Venezuela moves swiftly against opposition

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has used the military, legislative and judicial power consolidated during 15 years of socialist rule in a sudden series of blows against opponents who have spent more than a month protesting in the streets, knocking down their barricades and throwing dissident leaders in jail.

Thursday dawned with two more opposition politicians behind bars, one of them sentenced to more than 10 months in prison. And pro-government lawmakers had already started trying to jail another outspoken critic as well, moving to strip an opposition congresswoman of her legislative immunity from prosecution.

Maduro has been warning his rivals for weeks that they could soon meet the same fate as opposition hardliner Leopoldo Lopez, who was jailed on charges related to the Feb. 12 protests that initiated the wave of unrest, which has so far led to at least 28 deaths, most of them after Lopez was arrested.

San Diego Mayor Enzo Scarano was removed from his post by the Supreme Court, arrested and on the same day sent to begin a 10 ½-month prison term for failing to heed a court order to have protesters' barricades removed from the streets of his city.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-moves-swiftly-against-opposition-201114779.html

[Pterodactyl]

1. Maduro is an ass.

[delta17]

2. Arrested and sentenced on the same day, huh...

Screw due process and all that liberal nonsense. Sheriff Joe would be proud.

[dreamstst]

38. There's more to it.

Following an eight hour hearing, the sentence was ordered by the Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ) due to the mayor’s failure to comply with a Supreme Court ruling ordering him to take down street barricades in the area under his jurisdiction. The local police chief was also jailed for the same reason.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10510

[delta17]

48. I still disagree with what they did.

10.5 months for ignoring a ruling is extreme. And a hearing isn't the same as a trial. I know other countries have different legal systems, but I'm glad I don't live there.

[hrmjustin]

3. Arrested and sentenced on the same day!

There goes the rule of law!

[dreamstst]

39. Swift justice.

There was an 8 hour hearing. The mayor and chief of police were arrested for failure to obey a supreme court order.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10510

[hrmjustin]

40. Welcome to du and it is scary.

[MADem]

4. Yeah, THAT's the way to make people "not pissed off" anymore.

Protests continued on Thursday, when police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a student-called protest of several thousand people in Caracas. Some of those demonstrating against the arrests of the mayors threw objects at riot police. There were no injuries reported.

The stupid fool is arresting the wrong leaders, too. Of course, he's KILLING the right ones--the students on the barricades.

[mecherosegarden]

5. Lot of tear gas used by the GNB

Or bullets to the head, that works for Maduro.


[link:|

[another_liberal]

6. Our covert agents won't find the government of Venezuela as easy to overthrow as Ukraine's was.

And their allies, the wealthy indigenous elite of Venezuela, will have to fall back and regroup for some time to come. It's abundantly clear that Maduro has learned from Yanukovich's mistakes.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Yes indeed. nt

[7962]

9. Yes, kill and arrest all who oppose! Jail without trial! What a hero!

Didnt we all worry that Bush was going to do just this type of thing not too many years ago? And declare martial law?
But its all those evil right-wingers and CIA agents in VZ, so I guess its OK, huh?

[another_liberal]

11. If thousands of Tea Party radicals . . .

Would your reaction be the same way if thousands of Tea Party radicals shut down whole neighborhoods of Washington D. C. with barricades manned by violent thugs, and President Obama ordered the National Guard to restore order?

[Zorra]

14. Exactly nt

[joshcryer]

20. The mayors wouldn't be fucking arrested.

This is absurd beyond belief. The American government would not arrest mayors or governors because the situation was out of their control. It is completely absurd to argue that. If that happened the President would be impeached.

[madokie]

27. The only thing we know is being fed to us by the very people who would like to see a change

You think for a moment that what you read here about what is going on in Venezuela is true. I don't and I'm not a conspiratorial nut by anyones measure.
Do you not realize that most of our press is owned by the very people who would like to see Venezuela go back to the way it was before Chavez when our and GBs large corporations ran things.

