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Nah, I meant it for here...just wondering if there's any light visible at the end of this depressing tunnel
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May 23, 2017 01:41
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Wonder what Venezuelans think of this article. https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/unfinished-business
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May 23, 2017 02:08
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punk rebel ecks posted:Wonder what Venezuelans think of this article.  The problem wasn't price controls destroying the economy, it was the failure to go full Stalin and nationalize literally everything! Because that worked so great for the soviet economy
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May 23, 2017 04:24
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An article that handwaves away Maduro's authoritarianism by saying "The failure of Nicolás Maduro’s government to maintain popular living standards has allowed the right-wing opposition to take control of Venezuela’s National Assembly, resulting in a bitter standoff between executive and legislature that has yet to be resolved one way or another" isn't particularly interested in talking about the reality of Venezuela. The article goes on to suggest that the opposition will stamp out political freedoms if they take power, which may not be an entirely fanciful concern, but obviously pales in comparison to what Maduro's doing right now. A left that can't reject even a bumbling failure of a dictator like Maduro is even dumber than the tankies who defended Stalin, because at least Stalin had some actual successes against actual enemies to point to.
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May 23, 2017 04:44
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Rutibex posted:
In the article's defense, it targets price controls specifically in it.
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May 23, 2017 04:55
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Protesters Burned down the childhood home of Hugo Chavez today. https://apnews.com/85710834dfe045c6a4a5563d5fea6839/Lawmaker:-Hugo-Chavez's-childhood-home-burned-by-protesters
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May 23, 2017 05:43
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Now they need to burn Maduro's current home
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May 23, 2017 06:24
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Polidoro posted:Now they need to burn Maduro's current home Home is where the heart is.
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May 23, 2017 06:53
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punk rebel ecks posted:Wonder what Venezuelans think of this article. i'm the ad for cory doctorow's latest book in the sidebar alongside leftist literature and journals http://www.torforgeblog.com/2017/03/27/sneak-peek-walkaway/ 
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May 23, 2017 07:47
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The summary for that book is 'in a post apocalyptic, post scarcity future, young communists discover immortality, but the bourgeoisie will go to war for the one thing their ultra rich selves could never purchase.'
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May 23, 2017 12:11
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Barinas state was engulfed in chaos yesterday, and it looks like at least 5 people were killed in the violence there throughout the day. It looks like only 2-3 of them were actually protesters, and the others were just victims of general violence created by the unrest. I've been out of the office for a few days and I have a lot of work to catch up on, but it looks like the death toll is now sitting at around 57 since the protests began on April 1. Like MullardEL34 said, protesters burned down Chavez's childhood home in the town of Sabaneta. I think Chavez was born there. Anyway, it looks like the arson happened in retaliation for the killing of a protester earlier in the day. The state headquarters of the PSUV was also burned, as were the offices of the Consejo Nacional Electoral and some state government offices. Saladman posted:How do you defend your building against that? I guess colectivos maybe you can intimidate if you're also a bunch of guys with guns, but how do they deter police? I have relatives who live in San Antonio de los Altos, which has seen a considerable amount of violence over the last week. This is the "building defense" operation that one of my relatives described to me as it happened last week. I'm going to be deliberately vague so as to avoid providing any information that might identify my relatives, so I apologize for the lack of clarity. There were clashes between National Guard soldiers and protesters on the highway that runs through the city all through the morning. By around noon, the National Guard had pushed the demonstrators back, and the residents of the building in which my relatives live became concerned that if the soldiers pushed closer to the building, they might attempt to break in and/or shoot tear gas into it. At around this time, a group of young protesters who were fighting the National Guard (people call them "la resistencia" [the resistance] or simply "los muchachos" [the young ones]) ran down the street asking the residents of the buildings there to help them. The muchachos were asking for food, water, and materials for a barricade. My relative put a bag together with some water bottles and snacks, and brought down some old furniture. There were other residents of the building there who had also answered the protesters' call for help. They split the barricade debris into two sections: the large section went up the street to dissuade the National Guard from moving down the street towards the building, and the small section stayed at the front of the building to barricade the front door. Once the barricades were up, my relative (who is not in a condition to fight) went back into their apartment and stayed there the rest of the day. The street barricade seemed to the the job: the muchachos held it from the National Guard, which ended up never making it to my relatives' building. Arkane posted:So what's the visibility to the long-term fix of currency/inflation stabilization and