depending on how blatant it is, it might provoke an international reaction. Yes, the elections are taking place on December 6. Aside from overt acts of violence against opposition supporters, there have been all kinds of shenanigans so far in this election period. Just a quick recap: the PSUV hijacking a party (MINDUNIDAD) with a similar name to the opposition bloc (MUDUNIDAD), giving it a very similar colour scheme and placing it beside the official opposition bloc on the electronic ballots; PSUV candidates appearing alongside politicians at events and handing over public money/inaugurating public works in direct contradiction of election laws; Maduro rejecting out-of-hand all sorts of international observer organizations, and only allowing one from UNASUR which, according to the opposition, arrived in the country "late, incomplete and poorly". It's going to be interesting to see if any violence takes place the day of the election. It'll also be interesting to see how long the CNE takes to announce the election results. It's usually the case that they'll wait until well into the night (close or past midnight) to make the announcement. As you can imagine, this opens the door to all kinds of speculation as to what's going on in that time. The gap between the PSUV and the opposition is the largest in any election between the two sides. I can't imagine people buying a PSUV victory given how widespread discontent is. I'm not sleeping that night.
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Nov 27, 2015 19:16
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Chuck Boone posted:In short: Diaz's killing fits an established pattern of violence against the opposition. In the absence of evidence, I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect his assassination is part of that trend. The killings you referred to are, in my mind, unconvincingly attributed to the so-called "paramilitary campaign" against Venezuela, which I simply see no evidence of. My bolivars are on him being gunned down in a confused six-way shootout between the CIA, Mossad, the World Bank, the DEA, the Freemasons, and the reptilians, all of who believed he was a double agent for one of the others. Tune in to Con el Mazo Dando for details.
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Nov 27, 2015 19:17
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MINUNIDAD, the fake opposition party, have a new ad: Red arrow, pointing to the MUD: "Don't get confused, that's not Unidad" Blue arrow, pointing to MINUNIDAD: "This is the ticket for Unidad. We are the opposition"
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Nov 27, 2015 19:27
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Chuck Boone posted:I do not believe that there is a paramilitary campaign against campesinos or chavistas. I believe that the "paramilitary campaign" angle is a lie the PSUV has come up with in order to shift blame away from itself for the country's ills. I've seen no convincing evidence that such a campaign exists.
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Nov 27, 2015 19:44
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Colombian death squads, opposition-affiliated gangsters and the CIA teaming up as part of a devious master plan to make it absolutely impossible to find toilet paper in Caracas.
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Nov 27, 2015 20:13
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There are FARC all over the place in Zulia, Tachira and Apure, all with the government's approval, all charging people money to cross bridges, collecting extortion money from honest farmers and land owners, all doing the government's dirty work.
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Nov 27, 2015 20:22
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Sinteres posted:Triggering a US invasion doesn't sound like a very good idea. Venezuela's murder rate just from "the government doesn't care about its basic functions / PSUV gangs are allowed to rampage with impunity" is currently about 50% of what Iraq's was at the height of the U.S. occupation's collaboration with Shia death squads. It really can only get so much worse before you have all the negative aspects of a foreign military intervention without any of the possible light at the end of the tunnel.
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Nov 27, 2015 22:34
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I am glad we have someone here to tell us that the paramilitary gangs showing up at opposition rallies are in face cool and good.
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Nov 27, 2015 23:35
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beer_war posted:MINUNIDAD, the fake opposition party, have a new ad: This is insane. Thank you for posting this. Are you in Venezuela? The MUD filed an accion de amapro today against the Consejo Nacional Electoral. My understanding of civilian law isn't very polished, but I believe that the accion de amparo is an avenue afforded to individuals that allows them to bring a court's attention to any act that they believe violates fundamental rights. In this case, the MUD wants the CNE to revert the MIN-UNIDAD (fake opposition) colour scheme to what it was in previous elections. I'm not exactly sure what that colour scheme is, but I'm guessing that it wasn't virtually identical to the MUD's as is the case now.
