Venezuela: Food and Medicine Shortages are a Government Policy

panampost.com ^ | 20 May 2016 | Luis H. Ball

[fella]

President Maduro Deliberately Causes Shortages to Cow Venezuelan Citizens into Submission

Even with the collapse of the price of oil, Venezuela’s total export revenue this year will yield a similar amount to Peru’s total exports. Peru and Venezuela have the same population, and the world knows there are no food lines in Peru and no one is dying for lack of medicines in that country.

Unfortunately, most reporting by the international press on Venezuela’s current crisis, while mentioning the Chavista regime’s mismanagement and corruption, also places the blame on the economic crisis that befell the country after oil prices collapsed in late 2014. These views are the product the Venezuelan government’s continued success in hiding the true nature of the regime. •Read More: Eight Signs that Show the End of Venezuela’s Regime is Near •Read More: What Does Maduro’s New State of Emergency Mean for Venezuela

Venezuelan and multinational companies still operating in the country could easily supply all needs of the population in food and medicine if the government allowed them access to USD $7 billion in foreign exchange. Only ten years ago, Venezuela had some of the most modern supermarkets in the region and stores were overflowing with goods with an equivalent amount of foreign exchange allocated to these same companies.

Are Venezuelan Bond Holders the Only Culprits?

If the country has over USD $30 billion a year in foreign exchange income, what is causing the crisis? Evidently it is not a lack of funds. Moreover, food and medicine shortages began to appear in Venezuela in 2014, when the price of oil was still over $100 per barrel

Ricardo Hausmann, a highly respected Harvard professor who served as Venezuela’s Minister of Economic Planning two decades ago, has long mentioned one of the most often cited causes of the current economic crisis. For almost two years, Hausmann warned that Venezuela could not pay the service on its foreign debt and provide foreign exchange for the basic needs of its population at the same time.

In September 2014, Hausmann and fellow professor Miguel Angel Santos published a now famous article that explained in detail the hardships the Venezuelan population was facing due to shortages of basic goods as the government did not deliver on its promise to provide foreign exchange to private importers.

They explained the dilemma facing the government. Either pay the importers or pay the bondholders:

“ The moral calculus becomes a bit more intricate when you cannot make good on all of your commitments and have to decide which to honor and which to avoid. To date, under former President Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has opted to service its foreign bonds, many of which are held by well-connected wealthy Venezuelans.

While Hausmann and Santos exposed the twisted logic of Chávez and Maduro, they did not elaborate on the reasons for the Venezuelan government’s decision to starve its own people.

It is true that the reason for not defaulting is the mere identity of the holders of Venezuelan bonds. It is no secret that Chavistas, their cronies in banking, and self-defined “brokerage houses” hold the lion’s share of Venezuela’s outstanding foreign debt.

They have made billions, yes, billions of dollars, buying Venezuelan bonds at deep discounts, profiting enormously as — to everyone’s surprise — the army generals who control Venezuela’s finances keep strict punctuality in payments. But while this insider trading of Venezuelan bonds does explain the reasons for Venezuela’s reluctance to default, using the lion’s share of the country’s foreign exchange income to service the debt still does not fully explain the war-like rationing and shortages currently suffered by the Venezuelan people.

Maduro’s Government Does Not Want to End Shortages

With relatively little amounts of additional money — probably less than USD $2 billion — the government could easily improve significantly the current dire conditions. This will be the case particularly if it allows private companies to return to their traditional role as importers of basic goods, instead of concentrating food and medicine imports in the hands of corrupt government agencies.

Why, then, doesn’t the Maduro government try this solution? The answer is: they are not looking for a solution.