investment? Obviously both of those are going to require some political stability. Long term (in terms of at least one generation or two), I think Venezuela has a very good chance to recover with good political leadership and a lot of hard work. Venezuela has good access to the sea via a few ports and lots of oil. It was once a functioning country with a very good standard of living and lots of promise, and I don't see a reason why it can't be that again if all the right conditions are present. It's a big "if", though. I do not believe that we will have elections next year. We still haven't had the regional elections that we should have had last year. I think that by pushing for a Constituent Assembly, Maduro is looking to cement an unapologetic, naked dictatorship with some glitter sprinkled on top. If Maduro controls all of the pieces that will draft the new constitution, there's all the reason in the world to think he'll write in things like no re-election limits, 20 year presidential terms, no elections during "emergencies", etc. This is also part of the reason why we are now on day 53 of nationwide, massive protests. I think most Venezuelans also think that we're not going to be seeing elections as long as these people are in power. punk rebel ecks posted:Wonder what Venezuelans think of this article. Jacobin is so far up its own butt in dogma that it's hard for me to get through their articles. A couple of points on this one: I cringe every time I heard the term "the right-wing opposition". You almost always hear it from places like Jacobin and Venezuelanalysis because, well, that's just how their dogmatic compasses are set. The Venezuelan opposition is "anyone who isn't the PSUV", and to suggest that ~80% of the country is "right wing" is absurd. Also, the MUD (the official political opposition bloc) is made up of something like 30 parties, some of which are centre-left. "Right-wing opposition" really means "fascist". I mean, where does this assertion come from? What observations has this author made to lead him to this conclusion? What is this statement based on other than a blind, unquestioning underlying belief that "we = good, they = bad"?: quote:But the opposition is anything but “normal”: still dominated by vengeful oligarchic figureheads, Venezuela’s right-wing bloc cannot be trusted to show any respect for democratic rights if it recovers power. I had a bunch more stuff typed out but I deleted it. I just have a hard time reading the article without rolling my eyes every two paragraphs.
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May 23, 2017 16:09
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Breaking, magistrate from the TSJ has come out stating his disapproval on the Constituent Assembly that Maduro has proposed, and also mentioned being against the brutality of government aligned security forces. https://twitter.com/sergionovelli/status/867067678250471430
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May 23, 2017 19:58
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Chuck Boone posted:
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May 24, 2017 03:21
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Chuck Boone posted:Jacobin is so far up its own butt in dogma that it's hard for me to get through their articles. I couldn't make it past the blanket assertion of "right-wing opposition" either. Whatever else the article was trying to say was buried and ruined by that bullshit.
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May 24, 2017 09:01
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fnox posted:Breaking, magistrate from the TSJ has come out stating his disapproval on the Constituent Assembly that Maduro has proposed, and also mentioned being against the brutality of government aligned security forces. He was joined in his criticism of the regime later in the afternoon by another supreme court magistrate: Marisela Godoy. Both magistrates sit on the Civil Cassation Chamber, which rules on civil matters. The Venezuelan supreme court has 32 magistrates and is divided into 6 chambers. The most important one is the Constitutional Chamber, since it rules on constitutional matters. In other words, these two judges aren't necessarily big fish and they don't sit on the most important chamber of the TSJ. Still, the fact that they are openly criticism the regime is huge news because it's evidence that the facade continued to crack. I translated magistrate Mojica's video. The translation isn't my best since the man unfortuantely appears to suffer from that disease that judges sometimes get which makes it impossible for them to speak a single sentence like a normal human being. Anyway, here it is: quote:Mojica: Mr. Nicolas Maduro Moros, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: I, Danilo Mojico Monsalvo, magistrate on the Chamber of Civil Cassation at the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, speak to you through this means with all due respect given your title as outlined in article 57 of the Constitution [freedom of expression] and article 7 of the Ethical Code for Judges, published in the Gaceta Oficial 39.236 dated August 6 2009. Later, magistrate Godoy said that Maduro was acting not only illegally, but also against Chavez's wishes: quote:[The regime is] throwing into the garbage Hugo Chavez’s phrase: “We cannot change neither a comma nor a letter in the Constitution without asking the people”. The big issue with this Communal Constituent Assembly is that Maduro just decided back on May 1 that it was happening. That's not the way it works. According to the constitution, Maduro has to put the question of whether or not people want a constituent assembly to happen to a referendum. The reason he's not doing that is because 73% of voters do not want a constituent assembly. That same survey I just linked two found a few other interesting tidbits:
anonumos posted:I couldn't make it past the blanket assertion of "right-wing opposition" either. Whatever else the article was trying to say was buried and ruined by that bullshit. punk rebel ecks posted:I'm not going to lie. I knew it was crap, I just wanted to see you rip it to shreds. :P Yeah, seriously. If your starting point is that the other guys are fascists, it's no wonder that you end up arguing "Yeah, our guys are doing a pretty terrible job, but the other guys would be worse, believe me!". Not terribly compelling.