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Nov 27, 2015 23:58
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Chuck Boone posted:This is insane. Thank you for posting this. Are you in Venezuela? The cake has to go to this ballot they've been distributing in some areas, where they just outright switched the parties:  On the topic of Diaz, the guy was gunned down at an opposition rally. Even if we accept the government's version that he was mixed up in some bad poo poo, why on earth would he be killed at a rally if the intention wasn't to intimidate voters? Doubly so because he was next to Tintori (Lopez's wife). This is freaking Venezuela, it's not hard to kill someone and get away with it, literally all you have to do is not make a scene and everyone will buy that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the past 3 years, there's been close to 10 murders in a two block radius of my home and no one bats an eye. Phlegmish posted:When are the elections scheduled again, the 6th of December? The chavistas will almost certainly try to rig the vote in some way, and depending on how blatant it is, it might provoke an international reaction. This is something I want to address. Even if I do believe there's blatant fraud in our elections, the voting system that the government loves to parade around so much does have the advantage that when it does happen, it's easy to verify. Aside from the Capriles/Maduro elections, I do not believe the government has really needed to do stuff the numbers on their sides to get comfortable victories, but during that one it was blatant because they flinched when it came to looking at the voting books. Let me break it down: when people are done voting they get a printed piece of paper with their picks, which is stuffed in a box, at the end of the day the machine prints out the overall results and those are sent to the electoral council. On top of that, people must sign a voting book to reflect they participated, which includes their signature, name, ID number and fingerprint. Then, a sample of 53% of tables must be audited by making sure the papers match the electronic tally, so you know the machine didn't switch poo poo around. Now, the fraud happens on voting centers where opposition witnesses are either non-existent or outright driven away through violence (there are hundreds of documented instances of this happening during that election). Chavismo has a powerful mobilization machine that keeps tally of whether their supporters show up or not, when voting is near ending (or should have already ended due to law) they go into overdrive to get people to centers where their participation was weak and get them to cast their votes, allowing them to have an idea of how they're performing in "real-time". Votes can also be cast by willing participants in lieu of others, even though there's a fingerprint machine that should not allow this, it can be easily bypassed. The electoral council is famous for delaying the results way past reasonable hours because they turn a blind eye on these occurrences and are complicit in allowing the PSUV to do whatever the gently caress they want. If they had allowed a full audit of the voting books, some level of fraud would've been evident: people voting in lieu of others and either not filling the books out or having the same fingerprints show up over and over again. I clearly remember foreigners freaking out when the opposition requested to audit the books then as if it were a big deal. It is not, that is why the books exist. Our ID numbers are not like American social security numbers in that you don't want to share that information. I have to give mine out all the loving time just to use my debit card on any establishment, I have the ID numbers of lots of people jotted down for when I need to transfer money online, Venezuelans are NOT zealous about this information. Signatures and fingerprints? Give me a break, the audit would've been done under strict security from both sides, who would steal this data? It was utter nonsense not to allow it, but these details were lost in translation by international news sources. Now, the good part about this kind of fraud is that it's hard as gently caress to pull off, it requires massive resources and people willing to commit a crime. It has a ceiling, and with PSUV support at its lowest point during its history, plus people fed up with poor living conditions, they might not be able to pull it off in a scale that would meaningfully alter the results of the elections. Their other option would be blatantly going in front of the cameras and giving fake results, which would be disproven in a matter of hours and leave the opposition with plenty of evidence in the tallies. Their actions do not point towards this option being viable, otherwise they wouldn't bother with cheap intimidation and confusion tactics. A more likely scenario is that they're preparing for a loss, but looking to mitigate it. If the opposition gets a two-thirds majority it would be game over, they could call for a constitutional referendum, sweep the infected institutions and more importantly, call for a vote to recall Maduro from office. A victory of that magnitude is looking possible, but it heavily depends on how election day goes. If the opposition wins a simple majority, chavismo could coexist with the opposition and give Maduro ample powers to legislate before the assembly is reconstituted, plus they would still control the sitting Supreme Court, which could block opposition bills. It would renovate their "democratic" credentials by ceding a victory in front of the world, but still retaining the core institutions that allow them to do as they please. Labradoodle fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Nov 28, 2015 |
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Nov 28, 2015 01:38
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M. Discordia posted:Venezuela's murder rate just from "the government doesn't care about its basic functions / PSUV gangs are allowed to rampage with impunity" is currently about 50% of what Iraq's was at the height of the U.S. occupation's collaboration with Shia death squads. It really can only get so much worse before you have all the negative aspects of a foreign military intervention without any of the possible light at the end of the tunnel. I meant it wouldn't be a good idea for Maduro to give the US sufficient cause to invade or convince the military to overthrow him. I do think his removal would benefit Venezuela, but there's a limit to how brazen he can be in cracking down on the opposition if he doesn't want to end up dead or in prison.
