“An executive order by Obama declaring Venezuela a national security threat and declaring a national emergency to face this threat… It must be a bad joke, which reminds us of the darkest hours of our America, when we received invasions and dictatorships imposed by imperialism… Will they understand that Latin America has changed?” said the Ecuadorean leader.
0 thoughts on “Castro, Correa and Morales Rally Behind Venezuela to Condemn US Sanctions”
In Venezuela “enabling laws” (leyes habilitantes) are laws passed under a major Enabling Act.
In Oct 2013 Maduro got an Enabling Act passed, which allowed him to pass 56 enabling laws, all of which serve like the “USA Patriot Act” — but in reverse. Instead of protecting the rich, they protect against the rich.
The last Enabling Act was passed in November 2013, and it gave special powers to Maduro for one year. The new Act is a renewal, with some expanded powers.
Venezuela (like Iran) is being attacked from the outside and the inside. The outside attack comes in the form of artificially depressed oil prices, plus arbitrary devaluations of Venezuela’s sovereign bonds. The first measure makes imported goods very expensive in Venezuela. The second measure makes foreign currencies very expensive for Venezuela’s government to borrow.
The inside attack comes from rich people and corporate plotters who hoard consumer goods in order to cause empty shelves, enormous lines, and great discontent. Sometimes people hoard so they can make a huge profit in the black market. The government constantly cracks down on this hoarding, and often arrests people, but it is a cat-and-mouse game. Many of the hoarded consumer gods are kept in non-descript warehouses near the Colombian border. If the government looks like it is about to move in, the oligarchs quickly ship the consumer goods to Colombia.
Venezuela’s government knows this, and patrols the border, but it cannot patrol every inch. The hoarders use mules if necessary, and they even pay local people to carry consumer goods across the border in backpacks.
Still, the penalties for people who are convicted of hoarding get stiffer all the time. Currently they are 12 years in jail, plus fines, plus confiscation of all the hoarded goods.
Naturally the oligarchs and rich people claim that they do not hoard anything. They blame everything on Maduro. And since they own all the private TV and radio stations, they use the broadcast media to attack Maduro.
By the way, the article above mentions Venezuelan folk singer Ali Primera. He was the leading folk singer in South America during the late 1960s, the 1970s, and early 1980s. “Folk singer” meaning he composed songs about repression and economic exploitation. He was like a musical Che Guevara, and his songs were so inspiring, and so popular, that even the rich sang them. (!!) He died in a car accident in 1985 at age 43. In 2005 the Venezuelan government declared his music to be a “national heritage,” meaning that anyone can sing them, but no one can do versions that mock them.
This whole farce perpetrated by a lack luster and dull Amerikan administration is irritating. You can’t take the “exceptional people” to task, can you?
I admire the Venezuelan president. He follows the same lines of his predecessor Hugo Chavez who like Maumar Qaddafi invested the oil profits back into their economy for the benefit of the 99%. All this is contrary to the new Mexican government who has become a puppet of the US/Israel criminal cabal, these gangsters stole the presidency and “privatized” gave away dozens of Mexican companies (agricultural, industrial, mineral, ) telephone, energy, and the last CHUTZPAH Insolence was to sell the State Oil company PEMEX Petroleos Mexicanos to the “Private Sector” foreign investors leaving millions of people unemployed.
In Venezuela “enabling laws” (leyes habilitantes) are laws passed under a major Enabling Act.
In Oct 2013 Maduro got an Enabling Act passed, which allowed him to pass 56 enabling laws, all of which serve like the “USA Patriot Act” — but in reverse. Instead of protecting the rich, they protect against the rich.
The last Enabling Act was passed in November 2013, and it gave special powers to Maduro for one year. The new Act is a renewal, with some expanded powers.
Venezuela (like Iran) is being attacked from the outside and the inside. The outside attack comes in the form of artificially depressed oil prices, plus arbitrary devaluations of Venezuela’s sovereign bonds. The first measure makes imported goods very expensive in Venezuela. The second measure makes foreign currencies very expensive for Venezuela’s government to borrow.
The inside attack comes from rich people and corporate plotters who hoard consumer goods in order to cause empty shelves, enormous lines, and great discontent. Sometimes people hoard so they can make a huge profit in the black market. The government constantly cracks down on this hoarding, and often arrests people, but it is a cat-and-mouse game. Many of the hoarded consumer gods are kept in non-descript warehouses near the Colombian border. If the government looks like it is about to move in, the oligarchs quickly ship the consumer goods to Colombia.
Venezuela’s government knows this, and patrols the border, but it cannot patrol every inch. The hoarders use mules if necessary, and they even pay local people to carry consumer goods across the border in backpacks.
Still, the penalties for people who are convicted of hoarding get stiffer all the time. Currently they are 12 years in jail, plus fines, plus confiscation of all the hoarded goods.
Naturally the oligarchs and rich people claim that they do not hoard anything. They blame everything on Maduro. And since they own all the private TV and radio stations, they use the broadcast media to attack Maduro.
By the way, the article above mentions Venezuelan folk singer Ali Primera. He was the leading folk singer in South America during the late 1960s, the 1970s, and early 1980s. “Folk singer” meaning he composed songs about repression and economic exploitation. He was like a musical Che Guevara, and his songs were so inspiring, and so popular, that even the rich sang them. (!!) He died in a car accident in 1985 at age 43. In 2005 the Venezuelan government declared his music to be a “national heritage,” meaning that anyone can sing them, but no one can do versions that mock them.
This whole farce perpetrated by a lack luster and dull Amerikan administration is irritating. You can’t take the “exceptional people” to task, can you?
Thank you Konrad. That was well detailed.
Thanks for the enabling insight Konrad.
http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150129/1013596377.html
Lead from Behind ? doesn’t seem like it with respect to Venezuela… It seems venal and petty ~ as with all action by the Exceptional ppl at the US State Dept action.
I admire the Venezuelan president. He follows the same lines of his predecessor Hugo Chavez who like Maumar Qaddafi invested the oil profits back into their economy for the benefit of the 99%. All this is contrary to the new Mexican government who has become a puppet of the US/Israel criminal cabal, these gangsters stole the presidency and “privatized” gave away dozens of Mexican companies (agricultural, industrial, mineral, ) telephone, energy, and the last CHUTZPAH Insolence was to sell the State Oil company PEMEX Petroleos Mexicanos to the “Private Sector” foreign investors leaving millions of people unemployed.