I am still amazed by the number of people that are still saying we should wait for elections, bla, bla bla. The video above proves beyond any doubt that Nicolas Maduro has become the Dictator of Venezuela. He has to go. Period.
And if you still have doubts, read Gustavo Coronel’s article “Approaching the Unthinkable” about Venezuela importing oil and you will realize that indeed, under Chavismo, all that oil underground will always stay there.
The Devil's Excrement 
March 6, 2016 at 10:50 pm
Hi, of course this piece of writing is really good and I have learned lot of things from it regarding blogging.
thanks.
July 14, 2015 at 6:35 am
No es por falta de intentos sin embargo: desde su primer teléfono inteligente
Android ‘ LePhone ‘llegó en 2010, Lenovo ha ampliado su gama
con una gran cantidad de diferentes dispositivos, e incluso tomó en estrella de la NBA Kobe Bryant para comercializar sus teléfonos.
March 17, 2014 at 11:50 am
[…] To Those That Think Maduro Is Not A Dictator: ¿Qué Pasa en Venezuela? by Foro Penal Venezolano […]
March 16, 2014 at 11:01 pm
PDVSA/Bariven haven’t paid their bills in months. Every stupid little purchase is now Cash on Order with every vendor. Their 60+ year history of professional business in finished.
Technically they are grinding to a halt.
It is a darn shame as it used to be a fine company.
March 16, 2014 at 5:13 pm
Is this breaking news? Today Merentes admits to “economic crisis.” And PNB Paribas forecast 70% inflation with negative growth.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA2F0JS20140316?irpc=932
March 17, 2014 at 11:39 am
And shortages at 47%! Merentes was right to admit crisis. This is unsustainable.
March 16, 2014 at 11:42 am
Ira,
I didn’t want to go as far as the French or the Anglo American revolution, as dynamics have changed dramatically since then. In all the other cases you have mentioned you see things have got worse, fundamentally worse.
In the case of the Dominican Republic they did improve because it was a system mainly based on a big big evil psychopath and the rest were just evil, so you got a softening of things and, after decades, some form of democracy.
In Egypt we are still waiting.
I do not expect the US to do something for us other than intelligence gathering. I have actually mentioned this before. I am aware the US is over-stretched. What I am trying to say is
1) it is not realistic to expect armed help from abroad, specially as we are not talking about clear majorities in Venezuela and considering the fact those who could help would not do it for PR and economic and just logistical reasons and the others don’t have anything to gain from it (the rest of Latin America is
profiting from the dismantling of Venezuela.
2) an armed uprising in Venezuela now has no chance at all: we have no weapons, the army is sold off and, again, we do not have a huge majority
I agree the solution is not electoral but it is not military either. It is a long-term fight that should learn from the errors of others, always testing what’s best, always thinking more than two steps ahead. Cuba should be our warning.
March 16, 2014 at 2:32 pm
Kepler,
You have no evidence that some people in the army might not be won over if the insurrection grows.
“It is a long-term fight that should learn from the errors of others, always testing what’s best, always thinking more than two steps ahead.”
So what EXACTLY is your idea of a long term fight?
Flyers??? Wow!!
March 16, 2014 at 4:02 pm
My idea is expect you to go from North Carolina to Venezuela and solve it, typical Venezuelan, right?
I didn’t say flyers would solve it. Flyers are one of the million actions needed…not to change regime but to educate people on a long term.
Venezuela won’t change until most people change.
Will you send your family to shoot soldiers and try to see if they go to your side?
Wow!
March 17, 2014 at 7:59 am
Lol at “flyers” deposing Maduro. hahahha
Kepler is such a funny guy. But it’s easy to tell those jokes when you live so far away from the eye of the storm. Hope you have a nice day in Finland, Kepler, but stop with the jokes now, they are not THAT funny anymore.
March 17, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Actually I do have family fighting on the street Kepler, and 2 of my best friends who are old enough to be your father are also in the guarimbas.I don’t send anybody.I allow people to decide for themselves.
March 16, 2014 at 10:45 am
Merentes:
Sí hay una crisis,
pero no es de magnitudes profundas …
según él,
Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don’t take it serious,
Life’s too mysterious
You work,
You save,
You worry so
But you can’t take your dough
When you go, go, go
So keep repeating “It’s the berries.”
The strongest oak must fall
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose
What you’ve never owned
Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh, aha!
Laugh and love
Live and laugh,
Laugh and love,
Live and laugh at it all!
