Posted on 05/14/2016 1:23:57 PM PDT by Kaslin
U.S. intelligence officials said Friday they are concerned Venezuela is slipping into a crisis that could lead to a coup attempt or a government crackdown on dissent. Reuters reports:
In a bleak assessment of Venezuela’s worsening crisis, the senior officials expressed doubt that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro would allow a recall referendum this year, despite opposition-led protests demanding a vote to decide whether he stays in office…
They said one “plausible” scenario would be that Maduro’s own party or powerful political figures would force him out and would not rule out the possibility of a military coup. Still, they said there was no evidence of any active plotting or that he had lost support from the country’s generals…
“You can hear the ice cracking. You know there’s a crisis coming,” one U.S. official said. “Our pressure on this isn’t going to resolve this issue.”
Having witnessed the fall this week of fellow leftist President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil (in what Rousseff termed a coup), Venezuela’s President Maduro is acting more paranoid than usual. Friday he announced a 60-day emergency measure designed to, “neutralize and defeat the external foreign aggression that has been initiated against our country.” The Wall Street Journal reports it could be the first step toward a crackdown on dissent:
To the opposition and constitutional experts in Venezuela, though, the decree sounded like it would lead to a crackdown on dissent. “That decree can restrict the right to hold demonstrations to protest scarcities or the lack of light,” said José Vicente Haro, a constitutional lawyer in Caracas.
Maduro has vowed not to leave office before his current term expires in two years. An opposition attempt to remove Maduro by referendum is being stalled by the socialist government so that, even if the referendum succeeds, Maduro’s vice president would serve out the remainder of his term. That would leave the socialists with enough power to continue blocking any attempts at reform proposed by the recently elected member of the opposition party in the National Assembly.
Maduro has already declared a 2-day work week for government workers in addition to rolling blackouts. Shortages of food and medicine have been a growing problem for more than a year. The country has triple-digit inflation and one of the highest murder rates in the world.
Actually, Venezuela is an object example what happens when you convert one of the best capitalist economies in South America to socialism.
Venezuela is awash in resources: oil, minerals, etc. But, in less than two decades, they have squandered everything and don't even have enough toilet paper. However, with a critical shortage of food, perhaps they don't need it.
I'm thinking about printing up some stickers that say something like: "Socialism works Great in Venezuela!", and stick them on every Sanders bumper sticker I see.
I've already pointed out to several people: Nearly every attempt at socialism has turned into Venezuela. They resort to an authoritarian dictatorship to crack down on dissidents when things turn sour, and eventually there's a revolution.
The usual comeback is: "But what about Europe?". European countries, almost without exception, are not socialist. They have higher-cost welfare (and taxes), but there's a capitalist economy underneath that pays for it.
The only way a European country has been able to sustain socialism is an outside source of revenue. Norway gets a large part of government funding from a state-run oil company operating offshore rigs. Greece has only lasted as long as it has, by borrowing money from other EU countries -- and that's about to be cut off.
Yeah, but foreign intelligence agencies won't.....Chinese wall and all that, ya know?
Send Sean Penn - I’m sure he can straighten out that mess.
Obama’s probably working on a plan to have the Muslim Brotherhood take over.
Yes, and look what has generally happened to the French. Not a role model to follow. Oops, we have been in many respects with multiculturalism. Anyway, a bit off topic since the question was about what is going on in Venezuela, which I don’t really care about so long as we don’t allow it to become an excuse for Venezuelans to migrate here.
You might when half the population comes over here as we “must take them in”.
It’s what our gubmit wants anyways.
The writer of those words is supposed to be a moron Bernie supporter. Ask him why.
Who cares?
We will. When the tidal wave of refugees starts treking across the Mexican border.
We’re gonna wish that wall was already in place.
Good points; also, we are becoming an object example of what happens when you convert one of the best capitalist economies in North America to socialism...
Our “intelligence” community fears that things could “deteriorate” .... (the big DUH)!
More importantly, Americans need to be educated about how to stop those conditions from being further instituted here, in the USA.
Trance-Formation (Full Film) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PykgS42wo
Announcement regarding your rights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gcdon7NSiU
Let US college students see Bernie’s Socialism at work.
ROFL!!! I needed a laugh! thanks!
A coup would be great. There was one against Chavez, unfortunately they made the mistake of not immediately executing him and some a-holes rescued him.
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