Governments can run school lunches, prison and jail chow, and military chow. How they can't seem to run some public feeding centers out there like the Romans did, is beyond reprehensible.

If you can't or won't feed the people in your household, then by default, it's no longer your household.

Was that a serious question? What color are the trees on Mr. Casey's planet?

Hungry, hopeless people are the most dangerous animals on the planet.

Just wait till the EBTs quit working for good. It'll make Venezuela look like a kindergarten egg hunt.

Two good quotes here that I agree with.
If you can't or won't feed the people in your household, then by default, it's no longer your household.

Just wait till the EBTs quit working for good. It'll make Venezuela look like a kindergarten egg hunt.

Considering the free fall of oil after Brexit, Venezuela will not be able to recoup from its leadership blunders any time soon.

That socialist paradise just keeps getting better. Now Maduro wants to ban opposing political parties, because of "fraud" in the recall vote.

Onward and upward,
airforce

From Socialist Utopia To Slave-Nation - Venezuela Unveils Shocking "Forced Labor" Law

by Tyler Durden
Jul 29, 2016

While we here in the United States debate pressing issues in the wake of the upcoming Presidential election, like the urgent need for gender-neutral bathrooms, the people of Venezuela remain entrenched in a food crisis that continues to sow widespread unrest which has become increasingly violent in recent months (see our post here). So what do you do if you’re the President of a Socialist government with mounting civil unrest and growing political opposition seeking your ouster via a recall referendum? Well you enslave your entire nation, of course.

As Vice News reports, President Nicolás Maduro signed a new law last week that requires "all workers from the public and private sector with enough physical capabilities and technical know-how" to work in agricultural fields on demand. The new law mandates that citizens can be required to work in the agricultural sector for a period of 60 days which can be extended "if the circumstances require it."

While we’re “sure” President Maduro’s intentions are good, we’re somewhat skeptical of his plan. As we recently reported (here), the real issue at hand in Venezuela is, of course, the hyperinflation death spiral gripping the Socialist nation in the wake of the collapse of their oil-dependent economy. As Miguel Pérez Abad, minister of industry and business, recently told Reuters the decline in domestic production is being exacerbated by plummeting imports which are likely to fall by 60 percent this year, compared to 2015. As a local baker pointed out, "We cannot make more subsidized bread with the current cost of flour. We always end up losing, but we cannot afford to stop making bread either."

Per the FT, local merchants are being forced by an increasingly oppressive military to sell groceries at a loss to avoid civil unrest:

“They went into all the shops in the area, forcing us to sell at a loss,” says Daniel, not his real name, of the incident earlier this month. The army men demanded that Daniel sell his beef at 250 bolívares (roughly $0.25 at black market rates) a kilo, even though he explained it cost 3,000 bolívars to buy from his suppliers.



“They told me the beef belonged to the people and stayed seven hours as a huge queue formed outside.”

Not wanting to be outdone by his U.S. counterparts who masterfully utilize complicit media outlets to control news cycles at their will (see our recent post here), President Maduro has repeatedly taken to the airwaves to blame the food shortages in Venezuela on an "economic war" waged by right-wing businesses, and supported by US imperialism, who seek to bring down his Socialist regime. Just last month, Maduro declared a 60-day state of emergency based on his fears that the U.S. was plotting a coup attempt. Per Vice News:

He alleges that business owners are sabotaging the economy in an effort to force him out. Maduro accuses them of wanting to bury the socialist legacy of his popular predecessor, President Hugo Chávez, who created a solid base of support among the poor thanks to oil-subsidized social programs and price-controlled food.

Meanwhile, Antonio Pestana, chief of Venezuela's farming association, indicated that Venezuela’s food crisis was a simple issue related to the underutilization of available ag land, telling reporters last month that only 25 percent of agricultural land is actually being farmed in Venezuela. While we don’t doubt Mr. Pestana’s figures, we’re not sure how enslaving a nation of people helps to alleviate Venezuela’s food crisis. Without the ability to import critically important irrigation equipment and fertilizer supplies, due to a useless currency, we’re not sure what use additional ag labor will be. We’ve heard that singing to plants can help improve yields, perhaps that is the plan?

