https://www.yahoo.com/news/ven...-back-195000116.html

For years, Venezuela has flirted with authoritarianism. This week, it bid goodbye to any pretense that it remained a democratic country.

The nation’s Supreme Court announced Wednesday it would take over legislative powers and essentially dissolve the National Assembly, the only government pillar controlled by the political opposition. President Nicolás Maduro “is now the National Assembly,” the body’s president, Julio Borges, told the Associated Press after the decision was announced. “It’s one thing to try and build a dictatorship and another to complete the circuit.”

But the crumbling of Venezuela’s democracy isn’t a challenge confined to those living there. Problems caused by drug-trafficking and Venezuela’s increasingly dysfunctional economy are beginning to spill over into neighboring countries. And despite the region’s sensitivity to foreign meddling, given its rich history of US-backed coups, those countries are beginning to speak up.

The head of the 34-nation Organization of American States labeled the move a “self-inflicted coup,” and “the final blow to democracy” in Venezuela, and Peru withdrew its ambassador in protest.

The question is: Are regional attempts to broker some kind of political solution too little too late?

Last week, a dozen Latin American nations along with the United States and Canada made a rare joint statement calling on President Maduro to recognize the National Assembly’s power. The meeting was called in response to a report issued earlier this month by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, which characterized Venezuela as lacking rule of law.

“The diplomatic efforts undertaken have resulted in no progress,” Mr. Almagro wrote. “Repeated attempts at dialogue have failed and the citizens of Venezuela further lose faith in their government and the democratic process.”

The OAS threatened to suspend Venezuela from the region’s main collective body, but the effort was thwarted by a number of small countries that long benefited from subsidized oil shipments under former President Hugo Chávez.

Neighbors largely kept to the sidelines as the late Mr. Chávez, and more recently Maduro, dismantled presidential checks and balances piece by piece, or clamped down on freedom of expression and human rights.

“There was always a hint of optimism” around what often appeared to be undemocratic moves by Venezuelan authorities, tilting the playing field to benefit those in power, says Christopher Sabatini, a Latin American specialist at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York. Many regional neighbors had faith that things would fall into place: the political opposition would unify and gain a foothold in the government and things would turn around, or the administration would be forced to reevaluate its position in the context of plummeting oil revenues or a starving electoral base.

“For years the [political] opposition has been knocking on the doors of regional governments,” talking about oppression and asking for assistance, says Carlos Romero, a political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela. “But regional governments, even the United States, said ‘This is a legitimate government, it was voted into power.’ That was the excuse for not implementing sanctions or calling for change.”

There are other reasons for the reticence to criticize Venezuela, says Mr. Sabatini. “It’s very difficult for this region to call out democratic abuses by a leftist government.”

Many Latin American nations suffered years, or even decades, of military dictatorships during the 20th century. As a result, the political left is seen as the moral authority over strong commitments to social justice and protecting human, cultural, social, and economic rights.

“You can talk to human rights activists in [Latin America] and ask, ‘Why don’t you say anything about Cuba?’ ” Sabatini says, offering another example. “And they say, ‘It’s a mess, but we can’t. Castro is such an icon.’ ”

Venezuela’s foreign ministry played on this history in defending the court’s decision this week, accusing critics of forming a “right-wing regional pact” to topple Maduro.

And that’s the other side of the coin, says Sabatini. While many in the region have long feared calling out Venezuela due to Chávez’s commitment to the poor and social programming, others have sometimes been too quick to call foul, undermining legitimate concerns.

It really hasn't been anything close to a democracy or a free country for years, way before Hugo checked out.

quote:

. . .due to Chávez’s commitment to the poor. . .

And who is the richest woman in Venezuela? Why it's Hugo's daughter, Maria ($4.2 billion). Charity should begin at home, huh?

Link.

Less people to hang when it all goes south.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Less people to hang when it all goes south.

Hey! Hey! Watch It, Yankee ( or, Yanqui)!



Hey, that reminds me. I had a great idea.

Let's import a dozen million scofflaws from these regions to do the jobs Americans won't do.

Whaddya think?

[sarcasm]Don't we have a recently "retired" Nobel Prize "winning" "guy" with lots of time on "his" hands who could fly down there and straighten this right out?[/sarcasm]

I hope the commie, mouth-breathing, third world scum enjoy thier recently completed utopian workers paradise to its fullest.

Democracy? That ship sailed from there quite some time ago, did it not?

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:

quote:

. . .due to Chávez’s commitment to the poor. . .

And who is the richest woman in Venezuela? Why it's Hugo's daughter, Maria ($4.2 billion). Charity should begin at home, huh?

Link.

Looks like Chelsea has a role model.

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
I hope the commie, mouth-breathing, third world scum enjoy thier recently completed utopian workers paradise to its fullest.

I'm sure all the dirt poor Venezuelans that have been downtrodden for decades and have no fucking choice but to continue in their hopeless situation really appreciate your deeply complex and nuanced perspective.

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
I hope the commie, mouth-breathing, third world scum enjoy thier recently completed utopian workers paradise to its fullest.

I'm sure all the dirt poor Venezuelans that have been downtrodden for decades and have no fucking choice but to continue in their hopeless situation really appreciate your deeply complex and nuanced perspective.

Perhaps as they starve to death, they can reflect on how their suffering serves to enlighten others as to the joys of pinko-commie-socialism. It won't fill their bellies with food, but may fill their hearts with pride.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:

quote:

. . .due to Chávez’s commitment to the poor. . .

