Banana Republic Newsflash

[SciFiFisher]

Somehow Christmas and a Sense of Foreboding don't seem like they should go hand in hand.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I saw way too much police presence in the street today. Call me paranoid but I think they know something is going to happen.

[SciFiFisher]

I saw way too much police presence in the street today. Call me paranoid but I think they know something is going to happen.

I am sure the police are seeing way too many signs to ignore.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Well it doesn't take a genius to notice, just this last month. prices have tripled. The government has (once again) decreed price controls on meat and poultry products which of course disappeared from the shelves. They're starting to reappear at triple the price they were 3 weeks ago (despite that the price controls still exist). I think that come January, when whatever distraction the holiday season might bring dissapears and reality sets in there's going to be trouble.

[SciFiFisher]

The New York Times ran a piece recently about the high number of children in Venezuela dying from starvation.

I think you are right Sigma that after the first of the year things may turn ugly.

[Swift]

Stay safe my friend

[Sigma_Orionis]

Will do

[Sigma_Orionis]

Since December 26 the number of street protests for lack of food has increased significantly. THIS time the protests are coming from the slums. It seems that during the last Municipal election, the government promised a large wage increase and Pork Legs (yes you're reading this correctly, more on this later) for Christmas. It sure made a large wage increase, which of course is in great part responsible for the 300% increase in prices we had. But the part about the Pork Legs is pathetically funny.

Here in Bananaland, our traditional Christmas Dinner has among other things Hallacas (similar to the Mexican Tamales) and Pork (usually Pork Leg). Prices being as high as they are, the government promised people below the poverty line that each and everyone would have in their subsidized monthly food rations (known as CLAP because of initials of the government program that provides it) a Pork Leg because it was Christmas.

Well, of course, the government is broke, distribution of the CLAP boxes was even worse than usual AND: NO PORK LEG.

Maduro's excuse was (I kid you not) that they couldn't buy them from local producers and had to import them from Portugal and that the Portuguese government did not allow the Pork Legs to be sent. This prompted the Portuguese Ministry of External Affairs to state that they had nothing to do with this.

Later a Portuguese Food Company called Raporal, stated that they had not sent the Pork Legs because the government owed them a lot of money (about 40 Million EU) and hadn't paid .

In the meantime Maduro came out on TV saying that all the protests are part of an insurrection plan "made in Bogota" and directed "by Miami" and demanded that the Armed Forces deal with it as harshly as necessary.

I guess it would be fitting if the downfall of this clown was triggered because of some Pork Legs, after all: We work very hard to fit the Hollywood Stereotype of a Banana Republic.

ETA:

This just in: some other Chavista SOB (Freddy Bernal) just said that the Colombian Government is blocking the transit of the trucks with 2200 tons of Pork Legs at the border. Again they are actually saying this, it's NOT satire.

Edited three times for spelling and clarity

[SciFiFisher]

I can't decide if Trump took lessons from Chavista and Maduro. Or if they took lessons from him.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I see you noticed......

[grapes]

Turn those trucks around, we need them for our pork barrels

[Sigma_Orionis]

The Colombian Government said that they didn't file for an export permit to get the damned Pork Legs.

The last piece of news is that Maduro is blaming Julio Borges, head of the National Assembly for organizing a boycott against Venezuela that was the reason they couldn't not get the Pork Legs here, he also demanded for Borges to be arrested.

[Sigma_Orionis]

It made the international news

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ok, This guy is floating the idea of an armed foreign intervention.

He's an economist and a former Minister of Economic Planning, I do think he's full of it. Nobody is going to come down here and invade us. We ain't worth the hassle.

Just like this guy says

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ok, no amount of Bluffing can hide that we're broke.

Report: Struggling Venezuela tried to buy medicine with diamonds, gold

As I said, if these guys ain't gone by March. We Collapse.

[Rommie]

Stay safe, my friend, and please let me know if there's anything we can do.

[SciFiFisher]

Ok, This guy is floating the idea of an armed foreign intervention.

He's an economist and a former Minister of Economic Planning, I do think he's full of it. Nobody is going to come down here and invade us. We ain't worth the hassle.

Just like this guy says

I heard the other day that Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Mismanagement and lower oil prices have caused a lot of problems. Emphasis on mismanagement. Somehow, that makes it even sadder that no one thinks that it would be worth invading you to get those oil reserves. Where is Bush and Co. when you need them?