Yeah well, if they want to eat then they should work, and rioting might be hard work, but it's not work.

President Maduro has doubled the minimum wage for Venezuela. At the official exchange rate (which no one will pay), that makes the minimum Venezuelan hourly wage and food bonus equal to $66.06.

Yeah, that should solve the problem. :rolleyes:

Onward and upward,
airforce

President Maduro has found a way to put an end to lines extending outside bakeries. He\'s going to ban lines that extend outside bakeries.

Yes, you read that right. He's going to fine bakeries that allow lines to extend outside their doors, because those lines induce "anxiety" among the people.

Um, no, El Presidente. It's the lack of bread that spreads anxiety among the people.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Well heck, why doesn't he just ban poverty and inflation?

Magical thinking seems to be a common thing with his type,

Is doomsday inevitable for Venezuela? At this point, I'd say yes.

As Robert A. Heinlein would say, this is what is known as "bad luck."

Onward and upward,
airforce

Is Venezuela seeking closer ties with Iran? It looks like it, but I'm personally not real concerned. If Iran wants to sink money into the black hole that is Venezuela, that's their business.

Onward and upward,
airforce

President Maduro is increasing the minimum wage by 50%. This is kind of like treating cancer with cigarettes.

Onward and upward,
airforce

50% increase in minimum wage... There, that aught to fix it their ailing economy....

Why are people protesting in Venezuela? According to Rachel Maddow at MSNBC, it\'s because of donations the government made to the trump campaign .

Seriously.

Um, no, Rachel. They're protesting because they don't have enough to eat. But you can bet they're dear leader, socialist Nicolas Maduro, isn't missing any meals.

See it for yourself here. You can't make this stuff up.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Venezuela was once touted as an example of a progressive, prosperous South American country.

It's collapse should serve as a lesson to all.

Socialist death squads are propping up Maduro. That's not the headline for the New York Times story, of course. In fact, the words "socialism" or "socialists" never appear in it.

When we hear those antifa groups talk about arming themselves, maybe we should start paying attention.

Onward and upward,
airforce

The Venezuela opposition wants the military on their side. I'm not a big fan of military juntas, but anything would be better than what they have now.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Maduro says he and his cronies are like the Jews under Hitler. Um, no.

You can't make this stuff up.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Why the Left refuses to talk about Venezuela. A new article at the Mises Institute.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Very good link there...

The leftist always say that we can't compare soviet communism to "democratic socialism" because the soviet version was "authoritarian and undemocratic"...

But Venezuela is the perfect counter to their failed argument.

Socialism simply has not ever worked, nor can it ever work, due to the inherent flaw that it denies human nature and every law of economics.

Silly Americans mock Venezuela’s 99.5% currency collapse, thinking it can’t happen here

by: JD Heyes

(Natural News) Yet another real-life attempt at creating a successful Marxist government is going down in flames — this time in Venezuela — harming millions of people in the process even as the far-Left government of President Nicolas Maduro doubles, triples and quadruples down on the same failed fiscal policies.

To say that the country is an economic basket case is a gross understatement. Inflation can only be described as runaway; the country’s currency isn’t even worth the paper it is printed on; few can afford even basic foodstuffs and supplies and the government is broke. Store shelves are empty; there is fighting in the streets; the murder rate is soaring, and the army has to guard shipments of goods.

As reported by Zero Hedge, the anger has gotten so bad over conditions in what used to be South America’s economic behemoth, demonstrators are resorting to throwing “bombs” full of feces at government forces, as the currency (the bolivar) collapses again by 99.5 percent — 5,100 bolivars to every $1.