March 16, 2014 at 10:55 am
Oh, I forget,
You need to live in mira los flores land.
where
slaughter & gassing of citizens is
accompanied justifiably with
comfortable live orchestral music.
March 16, 2014 at 11:09 am
Con la puesta en marcha del Sicad II
ha bajado 20 unidades de bolívares
cada dólar (paralelo); está alrededor
de 70 bolívares
y estaba en casi
90 bolívares”,
refirió Merentes
March 16, 2014 at 1:00 pm
La puesta en marcha? Deja que lo pongan en matcha a ver que pasa de verdad
March 16, 2014 at 4:50 pm
BsF. 75,29 dan BsF. 70,00
… BsF. 70,00 dan 6.30 ok?
¡sin derecho a pataleo!
¡ y YA !
Noticias sin censura de Venezuela
Domingo Mar 16, 2014
el $ cotiza a BsF. 75,29
y el € a BsF. 104,79
https://goo.gl/c5Yx9i
March 15, 2014 at 9:34 pm
What I think:
http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.ca/2014/03/pensamientos-aleatorios-sobre-la.html
March 15, 2014 at 7:14 pm
CCs,
I repeat it here:
Nazi Germany and Hirohito’s Japan invaded many countries and attack on a massive scale the USA, the UK and the Soviet Union. Those regimes murdered many thousands, then many millions of foreigners.
That is how armed intervention of those states was initiated.
Venezuela’s dictatorship won’t be doing that to other states. It can’t.
So, please explain how Venezuelans are going to do it. I suppose you are living in Venezuela, unlike me, and you know how you are going to react, right?
March 15, 2014 at 10:29 pm
HAHAHHA, so a fascist or nazist dictatorship can only be labeled that way if it invades another country. Dear lord…
March 16, 2014 at 3:00 am
I think you have comprehension problems.
I asked Ccs to give me a couple of examples for cases with successful, sustainable armed insurrections against tyranny (in the modern world, it is understood).
Romania is the closest I can get for one process that was ultimately solved from within, even if it was part of a larger process. Then no country was supporting the stay of Ceasescu (not the USSR, for sure).
Closer home I can only think of Panama with Noriega or Grenada.
There was also the uprising and precedent civil war in Nicaragua against Somoza. I think any person can see the differences there and what it took in time, etc. But yeah, go ahead: start going to Venezuela and doing the guerilla work. We also know who took power, by the way.
Before that in the Caribbean we can think of the “Trujillo” solution in the Dominican Republic…although you probably know by heart who took office after that, right?
The solution won’t be only through elections but I don’t think it can be a guerrilla war or a Trujillo solution.
March 16, 2014 at 10:10 am
Batista’s Cuba?
Mubarak’s Egypt?
The French Revolution?
Ghaddafi’s Libya?
Assad’s Syria? (Almost.)
A few dozen African countries, a few dozen times each?
Great Britain’s 13 colonies?
I don’t get your point Kep, because violent overthrow sure works time and time again.
March 16, 2014 at 10:13 am
Kepler, what do you know about Panama, Grenada and Domrep? Trujillo solution? Do you even know who, why and how they killed him?
I was asked by a Venezuelan why the US won’t help militarily. Three reasons: 1)WMD 2)Genocide 3)US citizens. These are the three “red lines”
In Panama, it was #3. Three successive incidents against Americans (the school buses, the couple, the sailor) led to the invasion.
La vaina esta bien peluda. What happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine.
Also, the US is about budget cutbacks and whatnot. You can only deal with the Chavistas with a sword over their heads. Yes USA is supporting but it’s not that much. It’s intel gathering at this point.
March 16, 2014 at 10:30 am
The Guarimbas serve a purpose and absolutely should continue. It’s for those on the ground to decide if they can sustain. It’s a start. Nobody has illusions about knocking the regime and another 11A is not in the cards but nothing has awoken international public opinion like the Guarimbas. For only the second time that I can recall (UNSC vote was the other), the US mounted a diplomatic offensive against Venezuela and won (Biden in Chile). So there is hope.
March 16, 2014 at 10:40 am
Grenada also saw a Cuban backed regime that went crazy (Manuel Noriega also went crazy). These where the days of CIA director William Casey. In Grenada, we did not have overt support of allies Canada and UK! Our post-invasion finds proved everyone wrong.
March 15, 2014 at 12:50 pm
“The video above proves beyond any doubt that Nicolas Maduro has become the Dictator of Venezuela. He has to go. Period.”
