They can target whoever they want but the people that actually pay the price are the citizens. Sanctions rarely ever work. Look at Cuba or even Russia. They have an intention of crippling the government and maybe causing people to revolt but in the end all it does is cause the government to save for for their military and give less to the citizens. It's a useless strategy that is similar to hoping to make enough money to live by playing nothing but scratch offs.
Protests began in early 2014 Its directly related to the government not having money after the government gave them a lot Its directly related to money
Well whatever that’s another conversation. It’s been a group effort with the other nations surrounding Venezuela as well.
Crazy Venezuela can't get it together - it's located in a beautiful part of the world - loaded with natural resources - hot women... WTF?
They have to manage their money better. Hugo Chavez for being a communist did spend when times were good but the money ran out and now they suffer from lack of basics At least they do have resources so there is something to work with Government type doesn't matter. Money is the issue Edit: they have the largest amount of proven oil reserves more than Saudia Arabia. This is the thing, now that the price of oil has retracted to a more fundmental level having a bunch doesn't mean automatic wealth. It still has to be managed well
No, it's just the inevitable consequence of going with socialism, it's the same thing that has happened in literally every example in the history of that failed economic system.
Yes blame sanctions, when they are failing because oil prices are falling. Why is that? Because a government can't plan an economy the way a free market can. There was no other industry built up to help it weather the storm. Why is Houston doing so well? Because it has a nice mix of business activity despite its energy sector being so large.
So much stupidity in this thread. Thank's @robbie380, and please give us some actual news when you can. Hope your people are ok down there.
People are fleeing the middle east to Europe. The issue is the same, lack of basic needs. The middle east unrest has been going on at the same time as the Venezuelan unrest. There is a direct correlation. Both places are dealing with major revenue reduction. Edit: the main function of a government is security. Nothing can happen without it. Security both police and defense. Security costs money
I’ll try to explain some for you. This is the problem with how things are being portrayed by some here in the US. Yes we are pushing for Maduro to be gone like 95%+ of the Venezuelan population. Every country in close proximity is pushing for Maduro to leave as well. There is a massive refugee crisis equivalent to that of what happened in Syria, maybe worse, that has been created by Maduro’s dictatorship. There is no coup and there is no hostile takeover...hopefully it stays that way. This is a popular uprising and the people want him gone. Western leftists are effectively unknowingly parroting the EXACT rhetoric of the Maduro regime by saying this is some type of coup, that we have some sort of colonialist aspirations, and that this popular uprising is actually being pushed by the US and that Guaidó is simply handpicked by the US. This is not the case. The only pushing by the US is the fact that we will not support Maduro and that we are with the VAST majority of the beaten down, starving people there. By everything I’ve seen the message from Mike Pence and every other nation supporting the people has mattered greatly. People rightly point out that we are still supporting other non democratic regimes with histories of human rights abuses. I wish we weren’t, but we are doing the right thing here. The administration is acting in a very cooperative, measured, and restrained fashion relative to other foreign policy ventures when we have called for regime change. We aren’t going to put troops on the ground there unless it is some sort UN/regional joint peace keeping/humanitarian effort. If Maduro gets out of control and starts large scale attacks then yes you might see outside involvement but there is nothing pointing to that at this time. Also the interim president Guaidó was elected to the National Assembly legitimately by all accounts. From my understanding the selection of him as the interim president would be the equivalent of selecting Pelosi to be president. She is 3rd in line and she has no ties to Trump and his associates. He is calling for new elections and he is not trying to take the presidency but I’m sure he would be the heavy favorite in new elections. Hope that helps some.
How did Venezuela socialist government end like this? I thought socialism is the way to go. Did the very wealthy who own private business not pay their fair share?
Have they? I mean it is early to tell... give it a few days. Maybe we can send them hamburgers as food aid.
Venezuela has an elected president and two legislative bodies. One is controlled by the opposition which won a majority in elections. . (Very unusual in such a totally dictatorial country, but who cares if you are folks interested in their oil.) What has happened would be equivalent to making Ocasio Cortez a previously unknown first year member of the House of Representatives Speaker of the House and then she proclaims Trump was elected fraudulently and that she is now president. Another wrinkle is that the unknown guy refused to run in elections for president because of pressure from the US and the undemocratic opposition that realized that it does not have majority support. Then Venezuela and Cuba and others recognize her at the true president. Funny thing is that with the economy declinining due to the collapse of oil prices, increased economic sanctions by the US, as well as economic sabotage by local oligarchs and yes, stupid economic decisions at times by the Chavistas, the actual popularity of the Chavistas and Maduro has been declining. However, the farcical nature of this attempted coup so obviously supported by the US and other right wing countries will probably decrease support for the opposition. Rank Yankee imperialism is really not very popular in Latin America.