The monetary depreciation and inflation are so extreme that most peoples’ savings have been obliterated. It’s all but impossible to buy imported goods — and domestic production of goods has also fallen dramatically.

Like all good socialists, Maduro — who is essentially a dictator — has arbitrarily raised the minimum wage something like 20 times during his tenure (much like Democrats in the U.S. want to do and have done). But because artificially raising wages without taking into consideration whether businesses can even afford to pay them is a recipe for fiscal disaster, they have done no good and still only amount to about $40 a month. In fact, raising the wages by dictate rather than allowing the free market to determine wages has only made things worse.

Hence the feces bombs, which, as El Pais reports, some have dubbed “Puputov cocktails” on social media. Fast becoming the ‘weapon’ of choice to hurl at government forces, demonstrators launch them with giant slingshots called a “crapapult.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

And yet, they are part of the political reality in Venezuela today: Socialism taken to the extreme is directly responsible for the destruction of this once proud, once prosperous country.

“These kids live in a dictatorship, they have no other option but to protest however they see fit,” Maria Montilla, 49, staged behind the lines of a group of protestors, told El Pais.

“There’s nothing explosive here. It’s out way of saying, ‘Get lost Maduro, you’re useless!’” one protestor, who requested anonymity, added.

Miguel Torres, the one-time spy chief for Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, has broken with the current government. He sees major trouble ahead — even civil war — if nothing changes and the already massive protests spread even further to the poorer, generally pro-Chavez countryside.

“What is happening may be the starting point for a huge armed confrontation between Venezuelans,” he told Reuters. “Nobody wants that.”

Unfortunately, far too many Americans living in deep blue states and who were enamored with the presidential candidacy of socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would favor exactly the kind of government that is destroying Venezuela and has left other countries like Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and others in desperate poverty.

If that form of government ever takes hold, it would not only be an economic disaster for the world, since the U.S. dollar is the globe’s reserve currency, it would doom generations of Americans to the same hopelessness and endless cycles of poverty and desperation being seen now in Venezuela and other socialist governments.

Anyone who seriously believes that America’s currency would not undergo a catastrophic, deadly collapse under socialist government is no serious student of history. The evidence proving otherwise abounds.

Stay informed at Collapse.news and Rioting.news.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

The Death Cult of Collectivism. An old article, by Ludwig von Mises himself. It's not an easy read, nothing he wrote ever was, but the truth is not always easy.

Onward and upward,
airforce

As Venezuela Inches Toward Syria-Style War, U.S. Weapons Are Not the Answer

by Joseph M. Humire23 May 2017

For months the protests in Venezuela have been escalating and, last week, The Miami Herald revealed an audio recording suggesting that military snipers could be used against the Venezuelan protesters.

The implications of such an action would undoubtedly be an escalation of force in an already violent situation. Such lethal force by the military on Venezuelans could provoke the opposition to seek weapons and other arms to defend themselves.

Undoubtedly, they would turn to the U.S. for support. The Trump administration should not listen.

Anyone certain that they know what to do about Venezuela should be ignored. The situation on the ground is much more complex than a simple civil war between the regime and opposition elements. Wars are never that clean. What is brewing in Venezuela is a situation more like Syria, with various factions and extra-regional actors, far different than anything we’ve seen recently in Latin America. U.S. intervention without good intelligence would be counterproductive at best and could lead to a full-blown regional conflict.

Moreover, such a move would fall right into the military plans of the Venezuelan regime and their external allies.

An ongoing political-military buildup has been taking place in Venezuela over the last decade. While the country is short on food and medicine, there is an abundance of military armament courtesy of Iran, Russia, and China. This buildup culminated this January with a joint, multinational military exercise called Zamora 200, in which over a half million military members and civilian militiamen rehearsed Venezuela’s defense to invasion by a NATO force led by the United States and Colombia. Colombia began talks with NATO in late 2016 to potentially become a full member. The wargaming exercise conducted in Venezuela obviously had this in mind.