The Maduro government in Venezuela is probably the most unpopular government on planet earth. 80% of Venezuelans have a negative opinion of Mr. Maduro, and these poll numbers arise in a country where people generally fear telling the truth to pollsters, as everyone is scared of possible government reprisals. In order to stay in power, Maduro needs a cowed populace. •Read More: World Leaders Shut Eyes to Venezuela’s Hunger Games •Read More: Despite Police Brutality, Venezuelans March for Recall Referendum

The brutal repression tactics used by the Venezuelan military against even timid attempts at public protest are new to Venezuela, but familiar to anyone who lived behind the Iron Curtain. Torture and savage beatings on the streets have been widely documented by international institutions such as Human Rights Watch.

In addition to brutal raw repression, the other tool used to keep a population cowed and obedient is food rationing. Again, since the days of Lenin, this has been a widely used method of political repression in communist countries. If you are caught protesting, you lose your ration, your place in line, the milk for your children, the medicine for your mother.

Moreover, this is an effective method to keep the security forces on your side. If a police sergeant is lenient towards a protester, he loses the special privileges that allow his family to shop in special government shops, where food and medicine are plentiful.

The Minister of Food Supply in Venezuela is an army General that, until recently, served as Finance Minister. Army officers also control the supply of medicines and even raw materials for industry. Why have they not been fired in the face of the severe shortages of every kind? The answer is that they hold their posts with the purpose of ensuring the shortages do occur!

The International Press Has Been Conned

The foreign press has made the mistake of believing that the Chavista regime was at one point legitimate. They have failed to understand its true totalitarian nature, in part due to the mediocrity of the opposition leadership headed by Henrique Capriles, whose conciliatory stance has in the past helped to legitimize a regime born from stolen elections.

The current Venezuelan crisis has nothing to do with the price of oil. Food rationing began in Venezuela in 2014, when oil sold for over USD $100 per barrel. It also has nothing to do with Venezuela’s debt obligations. What the world is witnessing is what Chavez called “21st Century Socialism,” a communist totalitarian state designed to look like something else.

This is the first communist revolution designed for today’s consumers of mass media. Lenin would be so proud!

[fella]

"This is the first communist revolution designed for today’s consumers of mass media. Lenin would be so proud!"

[Blue Collar Christian]

And protesters have no teeth as their firearms were confiscated years ago.

THE reason for the populace to be armed is to prevent this.

[dhs12345]

Oh, so the government is responsible for the mess. Well, actually they are...

[Puppage]

Dear FeelTheBern supporters:FYI

[Paladin2]

Why not have Castro bail them out?

[spokeshave]

Sounds like what Michelle la Belle Antoinette Obama promoted with her “school lunch program”

[spokeshave]

Look for this logo...coming to a town near you

More data here:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/21521-us-communities-targeted-for-blue-zone-social-engineering

"In government schools across America in communities being targeted to become “Blue Zones,” children may soon be chanting “Hara Hachi Bu” before eating their lunch — at least between the data-mining and intrusive scoring to determine “progress” in their physical, mental, and spiritual “well being.” The Japanese phrase, associated with the Eastern religion of Confucianism, translates roughly to “eat until you are 80 percent full.” Parents, meanwhile, will receive wide-ranging instructions covering everything from the food they eat and the “tribe” they associate with to the location in their home designated for sexual activity and even the size of their dinner plates. Indeed, the whole community will face massive social engineering — for its own good, of course."

And this gem:

All of it is taking place under the guise of creating “healthy communities” through a public-private partnership between governments, health insurance giants, and businesses to create “Blue Zones.” Reading the slick marketing materials produced by the “Blue Zones Project,” which styles itself “a community well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to environment, policy, and social networks,” the whole plot can almost appear rather harmless at first glance. After all, what could be wrong with “voluntary” initiatives and “choices” to allegedly promote health, happiness, and well-being?

[patriot08]

Castro?
No. Not to worry. Even with a debt of 20 trillion the U.S will probably bail them out- as well as Puerto Rico.