Yes Miguel, but the problem is how? … And if he goes, I suspect one of them will take his place (e.g., Diosdado, Rafael Ramirez, Vielma Mora, etc.). I hope I’m wrong and would like somebody to provide a strong argument against this. I am sorry but I can’t just feel optimistic.
March 15, 2014 at 5:56 pm
Those incredibly brave students are Venezuelas last hope
March 16, 2014 at 8:39 am
It is more than just students in the streets this time, but still not the unified opposition that it will take to kick out the cubans and their puppets. Over the years it has always seemed that it is one group or the other that masses in protest, with other parties watching from the sidelines to see how effective the other will be instead of joining in the fray. At some point the separate points of view and stategies for the future will have to unite to focus on the real cancer which is the removal of the castros. The students are fighting for their future which is the common thread of all Venezuelans.
March 15, 2014 at 12:35 pm
why is it that ever limp dick latin american leader blames all their incompetence on the US? you voted these clowns in, you pay the price….http://www.eluniversal.com/english/
March 15, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Reblogged this on danmillerinpanama and commented:
The article from Devil’s Excrement, along with the article by Gustavo Coronel it mentions, remind me of the reasons for the blog name:
As Gustavo Coronel’s post contends, Venezuela has and for some time has had problems with the excrement it tries to pump out of the ground:
Without oil – once Venezuela’s only commercially viable export – Chavistas seem unlikely to be able even to sustain the current extremely low levels of economic and political stability.
March 15, 2014 at 11:48 am
It may sound provocative, but when the US no longer believes in its exceptionalism and its vocation to defend democracy around the world, the resulting vacuum is worse than the prior American meddling.
No leadership will come from the current South American leadership (unless FH Cardoso, A. Uribe and R. Lagos could somehow join forces). I am afraid Venezuela is on its own, unless the US, having failed diplomatically in Ukraine, decides to refocus on the Americas.
March 15, 2014 at 1:17 pm
The U.S. cannot help by just “refocusing on the Americas.” – Venezuela can only be helped if the criminal dictatorship is removed by force. The U.S. better take completely by surprise these assassins and wiped them out or do nothing. Words and sanctions will make things worse for Venezuela. I know this sounds radical, but every time U.S. spokesmen say something or publicly deliberate about what is going on in Venezuela, the Castro- Chavistas capitalized it. Perhaps the #SOSVenezuela was not a good idea after all.
March 15, 2014 at 11:43 am
Elected means nothing if you violate the laws and/or constitution. Do so and you are subject to impeachment. Si! Or one can wait till there is a super majority of citizens marching in the streets with pitchforks and all hell breaks loose. Respond in the wrong way and Venezuela is on the “Oil for food program” or there is no oil to ship! This is a one horse country. OIL!
March 15, 2014 at 12:55 pm
This…. + 1
March 15, 2014 at 9:54 am
Maduro instó a las empresas a generar ganancias
March 15, 2014 at 10:43 am
Pero no a las lineas areas 🙂
March 15, 2014 at 11:20 am
I had to chuckle when Maduro threatened “any airline that quits coming to Venezuela now will never be allowed back as long as I’m president” (paraphrasing).. This is not encouraging businesses!
March 16, 2014 at 8:57 am
That can also fall under the comment of president for life…
i believe that maduros’ time is short. Not by assasination, but just a simple economically driven removal of complete imcompetence. I also believe that different from the chavez years where his existance seemed locked well into the future, the airlines, car manufacturers, future oil projects, etc. will choose to temporarily close shop and wait this out. You can only take a loss for so long, and is maduro so ignorant to think that an airline that makes one flight into Venezuela per day, for example, can’t afford to discontinue operations and write off the current debt owed. If all the airline carriers unifed and discontinued service to Venezuela, maduro would be the first one after only a few weeks to be kissing their ass to please restore operations. I would call maduro’s bluff. As soon as the oportunistas discovered that they couldn’t get out of the country to spend their revolutionary spoils, the shit would hit the fan.
March 15, 2014 at 8:17 am
In the years of the Soviet Union people used to say that if Russia ever invaded the Sahara there would be a shortage of sand within a couple of years. We imported a failed political system, what do you expect? At least our carbon footprint will go ecologically down. ¿have you bought your Iranian bicycle yet?
