Venezuela – socialist paradise on the verge of collapse

carvajal said:
I read that the United States has frozen the money of the Venezuelan oil company ,from where they import a million barrels?.
Who buys the oil of a country? Does the government buy it and then distribute it? or is it totally privatized?
Can the United States do without that oil from one day to the next?
If Venezuela have so much oil, why not produce more? infrastructure?
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The sanctions will not prevent oil imports from Venezuela, they just won't bale able to access the funds generated by the sale. The US could get by without it, though prices would go up.

As for production, even though they have some of the largest reserves in the world the oil is more difficult to produce than many places because it is so thick. It requires investment and expertise, so when you kick out the experts with the money (read: US) long term production will suffer. Mexico found this out the hard way as well and has done an about-face to try and salvage their oil industry.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
The sanctions will not prevent oil imports from Venezuela, they just won't bale able to access the funds generated by the sale. The US could get by without it, though prices would go up.

As for production, even though they have some of the largest reserves in the world the oil is more difficult to produce than many places because it is so thick. It requires investment and expertise, so when you kick out the experts with the money (read: US) long term production will suffer. Mexico found this out the hard way as well and has done an about-face to try and salvage their oil industry.
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Thanks,I did not know that their oil had that characteristic.
We will see how he survives without that money.
 
carvajal said:
I read that the United States has frozen the money of the Venezuelan oil company ,from where they import a million barrels?.
Who buys the oil of a country? Does the government buy it and then distribute it? or is it totally privatized?
Can the United States do without that oil from one day to the next?
If Venezuela have so much oil, why not produce more? infrastructure?
Click to expand...
US will buy more oil from the Arabs which will be good news for the oil producers, no Venezuelan oil prices go up a bit.
 
CA_vampire said:
"Venezuela top court curbs opposition leader Juan Guaidó"

"Venezuela's Supreme Court has banned opposition leader Juan Guaidó from leaving the country and frozen his bank accounts."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47049811

No difference than any of the other communist dictatorship, former or current.
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You mean US frozen Maduro assets and him being stuck in Venezuela. You are damn right. fecking communist trump. Is not about comunism, is about authoritarianism
 
CA_vampire said:
"Venezuela top court curbs opposition leader Juan Guaidó"

"Venezuela's Supreme Court has banned opposition leader Juan Guaidó from leaving the country and frozen his bank accounts."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47049811

No difference than any of the other communist dictatorship, former or current.
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Who could have guessed that just declaring yourself president would have consequences
 
carvajal said:
I read that the United States has frozen the money of the Venezuelan oil company ,from where they import a million barrels?.
Who buys the oil of a country? Does the government buy it and then distribute it? or is it totally privatized?
Can the United States do without that oil from one day to the next?
If Venezuela have so much oil, why not produce more? infrastructure?
Click to expand...

Chavez kicked out lots of qualified workers because of their ideology (or is what I heard) the economic crisis made others flee to international companies. This occasioned a drop on the production to 1940s quantity levels
 
carvajal said:
I read that the United States has frozen the money of the Venezuelan oil company ,from where they import a million barrels?.
Who buys the oil of a country? Does the government buy it and then distribute it? or is it totally privatized?
Can the United States do without that oil from one day to the next?
If Venezuela have so much oil, why not produce more? infrastructure?
Click to expand...

Venezuela produces a type of oil ("heavy oil") that is harder and more expensive to refine than what most other countries produce. USA refineries in the Gulf of Mexico are almost all built towards that type of oil, so they would be rendered quite innefective if they stopped buying. Both countries oil industry is significantly connected, as they were politically and economically close until the 90s. I wouldn't say they are dependent on each other, but stopping trade would, at least temporarily, harm both countries.
 
Eboue said:
Who could have guessed that just declaring yourself president would have consequences
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To be fair, similar tactics worked for Napoleon.

400px-David_-_L%27Empereur_Napoleon_se_couronnant_lui-meme.png
 
Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær said:
To be fair, similar tactics worked for Napoleon.

400px-David_-_L%27Empereur_Napoleon_se_couronnant_lui-meme.png
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He ended up dying alone and miserable on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, so I'm not so sure I'd go that far.

Dwazza Gunnar Solskjær said:
This is exactly how Nazi Germany started.

Am I doing this right?
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I know you're white-texting, but the hyper-inflation problem was pretty much fixed by the time the Nazis got going.

I am copyrighting the phrase "white-texting". I am pretty sure no one has ever used that term before.
 
For probably the first time in my life, I wholeheartedly support the intervention of the US, even if their motives are not pure. Something needs to change in Venezuela soon.

Things are so bad in Venezuela that there are judges and doctors who flee from there and are content to work as painters and other forms of below minimum wage labor over here, just to get away from their home.

I don’t pretend to understand the issues there, but I do see what it has driven people to, and it’s not a nice thing to watch.
 
Silva said:
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Not sure that's a winner there. Some parts of the left have a toxic history with Venezuela, probably best to stay quiet and wait. Maduro is as unsupportable as it gets.
 
Cloud7 said:
For probably the first time in my life, I wholeheartedly support the intervention of the US, even if their motives are not pure. Something needs to change in Venezuela soon.

Things are so bad in Venezuela that there are judges and doctors who flee from there and are content to work as painters and other forms of below minimum wage labor over here, just to get away from their home.