[geonuc]

There was a farcical movie back in late '50's which had the premise of a small, failing country declaring war on the US in order to get invaded and lose. A Peter Sellers flick.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/

[Sigma_Orionis]

The Mouse that Roared, yeah a favorite of mine.

On Jan 12, the opposition and the government are supposed to meet again at the Domenican Republic. Again, any agreement where the current government stays in power is a waste of time. NOBODY is going to give this country one solitary cent to Maduro as his cronies (sanctions or no sanctions) simply because they have shown to be completely incompetent.

Everyone seems to be expecting trouble this week. We'll see. You can be sure I'll keep my head down.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I heard the other day that Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Mismanagement and lower oil prices have caused a lot of problems. Emphasis on mismanagement. Somehow, that makes it even sadder that no one thinks that it would be worth invading you to get those oil reserves. Where is Bush and Co. when you need them?

Apparently we do have, if not the largest, some of the largest oil reserves in the world (even if the quality of our oil is inferior to that of, say Saudi Arabia). Apparently (if we're to believe the propaganda) we're sitting on top of all sorts of valuable raw materials (Diamonds, Gold, Coltan, among others, even Thorium).

What is certain is that we have proven extremely incompetent on how to capitalize on it. Maduro and his Cronies are an extreme example of that to the point that nobody, absolutely nobody is willing to put on more penny in this money pit, that's why I say that, at this point, No matter what political differences there are, now how autocratic this government has become. ANY arrangement that keeps this government in power is bound to fail. I hope the opposition realizes this. But, after watching them fail miserably for the last 15 years, I'm not very optimistic.

[SciFiFisher]

I heard the other day that Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Mismanagement and lower oil prices have caused a lot of problems. Emphasis on mismanagement. Somehow, that makes it even sadder that no one thinks that it would be worth invading you to get those oil reserves. Where is Bush and Co. when you need them?

Apparently we do have, if not the largest, some of the largest oil reserves in the world (even if the quality of our oil is inferior to that of, say Saudi Arabia). Apparently (if we're to believe the propaganda) we're sitting on top of all sorts of valuable raw materials (Diamonds, Gold, Coltan, among others, even Thorium).

What is certain is that we have proven extremely incompetent on how to capitalize on it. Maduro and his Cronies are an extreme example of that to the point that nobody, absolutely nobody is willing to put on more penny in this money pit, that's why I say that, at this point, No matter what political differences there are, now how autocratic this government has become. ANY arrangement that keeps this government in power is bound to fail. I hope the opposition realizes this. But, after watching them fail miserably for the last 15 years, I'm not very optimistic.

Almost makes me pine for the American Empire building years between 1875-1925 approximately. All we would have to do is convince Shell or Exxon that they wanted to own the oil and the marines would be there next week.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Almost makes me pine for the American Empire building years between 1875-1925 approximately. All we would have to do is convince Shell or Exxon that they wanted to own the oil and the marines would be there next week.

Meh, even our dictators were smarter in those days. When you damned evil imperial imperialist oil grubbing gringos found out there was oil to be taken around here, Standard Oil (now part of Exxon) showed up and told our local dictator (not surprisingly we were heavily in debt at the time) "Hey dude!, you got stuff we want, and you need money, let's split the profits 50/50" they didn't even NEED the Marines.

[SciFiFisher]

Almost makes me pine for the American Empire building years between 1875-1925 approximately. All we would have to do is convince Shell or Exxon that they wanted to own the oil and the marines would be there next week.

Meh, even our dictators were smarter in those days. When you damned evil imperial imperialist oil grubbing gringos found out there was oil to be taken around here, Standard Oil (now part of Exxon) showed up and told our local dictator (not surprisingly we were heavily in debt at the time) "Hey dude!, you got stuff we want, and you need money, let's split the profits 50/50" they didn't even NEED the Marines.

Damn Robber Barons! Always using capitalism to get what they wanted!

[Sigma_Orionis]

Rockefeller even had a Supermarket Chain here

[Sigma_Orionis]

Yesterday I watched for the first time in decades Venezuelan State Television. It was like watching North Korean TV, the barrage of propaganda regarding that cockamamie crypto-currency scam they're pushing was only dwarfed the amount of propaganda aimed at creating a cult of personality around Maduro (whose public image is that of a pathetic fool). Even the obligatory references to US imperialism seemed muted by the avalanche of propaganda about that damned Petro thing.