or...
Posted on 03/09/2014 11:42:46 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Patricia Gamboa arrived at a government-run supermarket in western Venezuela at 2:00 am, six hours before doors opened, to be first in line and buy whatever she could get her hands on.
As dawn broke, about 200 people stood behind her outside the Bicentenario shop in San Cristobal, with numbers written on their wrists with green markers to avoid arguments over who came first.
What was she hoping to buy, then?
"Whatever they have," she said, echoing the sentiment of everybody else reading, sipping coffee or sitting on the sidewalk to pass the time.
Residents can only shop at Bicentenario on certain days, which are decided by the last numbers on their ID cards. Once in line, people agreed on the wrist number system to avoid trouble, but the shop also assigns them paper numbers.
Across the city, even longer lines stretched 200 meters (yards) deep at two private supermarkets
Critics say businesses are not given enough dollars by the government through its currency agency to import enough goods.
Maduro blames smugglers who take advantage of Venezuela's weak currency to sell food and gasoline across the border in Colombia at a hefty profit.
Those lucky enough to find what they need at government-run stores will pay at regulated prices. At private markets, items can be three, four, even seven times more expensive.
But there is a black market rate in Venezuela, which has quadrupled over the past years from 20 to around 80 bolivars to the dollar.
"It's a crime," the socialist leader said, vowing to take economic and police action. "You make more by selling milk than selling cocaine today at the border."
But many residents of San Cristobal, an opposition stronghold, say corrupt government workers are among those smuggling goods across the border.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com ...
-— government-run supermarket -—
The sound of that just warms your heart, doesn’t it?
The stupidity of progressives seems to be limitless.
It’s fraud, FRAUD. When Chavez was first elected he promised the poor money, and cushy contracts for wealthier supporters.
Everyone thought they were going to get something. Chavez, like Obama had unusually large amounts of campaign cash and in didn’t come from Venezuela. It came from places like Iran. In politics, money is what makes things happen. It buys image, sells a story, and markets the man. The local and international media supported Chavez. They didn’t call him a socialist.mthey called him a populist.
Opposition candidate was weak. It was either planned, or bribed, and media managed to make opposition look worse.
Chavez won, he immediately putmhis people in plave everywhere, started tweaking the constitution according to his whims and needs, intimidated media that criticized illegalities either directly or had his “supporters” threaten anyone who voiced complaints.
The voting machines changed, the school curriculum changed, the military and police were thoroughly corrupted and an essential part of a drug trade that turned Venezuela into the biggest distributoe in the world.
Chavez implemented complete gun controls for civilians while Venezuela turned into the homicide capital of the world. Cubans started coming in in droves.
Inflation came in, the price regulations caused shortages, many professionals left the country, Chavez put limits on bank withdrawals, crime was through the roof. They put government informants in schools, neighborhoods, and businesses. You never know if the person your talking to is an informant. People who complained usually ended up victims of crime.
Chavez kept on getting elected, even though his supporters were likely 1 in 15 people. He had thousand of paid supporters online 24/7 to blog, troll, and basically praise everything Chavez did. Most Venezuelans knew that a lot of the supporters were Cubans pretending to be Venezuelans because of the dialect used. The media repeated the farce of Chavez being a popular democratically elected president.
Then came Maduro. There was a small percentage of people who believed Chavez to be a diety, that love didn’t translate to Maduro. Everyone knew there was no way he was “elected”.
Those unarmed fed up civilians are now facing tanks, machine guns, and union thugs in red shirts who act with impunity.
That is exactly how lineups formed in the USSR and other utopias.
Dear God.
Tattooed numbers are next.
Obama gained power here the same way. Not all Venezuelans wanted that socialist sh**, same as here. I hope you don’t feel the same for the U.S.
They were probably built in “food deserts”.
But don’t dare say the words “Nazi” or “Hitler”! This time it’s for the good of the people!
or...
Often, I tie their use of the word to compare them to a cancer. It's like turning an opponent’s arm to twist their own knife into their own belly.
The sound of that just warms your heart, doesn’t it?
Da, Tovarishch!
I bet they also had to bring their own bags! just like here in Los Angeles. No plastic bags for you!
“Maduro blames smugglers who take advantage of Venezuela’s weak currency to sell food and gasoline across the border in Colombia at a hefty profit.”
Ah, evil capitalism is ruining socialist utopia in Venezuala, just like here! That is the beauty of demonizing right minded folks, it becomes easy to shift blame from Dear Leader to the evil profiteers! They should start shipping those folks off to camps.
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