Communists kill demonstrators in Venezuela

Demonstrators make a barricade of burning garbage during a protest against Venezuela's
President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas February 12, 2014.

Three Anti-Communists Killed

Communist government sends army into Venezuelan

cities as unrest prompts coup warning

(The Telegraph)  -  Venezuelan troops fanned out across the capital, Caracas, and other major cities on Thursday after President Nicolás Maduro ordered a military clampdown against deadly unrest that he warned was part of a "fascist" coup plot.

Piles of burning rubbish sat smoking along Caracas' main avenue as troops moved to secure the city following an outbreak of street violence that left three dead on Wednesday. Armed soldiers surrounded government buildings and diverted traffic, while riot troops guarded entrances to the shuttered subway system as residents picked their way through broken glass.

Maduro ordered the arrest of a top opposition leader and a former military chief as he claimed "fascist" forces financed from the United States were plotting against his government. He claimed the civil unrest was part of a plan by "far right" opponents "to bring us to a dog fight, set our people at war, one against another".

^{A demonstrator jumps on shield wall formed by riot police in Caracas (AP)}

On Wednesday, the visceral political and class hatreds that have riven Venezuelan society were on full display.

Three people were shot dead and dozens injured when long-brewing anger over the country's deepening economic and security woes erupted into violence during rival protests by government supporters and opponents.

Troops used tear gas to disperse protesters as government buildings were vandalised and cars torched. Some opposition protesters, many masking their faces, hurled stones and burned tyres in the streets.

Leopoldo López, the opposition leader now in hiding from an arrest warrant on charges of homicide and conspiracy, said the government had instigated the bloodshed in order to discredit his peaceful movement.

The opposition blames armed pro-government militant groups known as "colectivos" for attacking their marches. Several times during Wednesday's rally the cry went up: "The colectivos are coming!", sending some demonstrators running for safety. One of those killed was a well-known colectivo leader from "January 23", an impoverished hillside barrio in Caracas that is a key revolutionary stronghold.

Students shout slogans during an opposition demo against the government of
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on February 12, 2014.

 

Anti-Communist Demonstration
Violence: The pro-government vigilante group arrived on motorcycles and began firing on anti-Maduro student protesters clashing with security forces towards the end of a demonstration which had previously been made up of 10,000 people.

See more photos: Daily Mail.

Socialist Venezuela now feeling the effects of food shortages

 

Socialist Food Shortages

• Communists can't even make toilet paper or grow food.  But they stay in power by bribing the mouth-breathing voters with endless "free" crap stolen from other people.

And so it begins... Old Soviet-style bread lines at Venezuela mercados, stretch around the block 

From Reuters via CNBC, "No flour? No fish? Venezuela's chefs get creative amid shortages":

A sushi bar in Caracas makes tempura with ground oats and cornstarch to replace increasingly scarce wheat flour. 

A Spanish restaurant, seeking to keep its fare affordable, revamps its paella recipe by removing exorbitantly priced prawns. 

Restaurateurs selling "arepas" - the grilled corn pancakes that are a staple across the country - make them a bit smaller to stretch their unsteady supplies of corn flour.

A Spanish restaurant, seeking to keep its fare affordable, revamps its paella recipe by removing exorbitantly priced prawns. 

Restaurateurs selling "arepas" - the grilled corn pancakes that are a staple across the country - make them a bit smaller to stretch their unsteady supplies of corn flour. 

Venezuelan diners continue to eat well despite soaring inflation (56%) and chronic food shortages, largely thanks to Herculean efforts by chefs to obtain prized foodstuffs and juggle menus to slow the rising prices.

Months old, maggot-infested wheat and corn is in many cases, all that's left 

Venezuelan Market
Socialists say, "Chew slowly and make the food last longer."
Capitalists say, "Chow down and come back for thirds."

Continuing:

In working-class canteens and high-end bistros, staff say finding basics such as flour, milk or chicken - all scarce, in large part, because of currency and price controls - requires making repeated trips to markets and harassing providers. 

"I haven't been able to buy wheat flour or corn flour for more than a month. I'm working with what I had last year," said Eduardo Castaneda, 45, owner of La Guayaba Verde, or The Green Guava, in Caracas, which offers a modern spin on traditional Venezuelan food.  (Emphasis added.)

