Chronicles in Venezuelan Socialism - Has Maduro Gone Insane?

[maxparrish]

The Daily Beast Has an Interesting Take on Maduro...he's NUTS.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/27/has-venezuelan-president-maduro-gone-insane.html

...to an Orwellian dystopia, complete with the highest inflation rate in the world. ...

Violent crime and kidnappings are so rampant that the State Department just issued a travel alert warning away U.S. citizens. ...

Like many autocrats, Maduro appears to suffer from an acute case of political paranoia. He has cracked down on opposition leadership—handing out a 14-year-prison sentence to popular opposition leader Leopold Lopez this month over trumped up charges. And he’s repeatedly authorized the use of deadly force against demonstrators he sees as a threat to his regime.

Not is Maduro’s persecution complex limited to domestic affairs. He recently claimed neighboring Colombia and Guyana are waging “economic war” against Venezuela—charges which conveniently justify violating the sovereignty of both nations.

“If he believes a lot of what he’s saying about the conspiracy theories against him, then he’s not the sanest man in the world,” says Adam Isaacson, a senior associate with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), in an interview with The Daily Beast.

Among his strange declarations to the press: claiming to receive advice from the deceased Chavez via a talking bird.

Despite the relatively small flow of goods across the border, Maduro has chosen to blame these smuggling operations for Venezuela’s chronic shortages. Furthermore, he casts the black market traffickers as the work of right-wing U.S.- and Colombian-backed operatives bent on regime change.

Maduro launched a brutal, anti-migrant campaign along the border in mid-August, Venezuelan troops rounded up hundreds of Colombian peasant farmers, many of whom were indigenous people whose ancestral lands traditionally span the frontier.

The sight of their compatriots’ houses being bulldozed touched off a wave of panic among the locals, resulting in about 20,000 terrified refugees fleeing across the border, according to the UN.

The article continues, elaborating on the Maduro's funhouse:

- Border raids on Columbia

- Attacking an indigenous people's funeral near the border, killing two unarmed members of the tribe.

- "On the eve of a meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, last week—a summit that was intended to discuss, among other topics, the recent violations of Colombia’s airspace—Maduro defiantly declared his plan to purchase a dozen new fighter jets from Moscow. "

- Now there are 10,s of thousands of displaced people due to Maduro's campaign of border violence.

Now this:

Maduro was massing marine and ground forces along Venezuela’s eastern border with English-speaking Guyana.

Guyana’s President David Granger decried “extraordinary military deployments” along the country’s resource-rich Essequibo region, and described the buildup to the AP as “hostile and aggressive.”

Granger also retaliated by deploying Guyanese troops along the frontier, although it’s doubtful if the nation’s small army could withstand an all-out assault from its much larger neighbor.

For more than a century, Venezuela has sought to annex Essequibo (which accounts for about 40 percent of Guyana’s national territory), even going so far as to recently persuade Google Maps to give new, Spanish-language names to major streets and boulevards in the former British colony.

Tensions have increased since Exxon-Mobil’s discovery this year of major off-shore oil deposits in Essequibo. Since the Exxon-Mobil report was made public, Maduro’s blame-the-victim rhetoric against Guyana has been strikingly similar to the excuses he gave for the fracas with Colombia. He even accuses his tiny and impoverished neighbor of seeking to “attack” and “destroy” Venezuela, according to the Miami Herald.

Apparently Maduro is terrified at the prospect of losing the upcoming legislative elections on December 6, and picking fights with neighboring countries is one way of distracting attention from the economic issues.

"It seems clear that Maduro, the onetime bus driver, is willing to do whatever it takes to stay at the wheel, even if that means wrecking the state—and perhaps taking the rest of the region down with him."

HMMMM, perhaps its time for him to consult that Chevez channeling talking bird ?

 

[Derec]

Gone insane? No, most definitely not.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Insane? No.

Socialism produces great results. They have socialism, they have very bad results. Thus someone must be undermining them. If nobody is really doing it then they need to manufacture an enemy.

 

[arkirk]

Insane? No.

Socialism produces great results. They have socialism, they have very bad results. Thus someone must be undermining them. If nobody is really doing it then they need to manufacture an enemy.

No they don't. They have sworn enemies and I take it you are one of them...smearing people you really do not know enough about to speak about them. The U.S. has clandestine operations in Venezuela...you know it, I know it and so does Maduro. Your bad mouthing Venezuela is immaterial as it is based only on a goal of undermining a socialist regime. You are ignorant that the world is going to have these things and actually needs them. It is wrong to attempt to destabilize another country's economy. This has been going on with Venezuela for quite awhile now. Stop shilling for the oil companies.

