I connect you with my topic on Greg Palast's report on why and how Venezuela is targeted by Capitalists: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211894499

Greg Palast. Have loved his journalism since the early days of Hugo Chavez, and Greg was following events there.

Love his energy, and always enjoy his articles at the Guardian. What a shame so few journalist have his kind of courage!

Nearly died snickering seeing his images of the opposition "legislators" of the National Assembly,



and the pro-government legislators:



Hilarious. Had noticed this distinctive difference so long ago, comparing images of the participants in the opposition marches, and the Chavistas. However, I defy anyone who claims the opposition are racist dirtbags!

Make Venezuela white "again."







The world of human beings has ALWAYS had their number.

Thank you, St. Clone.

Your cherry picking images to illustrate your attempted portrayal of reality will not be able to alter what everyone knows to be true.

Save your breath. You'll wear yourself out.

Even the dummies know the racial score in Venezuela.

You won't fool a soul.

You actually DO know this message board was created to involve PROGRESSIVE people, don't you?

Last edited Thu Mar 7, 2019, 02:08 PM - Edit history (2)

Everyone else is wearing clothes that hang on them.

FWIW, its called DemocraticUnderground, not ProgressiveUnderground.

Perhaps you are thinking of another forum?

Everyone here in town, from chavista to opposition, laughs about it. The saying is that the fatter the person, the higher up they are in the regime hierarchy. You'd think that those in power, realizing that Venezuelan adults have lost over 20 pounds on average in the last couple of years, would exercise some self-awareness and not get on stage with rolls of fat and their big guts hanging over their belts. But alas, it's not be.

I'll also say that wishing to see a corrupt, incompetent, cruel regime that uses hunger and fear to control the population while they rape and pillage the country's resources has nothing to do with being progressive, conservative, or any other political belief. Live here 20 years and you can teach me all about racial and other injustices here in Venezuela. In the meantime, I'll just go with what I see every day of my life.

BTW, speaking of realities, I'll share an interesting ancedotal story about small towns in Venezuela and elsewhere.

My step-daughter quit the country on Monday, leaving her life here behind and flying to Madrid that evening. There she met her sister whose child is hospitalized in Madrid to repair life-threatening congential internal deformaties. Her parents tried to do everything possible to save her life here but medics in Caracas finally told the parents their child would die if she remained in Venezuela. They left, of course, fortunately having a paternal grandfather from Spain who helped with their move so their child could get the medical attention she needs.

On Wednesday, our step-daughter then traveled to the small town 45 minutes from Madrid where her sister and husband are staying when their child is not hospitalized. She wrote her mother last night saying the following: Mom, you wouldn't believe it. This town is hardly larger than where you guys life. It's got everything.....supermarkets full of food with fruits and vegetables from all over the world, a hospital, doctors offices, an oncology clinic, the place is so neat, clean, and free of trash. There are no bars on the windows and all the houses have running water.

Yes, you read that right. The largest oil reserves in the world but do you think this regime can manage to provide running water?

to attend anti-Chavez demonstrations.

Long ago.

You can't conceal the fact racism has always been a shrieking loathesome reality in Venezuela since the very first thieving, murderous invaders and genocidal maggots arrived to rape the country and murder the citizens who were in their way. From the first.

Come and visit sometime.

Some of the pro coup posters here are doing just that. Reminds me of the fake photos posted here years ago by pro coup/anti Cuba-ists from a website called "the real Cuba" of the decrepit hospitals in Cuba... turns out they're photos from a Mexican clinic. I've done my homework and done image searches of many of the images the pro coupsters post here. I recommend you do the same for your own edification.

Cheers

???

Not confused.

I know those individuals whose pictures I've posted by name......seen them on Chavez TV hundreds of times. Each and every one of them is a phat phuck. I can't help it that they eat like pigs will others they're "serving" go without.



Buen provecho Wils!

I'll hang up and listen.

The author is a known liar and a Marxist/Leninist propagandist. Some people appear just as deceitful and brainwashed.

They have nothing anyone sane, and anyone intelligent, would want to hear, they are unwholesome, primitive stupid people with no consciences. They are s-l-o-w. They have no idea what life is, and we certainly know life doesn't have much in store for people like them as they move toward their destinations. They are defective inwardly, diseased. They are not good people, not healthy morally.

Why would you want to emulate them?

Venezuela is chock full of opposition parties yet I can't think of a single one that qualifies as fascist.

Help me out. Name any right-wing Venezuelan party.

Maduro has stacked the Supreme Court with additional seats and filled them with cronies.

His Supreme Court-cronies declared the parliament, the National Assembly, illegitimate and took over some powers, violating the separation of powers and mixing judicative and legislative.

In 2017, the Constitutional National Assembly was elected via massive election-fraud and every seat went to a Maduro-crony. (Google it.) The Constitutional National Assembly is supposed to write a new constitution but is actually conducting oversight and passing bills, making it a third legislative body.

HOW COME VENEZUELA HAS THREE LEGISLATIVE BODIES, WHEN ONLY ONE IS MENTIONED IN THE CONSTITUTION???

And who can forget the 2018 presidential election, when no opposition-candidate was allowed to run?



Move along, nothing to see here. Democracy is fine in Venezuela.

You could be describing the good old USA. The question is does it get better when external anti-Democratic interests interfere?

Suing?
Maduro controls the Supreme Court.

Passing bills?
The National Assembly has been declared illegitimate.

Elections?
Both the 2017 election and the 2018 election were manipulated by Maduro.

