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MIGF also said "Argentinia", which is as funny as when Americans say "Columbia".AlexanderCA posted:So Venezuela just abstained from the mh17 tribunal vote (that ofcourse was vetoed by Russia) together with Angola and China. I understand Venezuela and Russia, also China ("we don't give a gently caress") - but Angola???
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# ? Jul 30, 2015 00:31 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 09:19 |
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Azran posted:MIGF also said "Argentinia", which is as funny as when Americans say "Columbia". One of the main benefits of UN representation for the governments of countries like Angola is the opportunity to whore out their votes/non-votes to large or wealthy but unpopular countries like Russia in exchange for bribes or 'aid'. That's one of the reasons why Israel seems to be so popular among the foreign ministries of such diplomatic movers and shakers as Nauru
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# ? Jul 30, 2015 01:18 |
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"Pinochet's Argentinia" Oh my.
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# ? Jul 30, 2015 18:17 |
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MIGF should have been more subtle there, that just shatters my suspension of disbelief.
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# ? Jul 30, 2015 18:34 |
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Polar is the largest food producer in Venezuela. Practically every Venezuelan food staple is produced by the company. It was founded in 1941 and is a (or the) pillar of Venezuelan industry. Yesterday, a judge presented an expropriation order at the Polar distribution centre in La Yaguara, Caracas. The site is the company's largest such facility in Caracas. Polar says that the centre directly employes 138 Polar workers, and 477 PepsiCo. workers (PepsiCo. operates as a subsidiary of Polar in Venezuela). Coca-Cola and another company called Cargill also have warehouses on the land. The land is being expropriated by the Ministry of Homes and Habitat for the construction of subsidized housing. Polar says that each month, 12,000 tonnes of food and 6 million liters of beverages are processed through the centre, and that it servers as the primary distribution centre for 19 communities. The affected companies have been given 60 days to vacate the land. When one of my co-workers mentioned this to me earlier today, I thought, "Well, that makes some sense, I guess. The government is taking over the warehouses - as they've done before - so they can take over the distribution process". Then he told me, "No, they're tearing the warehouses down to build homes..." Manuel Felipe Larrazabal, the director of Polar Foods, spoke today on the expropriation and said: quote:We ask that this measure be reconsidered in light of the fact that these are very active work sites which serve to provide products to the capital and neighbouring states. We don't question the fact that homes must be build – as they are a necessity – but we do wonder why active industrial zones must be affected. Some of the workers held a demonstration at the Polar office not far from the La Yaguara warehouse. Jackson Medina, one of the affected workers, told El Nacional: quote:We are afraid of losing our jobs. We have been working for this company for years, so it’s become a part of our life. We have a responsibility to produce food for the country, and that’s why we will not allow anyone – no matter who orders it – to expropriate our second home. Alexander Noguera, another worker, said: quote:We are not here playing or watching television; what you’ll find here is people who are committed to Venezuela, working. beer_war posted:Nothing wrong with that sentence. Nope. Not at all. Ha! Yeah, I thought so too. It's sad in two ways: either the man is right and the CNE does know who you voted for, or the CNE doesn't know who you voted for, but the man believes that they do.
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 00:56 |
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Chuck Boone posted:Polar is the largest food producer in Venezuela. Practically every Venezuelan food staple is produced by the company. It was founded in 1941 and is a (or the) pillar of Venezuelan industry. Relax, we are giving you $200M worth of food in exchange of $400M in oil.
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 01:03 |
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I don't understand, what is the motivation to expropriate Polar to just build more homes? I assume red tape, but for what?
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 07:12 |
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punk rebel ecks posted:I don't understand, what is the motivation to expropriate Polar to just build more homes? I assume red tape, but for what? Polar violated the First Commandment, and has always been a thorn in the side of the Bolivarian regime (in so far as it's been the government's punching bag for food shortages). Especially after Maduro took over. ComradeCosmobot fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Jul 31, 2015 |
# ? Jul 31, 2015 07:18 |
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More on the Polar story from the "But our beer!" angle .