Venezuela's price controls require staple goods be sold at fixed rates that are at times below production cost, which often leaves them scarce because of the reduced incentive for companies to make or import them.

Toilet paper, rice and coffee have long been missing from stores, as the
Venezuelan President blames a CIA plot instead of Communism.

BLACK MARKET PORK 

Chavez's efforts to make food affordable have come at a price: In times of shortage, "unethical" (CNBC's word) entrepreneurs buy discount groceries and resell them on the black market.  Translation - That is called a FREE market. 

Authorities last month detained four people at the Budare del Este restaurant in the chic but gaudy Caracas neighborhood of Las Mercedes on charges of illegally buying subsidized food, including nearly a tonne of pork and half a tonne of chicken. 

"Those products are meant to meet the needs of Venezuelan families, not to line the pockets of scoundrels," wrote the Communist Maduro in a series of incensed tweets announcing the operation. 

Bakers often seek to protect themselves from wheat flour shortages by building up stocks to meet holiday demand for breads and cakes. If they get inspected, however, they risk accusations of hoarding. 

The owner of the lounge-bar restaurant said the combination of product shortages and potential legal pitfalls leaves him feeling like "a bullfighter in the ring waiting to see which beast I'm going to face. 

"You wake up every morning and within around 45 minutes you realize some product has gone scarce, and you'll spend the rest of the day figuring out what to do."

LR PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you wish to avoid consumption of maggot-infested food here in the U.S., under Obama's increasingly Venezuela-style socialist state, you may want to check out this website: "Preppers Food Storage Check List" survivalistblog.net. 

Thanks to the Libertarian Republican for a heads up on this story.

Food lines in Socialist Venezuela

Communists win the elections in Venezuela

The March of Communism

The Looters and Moochers win the elections in Venezuela

The Venezuelan election should be a wake-up call for the non-Marxists in the United States. 

The Leftist Looters and Moochers of the world could care less about our message of small government, self reliance and private property rights.  For the Left it is all about stealing everything that is not nailed down and re-distributing that wealth in order to buy votes.  The 2014 US elections are not in the bag for Republicans.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has announced the first results of the Venezuelan municipal elections held today.



Mayors and local councilors were elected for the country’s 335 municipalities, as well as the metropolitan mayor of Caracas.

The results for 77% of mayoralties were announced, with the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies winning 196 of the 257 mayoral position results  that are so far irreversible.

Venezuelan President Maduro has since claimed that the number of mayoralties won by the PSUV has increased to 210 reports Venezuel Analysis.

According to the first bulletin results, the MUD has won 53 municipalities, while other parties have won 8.

The PSUV and allies won 49.24% (5,111,336) of the vote nationally, versus 42.72% (4,435,097) of the vote to the MUD .

The PSUV candidate, Jorge Rodriguez, was reelected as mayor of the central Libertador municipality of Caracas with 54.55% of the vote. The candidate for the MUD won the mayoralties in the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, Venezuela’s second and third largest cities.

So far the PSUV has won 13 state capitals, and the MUD 8.

The MUD candidate Antonio Ledezma also won the mayoralty of Metropolitan Caracas, on 50.81%.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles had called on the local ballots to be a referendum on the goverment's overall record and some of his allies had predicted a symbolic defeat of “Chavismo” under Maduro, who came to power in April.

“I did everything humanly possible,” a visibly tired Capriles told reporters after the results were unveiled. “Remember that Venezuela does not have a single owner. A divided country needs dialogue.”

Also see France 24 News.

“I did everything humanly possible.”
Governor Henrique Capriles  (on left)
Opposition Leader
.
Venezuela's opposition leader and Governor of Miranda state Henrique Capriles urged President Nicolás Maduro and government officials to read carefully the results of the local election held in Venezuela on Sunday. Capriles' statement came in response to the high level of abstention recorded on the election day. "Many Venezuelans did not turned out to vote today; they did not express themselves," said the opposition leader.

"I have heard the speech (delivered by President Maduro at the presidential palace of) Miraflores and it does not mirror what happened here today (Sunday) (...) this country does not have one owner..."

"Voters' turnout hit 58.92%. This is something we all must interpret (...) nobody should be proud of such turnout. Conversely, this should be a challenge for all of us; but it should be particularly a challenge for the government, which staged the most abusive and outrageous campaign in recent years," Capriles claimed.

