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  1. #76
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    Quote Originally Posted by tj916 View Post
    According to some reports its sitting on one of the largest oil reserves on the planet.
    Makes you wonder what went wrong.
    Corruption

  2. #77
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    ^^^ Yep same same many parts of Africa.

  3. #78
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    A few months ago, there was a Venezuelan woman standing in line to get in at the US embassy in Chaing Mai. She was telling me that she had been living in Thailand and needed to get her retirement visa renewed but couldn't because her Venezuelan passport was too soon expired. She had requested a new one several times from the Venezuelan government for months prior, but they didn't issue one or even acknowledge her request.

    Thai Immigration had no idea what to do. The woman's son was an American and the embassy was trying to work out a way to help her by getting her to the US before her passport expired.

    Felt bad for that frail old lady.

    I've been to Venezuela myself. It was a lovely place at the time. Went down the Orinoco.
    Sad story,

    One of my teachers (who may or may not be correct) says getting a replacement Venezuelan passport takes 1 year.

    No joke.

  4. #79
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Went down on the Orinoco.
    I fail to see why fellating a womble is something to boast about.

  5. #80
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    Quote Originally Posted by tj916 View Post
    ^^^ Yep same same many parts of Africa.
    You nailed it. There were examples of colonial powers that were unusually harsh, like the Belgians in The Congo and The Germans in Namibia. However I wonder is some of the other locals suffered so much under colonial rule. Let's not forget that when Africans ruled Africa, one of their most important exports was slaves. Africans selling their own people for over priced trade goods.

    But that goes against modern apologists that want to blame all the world's problems on the West.

    BOT, there is a movie to be released soon about the Armenian Genocide. Wonder if Ataturk the second will ban it from Turkey?

  6. #81
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    Former Chavistas have turned against Maduro, who were former supporters.

    As the poor join protests, Venezuela may be hitting a turning point

    By Mariana Zuńiga and Nick Miroff April 29

    CARACAS, Venezuela — In the cramped hillside slums where they once adored Hugo Chávez, hungry families now jeer and bang pots at the man struggling in his shadow, President Nicolás Maduro.

    Chávez, a master showman who promised his country a socialist “revolution,” loved to wade through crowds of poor Venezuelans, blowing kisses and dispensing hugs. But when his successor has ventured out in public in recent months, he’s been pelted with eggs and chased by angry mobs.

    “Maduro is so different,” said Irene Castillo, 26, who lives in El Guarataro, a tough neighborhood not far from the presidential palace. She voted for Maduro in 2013 when Chávez died after 14 years in power. But no one on Castillo’s block supports the government anymore, she said. “Now, those who remain ‘chavistas’ are just the radicals.”

    As the country’s bloody, volatile, month-old protest movement hardens into a prolonged standoff between demonstrators and the government, the loyalties of poorer Venezuelans like Castillo have become a swing factor in determining whether the president will survive.

    The thousands of demonstrators pouring into the streets in recent weeks are mostly middle class, outraged by Venezuela’s economic collapse and the government’s increasingly authoritarian rule. But Venezuelans from longtime chavista strongholds are starting to join them, at considerable risk. Residents of Castillo’s neighborhood protested openly against Maduro for the first time last week.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.6ecf815f8c23

  7. #82
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    Maduro still does not understand basic economics and how pissed off people are. He's lost. He's not addressing the core of the problem and trying to put a band-aid on the wrong wound. He's raising minimum wage and handing out free houses.

    Apr 30, 2017

    VENEZUELA'S MADURO HIKES MINIMUM WAGE AMID RISING PROTESTS
    BY RICARDO NUNES
    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hiked wages and handed out hundreds of free homes Sunday amid his efforts to counter a strengthening protest movement seeking his removal.

    On his regular television show, "Sundays with Maduro," the president ordered a 60 percent increase in the country's minimum wage starting Monday. It was the third pay increase the socialist leader has ordered this year and the 15th since he became president in 2013.

    It is small solace to workers who seen the buying power of their earnings eroded by a sinking currency and the world's highest inflation - forecast to accelerate to 2,000 percent next year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    With the latest wage increase and mandatory food subsidies, the minimum take home pay for millions of Venezuelans now stands at 200,000 bolivars a month - or less than $50 at the widely used black market rate.

    "We're here to take care of the workers, those who are most humble, and not the privileges of the oligarchs," Maduro said.

    In addition to the pay hike, he announced a special "economic war" bonus to retirees to make up for what he says are attempts by the opposition to sabotage the economy.

    The president also watched as officials in several states handed over the keys to hundreds of new apartments, some built with Chinese funding, bringing to 1.6 million the number of public housing units built by a program started by the late President Hugo Chavez.

    The announcements came as government supporters and Maduro's opponents prepared for rival marches to commemorate May Day on Monday.