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 10:13 |
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As others have pointed out, the government has had it in for Polar for a while, and this is just the latest move against the company in a long list of threats and general hostility. I think its worthwhile to take a step back and really think about what has happened here. The people in power today are so petty, so vindictive, so nearsighted and have so little regard for the wellbeing of the Venezuelan people that they are going to demolish an important food distribution centre in the middle of the worst scarcity crisis in living memory just because they don't like a company.
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 18:13 |
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Well, what can one expect from a left-wing kleptocracy? I am entirely unsurprised that they'd gently caress over a vital industry just to fill the pockets of a few government cronies.
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 20:26 |
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Nice to see they Chavistas are so dedicated to the welfare of the working class that they are literally tearing down their workplaces.
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# ? Jul 31, 2015 21:16 |
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Polar isn't so innocent in this situation though http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Workers-Denounce-Venezuelas-Largest-Food-Processing-Company--20141206-0011.html quote:The union representing workers of Polar Food in the Venezuelan states of Anzoategui and Sucre have denounced their employer, saying that workers have been persecuted for exposing the company’s strategy to reduce the production rates for pre-cooked, corn flour, a staple of Venezuelan’s diet. ‘‘I want to inform the Venezuelan people that production has reduced almost 40 to 50 percent,” said the union representatives, Carlos Maita at a Thursday press conference. “We should produce approximately 270 pallets a day, we are hardly producing 180 orders on the employer’s orders. They say this is what they can do. We know that the machines can produce more than this.”
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 01:11 |
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So why is the solution to demolish the worker's factories instead of taking the factories over for the workers?
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 01:19 |
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So the union is mad at the company for lowering production, therefore the only solution is to destroy the factory
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 07:18 |
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Nintendo Kid posted:So why is the solution to demolish the worker's factories instead of taking the factories over for the workers? "Socialism".
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 13:46 |
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There was looting in San Felix, Bolivar state yesterday that left a 21 year-old man dead and around 30 people arrested. Starting in the early morning, a large crowd of people began looting a supermarket along a main avenue in the city. Here are some pictures: Yesterday night Maduro said that the looting had been "a planned event", and suggested that Enemies Foreign and Domestic ® were responsible. It most certainly wasn't because the widespread scarcity that has been eating away at the country for the last year or so continues unabated. Looting has become a not-so-rare occurrence in Venezuela over the past few months. Aside from the event at San Felix, a PDVAL food warehouse in Monagas state was looted on Wednesday. On July 7, people in line at a supermarket in Margarita state lost patience and started looting (Here's video of that event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5qb7AoQ4Zg). That same day, drivers passing by a traffic collision involving a truck carrying pop and water on the highway connecting Caracas and Valencia got out of their vehicles and looted the contents of the truck. These kinds of events are happening with such frequency that either the Colombian paramilitaries planning and executing them are becoming really efficient, or people are getting tired of lining up for hours to maybe have a shot at buying a single bag of corn flour. Borneo Jimmy posted:Polar isn't so innocent in this situation though I think I've been fairly respectful to you in the past, Jimmy, so forgive me if I sound harsh. Out of all the questionable comments you've made in all the months that you've been active in this thread, that has got to be laziest and most asinine. I don't often reply to you because I don't think it's productive sometimes, but I want to go on record with this. I just cannot imagine what level of stubbornness would lead you to make a conclusion like that. Regardless of your stance on the "innocence" of Polar, a functioning, legitimate democracy where there is such a thing as the rule of law has mechanisms to deal with wrongdoing without destroying important infrastructure at the cost of hundreds of jobs and disruption to food distribution to millions of people. What you're suggesting is, "Polar is not producing enough; therefore, let us destroy the most important food distribution centre in the region as punishment." The woman in the article says, "Maduro has asked the workers to raise production, not reduce it", and here comes Maduro with bulldozers ready to demolish the largest food distribution centre in Caracas at the immediate cost of at least 500 jobs. Everyone is entitled to think whatever they want, but think critically, Jimmy. You can't go through life desperately trying to make the world fit into whatever world view you've set your mind on. Ask questions, challenge your assumptions. It's O.K. to change your mind about something if there's good enough evidence. Also, the reason why Polar is not producing at 100% capacity is not because Lorenzo Mendoza pulled the "Slow down production because I'm an evil mastermind and I want to destroy the economy" lever in his office: it's because the company is not being given dollars to import raw materials quickly enough. This past week Polar was forced to shut down two of its six beer factories due to a lack of barley. As of last week, Cerveceria Polar owes international supplies $217 million dollars, and has been waiting for as long as 200 days for the government to assign them the dollars through CENCOEX. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Aug 1, 2015 |
# ? Aug 1, 2015 14:48 |
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Source: Telesur Into the trash it goes. Polar also has business here by the way, and they do well in their segment. But overall they're a small player and I don't think we eat as many arepas per capita as the Venezuelans. They also sell Quaker cookies.
