Anti-government protesters clash with police during a protest at Altamira square in Caracas March 10, 2014. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Washington Post: U.S. intelligence officials: Venezuela could be headed for collapse
Venezuela, where clashes erupted this week between security forces and demonstrators protesting food shortages, power blackouts and political gridlock, may be headed toward an all-out popular uprising that could lead to the overthrow of its government this year, senior U.S. intelligence officials said.
“You can hear the ice cracking,” an intelligence official said. “You know there’s a crisis coming.”
Disaster is pending in Venezuela at the same time the Obama administration believes that it has vastly improved U.S. standing in Latin America, compared with the days when political and economic turmoil in the hemisphere was blamed, sometimes with reason, on either interference or disregard by Washington.
Read more ....
Update #1: US officials: Venezuelan president's hold on power weakening (AP)
Update #2: Venezuela president declares emergency, cites U.S., domestic 'threats' (Reuters)
WNU Editor: Hugo Chavez and now Nicolás Maduro have been in power since 1999 .... and during this time the Venezuelan government generated approximately $650 billion in revenues from oil sales alone. So the question needs to be asked .... where did all the money go?
4 comments:
Leftists need to become millionaires too even if it means being hypocrites.
US Intellegence has had so nany spectacular failures going back the last five decades or so it's hard to fathom how anyone could take anything these people take seriously. POTUS would be well served to simply ignore such people. During the daily briefing he/she would be best served to put on headphones, turn the music up full blast, and close his or her eyes until such nincompoops are done and have left the room. As for any written reports these nincompoops put out, they could have good use as toilet paper and the renainder would work for nasal drainage.
Then when POTUS and hs/her team want real actionable intellegence that can be used for anything he/she can read this blog and several others while taking the time to read the comments, as some of them are very knowledgeable and much can be learned.
Unfortunately US Intellegence officials cannot be fired for political reasons but POTUS can do us and himself/herself all a favor by sidelining and ignoring these people. US Intelligence is the worst kind of idiots these are the sort who are to stupid and incompetent to realize how stupid and incompetent they really are.
I propose renaming the CIA the CGR. This stands for "Central Group of Retards." The only problem with this is mentally challenged people ard gendrally good people who try very hard to do well and add value to those around them. To compare ghem to the US intellegence community to ghem is an insult to them. I wouldn't want to be compared to such contemptible people.
I've recognized since long before the attacks of 9/11 just how spectacularly incompetent US Intelligence really is. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks I suggested the entire US Intellegence community needed to be dusbanded and rebuilt from scratch.
We could have relied on allies like Israel, Britian, France, and Germany to help us build a competent intelligence service. I would have approached the Russians as well. Had they been willing they could have helped us here and their experience as well as lessons learned from their experinces in Afghanistan could have proved invaluable.
Had we oersued such courses of action perhaps we could have been spared much of what's happened over the last 15 years. Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine come to mind and this barely scratches the surface of the ensuing foolishness. Not only that but we might even have better relations with these nations today than we do now.
So very respectfully I'm highly skeptical of anything "US Intellegence" says. In fact, the current oil price is only temporary. The current Venezuelan government is very likely to be in power long after the United States has ceased to exist. Of course for them stirring up anti-American sentiment has no cost and can only help them and the numb skull "US Intel" opened their big fat mouths!!
Anyone who relies on "US Intel" for their analysis does themselves and anyone depending on them a disservice. Of course like a broken clock being right twice a day perhaps the CIA will get this one right. Time will tell.
So the question needs to be asked .... where did all the money go?
Healthcare, education, subsidized food and fuel for the poor, money and arms for the military, subsidized economic development and jobs programs.
Prior to 1999, all the money went into private accounts in the Caymans.
Jay. I asked an Alberta federal MP the same question a few months ago on where did all of Alberta's oil wealth go .... with the exception of the military and Cayman Islands he said exactly the same thing. He then also bitched on the hundreds of billions of transfer payments to Ottawa and the federal taxes that are on oil .... and why is there no equivalent on Quebec's massive hydro electric trade and business.
Sighhh ... at least Alberta has something to show for it .... no shortages of food/medicine/electricity/etc. to show for it .... nor 700% inflation .... but there has to be a Norwegian model for Alberta on how to keep the wealth for those rainy days instead of spending it. Ditto for Venezuela.
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