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May 24, 2017 16:24
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Chuck Boone and Labradoodle, would you be interested in me interviewing you for my podcast for an episode about Venezuela?Chuck Boone posted:Yeah, seriously. If your starting point is that the other guys are fascists, it's no wonder that you end up arguing "Yeah, our guys are doing a pretty terrible job, but the other guys would be worse, believe me!". Not terribly compelling. In Jacobin's defense, they have pretty good domestic articles about the United States. They are terrible internationally, even in regards to Western Europe.
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May 24, 2017 20:32
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There's more desertions by the judiciary, the Attorney General, who had previously come out with comments that were damning the government, has now admitted that Juan Pernalete was killed when a gas grenade fired by the police impacted his chest, something that the government has vehemently denied (Diosdado even came up with the theory that he got "karate chopped" by his fellow protesters). This actually confirms one of my biggest fears, and that is that Maduro is willing to go on without support from Chavistas. This means that he likely won't agree to step down, probably because he realizes there is no way he will live long outside of power, which likely means that the brewing revolution on the streets of Venezuela will eventually have to remove him by force.
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May 25, 2017 09:37
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Or he just orders a major crackdown a la china. Now everyone down with a tank
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May 25, 2017 10:12
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There were three protest-related fatalities yesterday:
There was lots of unrest around the country yesterday, which was the 54th consecutive day of protests. Here are some videos/pictures from Caracas: https://twitter.com/LuuSalomon/status/867465891159699456 This video shows panicked protesters jumping off a highway overpass in Caracas to flee tear gas/authorities. The video is dramatic because we can't see where they've jumped. I think that they may have jumped into the Guaire River. There were no protest-related fatalities in Caracas yesterday: https://twitter.com/cristiancrespoj/status/867455161014382592 At one point, a man ran into the crowd of protesters in Bello Monte and fired a weapon into the air, presumably in an attempt to disperse the crowd. This is the man: https://twitter.com/sincepto/status/867470012696723456 The text in the tweet below is a reference to the "captive bolt" theory that the government tried to push on Pernalete's death. The tweet reads: "This is how they shoot protesters with captive bolt guns": https://twitter.com/EventosUCAB/status/867480050987302913 fnox posted:There's more desertions by the judiciary, the Attorney General, who had previously come out with comments that were damning the government, has now admitted that Juan Pernalete was killed when a gas grenade fired by the police impacted his chest, something that the government has vehemently denied (Diosdado even came up with the theory that he got "karate chopped" by his fellow protesters). That press conference yesterday by AG Diaz was huge. It's important to point out also that she based her conclusion (that, as you say, Pernalete was killed by a tear gas canister fired from a National Guard soldier) based on forensic tests on Pernalete's body and five eye witness accounts. The forensic tests on the body included confirmation that the bruise on his chest matches the injury that a tear gas canister would cause if fired at someone, as well as the fact that his t-shirt contained traces of chemicals found on tear gas canisters. Aside from Diosado Cabello's theory, the other "official" government came from Minister of Communication Ernesto Villegas, who said that it was "a strong possibility" that Pernalete had been killed by a captive bolt gun. Think about how messed up that is. Imagine having your brother or son killed and then seeing official authorities actively trying to cover up his death. If Diaz hadn't flipped... To give you an idea of how the deadliness of a tear gas canister fired at close range, here's a video recorded during the unrest in Caracas last night. A National Guard soldier fires a tear gas canister from (40? 50 feet?), and it takes a chunk out of a wooden shield and knocks it out of a protester's hand. Imagine standing perpendicular to this at closer range without a shield: https://twitter.com/RCamachoVzla/status/867729526243160064 The rest of the regime is now starting to speak out against Diaz. Foreign Affairs Minister Delcy Rodriguez made some slight about her yesterday (I didn't hear what she said, just saw the headline that she said something), and Minister of the Interior Nestor Reverol said last night that the Public Ministry is not helping at all to quell the unrest. Diaz also provided some official statistics on the protests:
punk rebel ecks posted:Chuck Boone and Labradoodle, would you be interested in me interviewing you for my podcast for an episode about Venezuela?
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May 25, 2017 15:31
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I can post my email if you want but I'd prefer to communicate on Discord?
