Is Venezuela On The Brink Of Civil War?

Max Brooks, The Hill: Could Venezuela be on the brink of a civil war as bloody as Syria?

We Americans are really good at getting sucker-punched. From Pearl Harbor to Sputnik to 9/11 and the Syrian civil war, we constantly ask ourselves, “Hey, how’d that happen, and why didn’t we prepare for it?”

Well, a new fist is hurtling out of the not-too-distant future. It's the Venezuelan civil war.

Recently, a stolen police helicopter attacked the Venezuelan Supreme Court with grenades and automatic weapons. While no one was hurt, the incident should serve as a wake-up call for the entire Western Hemisphere, including the United States. The attack demonstrates a quantum escalation of the hunger-fueled conflict that has consumed the country for close to a year. Hunger is the key word. Hunger is the most basic of human suffering. Remember that rising food prices helped fuel the Arab Spring, which has left the world with a chaotic, fractured, refugee-hemorrhaging Middle East.

Read more ....

Update: Is Venezuela on the verge of civil war? (Francisco Toro, Washington Post).

WNU Editor: I have been covering and studying wars and conflicts for years .... 10 years with this blog. I can only say this .... this is how a country collapse .... this is how civil wars start. Venezuelan President Maduro is now governing against the will of the people, and the government that he leads is not going to back-down or compromise in any way with the opposition. The opposition itself is also now at a point where they do not want to negotiate with President Maduro .... too much blood has been spilled. I have been saying for over a year that the Venezuelan crisis is going to get worse .... and sadly .... I can easily see it spiralling into a situation where today's unrest will be seen as pale in comparison.