They say nothing lasts forever. But sometimes, I know there are situations that seem to be eternal, and that is how it has seemed during the collapse of Venezuela.
The agony of the Venezuelan induced crisis is about to produce an output. How this results, it will depend on how much external assistance is required.
Many things have disappeared as the military and government continue to control and subjugate the population.
Self-Defense
Venezuelans do not have weaponry at home. The right to defend our own lives was seized in 2014 under threat of 25 years of jail for those who don´t give their guns. Those who agreed to the registering of their guns had to give them for “ballistic registration” and they were never given back their weapons.
Please note that the gun culture was never as strong in our country as in the USA or other countries. It was just not as common. Most of our society came from the war-devastated Europe and had an intrinsic fear of guns. Perhaps they had their reasons, though.
These days, there are no gun shops, no ammo available other than for the military and “law” enforcement. What were once well-supplied gunshops with lots of varieties of defense tools, all kind of ammunition, accessories and tons of other stuff, have become sporting goods shops to prevent going out of business. Most of them sell as well accessories for the LEOs and NGs: boots, leg holders, MOLLE vests, bulletproof vests with the official forces logos, riot helmets. Go figure. But the civilians don´t get a chance to defend themselves.
Money
The daily struggle has been these last few weeks intensifying.
The price increases are no longer bi-weekly. They are daily increases.
Prices are different if you pay with cash, or via debit card or interbank transfer. Remember that old saying that says cash is king? It became especially true…even under the hyperinflation rate. Cash prices are half of what you would pay with debit or transfer.
Of course, that will work until the payment systems fall apart. With the currency control, the spare parts and electronic equipment prices have skyrocketed, and the systems are wearing out at an accelerated rate without any hope to be replaced. I have mentioned this disaster in my social network profiles, as being a post-collapse stage, and the people living in the debris, without even noticing it.
The salaries, obviously, have remained the same, especially those of the state workers. Therefore, there are plenty of workers who have just quit via email after leaving the country without looking back. There are “bonuses” and other government handouts (only available for those with the “Carnet of the Patria” that is used as a blackmail mechanism and for fraud in the elections) that instead of solving the problem makes it worse.
The government has driven to bankruptcy over 8000 companies all over the country. This is serious business.
Utilities
The situation with the electrical power crisis is becoming a point of no return. The mafia gangsters know that, after food accessibility, the access to energy is one of the major ways to control the population. They have been using military strategies against the civilian population, not just in terms of repressive techniques, but cutting the supply lines.
The lack of a reliable electrical power supply affects the water supply. As a result, now people in the major cities are not just struggling for food. They have now an intermittent water service. Most of them live in places where they don’t have access to space enough for installing a tank, like small apartments in the nearby smaller, “bedroom” cities. Another remarkable negative aspect is the propane supply. It has completely taken over by the mafias.
This problem with electricity makes the banks and ATMs work at 20% of their capacity. The cash available to each user is limited, rationed. Even if you have millions, the daily quota is barely able to pay for a ride on the bus, not even to take a cab.
In some places, the power is limited to 2 hours a day. Not even in the special period in Cuba was there a similar power rationing. There has been proof that one of the “revolutionary” governors is running a warehouse filled with over 11000 Bitcoin mining machines, and this is one of the reasons for the power rationing in the Zulia state. Go figure.
The lack of the investment in the main infrastructure is monumental. Since Maduro arrived, it seems all the money went to someone else’s pocket, but the maintenance of the power grids was never done. Neither the main generator of that which was once the engine of our economy: the oil industry.
The actual balance sheet of this corporation is a joke. I was in a 25 person group. There are only 3 remaining, who can’t leave because they don’t have any money, nor some way to find it. It is a shame because these are responsible family heads, not the usual joker who used to laugh when I mentioned the need for prepping and having the papers ready to fly away. We are now scattered to the 4 cardinal points of South America and Europe.
Most of us are specialists, so many have been lucky to find jobs in the line of work they were carrying along. The amount of specialists, specialized laborers, experienced technicians that have been forced to migrate is so large, that there is no other output. The power grid is collapsing slowly, but its paralyzation is inevitable.
The politicians and I mean both sides of this apocalyptic equation, simply can’t accept this reality. They lack the needed vision. For this guys, the future is just the day after today. Their concept of tomorrow is just as limited and narrow, as big is their greed and lust for power and control of people´s life.
Food
My wife’s testimony is heartbreaking. She has been struggling until last week with the food scarcity. Her cooking skills worked a lot for creating attractive meals for the kids. Mostly for the younger one, indeed…to be honest, the older one is able to eat stuff unknown in this solar system. Not that this is something bad for a survivor.