This country needs to stop doling out TRILLIONS to countries who hate us and want to kill us- (for instance Iran)

Obama has set aside $17,000 each for welfare for his ‘migrants’- Mexican/ S Americans [with a proven mix of muslims] flooding over the open border as well as his importing thousands upon thousands muslim ‘refugees’ (colonists,future Jihadists)- all future rat voters AGAINST OUR WILL?
This is more than our seniors on SS make in a year after helping make America the greatest country the world has ever known.

This insanity has got to stop.

Americans are suffering. It’s time to put America and Americans first.

Donald WILL put America first. He will help our own first.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME.

[null and void]

Image is 404.

[spokeshave]

The logo in question:

[kindred]

Control of food and water and the disinformation required to implement them is the work of the governments of the world to destroy the welfare of all people and in all nations so that the evil few can live high and enslave all other peoples. America has been blessed by the God of Israel and His anointed One and the kings and rulers of all peoples are united against Him. This is what will come to pass of their evil works;

Psalm 2:

Psalms 1:4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Psalms 1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

Psalms 1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalms 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Psalms 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

Psalms 2:3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

Psalms 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.

Psalms 2:5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Psalms 2:6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

Psalms 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Psalms 2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Psalms 2:10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Psalms 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalms 3:1 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

Psalms 3:2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

Psalms 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

[dynachrome]

“foreign press has made the mistake of believing that the Chavista regime was at one point legitimate.”

It was no mistake. US presstitutes supported the chavez/masuro dictatorship all the way. And still do!

[spokeshave]

This needs a thread of its own

More here:

Critics and parents in target communities, though, are expressing serious concerns about the developments, with the word “Orwellian” tossed out by more than a few opponents of the agenda. The scheming has also been attacked for parallels with a variety of other deeply controversial projects such as the Obama administration's “full-service community schools” that aim to essentially replace parents, and the United Nations' infamous “sustainable development” plot known as UN Agenda 21. A video of young school children singing the praises of the “Blue Zone Project” at school has also sparked alarm.

http://anothervoicerev184.blogspot.com/2015/09/us-communities-implementing-agenda21.html

[Prospero]

Bail out Castro and you have bailed out this stage-play. Last I heard, the Cubans had upwards from 23,000 troops camped out, dressed up as gendarmerie all over the countryside.

[Rockpile]

This account was a great find. Explains why we have not heard any hints
of a coup by their army since the senior army leadership is totally corrupt also.

The new worlders are probably planning the same for us.

[HarleyLady27]

GHWB sent Jeb to Caracas, Venezuela to work as a ‘branch manger’ and ‘vice president’ at the young age f 24. But Jeb was no ordinary ‘branch manager’. He was officially, Texas Commerce Bank’s top point man in the Venezuelan capital and unofficially, the CIA main financial liaison to the Venezuelan oil industry and the Colombian narcotics cartels. Jeb would regularly report to his CIA ‘official cover’ counterpart attached to the U.S. embassy in Caracas as a State Department ‘diplomat’.
While in Venezuela, Jeb cleverly managed to hide the Colombian cartel’s drug revenues as oil industry revenues of ‘front’ companies. Texas Commerce Bank was the bank of choice for Latin American drug cartels. It was later discovered to have stashed $7 million in drug profits for the Gulf Cartel of Mexico.

Texas Commerce Bank’s Houston skyscraper was sold to the head of the National Commerical Bank of Saudi Arabia, Sheike Khalid bin Mahfouz, in 1985. Bin Mahfouz was later identified as a key member of the Saudi Arabia’s support network for the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States, which is noted in the still-classified 28 pages of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Report on 9/11 intelligence failures. Bin Mahfouz, who lived in the River Oaks section of Houston near George H.W. Bush, died suddenly in 2009 at the age of 59. Bin Mahfouz, who was also an Irish Citizen, threatened with confansake lawsuits any publication that reported his links to 9/11 and his family ties to Osama bin Laden.

Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family pages 34-35

I feel that a lot of the problems that this country is having now have been started by corrupted people, and that includes some mighty corrupted people in the United States and it’s government...

[awatson72752]

venezuela is obama’s wet dream