I don’t pretend to understand the issues there, but I do see what it has driven people to, and it’s not a nice thing to watch.
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And you think the answer to the suffering in Venezuela is an intervention by the US, when Maduro still has the support of the army and a substantial section of the population? You truly believe that's going to end well and ameliorate conditions in both the short-term and the long-term?

This is the problem, you say you 'wholeheartedly' support something before conceding that you do not understand the issues there.
 
Cloud7 said:
For probably the first time in my life, I wholeheartedly support the intervention of the US, even if their motives are not pure. Something needs to change in Venezuela soon.

Things are so bad in Venezuela that there are judges and doctors who flee from there and are content to work as painters and other forms of below minimum wage labor over here, just to get away from their home.

I don’t pretend to understand the issues there, but I do see what it has driven people to, and it’s not a nice thing to watch.
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I feel you, somehow, somedays I lean on that point of view. I talk with a guy daily that decided to stay but his father a cathedratic, is working selling wares in Peru.

Other days I think about the countries that were shit before a US intervention (lets say Iraq for example with a dicatator) and they are way worse off).

Also I think if that situation is 100% Maduro's fault or the international bullying of the west with official and unofficial embargos.

So, I am pretty much divided
 
BobbyManc said:
And you think the answer to the suffering in Venezuela is an intervention by the US, when Maduro still has the support of the army and a substantial section of the population? You truly believe that's going to end well and ameliorate conditions in both the short-term and the long-term?

This is the problem, you say you 'wholeheartedly' support something before conceding that you do not understand the issues there.
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It’s literally hell on earth for large parts of the country. It cannot get worse for a lot of them. What’s the alternative, to do nothing and hope that things get better?

US foreign policy has for the most part been atrocious, I accept that, but I fail to see how things are going to get better in Venezuela if they’re just left to their own devices.
 
Cloud7 said:
It’s literally hell on earth for large parts of the country. It cannot get worse for a lot of them. What’s the alternative, to do nothing and hope that things get better?

US foreign policy has for the most part been atrocious, I accept that, but I fail to see how things are going to get better in Venezuela if they’re just left to their own devices.
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Without the US imposed economic sanctions, Venezuelan people would not be starving.
 
Cloud7 said:
It’s literally hell on earth for large parts of the country. It cannot get worse for a lot of them. What’s the alternative, to do nothing and hope that things get better?

US foreign policy has for the most part been atrocious, I accept that, but I fail to see how things are going to get better in Venezuela if they’re just left to their own devices.
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Eboue said:
What if those arent the only two options?
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Precisely. You've created a false dichotomy. It's not an either or between doing nothing or supporting a US-led coup. Mexico and Uruguay are indeed pursuing diplomatic efforts to help ease the problem, which, incidentally, I've just read that Gauido has rejected. The unfortunate reality is the foreign powers on either side of the problem could not give less of a feck about the Venezuelan people, and if you were truly concerned about improving this apparent 'hell on earth', I have no idea why you feel a coup is the supposed solution.
 
Eboue said:
What if those arent the only two options?
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What alternatives are there apart from Maduro standing down? Him leaving won't fix everything but it's fairly clear he's a demagogue who has no interest in democracy and who will happily enrich himself at the expense of Venezuelans who are quite literally starving. Any US intervention will be for self-interest as opposed to with the desire of helping said Venezuelans, but it doesn't change the fact that Maduro should be removed from power, and that he isn't going to relinquish power with ease.
 
BobbyManc said:
Precisely. You've created a false dichotomy. It's not an either or between doing nothing or supporting a US-led coup. Mexico and Uruguay are indeed pursuing diplomatic efforts to help ease the problem, which, incidentally, I've just read that Gauido has rejected. The unfortunate reality is the foreign powers on either side of the problem could not give less of a feck about the Venezuelan people, and if you were truly concerned about improving this apparent 'hell on earth', I have no idea why you feel a coup is the supposed solution.
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I'd presume Guaido is concerned that dialogue will be a compromise which ultimately involves Maduro staying in power, a move which would likely pose a severe threat to him. I'm wary about intervention that's supposedly in the name of democracy but you could argue that Maduro himself arguably performed a coup himself a couple of years back when he basically stripped the assembly of their powers because they voted against his party. I'm struggling to envisage any situation in which Venezuela will see its long-term position improve with Maduro in power.
 
Cheesy said:
What alternatives are there apart from Maduro standing down? Him leaving won't fix everything but it's fairly clear he's a demagogue who has no interest in democracy and who will happily enrich himself at the expense of Venezuelans who are quite literally starving. Any US intervention will be for self-interest as opposed to with the desire of helping said Venezuelans, but it doesn't change the fact that Maduro should be removed from power, and that he isn't going to relinquish power with ease.
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get rid of sanctions
 
George Owen said:
Without the US imposed economic sanctions, Venezuelan people would not be starving.
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I’ve been hearing conflicting accounts on this - some arguing that US sanctions have been negligible and only targeted specific individuals since 2015, others arguing that they have drastically affected oil production. Can anyone clarify?
 
Silva said:
get rid of sanctions
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Will that stop Maduro from continually seizing power for himself and refusing any predicament which involves him leaving power?
 
2cents said:
I’ve been hearing conflicting accounts on this - some arguing that US sanctions have been negligible and only targeted specific individuals since 2015, others arguing that they have drastically affected oil production. Can anyone clarify?
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I remember reading that oil in Venezuela is particularly difficult to extract compared to in various other countries. Which means that it's inherently going to be disadvantaged when oil prices fall etc. Not that US sanctions have likely improved their fortunes, mind.
 
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