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Things not going well in Venezuela


Parliament

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2 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Has there been a country that was a complete dumpster fire in the modern era turn it around to a place you would feel safe to visit?

Colombia maybe?

 

Yeah, quite a few, actually.  A good number of latin american countries have been dumpster fires in the past 50 years.  Heck, some got stable, then are working on going BACK to dumpster fires (see Nicaragua).  Chile, Argentina, Columbia -- all have had periods in the last 50 years when you would NOT want to visit.

A good number of E. European countries and former soviet republics would fit the bill as well (Croatia, Bosnia, Armenia, etc.)

I suspect you'll be surprised by how fast - once it returns to some semblance of normal government after the Chavez-Maduro regime is wiped out -- Venezuela returns to being a pretty nice place.

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On 9/19/2018 at 8:55 AM, Panama Red said:

Maybe we need to send some mercs down to Venezuela to “take care” of a few high profile people and get the country headed in the right direction.

I saw a documentary once where engineering companies like AECOM and KBR used to win huge infrastructure jobs in small foreign countries with the help of the US gov't.  Like a large dam or something.  They would do half the work and the communities would have to ration things like water and electricity until they finished the job.  Then the consultants for the firm would go to the leadership of the country and start to extort them to get them to step down from power for a more favorable leader to the US.  Of course they never complied so the water would remained shut off and the people would begin to riot and start an insurrection.  I have never found this doc since the first time I watched it but I would love to see it again.  Apparently that was our MO in latin america to try and get what we wanted down there.

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10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, quite a few, actually.  A good number of latin american countries have been dumpster fires in the past 50 years.  Heck, some got stable, then are working on going BACK to dumpster fires (see Nicaragua).  Chile, Argentina, Columbia -- all have had periods in the last 50 years when you would NOT want to visit.

A good number of E. European countries and former soviet republics would fit the bill as well (Croatia, Bosnia, Armenia, etc.)

 

So you are saying we should buy premium land in Venezuela now while prices are low?

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So you are saying we should buy Venezuela now while prices are low?
FIFY.

So you are saying we should buy Venezuelan sloots now while prices are low?

FIFY

 

Really though, we should start a Surly fund to buy one of the smaller Nueva Esparta islands and offer asylum to Venezuelan women. I mean how many bolivar could it cost for a piece of the pie?

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  • 1 month later...
Quote

President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing new sanctions on Venezuela’s gold sector, in a bid to disrupt trade with Turkey that U.S. officials fear is undermining efforts to pressure the South American nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro.

The order, signed Wednesday by Trump and announced at a speech Thursday by National Security Adviser John Bolton, targets people operating corruptly within Venezuela’s gold sector. It’s expected to significantly impact the country’s economy, according to a senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the announcement before it was made.
...
The Treasury Department is expected to outline implementation of the new Venezuela sanctions authority later Thursday. While the initial effort will focus on the country’s gold sector, Trump’s order gives the State and Treasury departments authority to target additional industries in the future.

“The new sanctions will target networks operating within corrupt Venezuelan economic sectors and deny them access to stolen wealth,” Bolton said. “Most immediately, the new sanctions will prevent U.S. persons from engaging with actors and networks complicit in corrupt or deceptive transactions in the Venezuelan gold.”
...
Venezuela’s gold industry has been under scrutiny by U.S. officials in recent weeks, with the Treasury Department noting that many mines are run by criminal gangs, a situation that is environmentally disastrous. The sanctions are likely to have a particular effect on trade with Turkey, with tons of gold sent there annually for refinement and processing. Officials have also voiced concern that some of the gold may find its way to Iran in violation of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-01/trump-orders-sanctions-on-venezuela-gold-to-pressure-maduro

Completely absent from media reports about the sanctions - any reference to Venezuela's "strategic alliance on gold mining" with China.

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On 9/20/2018 at 7:30 PM, Jhawk said:

I saw a documentary once where engineering companies like AECOM and KBR used to win huge infrastructure jobs in small foreign countries with the help of the US gov't.  Like a large dam or something.  They would do half the work and the communities would have to ration things like water and electricity until they finished the job.  Then the consultants for the firm would go to the leadership of the country and start to extort them to get them to step down from power for a more favorable leader to the US.  Of course they never complied so the water would remained shut off and the people would begin to riot and start an insurrection.  I have never found this doc since the first time I watched it but I would love to see it again.  Apparently that was our MO in latin america to try and get what we wanted down there.

Good book on the matter...

51p8fhvxN1L.jpg

 

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On 9/19/2018 at 9:55 AM, Panama Red said:

Maybe we need to send some mercs down to Venezuela to “take care” of a few high profile people and get the country headed in the right direction.

