The US ought to invade Venezuela. It makes a whole lot more sense than invading Iraq or Syria. Venezuelans are hungry and destitute due to the regime, and the country's domestic turmoil has been spilling over into other nations where Venezuelan emigrants endure so much hardship in their travels that many of them turn to crime and panhandling just to be able to eat and have a place to sleep. It's truly disgusting the kind of inhumanity that Russia and Cuba have propped up in Venezuela.
Interesting coming from someone who claims to feel for the hardships of venezuelans.
> Venezuelans are hungry and destitute due to the regime
They are hungry because of crippling economic sanctions.
> and the country's domestic turmoil
Started by foreign desire for regime change.
> It's truly disgusting the kind of inhumanity that Russia and Cuba have propped up in Venezuela.
They are propping up a democratically elected government? Isn't it more disgusting that we are trying to overthrow a democratically elected government in venezuela, like we did in bolivia? Shouldn't you be praising russia and cuba for protecting a democracy?
What's with the ridiculous anti-venezuelan propaganda all of a sudden everywhere on social media? The nytimes op-ed/propaganda by the youtuber daughter of the ousted "venezuelan" central banker wasn't enough?
Wonder how the nytimes found this small unknown youtuber to write an op-ed/propaganda about this complex international matter. Also, why does the nytimes, which professes to love democracy, support regime change? I know the nytimes was created by a banker, but does that mean it must peddle bankers' interests even if it means millions of innocent people suffer?
US is in a clear-cut info war with US citizens in order to attempt to coerce them into a war; we need to fully neuter its ability to do this to its own citizens and hold those doing it to account. This is US propaganda; end of story. Full stop. This is an attempt to facilitate a major act of violence against innocent people under the guise of a benevolent conquest in order to secure oil.
Go to any city or border crossing in Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru and you will find masses of Venezuelan people, many of whom are fleeing their country after having spent years selling their belongings just to have enough money to pay for food. I met a former central bank economist who was running a hamburger stand in Ecuador. I met a former marine biologist who was selling hawking at events in Peru. I met a baker who told me that his family decided to leave Venezuela when they discovered that someone broke into their bakery through a ventilation shaft just to steal some bread dough, and took nothing else -- not even cash.
When I was in Caracas five years ago, I couldn't even find a single bottle of water for sale in the airport. They just didn't have any. Believe it or not, the country has gotten worse since then.
At the time, I wondered why the US is so happy to wage simultaneous wars in the Middle East, yet would not declare a no-fly zone over Venezuela and fly airdrop missions to put food and medicine into population centers.
Venezuela is run by a bus driver. The state oil conglomerate is run by his political party, and headed by a military officer with no formal engineering, geological, or business experience.
I don't blame you for thinking everything is about oil, after what has happened in the Middle East. But Venezuela is a latch point for US adversaries like Russia to operate in the Americas, its people are starving, and the leader jokes about how Venezuelans are on the "Maduro diet" of eating nothing at all while he himself travels to Turkey to smoke cigars while Salt Bae serves up steaks. It's not a socialist country; it's a place where the government steals everything that isn't nailed down while throwing some table scraps to the military, the police, and the poorest of the urban poor...three groups that can incite fear in the rest of the citizenry.
You are quick to accuse people of distributing propaganda. However I would not be surprised, given the timing of your comment several days after this submission fell far off the HN front page, if you yourself are engaged in some kind of state-backed info war. Almost all of your comments on HN are about political positions. If you don't like accusations of nefariousness being leveled at you, then you should be mindful of your own accusations.
If in fact you are just a regular person, then think about whether your ideology is really brought to fruition in countries where kleptocratic authoritarians have unchecked power. Venezuela is not an example of socialism. Rather, it is a cesspool of cronyism.
Less of a farce than forcing a native bolivian who won 47% of the votes out and installing a woman who won 4% of the votes as president.
Also, don't you think it is a "farce" because of once again foreign interference? If it is a farce, then let the venezuelans deal with the matter themselves. What business is it of ours?
It doesn't serve the interests of the american people. The only people who benefit are the international banking cartel.
Also, you keep forgetting that the US has been trying to destabilize venezuela since chavez got elected. So, the election being a "farce" or not doesn't really matter.
One has to wonder, why do you care? What's in it for you? Where is the sudden surge of anti-venezuelan propaganda coming from. Certainly, if you care about elections, there are far egregious cases than venezuela around the world. Bolivia being an obvious one. Have you been pushing propaganda to oust the "unelected" leader of bolivia?