[joshcryer]

30. When has a President ever arrested a mayor for not containing protests?

Are you kidding me?

It is so absurd it is a joke. There is no comparison.

Don't pretend to lecture me.

[hack89]

23. Would Obama arrest, try and imprison the DC mayor in a single day?

if he did, would you support it?

[7962]

25. I think if the US had the problems VZ does, there'd be a LOT of people in the streets

from all different walks of life. The tea partiers dont have a corner on protesting. Weak analogy

[Adrahil]

31. Well..

If people were getting arrested and convicted on the SAME DAY, I'd be pretty suspicious.

[Zorra]

13. The Venezuelan government has a lot of experience in defending itself from fascists over

the past 15 years.

Hopefully, the RW opposition teabaggers just ended any chances of their winning the next Presidential election with this ill advised coup attempt.

[dreamstst]

46. Indeed.

I'm surprised to see how much opposition there is to the Venezuelan government in this thread. Of course, I am just a newbie. Does this reflect overall opinion on this site?

[TBF]

52. I support the government of Venezuela -

but I am one of the few.

[Archae]

16. Maduro doesn't *NEED* any imaginary "covert agents" against him.

He's royally fucking things up just fine on his own.

[another_liberal]

18. Does Maduro give orders to the wealthy Venezuelan elites?

You know who I mean, the big time businessmen and women who have been hoarding things like food, consumer goods (and toilet paper). Those are the people who control what is (or isn't) imported into the country, as well as where it is stored and how much of it is distributed to outlets where the majority of Venezuelans can (or can't) buy it. Those are the people our big oil corporations and their CIA helpers are using to disrupt life in what is supposed to be treated as an independent and sovereign nation.

Don't blame President Maduro for the shortages and supply bottlenecks in Venezuela's economy. Theirs is not a "command" style economy, and he can not just order the business sector to do what he wants them to do.

[joshcryer]

21. Price controls have had only one outcome in the history of the planet.

Blaming some phantom does not change the fact that they cause shortages.

[Adrahil]

33. Correct, price controls NEVER work....

... and the the chickens are coming home to roost given the incredibly clumsy and inept handling of the economy by the Chavistas.

You can shovel money at supporters for a while by gutting the economy, but to make it work in the long term, you actually have to build a sustainable economy.

The Chavistas have essentially stripped the country bare, and have left infrastructure to languish. They have installed no viable alternative for production of essential goods, and their currency is almost worthless. Yet the same cast of characters here will supprt these morons, and will continue to do so until Venezuela is just another example of a mishandled, ham-handed attempt at populist socialism without any genuinely executable long-term plan.

[dreamstst]

45. Price controls worked in the US in World War II.

Just saying.

[Adrahil]

49. Ah... but....

that was only for a few years, and it was not maintained indefinitely. The Chavistas are what.... 15 years into the Bolivarian Revolution? That's almost 4 times the length of WWII, and the industries involved are seeing no benefit into maintaining such an approach indefinitely. I mean, why in the world would foreign companies maintain investment and production when their assets can be seized and nationalized, or price controlled beyond any reasonable hope at profit without any hope of relief? No matter how socially responsible the company, at some point your only option is to pull stakes and pull out before it's too late.

[uncommonlink]

50. That's not true.

It's all a Corporate/CIA inspired plot, I know, I've heard it said here.
Just in case this is needed.

[dreamstst]

42. Good post.

Venezuela is under Corporate/CIA attack, just like Cuba and Chile were.

[uncommonlink]

43. You think this swift justice is a good thing?

How about if it were in the US? Would you still agree with it?

BTW, got any proof that Venezuela is under Corporate/CIA attack?

[joshcryer]

19. The street protests will continue, indefinitely.

This is a joke. Arresting a mayor for not cracking down on protest? Absurd.

[Iliyah]

7. This one I'm puzzled by. Why is the opposition so pissed?

I've always read that Venezuela was an ideal place since it had a good health care system and other systems that, as I read it, was good for all its people.

