Exploring Barcelona on Sunday, I inadvertently came across a large protest. 63 photos & 5 videos later, I now have a much better appreciation for how terrible life has become for the people of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez was bad but Nicolas Maduro appears to be much worse. The Wall Street Journal shares their views of the situation:
It’s getting ugly in Venezuela. Three people were killed in anti-government protests on the streets of Caracas on Wednesday. The killers haven’t been identified, but Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro is using the deaths to justify a government crackdown on growing civic unrest directed at his leadership and a deteriorating economy.
Mr. Maduro was Hugo Chávez’s hand-picked successor, and one of Chávez’s Cuban-influenced legacies was politicizing the armed forces and the police and developing an informal militia that still roams cities and towns on motorcycles to intimidate political opponents. Today, Caracas is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
Coincidentally, in last night’s Reader Tips, SDA regular, Marc in Calgary, provided a link to an excellent video in English.
What struck me more than anything at today’s events was how much so many Canadians take for granted. Whether it’s free speech or the legitimate rule of law or democratic elections or a whole host of other things, too many of our fellow citizens don’t understand that we are privileged to have these “rights”, where so many others in the world do not.
Update: Here’s a compilation of the video segments I shot at the protest. The singing in the middle was both profound and beautiful.
At 3.40 in the video above is Leopoldo Lopez, who is on the run from the regime, he was coordinating many of the protests via Twitter, hence the gov’t shutdown of that medium. He has issued a response to the regime after his house and his parents / relatives houses were searched, that he’ll never be taken / caught by them.
At 0.37 in this video, is shown the murder of one of the students running from the police in Caracas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrttxYNGKrI
Robert, thanks for this, and well said in your last paragraph. Hopefully the people take back their country from the communists.
Soon to happen here in North America? Why else are so many government departments buying millions of rounds of ammunition.
Where’s Obama, in all this?
Why isn’t he speaking up, lending the President’s moral authority to a ” Venezuelan Spring “.
Answer: he’s on the other side.
That’s Venezuela, why should Canadians care?
Chavez had the attribute of being a flake. He flitted from issue to issue like a Venezuelan humingbird. As a result the “Bolivarian revolution” was only sporadically implemented.
But Maduro is far more disciplined and methodical man, and that spells trouble all around.
The reason for all this beginning with Chavez is that Venezuela has become a Cuban colony. They even have loads of the Cuban equivalent of the KGB working to eliminate the last bit of freedom of the people. Yes, people should be concerned, especially all of us living in the Americas.
Because the gov’t of Venezuela bankrolls Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, seeks to get it’s infection into Peru, and a variety of other small almost insignificant caribbean islands that seek to supply us with thousands of infections and use these states as a destabilizing affect in our hemisphere. I’d prefer the cuban tyranny didn’t move to the mainland.
And it’s good to note why they’ve failed as a state, if we don’t remind ourselves of why they fail, someday, it will arrive on our or our children’s doorsteps.
But if you’re actually “north of 60” as in latitude, you’ve probably got nothing to worry about, yet.
I had mentioned in above commentary that Leopoldo Lopez had said he’d never be taken (by the gov’t). He’s said now that he’ll lead a protest / march on tuesday and he’s done nothing wrong. (sorry for the BBC link).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26220184
because the global warming fanatics would stoop to anything, if they had their way
Another analysis of the murders:
http://devilsexcrement.com/2014/02/16/while-government-tries-to-blame-lopez-for-deaths-paper-shows-otherwise/#comment-75731
The announcement that Leopoldo Lopez will be leading another protest on tuesday, and some explanation in english as to what to expect while the news media of the world is watching:
http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.ca/2014/02/leopoldo-lopez-date-with-destiny.html#comment-form
I’d cut and paste some of Daniel’s short post, but it’s only 1 minute to read and it’s a clinic in how to respond to tyranny. Something that may come in handy in North America some day…
Alek Boyd led the internet campaign to show how the Chavistas had stolen the past decade’s elections in Venezuela, he had this video posted to his website http://infodio.com/
Here, it’s only a minute, another example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_YgWxCsH3M
LAS, think history, 2ndWW. When the sh1t hits the fan it tends to be indiscriminate as to were it flies.
Yes, that was the same rationale for the US involvement in Vietnam. History has proven what a disaster it is to meddle in the foreign affairs of another country that poses no real threat to us.
If Venezuela or any other country on your list attacks Canadian or US sovereign soil, then we’ve got a reason to be involved. Until then stop all meddling.
You don’t like it when those countries tell you how to live do you?
“think history, 2ndWW.”
Nope, no parallel at all to the situation in Venezuela, not even close.
think history, Vietnam
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot does insignificant global warming fanatics have to do with it ?
Well to be honest I think it is pathetic and Canadians need a rude awakening…and they are going to get it . I am only 35…when I even mention any kind of politics or anything around my peers , anything freedome speech, fire arms , protecting our boarders , language culture (tip o the hat to micheal savage) they are all like huh ? wha? ahhh we are fine we will be fine…they suffer from liberal white guilt, and seem to think that we own the world our profits and our lifestyle…I can’t get through to them.