Protests?
Only if you like getting beaten up by his colectivo-thugs.

Violent revolution?
Only if like getting killed by the venezuelan military.





So, please tell me: How could Venezuela possibly solve this problem on its own?

It's refreshing to see that some on the outside (assuming you're on the outside) are so well-versed in what's actually been happening here over the years. You've got as good a handle on it as anyone I've seen, nailing every salient point though I'd add the illegal killing by the regime of the Constitutionally-approved Recall Referendum that was well on its way to being a success in ousting Maduro. When that one died, killed in state courts by Maduro cronies, I lost all hope that a consititional solution to this crisis could be found.

I don't see outside military intervention taking place and don't want to see it. Obviously, I don't want to see more force than has already been used by the GNB against its own people either. There's been enough bloodshed.

So, where are we today?

Ruling out military intervention, I see only two options remaining to oust Maduro without more bloodshed.

1) A steady and continued increase in sanctions that make it impossible for the regime to continue to buy the support of the military.

2) A overwhelmingly massive strike on the part of the millions of public sector workers whose benefits (food) depend on the state.

I don't see Guaido pulling off that second option, at least not near-term.

So that leaves us with the first option. Not exactly a Venezuelan born and bred solution, but if it works, I'm good with it.

Increased international aid, logistic and oversight would be helpful especially in Venezuelan elections. But El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua are evidence what happens when Foreign Governments (USA/Reagan) mess in your country. And, they did not even have oil.

Also, election-observers don't mean shit if the opposition isn't allowed to put forth candidates.

The company who built the election-machines for the 2017 election confirmed that the machines had been tampered with. It was everywhere in the media. Everybody knows that Maduro won this election by fraud and that the result is not legitimate.
And what happened?
Nothing.

Maduro cares about The Revolution.

Plop Maduro's ass in Colombia and change the names and dates, and he singing the praises of Santander instead of Bolivar.

Any suffering going on in Venezuela is at the hands of Maduro. There is no blood on the hands of anyone else.

The US sanctions

1. No refinancing PDVSA debt by US entities.
2. No dealing with 40 Chavistas by US entities.

That was it. No sanctions on PDVSA or CITGO. No blockade on food, medicine, tech or industry. Russia, China, India, or any other country could buy or refinance the Chavista's shitty debt. Yet for all the caterwauling by the extremists... none of Chavismo's friends stepped up.

Your point?

For those with highly selective memories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempts

The fascism apologists are out in force today.

It's a very racial fascism in Latin America. Death squad lovers - real bad business.

It's always amusing seeing the tone of condescension they attempt to employ.

Not too much to feel superior about, at the heart of fascism.

In fact, the Venezuelan government could very well weather the storm.

If so, I hope that there's a course correction in terms of two things:

- Broadening the social basis of the government to include middle class elements.
- Moving to capital-intensive economic policy, including welcoming more foreign direct investment, if on favorable terms for transfer of knowledge and capital.

What a quaint notion!

90% of Venezuela is in poverty.
60% in extreme poverty.

What is left of the Venezuelan middle class is either very poor, very VERY rich, or very gone.

February 09, 2019
Racism And The Fight Over Venezuela
The U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela is not only about oil and general U.S. imperialism. It is attempt to bring a specific type of people back into power. The same type of people that rule in Washington DC.

The Nation describes how the U.S. has long funded and manipulated the opposition in Venezuela. The Random Guy™ Juan Guaidó, who claims the presidency, was created through this process:

How Washington Funded the Counterrevolution in Venezuela
Self-declared president Juan Guaidó comes from the right-wing, US-backed student movement that tried to subvert Hugo Chávez’s government.

The piece includes this revealing sentence:

A former USAID/OTI member who helped devise US efforts in Venezuela said the “objective was that you had thousands of youth, high school, and college kids that were horrified of this Indian-looking guy in power. They were idealistic.
Being "horrified" that the "Indian-looking" Hugo Chávez was in power does not seem "idealistic". One might call it racist though. A number of those white, well off, U.S. trained college kids joint politics in right wing parties. They wanted to take power. But to sell one of theirs as a leader of a country where the majority is mestizo was a problem.

To solve that problem the Random Guy, despite being known only by 20% of Venezuelans, was selected to lead the U.S. coup attempt:

A figure named Juan Andrés Mejía would have been next in line but for reasons that are only now clear, Juan Guaido was selected.
“There is a class reasoning that explains Guaidó’s rise,” Sequera, the Venezuelan analyst, observed. “Mejía is high class, studied at one of the most expensive private universities in Venezuela, and could not be easily marketed to the public the way Guaidó could. For one, Guaidó has common mestizo features like most Venezuelans do, and seems like more like a man of the people.

Guaido is a stand in. He was selected because he somewhat looked like the majority of the people of the country.

. . .



(Posted by the Voice of America)
https://editorials.voa.gov/a/new-venezuelan-national-assembly-seated/3137865.html


Members of the Constitutional Assembly



(Posted by the British Broadcasting Company)


The rich in Venezuela are overwhelming white people. They long ruled the country. The mestizo majority are the poor. Hugo Chavez brought them to power. The white people want the power back.

This obvious racist aspect of the conflict is missing from the general reporting of the issue. It only comes to light in the published visuals.

. . .

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/02/racism-and-the-fight-over-venezuela.html

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2019, 10:50 AM - Edit history (1)

But you know that.

Right?

FWIW, you didn't "just find it". You posted it a month ago.