Mercurys?  I don’t think Ford makes those anymore, send a few Jeeps maybe 

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Good book on the matter

 

I had to read that for my freshman geography class and write a paper about it. Looking back on it, reading that really changed a lot of my worldview. Definitely challenged a lot of the notions I had at the time as far as who is 'correct' in terms of political positioning/debate.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Goodyear finally threw in the towel and closed their operation in Venezula.

although, since venezula is a barter market now, instead of giving them cash.... they each get 10 tires as severance.

 

how the hell are the workers going to be able to get 10 fucking tires from the plant to a safe place where they can keep the tires and trade them as they need them???

 

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is halting its Venezuela operations and laying off its local workforce, union officials said on Monday, the latest foreign corporation to close shop in the crisis-torn county.

Employees arrived at the company’s lone plant in the industrial city of Valencia to find it closed with a letter posted on the door. “Goodyear Venezuela has been forced to cease operations,” according to a copy seen by Bloomberg.

Eduar Bremo, a member of Goodyear’s factory-workers union, said that the company is paying severance packages to its more than 1,200 employees and giving each 10 tires, which are hugely valuable in shortage-wracked Venezuela. According to Bremo, the plant produced some 1,000 tires a day, but a lack of materials and soaring costs forced it to shut its doors.

Years of economic turmoil have made companies such as Kellogg Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp abandon Venezuela as hyperinflation renders most business conducted in local currency unsustainable. Other companies have slashed their work forces and limited their product offerings as they hold out for better days. Last week, Ford began offering its employees buyouts as it further scaled back its remaining Venezuela operations.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-10/goodyear-offers-10-tires-a-worker-as-it-shuts-down-in-venezuela

 

 

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10 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Trade them?  Protesters in Central American countries stack them in the streets for free.  The trick is grabbing one before they set them on fire.

Those are old worn out tires. New ones are like gold down there. Hell, they are even expensive here.

Venezuela will recover pretty quickly once Maduro gets a bullet in the brain. I am not sure it could recover quickly if this lasts another decade though. People who were alive pre-Chavez are well educated overall, but they aren't getting any younger.  But unlike other diaspora, Venezuelans mostly want to go back when it gets better there. 

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6 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

how the hell are the workers going to be able to get 10 fucking tires from the plant to a safe place where they can keep the tires and trade them as they need them??? 

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.   Keep those tires rollin'.   Rollin', rollin' rollin'..........   RAWHIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • 1 month later...
4 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

So it looks like the opposition leader has declared himself el gran campeon presidente de Venzuela.  Trump is cool with it.  Maduro has responded by breaking off relations with the US.  

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-recognizes-venezuela-opposition-leader-juan-guaido-interim-president-n961771

And a lot of other countries have also supported the opposition.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-23/brazil-canada-join-trump-backing-guaido-as-venezuela-president?srnd=premium

Mexico and Bolivia are against, but most others are for, including Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

 

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11 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

And a lot of other countries have also supported the opposition.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-23/brazil-canada-join-trump-backing-guaido-as-venezuela-president?srnd=premium

Mexico and Bolivia are against, but most others are for, including Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

 

This is a good step forward for Venezuela. Hopefully the situation doesn't devolve into mass killings by Maduro's gov/military. 

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17 hours ago, Parliament said:

Is it uncommon?  I know have Military folks there (Marines guard embassies?), but the could be overrun.

For diplomats themselves...this is what they sign up for.  It's not all cocktail parties and hookers.  I'm pretty sure there have been contacts with the right people in the military to advise them of the pure folly of over running the embassy. They will want to be on the right side of this WHEN maduro goes.

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9 minutes ago, gecko said:

For diplomats themselves...this is what they sign up for.  It's not all cocktail parties and hookers.  I'm pretty sure there have been contacts with the right people in the military to advise them of the pure folly of over running the embassy. They will want to be on the right side of this WHEN maduro goes.

Pretty much this. The logic is there for neither side to do a damned thing to the American embassy. The risk is that mobs are seldom logical; at present, the only mob involved is friendly to (or at least neutral towards) the U.S., but in a volatile environment like this, there's no telling when there might be a mob that is not.

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On 1/23/2019 at 7:03 PM, Parliament said:

Is this odd? Seems odd.

1da8c31ee4113b8a4dfecb797b97f7aa.jpg

non-essential staff and families told to bug out.  this isn't 1979 tehran, the vast majority of venezuelans are pro-USA.

now that the western world and the major latin american powers (f you mexico) are FINALLY backing the opposition, it'll be just a matter of time that the maduro regime self implodes.

happy days are in venezuela again.  meet the new first lady, 26 year old fabi rosales:

 

5c4b485eac9f0_crop1548462837399.jpeg_286

 

 

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