I was at that point that I decided it was all going to come crashing down…and in time it will…we are to fat dumb and happy to even care about gov increasing it’s power and control over the masses, or even tax increases they defend them and say we need them to pay for stuff….no matter how hard I challenged them..so I gave up it is time to with draw and protect what is most important to me.
The west is in it’s twilight..islam, atheism, immorality, porno , instant gratification…the church has no chance. I still root for the church and the Christians way of doing things but once again chrisitans are in many cases just as bad…going to church onec a year, you know …blah blah blah ..but argue fuss n fight hate there neighbours ect ect …it’s finished!!
After decades of “Yanqui Go Home” …. they got what they asked for.
The tune never changes, kill all who will not be intimidated.
The world becomes one nation smaller and uglier.
We in Canada and the USA will look on and say how sad,it will never happen here.
As our property rights,the sanctity of the home and personal freedom are all siphoned off by the kleptocracies we allow.
Here the bandits will not have to shutdown the press, the presstitutes are a wholly owned subsidiary.
Oh he’s on the same side but has to tiptoe through the tulips as he brings the big corporations and banksters under his thumb ala Hitler before the velvet gloves come off.
‘Rights’ are only for smart people that agree with our wonderful high-minded and progressive ideas. ‘Deniers’, ‘obstructionists’, and other ne’er-do-wells don’t get to have rights, and frankly deserve a severe police beating for their recalcitrant stupidity.
north of 90
I didn’t think you’d get it. WW2 is a good example, the USA played isolationist, and got attacked, read about Perl Harbor. So sitting on the side line simply means you are waiting to be “hit” As to Vietnam, simply politics, and no one calling for that in this case, tho it would quite possibly devolve into that if actin was taken. You do come across like LAS quite often!
Your opinion of other forum members is irrelevant. Try to be objective and stick to the subject, it fosters better discussions.
What part of:
If Venezuela or any other country on your list attacks Canadian or US sovereign soil, then we’ve got a reason to be involved. Until then stop all meddling.
was so difficult for you to comprehend?
“Whether it’s free speech or the legitimate rule of law or democratic elections or a whole host of other things, too many of our fellow citizens don’t understand that we are privileged to have these “rights”, where so many others in the world do not.”
We do NOT have free speech(HRCs) or the legitimate rule of law(Caledonia) and whether or not our elections are democratic is questionable too.
This may not be Venezuela yet, but the only thing stopping us from going there is a hangover of our Protestant Christian traditions and nothing more.
NME666;
Perhaps the USA was ‘isolationist’ up to 1941 because they had already been sucked into a Euro conflict in 1917. Unlike Canada who took political direction from London both in 1914 and 1939 the Americans were smart enough to realize these con-
flicts were the responsibility of the Euros.
America shocked the world in 1781 when Commander in Chief George Washington tendered his resignation to Congress after winning the Revolutionary War. Washington retired to his farm as Euros could not understand why he gave up the power that he accrued. Democratic ideals of the Revolution threatened Euro governments of the time. What Americans gained at that time was not duplicated in Canada. Canada followed the British Crown and the top down style of government that bestowed riches and position on those of influence.
why should we care? because the chaves’s are here trying to convert Canada into the next Venezuela.
Exactly!
Where is Sean Penn?
It looks like they missed his house.
denis >
“why should we care? because the chaves’s are here trying to convert Canada into the next Venezuela.”
Can you expand on that?
Agreed there are radical Liberals all over Canada, but when did anything in history or the present ever change their radical views?
Remember, the “truth is not a defence” in the world of the left.
Embroiling ourselves in the world’s regional conflicts goes against the wishes of America’s founding fathers
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world” – George Washington
“We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country,
nor with the general affairs of Europe.” –Thomas Jefferson
If we don’t take care of our own, the world will take care of our things for us. For every Venezuelan, Muslim, and Chinaman you think you’ve saved, he has a nemesis with a brother that thinks you just f*cked him over.
The radical Liberal left has insured that “brother” is your neighbor, taxi cab driver, and favorite Dim Sum cook with a new axe to grind.
“Perhaps the USA was ‘isolationist’ up to 1941 because they had already been sucked into a Euro conflict in 1917.”
The USA was isolationist because Germany and Russia were socialist pals until 1941 and the American Left liked it that way.
Things changed in 1941 with Operation Barbarossa and the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany.
The ‘Peace and Isolationism’ movement started in 1919 and was directed from Moscow.
Were the Americans smarter? NO.
CT
if we (the west) don’t project enough authority through force, then our word carries no weight. That sets up a situation were, as in WW2, the enemy feels emboldened enough that they will bring the war to us. WW2 could have been stopped dead in it’s tracks if the French had confronted the Germans when they, the Germans, entered the Rhine, Hitler even said as much in his diary.
Today we have a situation were the Islamists will bring the war to us, Canada, at any chance possible, and that would be so even if no Canadian solder had ever set foot over there, supporting Israel is enough of a trigger. And with the shrinking of the world through technology we become even greater sitting ducks for these extremists.
Isolationism is the bogyman that Leftists, globalists, and Crony Capitalists try to confuse with non-interventionism.
Non-interventionalism is what Jefferson, Washington, and others voiced as the ideal bases for America’s foreign policy.