The Zamora 200 military exercise had three distinct phases, the last of which culminated in the breakout of a civil war. The Venezuelan regime wants the world to believe that Plan Zamora, which is the real-time execution of the military exercise, is a civil-military plan to quell the insecurity and instability in the country and prevent any so-called “coup d’etat.” In reality, Plan Zamora is likely designed to manufacture a coup, catalyze a civil war, and provoke the U.S. to intervene.

This is a tactic taken from Cuba’s counterintelligence playbook on disinformation and deception, planned and perfected for years throughout the Havana- and Caracas-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). In Bolivia, according to several independent reports, President Evo Morales allegedly concocted an autogolpe (self-coup) in 2009 by framing a fake terrorist plot that drew out his political opposition in Santa Cruz. A year later, in 2010, a similar event took place in Ecuador when then-president Rafael Correa shouted from the police headquarters in Quito to apparently try and provoke the police to fire their weapons at him.

The late Venezuelan caudillo and Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chávez, was also accused of staging the 2002 coup d’etat to consolidate power and deflect blame to the U.S. for “intervening.”

Thus far, the Trump administration has been prudent, reverting to sanctions and strong rhetoric to stand up for human rights and protect U.S. national security interests. It seems President Maduro is not satisfied, telling President Trump to “get your pig hands out of here,” implying that U.S. intervention is already underway.

In reality, it is the Venezuelan regime that has already brought foreign intervention into Venezuela by calling on Cuba, Iran, and Russia to circumvent its sovereignty and provide lethal aid to its violent suppression and intimidation of the Venezuelan people. Just last month, both the Russian and Iranian defense ministers met with Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, in Moscow to confirm they will send strong military and armed support to Venezuela.

What the Venezuelan regime and its extra-regional allies are looking for is a way to blame the Trump administration for what their policies have created in the country. A civil war is the only way the current regime and its allies can maintain power; however, the regime cannot simply go to war against its own people. They need a clear enemy and, if the Trump administration changes its policy to anything that can be portrayed as interventionist, it will make itself into the enemy that the Venezuelan regime and its allies crave.

Joseph M. Humire is the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), a DC-based, global think tank. And the co-editor of “Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America” published by Lexington Books.

Venezuela's unbelievable currency collapse is getting worse

by Patrick Gillespie

Venezuela's currency is in free fall.

Violent protests are growing, the economy is spiraling further out of control and Venezuelans are suffering through shortages of food and medicine. And the bolivar, already worth next to nothing, keeps losing value.

At the beginning of the year, it took about 3,000 bolivars to buy one U.S. dollar. By Wednesday, it took almost 8,000. That's according to dolartoday.com, which tracks the unofficial exchange rate used by most Venezuelans because official rates are considered overvalued.

"I'd describe it as the result of a government that prints money like it's confetti," says Raul Gallegos, senior analyst at Control Risks, an international consulting firm. "The government has simply employed the wrong policies to stay in power."

Government corruption and mismanagement have triggered hyperinflation. Prices are set to rise a staggering 720% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The collapse of the economy and currency has driven shortages in food, medicine and basic products like toilet paper.

The country has been gripped by unrest as Venezuelans call for President Nicolas Maduro to step down or hold democratic elections. Since late March, 74 people have been killed and more than 1,400 injured in protests.

On Tuesday, the crisis escalated when a Venezuelan police officer and a team of accomplices stole a government helicopter and flew it over the Supreme Court, firing shots and lobbing grenades. The police officer demanded that Maduro resign.

Venezuelan lawmakers opposed to Maduro also clashed with national guard officers outside the National Assembly in a dispute involving an upcoming vote on constitutional changes.

Late Tuesday night, Venezuela's Supreme Court justices -- Maduro appointees -- stripped the attorney general of the power to investigate human rights abuses. They gave the power instead to an ombudsman friendly to Maduro.