With reference to the economic measures implemented recently, the opposition leader stated such actions had electoral purposes only, and claimed they would adversely affect the economic future of the country.
(El Universal.com)

Venezuela makes a Communist their dictator

A Communist Power Grab

• Leftist Congress gives their Socialist President the power to pass laws without congressional approval.

The Socialist-Communist majority in the Venezuelan Congress granted President Nicolas Maduro yearlong decree powers on Tuesday that he says are essential to regulate the economy and stamp out corruption but adversaries view as a power grab.

Hundreds of supporters of the ruling Socialist Party cheered outside the National Assembly as the so-called Enabling Law was passed, while a recording of Maduro's late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, singing Venezuela's anthem rang out inside the hall reports Reuters News.

The power to pass laws without congressional approval gives Maduro a political victory in the run-up to December 8 municipal elections, although he still faces a severely distorted economy with embarrassing product shortages and inflation surging to nearly 55 percent.

"I want to thank the majority of patriotic and socialist lawmakers for approving this law that will let us advance, over the next 12 months, in defeating the economic war being waged against our people," Maduro said.

An Attack on Private Property

• The mouth-breathing Leftist masses empty the store shelves of the "evil" capitalists on the orders of their Socialist Dictator.  

Thousands of people have lined up in front of electronics stores and hardware stores that have been forced at gun point by Maduro to empty their inventories at cut-rate prices.

His party is hoping the moves will revive its chances in the upcoming elections for about 370 mayors and city council members.

"Don't leave anything on the shelves," Maduro said when he announced his campaign against what Socialists call "price gouging" and what the rest of the world calls free enterprise.

Maria Davila felt like a winner after emerging from the Traki department store with clothes for herself and her husband, as well as toys for their four children.

Davila spent 14 hours in line to make her purchases after the store reduced prices by up to 70% on merchandise to comply with Maduro's crusade against the country's "parasitical bourgeoisie," reports USA Today.

"It was well worth the wait," Davila, 42, says of her ordeal. "I saved so much money. I feel like I won the lottery."

"The opposition is going to do very well in the largest cities and state capitals,'' says Tarek Yorde, a Caracas-based political consultant. "I think they are going to win up to 25 of the country's 33 largest cities."

"They are destroying the Venezuelan economy,'' opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski said during a weekend campaign swing through the eastern state of Sucre. "People are waiting in line outside stores because they know that inventories are drying up."

Venezuela jails 100 "bourgeois" businessmen



Coming soon to the United States of Obama?

"They are barbaric, these capitalist parasites!"

Comrade President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela's socialist government has arrested more than 100 "bourgeois" businessmen in a crackdown on alleged price-gouging at hundreds of shops and companies since the weekend, President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday.

"They are barbaric, these capitalist parasites!" Maduro thundered in the latest of his lengthy daily speeches. "We have more than 100 of the bourgeoisie behind bars at the moment."

The successor to the late Hugo Chavez also said his government was preparing a law to limit Venezuelan businesses' profits to between 15 percent and 30 percent.

Officials say "unscrupulous" companies have been hiking prices of electronics and other goods more than 1,000 percent. Critics say failed socialist economic policies and restricted access to foreign currency are behind Venezuela's runaway inflation reports Reuters News.

"Goodyear has to lower its prices even more, 15 percent is not enough, the inspectors have go there straightaway," Maduro said in his evening address, sending officials to check local operations of the U.S.-based tire manufacturer.

Since the weekend, soldiers and inspectors have gone into 1,400 shops, taken over operations at an electronics firm and a battery-making company, and rounded up a handful of looters.

The inspections have shaken Venezuela three weeks before local elections that his opponents are casting as a referendum on the 50-year-old former bus driver. Maduro has made preserving Chavez's legacy the mainstay of his government and has been matching his former mentor's anti-capitalist rhetoric.

"It's time to deepen the offensive, go to the bone in this economic war," he said.

Only a few of the hundreds of shops targeted with surprise inspections had been found to be offering "fair prices," officials say. Some businesses are voluntarily lowering prices - or staying closed - in case the inspectors come.

"We've reduced everything by 10 to 15 percent, but it's not fair. I can't make a profit now," said the owner of one small electronics store, who asked not to be identified.

