What do you know about Venezuela?

[Rico]

Hmm well perfect thread for off-topic I thought. Being a native Venezuelan I was wondering how many Venezuelans visited these forums. I also wanted to know if any anyone else knew anything about the current situation there and what was going on with the government. It's a big issue yet it seems many Americans here in Texas don't know anything about it at all.

 

[Pressure]

What you'll learn about the U.S. is that the History courses are centered around either Europe or the U.S.. It's a shame because I would like to learn more about South and Central America. Just curious do you live in Venezuela or do you live elsewhere? Also I've been studying spanish for quite some time now so if ever wanna speak it I'll use the chance to sharpen my skills, I never get a chance to really use them .

 

[blahblahblah]

hmmm...Venezuala. Off the top of my head, I can only think of this (hope it is the right country).

Isn't Venezuala having some sort of oil production problems caused by riots or some sort of dispute and that is disrupting oil shipments?

*crosses fingers and hopes I am right*

BTW, I am from the United States.

 

[Pressure]

I believe there is some oil issues going on there and something about banning foreign currency and imports, I'm not quite sure.

 

[blahblahblah]

copycat.

 

[CyberSh33p]

prettiest girls in the world, judging by miss world pageants

 

[fizzlephox]

I hear they have some nice venezualan food.

 

[Rico]

To answer your question Pressure, yeah, I'm not currently living there although I wish I were even though all this stuff is happening. I live in Dallas, Texas as of right now.

Anyways there are several issues plaguing Venezuela these days, but perhaps the few things you'll hear about it is the Oil situation, but that's old news. Basically what happened is that the people elected a tyrant and put him into office, you see, a lot of Venezuela is made up of the lower class and the middle class is somewhere close to the numbers of the upper class. What he did (Chavez) was appeal to the lower masses with greed and promises of more wealth and basically wanted to take away from the people who had earned their income and give it to the poorer classes. This in itself would not constitute a major problem however, it is a combination of all the issues that make it such a big deal.

When Chavez started to become more and more like a totalitarian communistic ruler (fidel castro) the people started to become tense about their future, and rightly so because the future of Venezuela is indeed very bleak to say the least if Chavez stays in power. Small things lead to big things and everything built up to the point where Venezuela would have no more of it and they started to clamor for his overthrow. This is where things got ugly.

Chavez as you might have guessed, did not like the idea of being voted out of government so what he did was simple. He changed the constitution (idiots voted for it and it passed... good job) and this gave him a lot of power. The Venezuelan constitution was not so different from the american constitution and Venezuela has in fact been democratic in it's form of government for a long time. Anyways he changedt he constitution and he kicked anyone who opposed him out of power and sometimes even jailed them. He clamored for a "war against the bourgeoise" or the middle and upper classes to play the lower class's greed and use it for his own purposes. When people just couldn't stand his oppression anymore (he even censored the press and had some journalists killed) people started to march in protest. There have been hundreds of marches as well as "caserolazos" which are another form of protest againt him, where millions of Venezuelans would march through crowded areas peacefully to protest the government bearing the Venezuelan flag. Chavez, being the lowly scum that he is decided to take revenge on the protestors and started to persecute them. He has ordered military forces (controlled by his corruption) to fire upon innocent bystanders and there were even videos of him and his party and cabinet members taking potshots at innocent protestors from above, killing many innocents.

He was put in jail for a short time and it seemed like it was finally over, however, I have failed to keep up with what happened then and somehow he was released and he regained power. Everyone still opposes his government and people are still trying to free themselves from the tyrannical dictator, however I am saddened to think that the only way to do it will be through either the U.S. government getting involved or by force. The oil situation stemmed from the fact that he wanted to control the oil corporations (PDVZA) and in turn everyone refused to work. He then tried to take an oil tanker to keep it functioning and staffed it with military personnel. Of course, it was a gigantic failure because the military personnel did not know how to operate it. Idiotic choices like that one are present throughout all of what he does...

That's summing it up I think.

 

[fizzlephox]

Good to know....

 

[Pressure]

Do you like the US?

 

[blahblahblah]

Luckily, U.S. politicians have the ambition equivalent to a nuetered dog, so the U.S. will never have to worry about that situation.

I hope Chavez gets kicked out of office an order is resumed in Venezuela.

 

[umop]

I know that it's in the northern central part of South America. I know that one of my old friends was born there. I know that it's next to Columbia. I know that the capital is Caracus. I know that they have a lot of mud slides. I know that it's useless.

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Umm they speak spanish, are based in (south?)America and I think Ive heard of some food types from there wich are special and good.

Anyways I live in Denmark what do u know about us! :-P

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

I have been in Venezuela in 2000 (holiday). At that time IIRC Chavez was already infamous. I remember driving to Caracas and seeing the devastation from the mudslides. I heard that he let the army shoot looters on sight.

Another view is a totally different one, namely the beauty of the country. I went parapenting and saw the Angel Falls (highest waterfalls in the world), slept in the jungle.

Great holiday, sad that this beautiful country is suffering from this regime, affecting the whole economical, political and social situation

 

[Dedalus]

this early all i could think of was Miss Venezuela

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

this early all i could think of was Miss Venezuela

gotta love those caffe con leche peeps

 

[Rico]

I know that it's in the northern central part of South America. I know that one of my old friends was born there. I know that it's next to Columbia. I know that the capital is Caracus. I know that they have a lot of mud slides. I know that it's useless.

Care to explain how it's useless? Last time I checked Venezuela was one of the top oil suppliers in the world.

 

[GhostValkyrie]

Do you like Texas?