In case there was any doubt left that under nicolas maduro (who learned from his predecessor, hugo chavez), Venezuela has devolved into a dictatorship…..
…we have this, from Jim Wyss’s article for the Miami Herald:
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is warning that he’ll take up arms and lead a revolution if a government comes into power that wants to hand the country’s “riches” to “imperialist” forces.
In a campaign speech Wednesday, Maduro — who is hoping to win a new six-year term in a highly questioned May 20 election — accused his nearest opposition rival, Henri Falcón, of wanting to sell the country out to “the gringos.”
“If someday a government was in power that intended to hand over [our] riches, I would be the first one to raise the alarm, grab a gun and start an armed revolution with the people, if necessary,” he told a crowd of supporters in Vargas. “I would be the first one to do it, and call the people to arms.”
In other words, I’ve rigged the “election”. But if I lose anyway, I’ll take over by force.”
This, from a “leader under whom Venezuela – a formerly prosperous democracy – makes Haiti look good by comparison.
How bad is it? Inflation has jumped to a yearly rate of 18,000%. That impossible figure is not a typo, either. According to Antonio Maria Delgado’s article, also for the Miami Herald:
One kilogram (2.2 lbs) of meat today costs about 2 million bolivares, or about $2.35. But the monthly salary of a surgeon stood at less than 6 million bolivares in mid-April.
That means, if a surgeon wanted to eat a near-non-existent 3 ounce serving of meat at dinner, that meat alone would cost his/her entire monthly salary – nothing else to eat or drink, no money for clothing, shelter or anything else.
This is what has happened to Venezuela – oil rich Venezuela – under the tender mercies of socialist hugo chavez, and his even worse successor, nicolas maduro.
No wonder he’s worried that he might not win even a fixed election.
And no wonder the Hollywood celebrities, like Sean Penn and Danny Glover (among others), who told us what a wonderful place Venezuela was under these cataclysmic socialist disasters, are suddenly silent…along with most of our major media who happily reported those celebrities’ paeans to maduroland.