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 16:39 |
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Tony_Montana posted:Source: Telesur So? Yes they have an agenda, but no more than CNN or Jeff Bezos' personal newsletter aka The Washington Post Chuck Boone posted:Regardless of your stance on the "innocence" of Polar, a functioning, legitimate democracy where there is such a thing as the rule of law has mechanisms to deal with wrongdoing without destroying important infrastructure at the cost of hundreds of jobs and disruption to food distribution to millions of people. What you're suggesting is, "Polar is not producing enough; therefore, let us destroy the most important food distribution centre in the region as punishment." The woman in the article says, "Maduro has asked the workers to raise production, not reduce it", and here comes Maduro with bulldozers ready to demolish the largest food distribution centre in Caracas at the immediate cost of at least 500 jobs. Okay fair enough, but still I find it hard to mourn for a company with such a history of destabilization and mistreatment of workers.
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 17:16 |
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Borneo Jimmy posted:Okay fair enough, but still I find it hard to mourn for a company with such a history of destabilization and mistreatment of workers. If I were Venezuelan, I'd be more upset about yet another erosion of the rule of law than the fate of a particular company.
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 17:31 |
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There's a difference between having an agenda and being the television arm of the propaganda apparatus of a third world quasi dictatorship.
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 19:53 |
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Borneo Jimmy posted:Okay fair enough, but still I find it hard to mourn for a company with such a history of destabilization and mistreatment of workers. Well don't worry, they won't be mistreated workers for much longer because THEY'LL BE loving UNEMPLOYED BECAUSE THEIR JOBS WERE DEMOLISHED BY THE GOVERNMENT YOU'RE SHILLING FOR.
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# ? Aug 1, 2015 23:52 |
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Chuck Boone posted:You can't go through life desperately trying to make the world fit into whatever world view you've set your mind on. The continued existence of PSUV supporters show that one certainly can do this.
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# ? Aug 2, 2015 00:45 |
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Chuck and Labradoodle, just wanted to say thanks for the continued updates.
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# ? Aug 2, 2015 04:07 |
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Borneo Jimmy posted:Okay fair enough, but still I find it hard to mourn for a company with such a history of destabilization and mistreatment of workers. I think it's great that you're not mourning for the company, and I'm not either. I think the company is the last in a long list of entities we should mourn for. I am mourning for (and I argue you should as well) the hundreds of workers who are out of a job on a whim, and the millions of Caracas-area residents who will now find it that much more difficult to access basic necessities because of the maliciousness of the people that are supposed to represent their interests. M. Discordia posted:The continued existence of PSUV supporters show that one certainly can do this. True! I should have said, "You shouldn't go through life desperately trying to..." Arkane posted:Chuck and Labradoodle, just wanted to say thanks for the continued updates. It's my pleasure. With the December election looming closer, I was thinking about starting a new thread in about three weeks when I'm off work. I'd like to include links for further reading and a broad summary of the situation in the country since Maduro took office. If you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to start taking notes so they can be included in the new thread.
