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Venezuela Tag

General Motors has closed down its Venezuela plant after the socialist country seized the plant on Wednesday. Officials swiped the company's "production facilities and car stock," which forced GM to lay off 2,700 workers. The closure comes only a day after Venezuela erupted in more protests that have left at least three dead. President Nicolas Maduro's policies have left people jobless and without food. Bloomberg reported:
GM’s factory was “unexpectedly taken by the public authorities, preventing normal operations,” according to an emailed statement. The Detroit-based automaker said it “strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights.”

The economic crisis in Venezuela canaptly be described as a centralized control crisis, a crisis socialist and communist states know and for some reason insist on repeating.  Over and over.  We've seen the reports on shortages ranging from toilet paper to food, and rather than risk a revolution that would topple government, the Venezuelan government has decided that it will ease up on price controls on food and other essentials (like toilet paper). NPR, in October of last year, wrote about the problems with Venezuela's price controls and the firm grip the government had its citizens access to food.
For Caracas housewife Anny Valero, today is grocery day — whether she likes it or not. Here's why: It's Monday, and if Valero doesn't go now, she'll have to wait four more days to buy food. In Venezuela, government supermarkets sell price-controlled food, making them far cheaper than private stores. But Valero explains that people are allowed in state-run supermarkets just two days per week, based on their ID card numbers. The system is designed to prevent shoppers from buying more than they need and then reselling goods on the black market at a huge markup.

Not only has Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura's socialist policies starved people to death, but he has also brought back malaria. The New York Times has reported that desperate times have forced people to seek out gold in watery mines infested with mosquitos, which has led to the malaria resurgence because socialism ruined the economy and the country lacks medicine.

The Colombian and Venezuelan governments have agreed to partially open their border as Venezuelans need food and basic goods for survival. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro closed the border last year to prevent smuggling, but with his people literally starving to death due to his socialist policies, he had to change course.

Here at Li, we've been covering the failure of socialism unfolding in Venezuela.  Toilet paper, sugar, and food shortages have resulted in violence and thus far unsuccessful attempts to oust President Nicolas Maduro.  With the country's citizens tired, hungry, and angry, Maduro has landed on a "solution" that would make Pol Pot proud:  forced labor. CNN reports:
In a vaguely-worded decree, Venezuelan officials indicated that public and private sector employees could be forced to work in the country's fields for at least 60-day periods, which may be extended "if circumstances merit." . . . .  President Nicolas Maduro is using his executive powers to declare a state of economic emergency. By using a decree, he can legally circumvent Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly -- the Congress -- which is staunchly against all of Maduro's actions.

The food shortages in Venezuela have continued to worsen to the point where thousands of people are fleeing the country to Colombia if they're able. FOX News Latino reported:
In just 12 hours, more than 35K Venezuelans cross Colombian border to buy food, medicine In just 12 hours, more than 35,000 Venezuelans crossed the border into Colombia on Sunday to buy food and medicines in the city of Cucuta, when the Venezuelan government agreed to opened border crossings for one day only.

The biggest supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's programs have turned against him since they now suffer from the food shortages affecting the rest of the country. Party officials stressed to The London Times that Maduro's distribution system has "broken down and that conditions are ripe for civil war." He hoped the system would end the long lines "and black marketeers at state-subsidised supermarkets." Riots have exploded in these areas:
What is striking is that the riots — sometimes half a dozen a day in the capital — are in working-class slums far from the middle-class areas where support for the opposition has traditionally been strongest. The opposition, which controls congress, is trying to push through a referendum to remove Mr Maduro but that will take time and hungry people are more concerned about procuring food. To put an end to the vast queues and black marketeers the government recently started distributing food directly to local community councils. In an area of Antímano, one of the largest slums, a council spokeswoman said that the first delivery was supposed to arrive in April but only half of it arrived. To avoid riots — and accusations that it had stolen the missing food bags — the council did not give out any supplies. Last month none arrived. This month’s supply has still not come and now there is no food in the supermarkets either.

Most people can do without certain luxuries and conveniences for a significant amount of time. Temporary power and internet outages due to storms are common in many parts of America and people get through it. Food on the other hand, is a different story. As any student of history can tell you, when people can't find food things get ugly pretty fast. Venezuela is quickly entering that danger zone. Reuters reports:
'We want food!', Venezuelans cry at protest near presidency Venezuelan security forces fired teargas at protesters chanting "We want food!" near Caracas' presidential palace on Thursday, the latest street violence in the crisis-hit OPEC nation.

The socialist paradise of Venezuela is falling apart as panicked citizens suffer through shortages of food, toilet paper, electricity and other necessities. Bernie Sanders was recently interviewed on Univision and the host asked Bernie for his thoughts on the situation. Once again, leave it to someone in foreign media to ask a question no one in American journalism has thought to ask. Sanders clearly didn't like where the interview was going. NewsBusters reported:
Bernie Hits Bump on Univision: Speechless on Socialism’s Failures The Democrats’ socialist candidate for President of the United States, Bernie Sanders, was seriously tripped up this week in an interview with Univision’s León Krauze.