March 15, 2014 at 8:01 am
I’m amazed that it has taken some people fifteen years to realize that peaceful elections is not the practical solution to dictatorship any more than prayers are the cure for cancer. Cancer is fought with deadly force, surgery and chemotherapy. Dictatorship is a social cancer that needs to be destroyed with deadly force.
March 15, 2014 at 8:21 am
Can you give me a couple of examples? Don’t tell me “Iraq, Afghanistan”.
I think those are not precisely the best models.
March 15, 2014 at 9:37 am
NAZI Germany, Imperial Japan.
March 15, 2014 at 9:47 am
Please, CCs, big big big differences. Don’t compare those regimes with Venezuela’s…not even with Pinochet’s Chile.
March 15, 2014 at 9:57 am
Please Kepler, don’t tell me what to think or what to say. Just disagree with me.
March 15, 2014 at 5:52 pm
Kepler is just an idiot.
March 15, 2014 at 10:18 am
If you want to convert me to your point of view, explain your position, “big difference” is not an adequate explanation. Who knows, you might make more than just one convert.
It is my opinion that any dictator who is ruthless enough can stay in power indefinitely unless deadly force is applied. The USSR fell because Gorbachev was not ruthless. The Berlin wall fell because of bureaucratic mistakes. I would love to see cracks in the Chavista front but they do not yet exists in sufficient measure. That only leaves force or subjugation.
March 15, 2014 at 11:11 am
I believe we are experiencing a neo-dictatorship, or what could very well be the first dictatorship in the 21st century,since at least 2001.
In this age of technology,informatio,social media, smartphones,apps and laptops, you can not judge dictatorships by the standards that have usually been used before.It’s not so easy to just go and mass murder a bunch of people without some kind of leak, it’s not easy to even give an order without having a leak. A concentration camp would be very hard to hide,or the missing people in this day and age. You can’t just put some people in a soccer stadium and execute them.
Maybe in Cuba,North Korea or some in the Middle east and Africa, but in Latinamerica where most countries are a little more developed,i dunno.
March 15, 2014 at 10:15 am
There are examples for and against violent and non-violent methods. Non-violent would be India and violent would be the Cuban Revolution. But do any of these come close to what is currently happening in Venezuela today? You have your opinion and others have theirs.
March 15, 2014 at 10:38 am
I don’t think India is a valid example of freedom by non-violence. By the end of WWII the British Empire was so weak that it could no longer retain the sub-continent. It was strong enough to regain the Falkland Islands.
LOL
March 15, 2014 at 10:41 am
I agree about India and the condition of the British Empire but some on here love to use that as an example of non-violent change.
March 15, 2014 at 1:44 pm
I agree with everything else you said, but I think GB was more than capable of subjugating India.
They simply lost the will to do so.
March 15, 2014 at 10:44 am
I back both, I just dont think this will ever get resolved by electoral means.
March 15, 2014 at 10:56 am
A profound comment. I agree
March 15, 2014 at 11:03 am
When the government controls the money, the media and the voting machines it is impossible to win an election.
March 15, 2014 at 11:28 am
Miguel, I’m neither pacifist nor militarist but a pragmatist. If you can get your freedom by non-violent means I’m all for it but Chavismo relies on force to stay in power.
One of the first acts by Chavez on gaining the presidency was to ban gun permits (porte de armas) to insure that only the regime was armed. The Circulos Bolivarianos now renamed “Colectivos” function the same way as the Italian Black shirts and the German Brown shirts did, not a national but a party affiliated army. In Venezuela, Colectivos are amply backed by police and national guard.
http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=Italian+Black+shirts&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=ctrl&gws_rd=cr&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ei=S3okU7bYL8fKkQf2woGoCg&ved=0CDIQsAQ
http://www.google.com/images?q=German+brown+shirts&client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=ctrl&gws_rd=cr&hl=en&oq=German+brown+shirts&gs_l=img.12..0j0i24.29792.36818.0.39157.12.12.0.0.0.0.236.1505.0j8j2.10.0….0…1ac.1.34.img..9.3.523.eVVpiQekQ4Y
March 15, 2014 at 9:55 am
Not that it’s easy by any means. Syria:
“More than 140,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have fled abroad as refugees in an increasingly sectarian civil war. The conflict began with mass street protests against Assad in March 2011 but turned into an armed insurgency after a violent security crackdown on demonstrators.”
http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-forces-enter-rebel-stronghold-near-lebanese-border-091101952.html
For whatever reason Syria is just not important enough for Western powers and it is left to its own fate unlike Libya which the Western powers helped to liberate. Often Western powers prefer “Our SOB” to run the show under the euphemism “stability” than “messy” democracy. Since Western powers, like everyone else, act in their own perceived self interest, this should not come as a surprise to any intelligent observer. I would love to listen in to the conversations in the White House and the State Department when talk comes around to Venezuela.
