An Excellent Summation of the Situation in Venezuela Today

Dan Miller's Blog ^ | March 17, 2013 | Dan Miller

[DanMiller]

Chavez is dead. Is Venezuela?

h/t Devil's Excrement

Daniel, one of my two favorite bloggers on things Venezuelan, published this article today. It summarizes what's wrong with Venezuela today and does not raise any false hopes for her immediate future. Her future is bleak. Here's the first paragraph.

The wake is suspended, Chavez rests for the time being in a military museum, an old barrack to ensure past presidential safety at Miraflores, now unable to ensure safety in an area that has been overcome by slums. For a military that was never able to understand what the civilian world and democracy meant, it is a fitting resting place for Chavez, unable to find permanent ways to diminish poverty, and even less to insure the safety of the people in the slums where crime rates are maybe the highest in the world. Eventually someday the wake will be restarted when his remains are either taken to his wished for resting place, Sabaneta where he was born, or to the Pantheon where political expediency may want him for his final home.

Please read the rest. It is not encouraging but is realistic. And realism is one of the most important, and yet most absent, qualities in Venezuela.

[DanMiller]

The current situation in Venezuela is bad beyond belief. I was first there in 1998 and last in 2001. Even in 2001, it was a reasonably pleasant country. Now? Not at all.

There is little if anything that the United States can or should do; what happens is and has to be up to the Venezuelans.

[Ouderkirk]

I was in Venezuela in 1992 and found it to be like many central/south American countries. Poor but, had a certain pleasantry and charm. Caracus had high crime in the slums but that was a small potion of the city. The German population(s) in the Mountains we more motivated and wealthier.

[GeronL]

Hugo pushed that country to 4th world status

[dfwgator]

While Hugo pushed himself and his cronies to 1st world status.

[GeronL]

He was a big time thief, but Obama makes him look like a piker

[DanMiller]

My wife and I were there for about a year beginning toward the end of 1996 and then for extended periods until 2001. Venezuela is a beautiful country with great people, particularly outside Caracas -- although the medical care then was excellent in Caracas.

We enjoyed it a lot and I liked making fun of the place in articles published in the Caribbean Compass, principally for other cruisers on sailboats. I managed later to find some of those articles and post at my blog. Here's one of them. It is basically truthful, but with just a few minor stretches.

[Nateman]

Rather than be pessimistic I’d say their #1 problem at least is gone. When FDR died that was America’s chance to recover from its 1st depression.

[Texas Fossil]

Bump!

Recovery from Death by Socialism.

[tflabo]

Chavez ignored the new Constitution he helped foster, lied about his opponents, censored, confiscated businesses, stole money and all the while their economy went south, crime and murder went north with infrastructure in decay and consumer goods in sharp decline. Yet the vast majority of idiots worshiped this corrupt ash hole with cultist like blind allegiance. Bizarro—oh wait, sounds eerily familiar closer to home.