[7962]

10. Where have you been?

[mwrguy]

12. Oligarchs and counterrevolutionaries spread dissent. Many are paid agents.

Same old story.

[Archae]

15. Horse shit.

The crime rate is soaring.

As is inflation.

Maduro had his cronies give him unilateral powers of decree, you can see how well that worked in Zimbabwe.

If Maduro was a right-winger, his fan club here would be yelling for his head on a platter.

But since he's (supposedly) a leftist, he can do no wrong and gets whatever he wants, and *ALL* his opponents are fascists!

Like I said, no wonder right-wingers are laughing at the left.

[imthevicar]

51. The Same NGO's That "freed the Ukraine."

Hard at work, What fools are we to believe in Change. Same as it ever was!

[ChangoLoa]

17. Inflation rate is the highest in the world, there's no milk, flour, cooking oil in the shops, crime

is among the highest in the world, among other problems.

OTOH, health care system is way below the US (which is already low) in the WHO rankings.
http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/

[joshcryer]

22. It's a bunch of dumb kids letting their frustrations vent.

The problem is Maduro, unlike Chavez, is cracking down on them. Basic necessities like toilet paper and flour or milk are hard to come by. Under Chavez whenever there was a shortage, he'd go on a cadena, dismiss anyone protesting, and it'd go away. Under Maduro he cracks down.

[hack89]

24. Skyrocketing violent crime, shortages of basic food goods and high inflation. nt

[Adrahil]

35. rampant inflation, chronic shortages, especially of food...

... crumbling infrastructure, major production facilities drastically reducing operations (Ford) or shutting down altogether (Toyota) because of a lack of hard currency and a precipitous drop in demand, the government refuses to pay it's legal debts an obligations leading to a further reduction in commercial services (airlines).....

Yeah, sounds like a workers paradise.

You can only raid the coffers for so long. The Chavistas have done all of that that they can. They've long since have been cutting into meat.

[Nye Bevan]

53. I know, right? Nothing wrong with using newspaper instead of toilet paper (nt)

[bitchkitty]

54. Because they lost. n/t

[sufrommich]

26. I honestly don't understand how anyone on the

left defends actions like this. It plays right into the stereotype that the left will defend totalitarian regimes as long as they spout leftist platitudes. Maduro is a thug,regardless of which "side" he's on.

[COLGATE4]

29. So long as Maduro continues to spout

his meaningless chatter about the success of the grand 'bolivarian revolution' they will continue their dreamy-eyed infatuation with him and his cronies, regardless of the actual effect on the country they are unfortunately in charge of. They have way too much invested in their fantasy that Maduro and company are the saviors of the 'common man' to actually look at the indices which show that Venezuela is economically swirling the bowl. Unfortunately for the people of Venezuela, Maduro and cronies are not only thugs, but they are also spectacularly incompetent in running an economy. That an oil-rich country like Venezuela should now have to issue (electronic) ration cards for basic staples once a week should be so shocking as to even penetrate their cocoon of self-congratulatory admiration for the 'revolution' but, as recent studies have shown, when people who are ideologically fixated are presented with facts that challenge their beliefs, they respond by doubling down.

[hack89]

28. Maduro has no way to fix the economy - he and VZ are screwed

regardless of how successful they are in suppressing dissent in the short term.

Emergency decrees and suspension of the constitution are next. The odds of another election are getting dimmer.

[ripcord]

32. An election would just be a US plot to remove Maduro

[Adrahil]

36. I suspect someone forgot the sarcasm smilie.... at least I hope so... NT

[uncommonlink]

37. I hope that's all it was,

but lately, who the hell knows.

[ripcord]

44. I thought the sarcasm was implied

I guess I forgot the subject and how absurd some of the defense of Maduro is, sorry.

[uncommonlink]

47. No problem.

I kinda thought so, but nowadays, who knows?
I'll just go ahead and delete that post and all will be good.