General Discussion

Wow, thanks for pointing that out!

But seriously. Of course VZ is in dire straights and its people starving and suffering. Around 7 million have fled. It's horrible. What decent human being would NOT want to do what they can to alleviate their suffering? So of course Trump won't.

Many people believe that "stealing" from the rich to give to the poor is wrong. I'm not one of them. The rich became rich by exploiting the poor in the first place, so wealth redistribution is simply righting the wrong.

The uber-rich are still in Venezuela as are the ultra-poor and barrios that always existed, even when Venezuala was "once prosperous" as you seem to believe. Yet the lives of the poor were far better under Chavez than they were under the IMF's punishing austerity crap and even before. After he died and oil crashed, then the embargo and sanctions, it all went to hell. The wages of forming a Petro-State at the expense of manufacturing, agriculture and other vital sectors. But that happened long before Chavez and Maduro who it must be admitted continued on that wrong path. Not that they had much choice either way, it was already baked in. But their ultimate mistake was in thinking they could go up against the Western Empire and its interests.

Lastly, it's pretty naive to think that Venezuela is going to be allowed to choose a "leader of the people" as you put it. Nothing will rise from the ashes of its sovereignty except a right-wing strong-man who will bow down to Trump and whoever else is pulling the strings of the Empire at any given time. Venezuala already had a "man of the people". It will not be allowed to have another one.

See you around.