    Twenty-nine people have been killed, hundreds injured and more than 1,300 arrested during a month of protests that are the bloodiest to hit Venezuela since anti-government unrest in 2014 resulted in more than 40 dead.

    Protesters accuse Maduro of taking Venezuela down the path of dictatorship, unrest triggered by the government-stacked Supreme Court stripping congress of its last vestiges of power. They are demanding early elections and freedom for dozens of political prisoners as a way out of the stalemate.

    The opposition blames the recent deaths on security forces and pro-government militias for the deaths. The government has complained of what it considers biased media coverage that will pave the way for some sort of foreign intervention in Venezuela.

    On Saturday, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez met with foreign correspondents for a second straight week to present the government's case.

    Rodriguez sought to "completely disprove" the opposition's claim that security forces fired a tear gas canister which hit the chest of 20-year-old college student and killed him died during a protest in Caracas last week. She said there were strong indications that the youth, Juan Pablo Pernalete, might have been killed with a cattle stun gun used against him by fellow protesters.

    As political tensions have mounted, Maduro, a former bus driver, has worked hard to reinforce his everyman image. In recent days he has appeared on state TV tossing a baseball around with aides, rapping with a hip-hop group and taking first lady Cilia Flores on a popular tourist gondola to the top of Avila Mountain overlooking Caracas.

    But the campaign to project business as usual has sometimes backfired.

    For example, last week he posted to his more than 3 million followers on Twitter a video showing him driving a car at night through a neighborhood that hours earlier experienced street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces. It didn't take long before someone noticed that passing by the open passenger window was a large graffiti scribbled on a wall that read "Maduro: Assassin of students."

    Maduro on Sunday repeated his call for dialogue, which the opposition has rejected after Vatican-sponsored talks collapsed in December with little progress.

    He also repeated a pledge to hold gubernatorial elections soon, perhaps as early as this year.

    Many in the opposition consider Maduro's offer of gubernatorial elections an empty concession and are pushing for an early presidential vote after the government cancelled regional races last year. Maduro's allies currently govern in 20 of Venezuela's 23 states but polls indicate the opposition would likely win the next election after it took control of congress in December 2015 by a landslide.

    News from The Associated Press

  8. #83
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    Now, Maduro is re-writing the Constitution - which will likely mean that the "planned" elections - in which polls show the socialist will lose badly - will be cancelled / postponed.

    Going from bad to worse, to even worse.



    Besieged Venezuela leader orders writing of new constitution

    Originally published May 1, 2017

    By HANNAH DREIER
    Associated Press

    CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s socialist leader has ordered the writing of a new constitution, further angering opponents whose intensifying campaign to oust him has brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to demand change.

    President Nicolas Maduro was vague in a televised speech Monday evening about how members would be chosen for a citizen assembly to produce a new charter. He hinted some would selected by voters, but many observers expect the government to give itself the power to pick a majority of delegates to the convention.

    Opposition leaders cried foul, calling the planned constitutional assembly a ploy to give Maduro an excuse to put off regional elections scheduled for this year and a presidential election that was to be held in 2018. Polling has suggested the socialists would lose both those elections badly amid widespread anger over Venezuela’s economic woes of triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and other goods.

    Entire: Besieged Venezuela leader orders writing of new constitution | The Seattle Times

  9. #84
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    Chavez does not have a legacy of any sort. Not only did he make mistakes that high oil prices concealed but he hand-picked Maduro as his successor.


    WORLD NEWS | Fri May 5, 2017
    Venezuela unrest death toll rises, Chavez statue destroyed

    Venezuela unrest death toll rises, Chavez statue destroyed | Reuters

  10. #85
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    Chavez is finally being perceived as a dunderhead.
    He was. Yes, he did good things and tried some good things, but he didn't have a grasp on economics and chose a bus driver to take the bus on the road to ruin.


    Hugo Chavez statue torn down in deadly Venezuela protest

    Death toll rises to 37 with opposition gearing up for more demonstrations
    Andrew Cawthorne and Corina Pons

    Hugo Chavez statue torn down in deadly Venezuela protest | The Independent

  11. #86
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    The protests and fatalities continue - and citizens have added a new weapon: doo-doo.

    And, Maduro's top "spy-master" has broken with away from Maduro and his govt.



    WORLD NEWS | Wed May 10, 2017
    Venezuela protesters fling feces at soldiers; unrest takes 2 more lives

    By Andrew Cawthorne and Carlos Rawlins




    Young Venezuelan protesters lobbed bottles and bags of feces at soldiers who fought with tear gas on Wednesday to block the latest march in more than a month of nationwide protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.


    The extraordinary scenes, in what was dubbed the "Shit March" on the main highway through Caracas,
    came as thousands of opposition supporters again poured onto the streets decrying Venezuela's economic crisis and demanding elections.

