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Venezuela

3K views 27 replies 15 participants last post by  CWB 
#1 ·
My son-in-law went to visit a college friend of his who is from Venezuela this week end. He told me that the big thing there now is that the crooks are killing people for their guns. His friend has a friend who father was killed recently in front of his own house. He was armed but the bad guys shot him before he knew what was happening and took only his gun.

He told my son-in-law that people had been hiring armed body guards but the bad guys started killing the body guards for their guns and now you can't find anyone who wants to be a body guard.

Sounds to me like things are about ready to pop down there.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Sounds like another group of folks who got the idea that the government is the solution to most of their problems.

I ask this: if each neighborhood organized & had armed people posted in multiple groups through out them how long do you think it would be before the gun stealing / murdering thugs were either pushing up daisies or actively looking for a safer vocation?

From a Indian chief of old, but still true today.

"A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong."
- Tecumseh
 
#10 ·
I was thinking the same thing that if neighborhoods would band together the bad guys would move on to somewhere else. It would bring a new meaning to "It takes a village"! One of my coworkers said when they had a power outage a few years ago that the neighbors got together and patrolled their area till power was restored (a few days). She said anyone that didn't belong was watched till they left. Needless to say, no house were broken into.
 
#12 ·
One of my professors in seminary, right after the Columbine shooting, dealt with hamartiology (theology of sin). He used that event, and other outbreaks in "civilized" society, to anecdotally illustrate the futility of controlling the evil in human nature via societal restraints. They may slow it, but it always get out. It's like holding pressurized gelatin in a wooden crate. It will always seep out and will occasionally explode. This was his introduction to his introducing us to original sin.
 
#4 ·
Call me crazy, why would anyone want to go there let alone any foreign countries right now? Canada maybe. I don't know.


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#5 ·
Venezuela exhibited all of the classic symptoms of Socialism. They were a thriving economy, with oil revenues that just seemed that they would "never" stop. They were, also, a classic Banana Republic at heart. There was a large underclass, that had existed for so long that nobody noticed them. They had a ruling elite that was birth-right determined, and not competence determined. They always felt that true popular political reform was the result of enemy agents, as well. Into this, we interjected a popular leader, one who promised everyone a "chicken in every pot".

Then, oil became a glut on the market, and prices tumbled. The grandiose schemes suddenly became money pits, and people suddenly realized that it wasn't "getting better". Seems that the disparity between the ruling elite, and the rest of the nation was growing larger, again. The ruler began the classic take-over of businesses, especially those owned by foreigners, in the name of the people. Investment dropped in the country, and the debts were called on schedule, with no "wink wink" from the financial corporations. This caused the inevitable ruination of their credit, and a further drop in investment. By now, to quell dissent, the government was in the usual "blame an outside enemy" mode, and demanding ever more control, and sacrifice, from the citizens. Today, the combination of a failed Socialist state, with a Banana Republic history, has led to civil break-down, harsh government repercussions, and an approaching Civil War. I wonder how our Blunder-in-Chef views that?
 
#7 ·
Probably as his perfect model of what he wants our country to look like!
 
#6 ·
JR, looks like you pretty much hit it on the head. Chavez built a one-commodity economy that supported everything else with no real support system of its own, and the idiot who's running the country now has no clue how to fix the problem. I've noticed that the socialist/communist leaders who run these starving countries always look well fed, like the dog in the empty lifeboat.

My first thought was that it's a movement by a group, or groups to arm themselves for a revolution. Of course it could also be government hit squads who are enacting an extreme form of gun control to disarm the public. I don't know.

One thing for sure, people are starving there right now. And you have zero chance of mailing a package of food or medicine to relatives who are stuck there. My son-in-law's friend tried and his family never received it. He said his mother has lost 15 pounds in the last month or so.
 
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#22 ·
While on the face of it, there are no simple answers, we are viewing this through the lens of the media. We are using information from groups interested in hype, distortion, and lies, to formulate plans of action .

I would submit that the actual situation is far more varied than shown to us. The same with the possible plans of action to combat lawlessness.

War-lords are a far cry from the actions of criminals. They seem to be the more usual rioting and rioters, aided by criminal elements. A true war-lord would be more interested in actually claiming territory, and defending those claims. A war lord would also be obtaining real military grade weaponry, and not a hodge-podge of hand-guns with varying calibers, types of actions, and in various conditions of wear. The rifles that can be taken from the citizens will be unsuited for battle against any real military, as well. Maybe a gang might consider them proper, but that would only last until the one of them were killed.
 
#23 ·
While, in this country, we have not suffered warlords, we have never faced a breakdown like Venezuela. I believe that Venezuela is far closer to Somalia than it is to the U.S. right now.
Given that the Maduro government is a tin-pot dictatorship, how far do they have to fall?
 
#24 ·
Compared to the state of affairs in Somalia, with it's almost feudal state, quite a ways. It has to go completely through old-time Banana Republic, to Chicago-style Democracy, to Congolese tribal warfare. Then. MAYBE it will hit warlord occupation like Somalia. They've gone through the various stages.

Before, a Western country would have simply invaded them, killed the warlords and their cohorts, set up a puppet government, invested in infrastructure, and dragged their sorry butts into the modern (circa 1920) world. There, the government would have become rich, but the people would be fed, educated, and able to successfully revolt in a decade or two. At which time, the sorry story starts again.
 
#28 · (Edited)
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