Venezuela sits on the world's largest oil reserves and was once the wealthiest nation in South America. But since 1999 the government has focused only on selling oil to other countries and abandoned management of other natural resources and critical infrastructure.

Now Venezuela is running out of money. Its central bank only has $10 billion in reserves, which are intended to be a cushion to weather a crisis. In 2011, it had $30 billion.

--Lonzo Cook and Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report.

Meanwhile In Venezuela, The Real Mad Max Emerges

Bikers chase, bomb sugar truck to steal payload

Zero Hedge - July 12, 2017



While Silicon Valley seems obsessed by ‘blood boys’, its another part of the world that appears to have gone full Mad Max. As the following clip shows a gang of bikers chase down and attack a truck (with molotov cocktails) to steal its sugar payload…

https://youtu.be/eOQfDMTlDjI

Not quite the “Guzzoline” or “Bullets” that Fury Road offers, but when all you have to eat is flamingoes or black stallions, sugar may be a good substitute worth risking your life over…

With each passing week, the situation in Venezuela keeps on getting worse.

Not quite the socialist utopia that Bernie Sanders longed for? Or more pointedly – this is exactly the dystopia one can expect from such policies of ‘redistribution’ and central planning.

Battle Lines Are Being Drawn In Venezuela As The Socialist Nation Inches Toward Civil War

Venezuela is a powder keg, and it could blow at any time

Mac Slavo SHTFplan.com - July 25, 2017


You may recall this bizarre incident that occurred last month in Venezuela.

A rogue police officer by the name of Oscar Perez, who is also well known in Venezuela for starring in several B-rated action movies, commandeered a helicopter, before dropping grenades on the nation’s Supreme Court building and strafing the Interior Ministry with gunfire. It was without a doubt, the strangest moment to come out of that nation’s ongoing civil unrest.

But this brazen attack isn’t just odd. In fact, it may portend something much more serious that is simmering under the surface of Venezuela’s slow motion social collapse. It’s a sign that Venezuela is very close to erupting into a full-blown civil war.

Recently, a stolen police helicopter attacked the Venezuelan Supreme Court with grenades and automatic weapons. While no one was hurt, the incident should serve as a wake-up call for the entire Western Hemisphere, including the United States. The attack demonstrates a quantum escalation of the hunger-fueled conflict that has consumed the country for close to a year. Hunger is the key word. Hunger is the most basic of human suffering. Remember that rising food prices helped fuel the Arab Spring, which has left the world with a chaotic, fractured, refugee-hemorrhaging Middle East.

Obviously, the lack of food in Venezuela is a key factor in that nation’s unrest. Multiple studies have shown in the past that when food prices escalate to a certain point, riots and revolutions become very likely, even in cases where the population isn’t specifically revolting over the price of food. But in any case the lack of food, skyrocketing crime, rampant corruption, and flippant tyranny that are all fueling the unrest, and giving people like Oscar Perez lots of support in both high and low places.

Is Venezuela in danger of becoming another Syria? Maybe. The helicopter pilot, Oscar Perez, posted a bare-faced declaration online describing himself as representative of a group of “nationalists, patriots, and institutionalists.” The fact that he has been allowed to slip quietly back into the shadows illustrates how much of the population is willing to hide him. Even more distressing is the fact that his group even had access to a helicopter, a fact illustrating how much support they may have within Venezuela’s government institutions.

We can deduce from Perez’s attack that there are battle lines being drawn in Venezuela right now, and those lines run right through the middle of the civilian population, the military, the police, and the political class (and yes, that line does run through the middle of society, because there are still millions of people who support President Maduro).

And that’s what makes civil wars possible. They don’t usually occur in countries where millions of unarmed civilians hate the government, and the government is staffed by plenty of loyalists. These wars tend to happen in places where the soldiers and cops are also divided along partisan lines. That way, you have a lot of people armed to the teeth with the best weapons government tax dollars can buy, and those people become two separate armed camps with divergent views and political goals.