    "These kids live in a dictatorship, they have no other option but to protest however they see fit," said Maria Montilla, 49, behind lines of youths with masks, slingshots and makeshift wooden shields.

    Many carried stones and so-called "Poopootov cocktails" - feces stuffed into small glass bottles - that they threw when National Guard troops blocked their path, firing gas and turning water cannons on the crowds.

    "There's nothing explosive here. It's our way of saying, 'Get lost Maduro, you're useless!'" said one young protester, who asked not to be named, between tossing bottles of feces.

    The state prosecutor's office said 27-year-old Miguel Castillo was killed during Wednesday's protests in Caracas, without giving details. Motorbike taxi driver Anderson Dugarte, 32, died on Wednesday in the Andean city of Merida after being injured in a protest.

    Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said in comments broadcast by state television that Dugarte was killed by a sniper linked to the opposition's Democratic Unity coalition. He said Castillo also was killed by a firearm.

    At least 39 people have died in the unrest since early April, including protesters, government sympathizers, bystanders, and security forces. Hundreds have also been hurt and arrested.

    Maduro says foes are seeking a coup with U.S. encouragement.

    The opposition, which enjoys majority support after years in the shadow of the ruling Socialist Party, says authorities are denying a solution to Venezuela's crisis by thwarting a referendum, delaying local elections and refusing to bring forward the 2018 presidential vote.

    They are seeking to vary tactics to keep momentum going and supporters energized.

    The government accused the opposition of breaking international treaties on biological and chemical weapons by throwing feces.

    Maduro is seeking to create a new super body called a "constituent assembly," with authority to rewrite the constitution and shake up public powers. Foes dismiss it as an attempt to keep the socialists in power by establishing a biased new assembly.

    "They closed all the democratic doors, we warned how dangerous that would be for our country," said opposition leader Henrique Capriles, joining protesters on the highway.

    "FAITHFUL TO CHAVEZ"

    In downtown Caracas, government supporters also rallied, dancing salsa and waving pictures of Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez who remains venerated by many, especially the poor.

    "I'm here to support the constituent process, which brings opportunities to resolve the crisis," said agriculture worker Ilian Leon, 40. "We're faithful to Chavez's legacy."

    Rights group Penal Forum says 1,991 people have been detained since April 1, with 653 still behind bars.


    Opposition leaders have complained the government is processing 250 detainees via military courts.

    The state prosecutor's office, which has in recent months, been dissenting from the government over judicial matters, said 14 prisoners accused of destroying a statue of Chavez in western Zulia state should be judged in civilian not military courts.

    "They are not military officials, so it is wrong to judge them in that jurisdiction," it said, without mentioning other cases raised by the opposition.

    Maduro, 54, a former bus driver and foreign minister under Chavez, and his allies appear to be hoping the opposition will run out of steam and are banking on a rise in oil prices to help assuage four years of recession.

    They are seizing on vandalism by young opposition hotheads who burn rubbish in the streets and smash public property, to depict the whole movement as intent on violence.

    The protests so far have failed to garner massive support from poorer, traditionally pro-Chavez sectors of Venezuela's 30 million people. But a bigger cross-section of society has been apparent at recent marches, some of which drew hundreds of thousands.

    Looting has been breaking out in some cities, especially at night.

    Chavez's former spy-master, Miguel Torres, has broken with Maduro's government
    , despite having served as interior minister and fighting against protests in 2014. He warned on Wednesday that the violence in Venezuela may be getting out of control.

    "What is happening may be the starting point for a huge armed confrontation between Venezuelans," he told Reuters.


    "Nobody wants that."

    (Additional reporting by Jackson Gomez, Andreina Aponte, Girish Gupta, Corina Pons and Diego Ore in Caracas; Editing by Tom Brown and Bill Trott)

    Venezuela protesters fling feces at soldiers; unrest takes 2 more lives | Reuters

  12. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez does not have a legacy of any sort.
    Of course he has a legacy, you idiot.

  13. #88
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    Another ameristani fucked country.

  14. #89
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez does not have a legacy of any sort.
    Of course he has a legacy, you idiot.
    Please tell us what that legacy is.

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    Try accessing a dictionary and get back to 'us'.

    Here's a clue: it doesn't have to be positive.

  16. #91
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Try accessing a dictionary and get back to 'us'.

    Here's a clue: it doesn't have to be positive.
    You cannot answer the question; you just troll.

    You are a useless poster here.

  17. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Try accessing a dictionary and get back to 'us'.

    Here's a clue: it doesn't have to be positive.
    You cannot answer the question; you just troll.

    You are a useless poster here.
    You are worse than useless. You know you're wrong, but you have such a track record as a complete moron that there is no real damage done.