 

[Axulus]

It is wrong to attempt to destabilize another country's economy. This has been going on with Venezuela for quite awhile now.

But perfectly fine to destabilize your own economy, as Maduro has done?

 

[untermensche]

It is wrong to attempt to destabilize another country's economy. This has been going on with Venezuela for quite awhile now.

But perfectly fine to destabilize your own economy, as Maduro has done?

Have you read or seen any interviews of Maduro? Do you have any first hand information?

Or is the only thing you know about him what the US media says about him?

Is there a child out there that has absolute faith in the US media?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

But perfectly fine to destabilize your own economy, as Maduro has done?

Have you read or seen any interviews of Maduro? Do you have any first hand information?

Or is the only thing you know about him what the US media says about him?

Is there a child out there that has absolute faith in the US media?

If the information about him getting advice from the spirit of the former leader via a talking bird is correct, then there's really nothing else which needs to be known about him.

 

[skepticalbip]

But perfectly fine to destabilize your own economy, as Maduro has done?

Have you read or seen any interviews of Maduro? Do you have any first hand information?

Or is the only thing you know about him what the US media says about him?

Is there a child out there that has absolute faith in the US media?

WTF???

Do you even know that there is such a person as Maduro other than what you read in the media or seen in videos? How the hell do you know what you read is true and what you saw weren't actors?

We all get our information through the media of one form or another. You can't claim that what someone else reads in the media is unreliable if you want to claim what you read is true (if indeed you actually read it rather than pulling it out of your ass).

ETA:
We can only try to judge the objectivity of the reports to get an idea of reality. Even that "right wing extremist rag - not", the NY Times, paints a picture of Venezuela as a basket case because of the failed policies and inept leadership.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/world/americas/in-chavez-maduro-trusts-maybe-to-his-detriment-and-venezuelas.html?_r=0

 

[skepticalbip]

Have you read or seen any interviews of Maduro? Do you have any first hand information?

Or is the only thing you know about him what the US media says about him?

Is there a child out there that has absolute faith in the US media?

If the information about him getting advice from the spirit of the former leader via a talking bird is correct, then there's really nothing else which needs to be known about him.

Yeah, the idea of a bird medium is absurd. Now if Chavez was being channeled by Shirley MacLaine we would have something reliable.

 

[KeepTalking]

Have you read or seen any interviews of Maduro? Do you have any first hand information?

Or is the only thing you know about him what the US media says about him?

Is there a child out there that has absolute faith in the US media?

If the information about him getting advice from the spirit of the former leader via a talking bird is correct, then there's really nothing else which needs to be known about him.

It's old news, from early 2013, and as far as I can tell, he didn't actually claim that the bird was Chavez, nor that he actually spoke with the bird. Here is a transcript of what he said:

"Suddenly a bird entered, very small, and turned three times up here," he said, pointing to his head while imitating the flutter.

“[The bird] stood on a wooden beam and began whistling, a nice hissing," he said imitating the sound. "Then I stared at him and whistled back... The bird looked strange at me, right? He whistled for a little while, flew around and left, and I felt the spirit of [Chavez]," said Maduro.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/nicolas-maduro-hugo-chavez-little-bird_n_3007965.html

But of course I am sure Maxxie has thoroughly vetted the story in his OP, and is not just parroting what he has heard from right wing sources.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Insane? No.

Socialism produces great results. They have socialism, they have very bad results. Thus someone must be undermining them. If nobody is really doing it then they need to manufacture an enemy.

No they don't. They have sworn enemies and I take it you are one of them...smearing people you really do not know enough about to speak about them. The U.S. has clandestine operations in Venezuela...you know it, I know it and so does Maduro. Your bad mouthing Venezuela is immaterial as it is based only on a goal of undermining a socialist regime. You are ignorant that the world is going to have these things and actually needs them. It is wrong to attempt to destabilize another country's economy. This has been going on with Venezuela for quite awhile now. Stop shilling for the oil companies.

You're falling hook, line and sinker for the very deception I pointed out!

- - - Updated - - -

If the information about him getting advice from the spirit of the former leader via a talking bird is correct, then there's really nothing else which needs to be known about him.

Yeah, the idea of a bird medium is absurd. Now if Chavez was being channeled by Shirley MacLaine we would have something reliable.

What's wrong with listening to a bird? Ever hear of Twitter?