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May 25, 2017 16:04
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This morning, authorities dismantled two bridges that connect the Bello Monte and Las Mercedes neighbourhoods of Caracas to the Francisco Fajardo highway. The two bridges are often the site of skirmishes between authorities and protesters, and they act as escape routes for demonstrators when opposition marches make it onto the highway. https://twitter.com/trafficMIRANDA/status/867720292805652480 https://twitter.com/CaraotaDigital/status/867764755821457409 Also, a group of National Assembly deputies went to the Public Ministry in Caracas this morning to file some formal complaints about the deaths of protesters in Barinas state recently, and once word got out that they were there a colectivo showed up to intimidate them: https://twitter.com/wfloresvp/status/867756855631785984 https://twitter.com/oliviaylozano/status/867757143893700608 punk rebel ecks posted:I can post my email if you want but I'd prefer to communicate on Discord? Sure! That works too. I have my Discord info on my profile here.
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May 25, 2017 17:29
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Chuck Boone posted:Sure! That works too. I have my Discord info on my profile here. Just click this link and join my Discord. https://discord.gg/fPaFa5T
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May 26, 2017 02:46
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Better speak through PMs on the discord if you're talking about anything that could ID you. I wouldn't put it past some of the more petulant pro-Maduro posters that have been run out of this thread to inform on people.
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May 26, 2017 05:39
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punk rebel ecks posted:Chuck Boone and Labradoodle, would you be interested in me interviewing you for my podcast for an episode about Venezuela? Thanks! I'm not much of a public speaker though so you should stick with Chuck. Plus, he's more informed than most people on what's going on so you'll have plenty to discuss. ISIS CURES TROONS posted:Better speak through PMs on the discord if you're talking about anything that could ID you. I wouldn't put it past some of the more petulant pro-Maduro posters that have been run out of this thread to inform on people. Just to be clear, we're not there yet. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans talk poo poo about Chavismo every day on every social network imaginable and the state isn't wasting its time chasing them. The cases I've heard about the government imprisoning people for social media postings usually have to do with "calls to violence" or posting pictures they don't want people to see, but they don't care about a bunch of random guys talking on a private forum.
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May 26, 2017 13:43
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Labradoodle posted:Thanks! I'm not much of a public speaker though so you should stick with Chuck. Plus, he's more informed than most people on what's going on so you'll have plenty to discuss. Click the discord link above! 
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May 26, 2017 23:43
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A National Guard soldier was beaten to death today at an memorial event for a protester killed in Lara state during the overnight hours on Wednesday. The protester was called Manuel Sosa, and he was shot (allegedly by the National Guard) at an anti-regime protest in the city of Cabudare sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. During today's memorial, the crowd somehow fell under the impression that a man was secretly recording the event. The crowd believed that the man was some kind of undercover authority, and they quickly surrounded him and subsequently killed him. The man was a National Guard lieutenant named Danny Subaro. The tweet below contains an image of his ID, as well as two images of him in the crowd (EDIT: I've removed the link to the tweet). My count is not at 63 protest-related fatalities since April 1. Today is the 10th anniversary of the closure of RCTV, which was the most popular television network in the country. It was founded in 1953 and was a pillar of Venezuelan television culture throughout its entire life. In 2007, Chavez refused to renew the network's broadcasting license because of its anti-government line. I happened to be in Venezuela the night that RCTV went off the air, and it was a dramatic time to say the least. There was an event in Caracas to mark the occasion, but it overlapped with protests which are now in their 57th day. Protesters made it onto the Francisco Fajardo highway in Caracas and closed it by building hasty barricades and parking trucks across it: https://twitter.com/RCamachoVzla/status/868541706546929664 https://twitter.com/AriMalpik/status/868544367979630596 https://twitter.com/enpaiszeta/status/868544918402289664 The red, black and white flag that the one protester is waving in the pictures above is called Guerra a Muerte (Battle to the Death). It was used by Simon Bolivar during a stretch of the war of independence. At around that same time, Simon Bolivar issued his "Battle to the Death Decree", which promised death to any Spaniard in the region who did not actively help fight for Venezuela's independence. The flag is supposed to mean your uncompromising commitment to see a task carried out to the bitter end. Here is another shot of the crowd on the highway: https://twitter.com/JuanAndresMejia/status/868573400415047680 A short clip of protesters on the highway: https://twitter.com/NTN24ve/status/868602158589124608 This video is about an hour long, and it was filmed during the unrest in Caracas by NTN24. NTN24 is a Colombian news network, and they have a crew in Venezuela that usually captures really intense footage from protests. I haven't seen the video below but I'm sure it's interesting. I'm supposed to be on vacation for the next two weeks, so I probably won't be able to post as regularly. I'll try to drop by as often as I can, though. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 01:31 on May 28, 2017 |
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May 28, 2017 01:26
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57 days straight. Jesus Christ. Are there any plans to make things come to a head? So far no one is budging on either side, but I fear that the protesters will get tired soon.