You can’t have a war unless there are two sides with a lot of firepower, and that’s what we see in Venezuela right now. That nation is a powder keg, and it could blow at any time.

Venezuelan authorities crush military rebellion -ruling official

Reuters Sunday, 6 August 2017

By Corina Pons and Alexandra Ulmer

CARACAS, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have suppressed a military rebellion near the central city of Valencia, a ruling official said on Sunday, less than two days after President Nicolas Maduro formed a legislative superbody internationally condemned as a power grab.

Socialist Party deputy Diosdado Cabello made the announcement shortly after the release of a video showing a group of men in military uniform announcing a rebellion and calling for a broad uprising. But the rest of the country appeared to be calm, with the capital Caracas waking to a quiet Sunday morning.

One witness in the area of a military base in the town of Naguanagua reported hearing gunshots before dawn, but Cabello said the situation had been brought under control. Officials said the rebels, whom they described as "terrorists," were trying to steal weapons and that seven people were detained after the attack on the base.

The Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But government allies were quick to denounce the attack as a right-wing plot aimed at bringing down the "Bolivarian revolution" started nearly 20 years ago by the late Hugo Chavez and carried on by his protege Maduro.

"These attacks, planned by delirious minds in Miami, only strengthen the morale of our armed forces and the Bolivarian people," tweeted Socialist Party official Elias Jaua.

On Friday, government allies inaugurated a new legislative superbody that the Venezuelan opposition and leaders around the world denounced as a power grab by Maduro.

In Sunday's video, a man who identified himself as Juan Carlos Caguaripano, a former National Guard captain, said: "We demand the immediate formation of a transition government." He was flanked by about a dozen men in military uniforms.

"This is not a coup d'etat," he said. "This is a civic and military action to re-establish constitutional order. But more than that, it is to save the country from total destruction."

Local reporters published videos appearing to show dozens of Venezuelans near the base in Valencia taking to the streets to protest the government before being pushed back with tear gas. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the footage.

Six weeks ago a rogue policemen attacked key installations in Caracas by helicopter, failing to spark a larger movement.

ARMED FORCES IN SPOTLIGHT

Venezuelans view the armed forces as the key power broker in their country, and opposition leaders have repeatedly exhorted the military to break with Maduro.

But the top brass continues to publicly profess loyalty to his government. Critics say juicy government contracts, corruption, and contraband mean many military officials want Maduro to stay in office and fear persecution should the opposition take power.

Since April more than 120 people have been killed in unrest as rock-throwing protesters were met by state security forces firing rubber bullets and water cannon. (http://tmsnrt.rs/2ujuylf)

Maduro's new "constituent assembly" removed the chief prosecutor from her post over the weekend and ordered her to stand trial, confirming opposition fears that it would use its powers to root out critics of the government.

The prosecutor, Luisa Ortega, had become Maduro's main challenger from within the ruling socialist movement since the start of sustained opposition street protests four months ago.

Venezuelan authorities on Sunday accused the political opposition of being linked to the Valencia rebellion, raising the specter of a further crackdown on dissent in coming days.

Oil-rich but economically ailing Venezuela has a long history of instability. Maduro's mentor Chavez was a military officer who started his political career with a 1992 coup attempt, for which he served time in jail before winning the presidency six years later. Chavez died of cancer in 2013.

(Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Deisy Buitrago and Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Louise Ireland and Lisa Shumaker)

If this doesn't convince people in America that prepping, resource self reliance, and forming mutual aid groups with like minded individuals is necessary, nothing will.I would really like to know if Venezuelans in the country have it as bad as those in the cities?

Venezuela on the brink. Jeff Deist interviews two Venezuelan libertarians, about 36 minutes.

