Venezuela and the Chavez Legacy

Funniest thing was Freddy Bernal I think it was coming on air at like 1 in the morning saying "Everything is normal, everything is calm, don't worry anyone, go to sleep"

Todo esta excesivamente normal.

edited 21st Apr '17 5:41:55 PM by Swablu335

Beatings will continue until morale improves.

Ugh, government should not be acting like a Domestic Abuser.

Has anyone heard that Colectivos and National Guardsmen are now fighting among themselves? Shows how serious the situation is becoming.

The GNB and the collectives have been at odds with each other ever since early 2015 when the crisis got really bad.

There's at least 12 confirmed dead in El Valle protests so far.

edited 22nd Apr '17 10:03:40 AM by Swablu335

What is causing these deaths? Excessive use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other less lethal weapons? Or are they firing live ammo into the crowds?

Its rather difficult to get news about the events going down there, rather annoying to be honest...

A young man (not part of the 12) died of a bullet shot in the head and at least 3 of the confirmed dead died from bullet wounds as well (I'm thinking from the collectives) I don't know how the other 9 died yet.

The government is saying they died electrocuted but meh...

edited 22nd Apr '17 12:20:21 PM by Swablu335

That's what I heard, that eight people died at El Valle riots while looting a store, that they wrecked a sink, flooding the place, then pulled a 220V cable while taking away a fridge.

All the others have died from gunshots with live ammo. The repression forces do shoot pellets and tear gas canisters at point-blank range, but nobody has died from that recently yet (although at least one person lost an eye over it).

The government confirmed the death of 6 prisoners and several wounded because of the new measures they took.

The opposition is asking the "defensoria del pueblo" to dismiss the reds in the "TSJ" who were responsible for the Coup.

Ironically a young man died today in Caracas because of the impact of a smoke bomb in his head.

Right now there were people protesting in the Sucre urbanization in Barquisimeto. The repression was bad and I heard the GNB got inside people's houses. The residents are fighting back with Molotovs!

Also the Venezuelan government is saying it wants to leave the OAS, well it took so long for the internationals to, I don't know do something that our dictatorship is doing all the work by itself.

edited 26th Apr '17 8:05:05 PM by Swablu335

(This is Swablu 335) Yesterday's marches in Caracas turned out well, the opposition wants people to set up barricades today in the morning.

RIP 5th Republic, you won't be missed.

(For the unaware, Maduro is calling for a 'communal' National Constituent Assembly.)

There's never been such a thing as a "Republic" in Venezuela.

There are reports of over 80% of transportation being stopped in Valencia and Caracas because of the barricades.

So uh....not knowing much about Venezuela or the region, I ask in ignorance....how likely is civil war there? I see the news and it looks hauntingly similar to nations just before massive civil wars.

If its overly alarmist, I apologize, I only have the US news media to go on for the craziness with Maduro.

Hopefully, soon.

Sounds like an asshole thing to say "hopefully they can be embroiled in a bloody and brutal life expending war as soon as possible", but at this point it's really the only way to possibly get rid of Maduro, and the sooner they do that the better.

I see it very unlikely, because only the goverment has weapons, it would have happened already if it wasn't for that. This is also the reason why we've been in a Stalemate. For 3 years, Maduro has had no popular support whatsoever the thing that keeps him in power is the military. The opposition leaders are mostly too scared of looking politically incorrect to call for the Art.350 as well. If a change of goverment does happen I do believe we might see some guerrilla warfare.

Does anyone knows what happened to Leopoldo? I hope he is safe.

edited 3rd May '17 8:12:15 PM by Malebranche

Here's the thing: Maduro only has the military because the military is being given money by Maduro.

Once Maduro's money runs out to pay the military, the military chiefs will be looking how to reap the next benefit from Maduro: Who gets to kill him and become the hero of the revolution.

Yeah, I was also wondering how a civil war would end up happening if one side has most if not all of the actual weapons.

Maduro's resources are not infinite.

A civil war won't happen if the whole military decides to ditch Maduro and agree to go with one of the opposition leaders.

Though I suppose it might happen if they can't agree on which leader to follow.

It seems like the ideal solution at this point would be for Maduro to step down peacefully and call for an election to pick a successor.

Then again, if he were the kind of person who would do that things might not have gotten this bad in the first place.

They sound less like a military and more like a bunch of glorified mercenaries.

edited 3rd May '17 7:28:12 PM by M84

I seriously doubt that military leaders that have decided to stand with the biggest asshole who had them go oppress their own people are intelligent and caring enough to actively avoid a civil war in that fashion.

They are opportunistic fucks. Nothing more.

Welcome to Latin American history

Actually, you know, history in general...

edited 3rd May '17 8:50:53 PM by Aszur

A Valencian friend has been telling me that stuff has been nasty around him (as in, next door), with repression and looting and shit. How are Valencians here doing? Stay safe!

There was severe repression against the students in the UCV by the GNB.

I still got no news about Leopoldo's condition.

Oh in this article it triggers a video that seems good about the situation a few weeks ago I think

Here.

And yeah, Valencia is really bad. My family have sent me messages and videos with State Police, Policia de Carabobo, which are under the employ of the Government Aligned Governor Ameliach, have been running around leading lootings against warehouses, stores, bakeries, companies... I think that's another thing they buy their loyalty with.