Back to Syria, maybe the West prefers a secular Assad to an Islamist regime and it can use its ally israel to bomb dangerous targets like the atomic installation that was bombed a few years ago.
Meanwhile Venezuela suffers bran-drain but it’s not Chavistas leaving.
March 15, 2014 at 1:48 pm
The west only had to supply minimal assistance to the Libyan rebels. The war was already in motion, and the writing was on the wall that Ghaddafi was going to fall.
With Russia backing Assad, that makes for a big difference in Syria.
March 1, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Captain, well written article on your views. Unfortunately, the Chavistas are very lazy and love to be on the government dole. My theory is that Chavez was killed in Cuba and they are the puppet masters of Maduro. I find it interesting that Maduro doesn’t touch Chevron in Venezuela.
March 15, 2014 at 4:54 am
Unfortunately the video you posted is only a photo, not a video.
March 15, 2014 at 5:11 am
It’s a video. I just watched it. Click on it.
March 15, 2014 at 4:28 am
Miguel,
I think blockades are absolutely counter-productive at this stage. I talk to people who don’t live in Caracas’ East and for them, although they are oppos, it’s becoming harder to accept that position.
These guys in Altamira and Northern Valencia-San Diego should stop and students should announce they will be documenting any attack from collectivos.
The volanteo, distribution of flyers, should keep going.
The more long term people think, the faster change will come. They have been acting like they have done since 2002, without planning.
You have also talked on other occasions about how virtually everyone in Venezuela is trying to profit from this unsustainable system.
Well: Venezuelan leaders of the opposition should be talking about that, at least those with some cojones.
March 15, 2014 at 11:50 am
“The volanteo, distribution of flyers, should keep going.” I agree with this 100%. It should also be noted that Maduro yesterday (I think) asked people who support the government to do exactly this.
March 15, 2014 at 5:55 pm
Chavistas have been doing it in Valencia already in the last few days, even in areas where the opposition has a very clear majority.
March 15, 2014 at 1:59 am
Here is the link to Gustavo Coronel’s article “Approaching the Unthinkable”.
http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2014/03/pdvsa-appoaching-unthinkable-llegando.html
March 15, 2014 at 6:58 am
Excellent overview by Gustavo.
While we’ve known for some time that PDVSA is nearly bankrupt it’s nice to see a former manager spell it out.
This certainly explains the lack of currency & the attempts by the government to shift the exchange problems.
One person asked in the comments what else they are liquidating to get cash.
March 16, 2014 at 9:28 am
I don’t see this as catastrophic, after all the imported oil would be re-exportded in the form of a mixture with the heavy crude and PDVSA would get most of the money back (minus some freight and other small incidental costs). Still a great business at $ 100 / barrel, if managed well, but they will probably find a way to screw it up.
March 15, 2014 at 1:41 am
March 17, 2014 at 10:25 pm
Thanks for that. Too good.
March 15, 2014 at 12:37 am
He has violated human rights and the Venezuelan constitution . The people have a right to rebel against tyrany. Art 350
March 15, 2014 at 9:45 am
To the people..: DO SO!! He has broken all of the laws of the constitution..What else do you need?\ OUST HIM!
March 14, 2014 at 11:27 pm
But, Maduro was elected president a slim majority (disputed), therefore, he can do anything he wants. We have to respect democracy.
March 15, 2014 at 1:57 am
Roy…
Please stop the mental masturbation.
In Venezuela we have not a democracy. What we have is, let me spell it out for you: D.I.C.T.A.T.O.R.S.H.I.P.
March 15, 2014 at 1:36 pm
He was joking.
March 15, 2014 at 6:41 am
VJ, Roy was joking.
March 15, 2014 at 10:22 am
Ay dont sink so, coman mamey.
March 15, 2014 at 12:52 pm
If any of those votes were through coersion, threats, blackmail, or assisted they are null…and there are thousands of documented cases that include the above. So many rules of elections were violated that it was a fraudulent election. Using State monies to propagate one candidate and clock the opposition campaigns alone is a violation of electoral processes.
March 17, 2014 at 3:46 pm
THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA!
THERE IS NO RESPECT IN VENEZUELA!