Onward and upward,
airforce

GENEVA (Reuters) - Venezuelan security forces have systematically wielded excessive force to suppress protests, killing dozens, and have arbitrarily detained 5,000 people since April, including 1,000 still in custody, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

It called on the government of President Nicolas Maduro to rein in security forces and investigate alleged abuses and release people from arbitrary detention.

On Friday, Venezuela inaugurated a new legislative superbody that is expected to rewrite the constitution and give vast powers to Maduro's ruling Socialist Party, defying protests and worldwide condemnation that it undermines democratic freedoms.

"We are concerned that the situation in Venezuela is escalating and these patterns of human rights violations are showing no signs of abating," U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing in Geneva.

The ousting of Attorney-General Luisa Ortega, an outspoken government critic, was a sign of an "increasing undermining of democratic institutions and of independent institutions", she said, calling on the government to ensure her safety.

On Tuesday, Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of opposition mayor Ramon Muchacho of the Caracas district of Chacao, the site of intense anti-government protests.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement: "These violations have occurred amid the breakdown of the rule of law in Venezuela, with constant attacks by the Government against the National Assembly and the Attorney-General’s Office.

"The responsibility for the human rights violations we are recording lies at the highest levels of Government.”

U.N. human rights officers were not allowed into Venezuela, but issued preliminary findings based on 135 interviews in Panama and from Geneva in June and July with victims, families, witnesses, doctors and lawyers. They also received information from the Venezuelan ombudsman's office.

Of 124 deaths investigated, they found at least 46 attributable to security forces and 27 to pro-government armed groups, with the rest unclear.

"Witnesses spoke of security forces firing tear gas and buckshot at anti-Government protestors without warning. Several of the individuals interviewed said tear gas canisters were used at short range, and marbles, buckshot and nuts and bolts were used as ammunition," Shamdasani said.

Ill-treatment and torture have been reported in detention, including beatings, use of electric shocks, hanging detainees by their wrists and "suffocation with gas", she said.

"Journalists have reportedly been shot at with tear gas canisters and buck shot and been detained, threatened and had their equipment taken on several occasions," she added.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Robin Pomeroy

Venezuela used to be South America's breadbasket. Now, Venezuelans are forced to scavenge for food to feed their children .

The infuriating thing about Trump, is that sometimes he's right. When he said that Venezuela is an example of socialism enacted faithfully, he was spot on.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Venezuela had one good thing going for it, its oil. And now the quality of the crude they\'re shipping to refiners is a problem. It's all because of the hoarders and wreckers, certainly.

Onward and upward,
airforce

venezuela is issuing a new 100,000 Bolivar note. It's worth a whopping $2.42 for now, but not likely for long. One thing centrally planned economies are good at doing, is adding zeros onto their currencies.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Venezuela has just defaulted on its debt. For people who thought the situation in Venezuela couldn't get any worse, they're about to find out otherwise.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Before the wrath of "democratic socialism" (ala Bernie Sanders)... Venezuela was a food exporter. The Oranoco River valley has rich fertile soil, and with its low latitude location (right near the equator) they can grow two full season of many cereal grains and major crops. They also have regular tropical rains so little need for irrigation.

This happened in the old Soviet Union in the 1920s, in Eastern Europe in the 1950s, in Cuba and North Korea from the 1960s on, and in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) since the 1980s.

It never works, never will. It can't. Yet the democrats in our nation will still insist that these are not fair comparisons and that it just needs to be carried out properly...

Hyperinflation in Venezuela. Merchants are demanding payment in dollars, because the price in bolivars changes every hour.

Onward and upward,
airforce

This is why monetary monopoly is bad. Currencies should compete like other goods/services.

Venezuela, with the highest proven oil reserves in the world, is out of gasoline.

Onward and upward,
airforce

I want to know: When will the Venezuelan people wake up and overthrow their corrupt government?

Venezuela is in default on eight bond issues. And their oil industry is still deteriorating.

Onward and upward,
airforce