    Try reading this, you dimwitted goon...there are countless other articles in the same vein, and you're clearly a real maestro with Google..

    https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-...conomic-crisis

  18. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Try accessing a dictionary and get back to 'us'.

    Here's a clue: it doesn't have to be positive.
    You cannot answer the question; you just troll.

    You are a useless poster here.
    You are worse than useless. You know you're wrong, but you have such a track record as a complete moron that there is no real damage done.

    Try reading this, you dimwitted goon...there are countless other articles in the same vein, and you're clearly a real maestro with Google..

    https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-...conomic-crisis
    You still have not answered my question - as usual.

  19. #94
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    The article answers your idiotic 'question', you simpleton.

  20. #95
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    The article answers your idiotic 'question', you simpleton.
    Chavez has the legacy as a failed short-sighted leader who did not understand economics.

    This article below is decent. It's from your link above.

    The media notes declining oil prices as a cause - yes, as a partial cause but the major cause is mis-management.

    In 1999, the price per barrel in Venezuela and the world was $5. Venezuelen poverty rate: 25%.

    Today, the price per barrel is $35 and the poverty rate is 75%.

    And during the "good times" with oil prices they were sill importing food.

    Your article:




    Not too long ago Venezuela was an oil-rich nation, with a seemingly bright future filled with economic prospects and great potential for growth.

    Now Venezuela has an 180 percent inflation rate — and there are shortages of food, basic goods and power.

    Tulane University professor David Smilde lives in Caracas, where he also works with the Washington Office on Latin America, an NGO. He believes the immediate cause of the current crisis in Venezuela is the decline in oil prices. But he says at least 10 years of economic mismanagement are to blame, too.

    “Nicolas Maduro inherited a set of policies from Hugo Chávez that were created during the good times. These were policies that were completely unsustainable, they were based on continual growth of income from oil,” Smilde said.

    According to Smilde, when oil prices were high in the early 2000s the national revenue was mismanaged through the so-called "Bolivarian missions," a series of government-funded social programs which Chávez started and Maduro has continued.

    The Bolivarian missions included anti-poverty initiatives, the construction of free medical clinics, educational campaigns, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies. Critics have called these initiatives irresponsible handouts that didn’t account for potential recessions.

    “Now oil revenues have dropped and Venezuela has very little productive capacity, so it can’t produce its own food really and it doesn’t have enough money to import what it needs,” Smilde said.

    Venezuela is also suffering because it lacks economic diversity. During the years when oil prices were high, the country relied on oil revenues and imported most of its food. Declining oil prices took down the nation’s economy as a whole.


    Venezuela has also accumulated large debt, which is making it even more difficult for the country to climb out of the current crisis.


    So far the government has been "making sure to pay its foreign creditors but it has really been reducing the number of dollars that are assigned to importing food and other basic goods. People are really suffering,” Smilde said.

    They may be making the crisis more tolerable, but the government doesn’t approve of them.

    “The government sees this as sabotage,” Smilde said, “sees these people as traitors and so it has tried to clamp down on this bachaquerismo.”

    Instead the Venezuelan government has promoted committees on local production and supply that are charged with taking bags of food directly to people. However, the system is incredibly inefficient.
    https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-07-...conomic-crisis

  21. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez does not have a legacy of any sort.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez has the legacy as a failed short-sighted leader who did not understand economics

    So, does Chavez 'not have a legacy of any sort,' or does he have a legacy?


  22. #97
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez does not have a legacy of any sort.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cold Pizza View Post
    Chavez has the legacy as a failed short-sighted leader who did not understand economics

    So, does Chavez 'not have a legacy of any sort,' or does he have a legacy?

    I should have originally put "good" or "favorable" legacy in the first mention of legacy. It was an omission typo. I thought it would be understand. That's my fault.

    I think you knew this, but choose to peck at me with semantics. Fair enough.

    Failed / mismanaged legacy is what he has and will have.

  23. #98
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    Can we tell which way the wind is blowing?

    MORE POLITICS NEWS
    MAY 22, 2017
    Lawmaker: Hugo Chavez's childhood home burned by protesters
    BY FABIOLA SANCHEZ AND HANNAH DREIER
    Associated Press

    CARACAS, VENEZUELA

    Protesters set fire to late President Hugo Chavez's childhood home in western Venezuela on Monday, an opposition lawmaker said, as protests against the South American nation's socialist government grew increasingly hostile.

    Lawmaker: Hugo Chavez's childhood home burned by protesters | McClatchy Washington Bureau

  24. #99
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    Where art thou, Ray?








    Economic Czar, a Sociology proffesor who lasted 5 weeks publicly stated "there is no such thing as inflation."







    Full article: .Inside Venezuela: The Socialist Haven on the Brink of Total Collapse - Breitbart

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    When will China bust a move ?

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