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Nov 28, 2015 03:20
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Chuck Boone posted:This is insane. Thank you for posting this. Are you in Venezuela? Nah, I just happen to find your country and its governmemt fascinating in its insanity. I got the picture from La Patilla: http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2015/...tetico-anuncio/
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Nov 28, 2015 07:37
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lol @ anyone who seriously thinks the US would invade over a dodgy election. Anyway, from the point of view of view of US realpolitik everything in Venezuela is going swimmingly at the moment since a country ruled by a hostile regime is doing a very good job of destroying itself. Barely any dodgy actions on their part required either.
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Nov 28, 2015 15:31
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The Hercon polling firm released the results of its latest poll today. The poll had a sample size of 1,200 and was drawn from the entire country. It was conducted between November 10 and November 25, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.37%. Some notable results: When asked, "Who do you think will win the December 6 parliamentary elections?", respondents answered:
I woke up this morning to news that there were small-scale demonstrations breaking out in some cities across the country today (Macuto, Charallave, a place in Aragua, and Caracas). The reason: Mercal, the state-owned supermarket chain, holds open-air markets on weekends. Mercal sends food to these markets held in plazas around the country, giving people a chance to get their hands on food if they weren't able to throughout the week. El Nacional is reporting that the Mercal deliveries have not arrived or have been suspended in various cities across the country. In Macuto, Vargas state, people have blocked a road:  And this is in Charallave, Vargas state:  In Valencia, Carabobo state, people are burning tires on Aranzazu Avenue:   Just this morning, the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias announced that there would be 5,000 open-air markets operating in the country today. As you can imagine, the level of  is through the roof today. Did Mercal just not have enough food to supply all the markets? Why go out on a limb and promise something like this, then? Is the government purposely trying to get people to riot so that they can have an excuse to cancel the elections?
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Nov 28, 2015 17:40
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Chuck Boone posted:When asked, "Who is responsible for the increasing scarcity, shortages, insecurity, high cost of living, inflation, economic war, and unemployment?", respondents answered:  There's no loving way the PSUV can win the December 6 election without it being hilariously obviously rigged. No loving way.
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Dec 2, 2015 06:35
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There was a small demonstration in Caracas early yesterday morning after people lining up to buy chicken at a supermarket were suddenly told that it was sold out. Someone with a camera approached one of the disappointed shoppers and filmed her reaction. Here's the video and my translation below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1QNUQtKW4Iquote:Camerawoman: What happened here, ma’am? What happened? Gen. Ripper posted:This caught my eye. If you add Maduro Govt + Socialism of the 21st century + Corruption into one big "blame the government/government's failures" blob, it means an astounding 85% lay the blame for Venezuela's problems squarely at the feet of Maduro and Chavismo. Even if you discount corruption, it's still 3/4. Jesus christ The figures make sense if you look at them under one simple assumption: "People aren't stupid". They understand that as bad as things may have been three years ago, they are much worse today. They live the inflation crisis every time they look at the price of something and say, "Wow, but just last week this cost...". The fact that the government's only response to the economic crisis has been "everyone in the world who isn't us is conspiring to destroy the economy" just isn't convincing. The PSUV can't even lie properly most of the time. We're seeing the PSUV try desperately to give itself an advantage in the polls. Most recently, these desperate attempts have taken the form of violence against opposition rallies. The pathetic MINDUNIDAD mess, the fact that PSUV candidates use state resources to campaign, and Maduro outright threatening people to vote for the PSUV "or else!" are all degrees of electoral fraud. At this point, as you've alluded to, it's not a question of "if" but of "how much". Barring massive fraud on December 6, the PSUV will lose the election. What they decide to do in that (virtually certain) situation is what's keeping people up at night. This is what Maduro said two days ago at a rally in Caracas: quote:I won’t give up under any circumstance. I know we’re going to win, but if a negative situation happened I would take to the streets to fight alongside the people as I’ve always done, and the revolution would enter a new phase. Don’t think that I’m a coward: I’m a brave son of Chavez on the streets with the people.
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Dec 2, 2015 14:14
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