Socialist Inflation
A $34.99 toaster in the US costs
$175 in Venezuela.

Venezuela's official inflation, 54 percent annually, is the highest in the Americas.

The government has ordered local telecom companies to block various websites showing the bolivar at 10 times the official rate of 6.3 to the greenback on the illegal market.

Prominent pro-opposition columnist Nelson Bocaranda said Maduro's economic policies were "chillingly similar" to those of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The African leader also used security forces to enforce a price crackdown in 2007.

Opposition party Justice First accused the state of hypocrisy, saying its stores were also hiking prices unjustifiably.

An imported sandwich toaster, for example, that costs $34.99 in the United States, was selling at a fivefold markup of 1,100 bolivars ($175 at the official exchange rate) in state supermarket chain Bicentenario, it said.

"This shows the economic chaos Maduro has got us in where prices have no logic. The government created this monster and now tries to pretend it will control it, but Venezuelans cannot be deceived by this electoral show," Justice First said.

Like Chavez on several occasions, Maduro is seeking decree powers from Congress, which granted preliminary approval on Thursday. He says he needs the Enabling Law to fix the economy, but critics accuse Maduro of simply amassing power.

Anti-Communist Demonstrations in April

Demonstrators, one holding a poster of opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, shout slogans against the government and the official election results in the Altamira neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013. National Guard troops fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse demonstrators protesting the official results in Venezuela's disputed presidential election.

An opposition supporter confronts riot police along a highway in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013. National Guard troops fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse students protesting the official results in Venezuela's disputed presidential election.
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Opposition supporters and students run away from tear gas after they clashed with riot police as they tried to block a highway in the Altamira neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013.

Opposition supporters burn garbage during clashes with riot police in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013. National Guard troops dispersed students protesting the official results of Venezuela's disputed presidential election.

Demonstrators, one holding a poster of opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, confront riot police from behind a burning barricade in the Altamira neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 15, 2013. National Guard troops fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse demonstrators protesting the official results in Venezuela's disputed presidential election.
(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

See more at the Huffington Post.com

Communists Seize Private Property in Venezuela



Government re-distribution of the wealth just in time for election day.

 

Communism - Stealing Private Property

"This is more like government-sanctioned looting."

Welcome to Communism and Poverty  -  Thousands of Venezuelans lined up outside the country's equivalent of Best Buy, a chain of electronics stores known as Daka, hoping for a bargain after the socialist government forced the company to charge customers "fair" prices.

President Nicolás Maduro ordered a military "occupation" of the company's five stores as he continues the government's crackdown on an "economic war" it says is being waged against the country, with the help of Washington.

Members of Venezuela's National Guard, some of whom carried assault rifles, kept order at the stores as bargain hunters rushed to get inside reports USA Today.

"I want a Sony plasma television for the house," said Amanda Lisboa, 34, a business administrator, who had waited seven hours already outside one Caracas store. "It's going to be so cheap!"

Televisions were the most in-demand item in the line outside one Caracas store, though people waited more than eight hours for fridges, washing machines, sewing machines and other imported appliances.

The Communist Party of Venezuela is a partner of the late Hugo Chavez
and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela

Water and snacks were being sold outside the store by savvy Venezuelans keen to profit from the commotion. Happy customers weaved giant television screens and other items back to their cars through the crowds.

Images circulating online as well as reports by local media appeared to show one Daka store in the country's central city of Valencia being looted.

"I have no love for this government," said Gabriela Campo, 33, a businesswoman, hoping to take home a cut-price television and fridge. "They're doing this for nothing but political reasons, in time for December's elections."

Maduro faces municipal elections on Dec. 8. His popularity has dropped significantly in recent months, with shortages of basic items such as chicken, milk and toilet paper as well as soaring inflation, at 54.3% over the past 12 months.

Economists are expecting a devaluation soon after the election, likely leading to even higher inflation.

The opposition, which has long struggled to gain ground against the country's socialist government, is hoping that the elections will be seen as a referendum against Maduro

"This is more like government-sanctioned looting," said 42-year-old Caracas-based engineer Carlos Rivero. "What stops them going into pharmacies, supermarkets and shopping malls?"

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been
civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism
arrived and finished off the planet."
Hugo Chavez (2011)