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# ? Aug 2, 2015 15:02 |
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34025800 Smugglers smuggling food and water!? B-but Venezuela is a post-scarcity socialist paradise!
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# ? Aug 23, 2015 21:20 |
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Is it even remotely possible to slow down smuggling traffic along a 2200 mile border?
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# ? Aug 23, 2015 21:33 |
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Zeroisanumber posted:Is it even remotely possible to slow down smuggling traffic along a 2200 mile border? If you already had a ton of money, then sure.
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# ? Aug 23, 2015 21:56 |
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2,200 kilometers, that's a mere 1,370 miles, should be a piece of cake.
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# ? Aug 24, 2015 00:08 |
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After Maduro decreed the state of exception, he went on about how huddled masses have been coming over from Colombia in search for a better life in Venezuela. On Thursday, he said that 121,000 Colombians had immigrated to Venezuela in 2015 alone:quote:[The immigrants] are a people who arrive without education, without a cent in their pockets. They are the poorest of the poor, fleeing violence, war and misery, looking to socialist Venezuela for protection and the free, public social security that we have. The next day, Migracion Colombia said that according to their figures, 8,000 Colombians had entered Venezuela and not returned so far in 2015, and that out of that figure and unknown number did so in transit to another country. Yesterday, Minister of Tourism Marleny Contreras (who also happens to be Diosdado Cabello's wife) was in a popular beach with Falcon state governor Stella Lugo doing some campaigning. It turns out to not have been a great idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdfB0U7MHKc
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# ? Aug 24, 2015 00:28 |
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All these stories about having to stand in line for toilet paper are putting stars in Columbians' eyes.
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# ? Aug 24, 2015 07:16 |
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Venezuela is now mass deporting all Colombians who live along the border, legal or illegal and demolishing their homes. We are about to be facing a massive humanitarian crisis if this is extended to all of Venezuela. There are over 600,000 Colombians currently residing in Venezuela. So far around 1000 Colombians have been kicked out. Thankfully the response by the Colombian Government seems to be prompt and fast. Some of my wife's extended family got kicked out of Venezuela, they demolished several of their neighbors homes. They are also preventing Colombian students from attending schools there. It's a good thing. Even with how bad things are in Colombia now due to the fall of the Oil, things are still much, much, better than Venzuela. The amount of racism that is being stirred up is incredible. Venezuela is lucky that Santos is President because with the state of their economy if Uribe had won last election they'd be getting absolutely demolished in a military conflict probably. Colombia is going to have to make some serious threats because these kinds of actions are unacceptable. There are hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in Colombia and you don't see Colombia ever deporting them.
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 01:20 |
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Looking forward to the new VenezuelaAnalysis article explaining how bulldozing those homes is a necessary step to end the oppression of the Venezuela People by bourgeoisie drywall and timber.
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 01:50 |
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Ugh. I like to think that I'm a patient man, but nothing gets me riled up quicker than reading a Venezuelanalysis article. From their front page today, on the state of exception in Tachira state and the deportations (emphasis mine): quote:President Nicolas Maduro declared a state of exception – similar to a state of emergency but where no human rights are rescinded – in five municipalities of Tachira state Friday in order to re-take control over the border area and re-organize it. And here's Telesur saying the exact opposite: quote:The head of the Presidential Command Post, Tareck El Aissami, said on Saturday that [constitutional] guarantees are being temporarily restricted in the Bolivar, Pedro Maria Ureña, Junin, Independencia and Libertad municipalities in Tachira state, to guarantee peace for the Venezuelan people and put an end to paramilitarism. El Aissami said that six constitutional rights were being suspended, found in Articles 47, 48, 50, 53, 68 and 112 of the Constitution. The suspension will last 60 days, and can be extended for a further 60 days if need be. The rights and freedoms affected involve warrantless searches of home and property, wiretapping and intercepting private conversations, transit through the affected areas, peaceful assembly, peaceful protest, and the right to engage in any profession one chooses within the confines of the law. But then again, Vielma Mora said that this actually means that people are getting right back, so maybe I'm wrong. I've got the new OP ready to go, and I'm just waiting on some feedback from Labradoodle to get it posted. Any suggestions for the new thread title?
