venezuela. What's it all about?

[omaghjoe]

Not sure if this is the best way to do this but something has to change there....tho not sure if this will do so. The only thing that can oust Maduro is the military and the heads are all handsomely rewards with jobs they are not qualified for....

Like running an oil company. Maduro is bleeding the oil dry like an African warlord but production has went off a cliff thanks to no investment and lack of expertise.

If America stops buying his oil he will up shit creek  as he will have no money left to bribe his generals. unless of course he can manage to flog it to the Chinese.

[manfromdelmonte]

oil
its always about oil

[gallsman]

Recognising Guaidó is insane. Regardless of whatever has happened in the past, he has not been elected democratically as president. Declaring himself interim president is a coup. Supporting him as president is supporting a coup.

The NZ government has the right of this - immediately organised free and fair elections are the only way to go and this is what international pressure should be focused on.

[Arthur_Friend]

Didn't international observers (some from the US) already come out and say the last elections were free and fair? The opposition boycotted them because they knew they were going to lose?

[gallsman]

Didn't international observers (some from the US) already come out and say the last elections were free and fair? The opposition boycotted them because they knew they were going to lose?

Pretty much every Western state denounced both least year's presidential election and the 2017 National Constituent Assembly creation and election that has effectively stripped the legislature of almost all power.

[Dolph1]

Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up

Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.

Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.

Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.

Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.

Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.

So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?

Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.

[joemamas]

Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up

Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.

Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.

Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.

Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.

Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.

So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?

Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.

+1, what a toolbag.

lets incorporate Trump into how Venezuela has had issues for almost 20 years.
Apparently continual hand outs did not work there.

Just saw this headline
"Freshwater hotspots around the world are in danger, NASA finds"
Cannot wait for you to enlighten the masses on this one.

[vallankumous]

A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.

They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.

[Dolph1]

Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up

Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.

Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.

Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.

Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.

Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.

So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?

Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.

+1, what a toolbag.

lets incorporate Trump into how Venezuela has had issues for almost 20 years.
Apparently continual hand outs did not work there.

Just saw this headline
"Freshwater hotspots around the world are in danger, NASA finds"
Cannot wait for you to enlighten the masses on this one.

LOL
His fellow virtue signalers tell him that he's special. And his cat does too.
Hoping to be recognized as #1 social justice warrior on the board.

I can't wait to hear his solutions to all the worlds problems (which obviously Trump caused).

[omaghjoe]

A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.

They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.

Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.

[Hardy]

Ah sweet jazes!

[Eamonnca1]

A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.

They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.

Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.

There's a lot of parallels with W's handling of Iraq, where kids fresh out of college and who had connections with Rumsfeld/Cheney et al were given top jobs rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure when they hadn't a clue what they were doing.

When you put people in charge who don't know what they're doing, there are consequences. America's currently learning this the hard way.

[Dolph1]

There's a lot of parallels with W's handling of Iraq, where kids fresh out of college and who had connections with Rumsfeld/Cheney et al were given top jobs rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure when they hadn't a clue what they were doing.

When you put people in charge who don't know what they're doing, there are consequences. America's currently learning this the hard way.

Spot on analysis as usual. So in-depth. Everyone here will have to agree with you.

[Eamonnca1]

Yup. That's the level to which we've stooped. There's a President in charge of the US who has so little understanding of how things work,  obvious concepts like "putting qualified people in charge" would be considered an improvement on the current administration.

[MoChara]

It's just so duplicitous that the US et al are talking shit about how they are worried for democracy in Venezuela, there are hundreds of countries out there in much worse shape, with much worse regimes they don't give a f**k about, plenty of them are considered allies.