By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--January 23, 2018
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This comes via a Mexican newspaper called Excelsior, and it references an event that took place last week.
The video, via Twitter, is only 11 seconds long. The truck carrying the chickens has just rear-ended someone, and as it's stopped to deal with the aftermath of the collision, people in the state of Aragua who've been having trouble finding food swoop in for a score:
Reportan asalto a camiones que transportan comida en Carretera Nacional a la altura de #Cagua y #BellaVista mcpio #Sucre #Aragua un pueblo desesperado con HAMBRE y sin alternativas para superar esta desgracia de régimen #SOSVzla pic.twitter.com/TnyT3p0cld
— Mariela Magallanes (@MariMagallanesC) January 12, 2018
A truck loaded with live chickens was taken yesterday by dozens of people in the middle of the public thoroughfare, in the town of Villa de Cura in the state of Aragua, near Caracas. The newspaper El Nacional reported that the vehicle crashed on the highway and that police and military officials arrived at the site to control the situation. Venezuela has been experiencing shortages of food and medicines for several years, a problem that was accentuated when the country entered a hyperinflationary spiral. Numerous photographs and videos of this event and of another looting that took place on Tuesday night in the city of Barquisimeto , capital of Lara state, circulate on social networks . In this case, the robbery went to a sausage shoplocated in the Patarata urbanization. The event was recorded at night and the cameras of the private establishment recorded the images of the moment when, before some customers, more than 10 hooded men jumped on the counter to take the products from the store.
The authorities did not offer information on these cases, so a balance of damages or detentions is unknown. Also, last Thursday night users on Twitter reported that in Cagua a crowd of people stopped vehicles and trucks on the National Highway looking for food.The incident in Lara involved citizens raiding a local market where they heard sausage was available. They didn't wait for the chance to buy the sausage. They just stole it. There's no defending theft, of course, but that's what you get when an entire nation faces dire shortages of food as a result of government-imposed austerity. By the way, those of us who are sure the Maduro regime can't survive with mass starvation don't get any encouragement from today's column by Mary Anastasia O'Grady in the Wall Street Journal, which argues the regime's support from Cuba, Iran and Russia not only makes its survival likely, but sets the stage for expansion of its murderous ideology:
Pretending to be a civilian democratic government was Phase One of the Bolivarian Revolution, which was Hugo Chávez’s term for constructing a Pan-American socialist tyranny. The dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, supervised and supported by Cuba, Iran, Russia and Syria, has entered Phase Two. Starving Venezuelans and the likes of Pérez are collateral damage in this effort to expand and consolidate an anti-U.S. presence in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba was the launch pad. Venezuela is the first South American satellite. In the first phase of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez knew he wouldn’t always have high oil prices to support his authoritarian rule. But he also knew he wouldn’t always need them.
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It turns out that the self-described disciple of Egyptian socialist Gamal Abdel Nasser and protégé of Fidel Castro was miles ahead of the democratic opposition. While it was petitioning for audits of voter rolls, he was building secret networks with the help of Tehran, Damascus and Hezbollah. He militarized the civilian government and imported Cuban secret police to spy on Venezuelans. He also established Venezuela as a major cocaine-trafficking route. Life in the once-prosperous nation is now officially hell. The minimum monthly wage is 797,510 bolivars. On Thursday that was worth $3.90. There is very little cash in the country, so workers cannot spend the money they earn unless the merchant they are buying from takes debit or credit cards. Transactions that require cash—like taking a bus, buying gasoline or tipping—are often impossible. Hyperinflation and price controls mean dire shortages. Basic medical supplies have disappeared from store shelves. People are dying of treatable diseases . . . No government is this dumb. But liberalizing the economy would end the regime’s total control. Besides, chaos, desperation and violence give it an excuse to crack down harder. A refugee crisis, sparked by hardship, makes it easier for regime agents to infiltrate neighboring countries, expanding the government’s clandestine networks. With the slaughter of Pérez, Venezuelans have been put on notice: The regime has officially abandoned any pretense about democracy and human rights. It took Castro and Nasserists decades to expand their foothold in the Western Hemisphere. They are not about to let go.
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