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May 28, 2017 18:14
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Phlegmish posted:57 days straight. Jesus Christ. I don't know because it doesn't feel like there's anything for the protesters to even go back TO and that really does help you not get tired of it.
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May 28, 2017 18:35
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Earlier I posted that I felt like a lot of Venezuelans which are Portuguese descendant ( or even not ) are returning, last week I was told by government sources this was happening now at a rather alarming rate and today a newspaper article makes it public that a lot are returning, thousands are apparently searching for job. Which most can't easily get for now as they don't speak Portuguese and a lot of their higher education diplomas are worthless here. So yeah, a clusterfuck
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May 29, 2017 14:27
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Celexi posted:Earlier I posted that I felt like a lot of Venezuelans which are Portuguese descendant ( or even not ) are returning, last week I was told by government sources this was happening now at a rather alarming rate and today a newspaper article makes it public that a lot are returning, thousands are apparently searching for job. Which most can't easily get for now as they don't speak Portuguese and a lot of their higher education diplomas are worthless here. So yeah, a clusterfuck Is this in S. Miguel?
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May 29, 2017 17:51
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Celexi posted:Earlier I posted that I felt like a lot of Venezuelans which are Portuguese descendant ( or even not ) are returning, last week I was told by government sources this was happening now at a rather alarming rate and today a newspaper article makes it public that a lot are returning, thousands are apparently searching for job. Which most can't easily get for now as they don't speak Portuguese and a lot of their higher education diplomas are worthless here. So yeah, a clusterfuck This has been happening in Spain for a long while. Slowly but surely a Venezuelan diaspora is forming across the globe. I mean, I'm as far away from home as Sweden. And it's only gonna get worse the longer Maduro stays in power.
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May 29, 2017 22:10
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orange sky posted:Is this in S. Miguel? No, Madeira Island.
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May 30, 2017 02:47
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fnox posted:This has been happening in Spain for a long while. 
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May 30, 2017 07:03
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orange sky posted:Is this in S. Miguel? It was one of the main pieces of the lunch hour PT news, they'll probably rerun it again at night, but a lot of Venezuelans are arriving at Madeira most of them coming to here regardless of having a job waiting or even familial link. At the moment the Portuguese government is still starting to put the first ideas on paper on their plan of repatriation/extraction of Portuguese immigrants/descendants stuck in Venezuela.
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May 30, 2017 15:48
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Electronico6 posted:It was one of the main pieces of the lunch hour PT news, they'll probably rerun it again at night, but a lot of Venezuelans are arriving at Madeira most of them coming to here regardless of having a job waiting or even familial link. Didn't watch it. We're definitely in the need of immigration, especially youth immigration, in Continental Portugal, so they might just bring them here and give them portuguese lessons & a house. E: If that's what they want, of course lol
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May 30, 2017 16:02
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Anyone have links to good articles on Venezuela's post-Chavez economic crises? I'm specifically interested in the goods shortages, and how those shortages came about. e: while i'm here, have there been any arrests/prosecutions of the people who've killed or attacked protestors so far? mila kunis fucked around with this message at 04:40 on May 31, 2017 |
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May 31, 2017 03:52
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Man, reading TeleSUR these days is like a portal into a parallel universe.quote:Following the rise of socialist revolutions across Eastern Europe throughout the 20th Century, the U.S. and U.K. began supporting “pro-democracy” protests in countries like the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Backed by wealthy multinational elites, these “pro-democracy” protesters claimed the Soviet Union-backed government was committing “human rights abuses” and that it was mismanaging the economy, just like the Venezuelan opposition alleges. That's uh, quite the historical interpretation you've got there..
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May 31, 2017 05:07
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Wait, do they PREFER the soviet union!?  Saying a government was backed by the soviet union is not a glowing recommendation for a government!
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May 31, 2017 05:12
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tekz posted:Anyone have links to good articles on Venezuela's post-Chavez economic crises? I'm specifically interested in the goods shortages, and how those shortages came about. https://www.venezuelaecon.com/ Gives you a nice graph form showing the collapse of the economy. The top grey bar is the one to keep the closest track of. I see that the BsF spent all of May returning to its nosedive, after 4 months of rollercoaster-style "stability". E: Hmm, I can't seem to get it to scroll beyond two years ago. I thought there was some way to get that older data, so you can go back and see that just a few years ago when it was like 6:1 for the BsF to USD, compared to the 6000:1 that it is now. Saladman fucked around with this message at 08:26 on May 31, 2017 |
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May 31, 2017 08:24
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Pharohman777 posted:Wait, do they PREFER the soviet union!? Most Latin American Leftists do.
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May 31, 2017 17:01
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