What is your opinion on the political situation in Venezuela?
A lot is happening now in Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked successor to Hugo Chavez lost an election to opposition candidate Juan Guaido. Maduro has the support of the military and refuses to relinquish power and now is using the military to terrorize neighborhoods and perform targeted killings. Meanwhile the US Treasury department has announced sanctions on a government owned oil company, and there are rumors that the US is considering an invasion of Venezuela with 5000 US troops (started by Bolton who wrote it on a yellow pad).
It’s a complicated situation which I oversimplified, but that’s the thumbnail sketch.
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18 Answers
Maduro was elected, the US and everyone else needs to keep their hands out of this country and off of the oil.
Stop the sanctions and theft.
It’s a slow motion coup.
Yes, it’s easy to get elected when you ban opposition parties.
So this is how it’s going to go? Enjoy yourself, imperialist.
Venezuela is a humanitarian tragedy
I’m going to bail on this because I am not calm enough to discuss without offending. I promise that I will not visit this thread again.
I am as lefty as the next lefty. I don’t want US intervention. But Chavez and Maduro were spectacular failures. Few people could do worse without trying to fail. How many countries with oil reserves descend into chaos?
Maduro was not cleanly elected. The opposition are not heroes. I can’t sympathize with anybody. The place is a disaster all around
Before you choose sides, I would read this:
Reuters – How Venezuela got here: a timeline of the political crisis
Invasion would be a terrible idea.
Our involvement shouldn’t extend beyond recognizing Guaido (which has already been done). Hopefully Bolton’s idea does not leave his yellow pad.
I thought about investing in Caracas Venezuela stock market because of the predictable volitity. Buy cheap and sell before the next crash. From 500,000 to 500 in one day. I dont have any extra cash so I can’t invest.
Sad and disappointing. 20+ years ago, Venezuela was a bright star in Latin America, with a highly educated population and a healthy economy.
Petroleum, corruption, socialism, and two egotistical leaders have ripped it to shreds.
I am not thrilled about sending US troops (if that really happens), but I think that the Chinese or the Russians or the North Koreans in Venezuela would be considerably worse.
@Demosthenes Oh, I agree with you. Invasion is the worst idea possible. One theory is that Bolton did it on purpose and is just being a troll.
To anyone who thinks politics doesn’t matter and how you vote isn’t a responsibility Venezuela tells you that you are wrong. The election of Hugo Chavez in 1999 was when things began to falter. He was a populist leader who promised to get things done by abolishing congress and the judiciary and by creating a parallel government of his cronies. He “drained the swamp” you might say and began the slide into anarchy.
I’m not in favor of any sort of invasion. Not at this point anyway.
Venezuela to me is a country voting in presidents that promise change to the masses when they are suffering. I don’t think we can help them much short of occupying the country and making it America, which I completely disagree with doing anything like that in any degree.
As far as stopping trade to force change, I’m always very conflicted about this sort of thing.
@elbanditoroso I’m pretty sure 20 years ago there was a very large poverty level class in Venezuela. That’s how Chavez was voted in. I think Venezuela had over 40% of its people living below the povertly line. Maybe I’ve understood this incorrectly all along, but my Venezuelan friends have always presented it this way, to be clear, my friends had plenty of money, had moved to America, and are completely against Chavez and his policies. They viewed it as the lower classes being duped,,/!: the upper classes having property money and stolen from them by the government under Chavez.
Venezuela is a model for how bad political change can be. A perfect example of be careful what you wish for.
I definitely do not think a military invasion makes any kind of sense. Humanitarian aid if it could be done gracefully would be helpful to the people but I don’t think we have the skill to do it.
I don’t really think the US has any standing in that fight at this point; let alone all the previous South American intervention we botched up.
Lifting sanctions and normalising diplomatic relations would would be the very best thing for Venezuelans and Venezuelan democracy.
A few other things.
@Caravanfan Maduro didn’t lose an election to Guaido. Some opposition parties disqualified themselves from the presidential election by boycotting the earlier mayoral elections.
@elbanditoroso Venezuela wasn’t a “bright star” of any sort 20 years ago, but rather a corrupt, dysfunctional country with crippling poverty and regular economic crises. It had been so since at least the early 80s. There’s a reason Chavez came to win in the first place, and it’s because things were shit.
@Kropotkin That is one interpretation of a crooked rigged election process that has been marred by targeted killings, yes.
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