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 03:17 |
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Question: why does a state of emergency normally mean that human rights are suspended, or is that just a quirk of how things get translated?
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 03:23 |
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Nintendo Kid posted:Question: why does a state of emergency normally mean that human rights are suspended, or is that just a quirk of how things get translated? I'd chalk this up to "Venezuelanalysis doesn't know what it's talking about" rather than a quirk of translation. The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has provisions for declaring different "states": state of exception (estado de excepcion), state of alarm (estado de alarma), state of economic emergency (estado de emergencia economica), and state of internal or external commotion (estado de conmocion interior o exterior). The definitions for these are found in Articles 337, 338 and 339 of the Constitution. Below is a translation of Article 337, which outlines the state of exception: quote:Article 337. The President of the Republic, meeting with Cabinet Ministers, can declare a state of exception. These are expressly defined as circumstances where the social, economic, political, natural or ecological order so gravely affect the security of the Nation, its institutions and its citizens, and in which the powers available to face such circumstances prove insufficient. In such a case, the guarantees outlined in this Constitution may be temporarily restricted, except those referring to the right to life, the prohibition against incomunicacion [this roughly translates to "solitary confinement"] and torture, the right to due process, the right to information and the other intangible human rights. As you can see, the state of exception does clearly set out guidelines for the "temporary restriction" of certain Constitutional rights, and this is exactly what Tareck El Aissami announced on Saturday. Interestingly enough, while Article 338 outlines when the other "states" can be declared, it does not explain much beyond that. I'm not sure if the other states can be "couched" inside the state of exception; in other words, I don't know if Maduro can say, "I'm declaring a state of exception, and it's because we've got a state of economic emergency happening". In any case, the Constitution does not explicitly say whether or not rights can be restricted if one of the other "states" is declared. I'm not sure why Venezuelanalysis would make a distinction between the state of exception and the state of emergency (there isn't even a "state of emergency" as such in the Constitution), and then say that one allows for the restrictions of rights and the other doesn't, when clearly that's not the case at all.
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 12:41 |
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It's a shame these Colombian refugees are victims of Right wing paramilitarism twice over, fleeing it in in their homeland and then facing it in Venezuela cultivated by the right wing opposition. But what else can Venezuela do to stop this serious security threat?
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 14:22 |
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Borneo Jimmy posted:It's a shame these Colombian refugees are victims of Right wing paramilitarism twice over, fleeing it in in their homeland and then facing it in Venezuela cultivated by the right wing opposition. But what else can Venezuela do to stop this serious security threat? There's no way this is a genuine post.
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 14:26 |
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El Nacional has a really interesting article today with testimony from some of the deportees. Like PerpetualSelf said, authorities have been demolishing homes, and at least some of the deported have said that Venezuelan authorities took their children because they have Venezuelan citizenship. This bit below is from the blog entry I'm working on for today, and is taken from the article I linked above: quote:Gladys Navarro - who had been living in Venezuela for 10 years - said that National Guard soldiers broke into her family's home in the middle of the night on Saturday in the San Antonio municipality in Tachira state. She said that the soldiers kicked her, her husband and three children out of the home under the pretext that they were conducting a census. The municipalities under the state of exception have been named "Zone 1" and are under the direct control of General Carlos Alberto Martinez. There is a meeting tomorrow between the Colombian and Venezuelan Foreign Ministers to talk about the issue. It's surreal to see this play out. And to think that it all started on Thursday, just a few days ago. EDIT: The article I quoted above actually originally appeared in Colombia's El Tiempo, and was re-published by El Nacional in Venezuela. Chuck Boone fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Aug 25, 2015 |
# ? Aug 25, 2015 14:39 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 09:19 |
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^ Yep, this checks out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnA1nROZiDs Note the spray-painted 'D'. That will show those evil paramilitaries.
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# ? Aug 25, 2015 14:53 |