And who is the richest woman in Venezuela? Why it's Hugo's daughter, Maria ($4.2 billion). Charity should begin at home, huh?

Link.

Hey now, she didn't take that money from poor people ...

The tripod hasn't functioned in years and has begun to collapse. Maduro didn't exactly arrogate the legislature's power to himself, and he didn't have those powers arrogated to him by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court arrogated those powers to itself.

How long before there's a conflict between Maduro and the Supreme Court in its role as the legislature? The legislature hasn't had that much practical power in a while, but that's because of decisions from the Supreme Court.

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:

quote:

Originally posted by divil:
I hope the commie, mouth-breathing, third world scum enjoy thier recently completed utopian workers paradise to its fullest.

I'm sure all the dirt poor Venezuelans that have been downtrodden for decades and have no fucking choice but to continue in their hopeless situation really appreciate your deeply complex and nuanced perspective.

I am sure they would appreciate it more if it came with a few rolls of TP.

On a more serious note, I used to work with a Venezuelan ex-pat years ago, and he was quite the fan of Chavez and the march toward socialism. Even though he no loneger lived in Venezuela he though everything Chavez was pushing towards was good for his native country. Quite the useful idiot.

I am ok with the useful idiots that supported Chavez and Maduro learing a hard lesson. No sympathy for those fools.

To the Venezuelans that opposed the likes of Chavez/ Maduro I am sure it is going to be quite the shit sandwich. I wish them luck in trying to gut it out or in their endevors to flee.

Democracy is a bit of a fragile balancing act. Truth is fewer than a quarter of the countries in the world accomplish it in any meaningful way.

Sounds good in the brochure, though.

My first Intl solo trip was to Venezuela. Circa 1993ish... Landed in Caracas and learned what 3rd world meant. Managed to not get rolled between the airport and the guarded compound around what was once a grand Hilton hotel on the seaside. Going to the room, I learned what the word puta meant as the bellhop kept asking me if I wanted one, so I looked it up in my little book (before Internet/smartphones). I declined.

It was shocking poverty and millions of ranchos on the hillside. People gathering water from the drainage ditch by the highway and cars that still burned leaded gas. An absolute fucking disaster that,... amazingly, they made much much worse.

Incidentally, those millions of ranchos washed away in a landslide killing untold and unknown numbers of human lives. People just trying to survive.

Beaches, temperate climate, fertile soil... Abject poverty. Why?......

G O V E R N M E N T

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
Beaches, temperate climate, fertile soil... Abject poverty. Why?......

G O V E R N M E N T

And oil. They have a commodity that an economy could be built on, yet we have this. I fear democracy is not the only thing that will be departing Venezuela. Their status as even a third world country may also depart shortly. Totally unfortunate, and totally preventable.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Democracy? That ship sailed from there quite some time ago, did it not?

You have to stop stealing my posts before I post them.

quote:

Perhaps as they starve to death, they can reflect on how their suffering serves to enlighten others as to the joys of pinko-commie-socialism. It won't fill their bellies with food, but may fill their hearts with pride.

quote:

Democracy is a bit of a fragile balancing act. Truth is fewer than a quarter of the countries in the world accomplish it in any meaningful way.

Sounds good in the brochure, though.

Yep.
Pure Democracy is dangerous. It's two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
A republic is supposed to be the rule of law, based on individual rights, protected from the tyranny of the majority.
It's hard to pull off though.
It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. ... until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money. ...

Socialism destroys civil society.

Suddenly, the left is all worried about a 'coup' in Chavista Venezuela

Does it get more disgusting than this? As millions - and I mean millions and millions - of Venezuelans march to protest the horrors of socialism - and the New York Times notes that the very poor, whom socialists claim to champion, are among them - a band of the usual suspects among Chavista shills in the U.K. are suddenly all concerned about a 'coup.' In a group letter to the Guardian (naturally) they write:

We note the growing concern across Latin America that elements of the right wing within Venezuela have called again for the ousting of the elected president, Nicolás Maduro – including overt calls on the military to oust the president – before the constitutional end of his term (Editorial, 26 April). This follows the US decision to renew sanctions against Venezuela. With Donald Trump attacking Venezuela during his election campaign, there is great concern that he may step up intervention aimed at regime change. We call for respect for Venezuela’s national sovereignty and an end to such interventions.
John Pilger, Richard Gott, Andy de la Tour, Michael Mansfield QC, John Hendy QC, Judith Amanthis, Dr Julie Hearn, Dr Hazel Marsh, Professor Frank Land, Salma Yaqoob

What a bunch of jackasses. The opinions of the millions who marched don't matter to them, nor does the loss of democracy that is propelling the marches in this country upset this bunch. There they sit, safely ensconced in London where they don't have to live with this, complaining about a potential coup. The lack of food doesn't bother them, the ruined hospitals don't register, and the fact that the country is awash in crime and the country's leaders are verifible drug dealers goes right through them.

But a coup! Now that's different. That' to be feared. Chavista 'revolucion' must be preserved at all costs, because, well ... socialism. The left still clings to its socialist dreamscape, no matter what the reality. Never mind that the this whole Rubicon of a coup possibility was crossed long ago when the Chavista thugs lost all legitimacy as elected leaders by seizing power. Howling about a coup in these circumstances rings pretty hollow after the statement millions and millions of Venezuelans made last week.

http://www.americanthinker.com...up_in_venezuela.html