I thought I should post this. With focus on countries like Russia, the events in Venezula are similar to ones we've seen in Egypt and other places, they are but no less troubling. Just a warning, the images in the linked blog post are graphic and disturbing.
http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/19/19f/
Violence in Venezula
-
IamLEAM1983
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3709
- Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:54 am
- Location: Quebec, Canada
Re: Violence in Venezula
I've been reading about this for the past couple days. Venezuela hasn't had serious political problems since the late eighties; the causes of this are mostly the rampant job insecurity in the country (lots and lots of scabs and cheaper workers from neighboring countries) and the absolutely killer inflation the country's suffered through. Prices on most goods have hiked up 56% in one fiscal quarter, but salaries haven't followed suit yet. That means shortages. Nicolas Maduro's response was to basically tell his people to shut up and take it. Students are hit pretty hard, considering how even here, covering a Bachelor's or a Master's can mean you're stuck working several jobs - and not always for any serious lengths of time. Insecurity's already part and parcel of being a student, so tack the Venezuelan situation on top of that and, well...
You've got yourself a Grade-A shitstorm. Maduro needs to step down at this point, but fuck it if he will. He's got the older population stratas partially convinced the students are Fascist sympathizers, and he covers for his bike-riding "vigilante" squads. These idiots shoot whoever doesn't happen to be wearing Army colors - including paramedics.
What really gets my goat is when you start paring the job insecurity with the fact that Venezuela has some of South America's largest oil reserves. The country's fucking rich, they could subsidize education or provide meal tickets with their eyes closed - but Maduro doesn't give a shit. Ten to one he's one of these robber baron assholes who's going to scamper away with his tail between his legs as soon as this starts requiring international involvement, more than likely with a fat wad of cash.
If it ever does require international involvement. The most we've seen is Obama wagging his finger.
You've got yourself a Grade-A shitstorm. Maduro needs to step down at this point, but fuck it if he will. He's got the older population stratas partially convinced the students are Fascist sympathizers, and he covers for his bike-riding "vigilante" squads. These idiots shoot whoever doesn't happen to be wearing Army colors - including paramedics.
What really gets my goat is when you start paring the job insecurity with the fact that Venezuela has some of South America's largest oil reserves. The country's fucking rich, they could subsidize education or provide meal tickets with their eyes closed - but Maduro doesn't give a shit. Ten to one he's one of these robber baron assholes who's going to scamper away with his tail between his legs as soon as this starts requiring international involvement, more than likely with a fat wad of cash.
If it ever does require international involvement. The most we've seen is Obama wagging his finger.