You're shilling for a regime that has gutted engineers and experts out of PDVSA in favor of political allies with no industry knowledge, and then claiming that the US is responsible for the extreme poverty in Venezuela that predated US sanctions by years.
Below, you are shilling for a Bolivian leader who introduced a new constitution with term limits, and then violated those term limits himself by claiming that he had a "human right" to run for reelection.
> You're shilling for a regime that has gutted engineers and experts out of PDVSA in favor of political allies with no industry knowledge
That's their right. It's their country. Lots of people are upset at Trump's choices. But that's our business and I certainly would take offense to people says we should be invaded over that.
> and then claiming that the US is responsible for the extreme poverty in Venezuela that predated US sanctions by years.
It's true. Economic sanctions and the efforts to destabilize venezuela is partly responsible for it. If sanctions were not effective, especially against smaller nations, we wouldn't be using it in the first place.
> Below, you are shilling for a Bolivian leader who introduced a new constitution with term limits, and then violated those term limits himself by claiming that he had a "human right" to run for reelection.
Merkel was elected 4 times. Should we invade germany? The bolivian leader got the term limit constitutionally changed. Every country has the right to do that. It is a right of every constitutional democracy. And he won the election by a wide margin. What is there to be upset about?
> Shame on you.
No. Shame on you for being anti-democratic and pushing for invasion of nations and advocating for the suffering of millions of people. Take a step back and look at what you wrote.
Let the venezuelans and bolivians work out their own problems? Why are you so set on invading and destroying these people? What's in it for you? Also, what happened to the throwaways attacking me?
> Only a small part of the economic issues are caused by sanctions:
Forbes is part of the pro-regime change crowd, just like the nytimes, washington post, etc. If sanctions are so neglible, then why bother with it? Let venezuela crumble on its own. Or maybe the fact that it wasn't crumbling was the reason to sanction/destabilize/destroy it?
> Cuba went through the same but didn't turn out like that.
Turn out like what?
> Looking at your post history you appear to support the genocide of millions of Muslim Uyghurs in China + Chinese colonization of Africa, maybe try being less of a tankie and look more into the facts.
People can freely look at my comment history and tell that you are lying. So why bother lying with your throwaway?
Maybe you can answer my question. "What's with the ridiculous anti-venezuelan propaganda all of a sudden everywhere on social media?"
The vast majority of sanctions on Venezuelans have been directly related to individual elites and their companies. This has nothing to do with Forbes or NYT or WP or whatever other newspaper for which you may have a distaste.
The reason that Venezuelans are starving is because the government has been confiscating private farmland for many years, since the time of Chavez. (I wonder what they are growing on that land now.) This led to a greater level of importation of food, which became unsustainable when the oil price crash of 2014 demolished an easy source of revenue for the government.
Cuba is another example of an impoverished nation in Latin America that is propped up by Russia. Nicaragua is a third.
Panama is one example of a Latin American nation that generates enormous amounts of profit based on past and ongoing US investment. Chile is another.
Even if we ignore recent protests in both countries, I would rather live in Chile than in Nicaragua.
I can tell you that for my part, I am commenting about Venezuela because the submission is a news article about Venezuela. I think that is very obvious and it is a little discouraging that you label my views as "propaganda" just because you don't like or agree with them.
> The vast majority of sanctions on Venezuelans have been directly related to individual elites and their companies.
I know. Does it seem like I don't know that or how sanctions work. But since you also know, you know your comment is misleading. Any sanction on any official has economy wide repercussions. Trump could place a sanction on Norway's Minister of National Park's grandchild and destroy the Norwegian economy. Sanctions are like stink bombs, it make target one person, but it affect everyone around them. It's a message to every other nation to "stay away" by the only superpower on earth.
> Cuba is another example of an impoverished nation in Latin America that is propped up by Russia. Nicaragua is a third.
You mean nations targeted by the US for destabilization right? If it wasn't for US sanctions/invasions/etc, I suspect cuba and nicaragua would be much better off.
> I am commenting about Venezuela because the submission is a news article about Venezuela.
You are parroting the same pro-regime change propaganda that's all over social media. The exact same nonsense and its getting boring having to correct it.
There's one thing you wrote that I agree with - "I would rather live in Chile than in Nicaragua." So do it. Stop pushing for the invasion and destruction of nations just because you have a financial/political/etc stake.
If you don't like venezuela or bolivia, then don't go there. Why push for coups/invasions/etc which will lead to the deaths and suffering of millions? No country is perfect, let them work things out.