The amount of people without a proper nutrition is already getting bigger. My wife mentioned that neighbors and acquaintances with an awesome weight loss are surprising. She has run into some friends after some time without seeing them…and she has found herself in troubles to recognize them.
The prices, as expected in a collapsed, hyperinflationary economy, are rising daily. The only opportunity for survival is receiving an external steady supply of foreign currency, and even this is not sufficient.
Even if you have money enough, you will have to go from place to place to try to buy some food. There is no guarantee of being able to find food available: the mafias take over the food in large amounts, purchasing in bulk and leaving the shelves empty. The cash money supply is as well kidnapped by the mafias. They sell 1.000.000 bolivars cash but you have to transfer 1.500.000 Bolivars to the accounts of the mafia. The (now) non legitimate government says this is an “Economical warfare” and they keep blaming the US, the EU, the aliens, and the astronomical conjunctions, or the climate change. This is why no one believes in them anymore.
Transportation
Why do I say the collapse already happened? Because you can’t buy things even if you have the money.
Because now the capability to repair a car or motorcycle is nonexistent. And if you don’t have a bicycle, or some small, gasoline efficient vehicle, dirt cheap and easy to repair, be prepared to walk a lot. My huge cruising motorcycle is now in storage until further notice. I would rather own a small Vespa 250, that have even a spare tire, and carry a passenger with some luggage. This is one of the items I will buy once we are back for the rebuilding. With the gas prices that I expect to be set in the new economy after the recovery, this is going to be a need. My SUV is busted. The engine repairing is on the range of the 1600-1800$. Therefore, I am not repairing anything in the near future.
No concerns here. The mafias are controlling the engine oil, batteries and tires supply, and having an operational car being 4500 kms far away, there is no point on that other than leaving a car in good shape to my dad. But being my brother without a car…well, you get the picture. He is my brother and I love him but I worked way too hard to keep that SUV in good shape.
Leaving was the only option.
I think many of those with some military training reading this will agree with my comment about how are being used military strategies with our civilian population. The reasons are plenty. They have killed people. They know that the international justice is after them and it is just a matter of time before they have to run. They know they have endangered their very own families, in their blindness and immeasurable greed.
They try to cover and silence everyone who is opposed to their plans.
But finally, my family is here, and in good shape. My younger son is under a normal weight for his size, he is happy, and that is what really matters. Thanks to all of those who have found useful our bitter experience and have contributed willingly with some very needed assistance.
It is a journey that I would not wish even to my worst enemy, indeed.
God bless us all, people.
If it ever happens in the US, the first thing the government will do is declare Martial Law, which means, no one can carry a weapon, limit food, fuel.
and the second thing that will happen is that every cop or military person will be shedding their uniforms after the first wave get shot down in the streets.
that’s the reality. god help those in the cities if that ever happens.
@name
I do not think you are too far off.
I have a number of LEO friends. They know if something truly catastrophic were to happen here in the states, martial law enacted, they would have to worry everytime they walked out the door of their homes. They would have to worry about their spouses. They would have to worry about their kids.
They live in our communities. Their jobs are stressful enough. Add martial law to the mix, I could see a number of them either not obeying orders, or just walking away.
Would you blame them?
The government does not have the resources to implement martial law nation-wide. They may for the major metro areas. Many in law enforcement would simply quit and walk away knowing they have to live in the same communities they would be expected to shut down and control, and that they and their families would be subject to retribution at anytime. The government would, I believe, shut off utilities and food deliveries to those areas refusing to comply.
there’ll be an interim period after the chaos starts where the badge and uniform will still mean something – as long as he’s backed up by a deputized posse of local friends & neighbors – WROL won’t reign everywhere – the good guys with the right tools will make sure of that ….
I work with a lot of the local LEO and EMS folks here though my CERT and ham RACES involvement. Based upon the side conversations during drills and the like it is understood that their families come first. In a true SHTF event they will do what they can until they can’t, then head for home like the rest of us.
How the Globalists and control freaks deal with that one is to bring in enforcers from outside the area. They didn’t use Iraqis to kick Iraqi butt. They used the American military. Police in America, when bussed to a location not their own, had a much greater chance of beating in skulls. This is how the psychology works. You don’t have a problem acting up when you’re not in your own neighborhood. This means, the armed American population will need to be prepared both physically and psychologically to deal with troops or police who are outsiders. American or otherwise.
That happened here. National Guards from the other side of the country were deployed in Caracas and the major cities. This act of getting personnel outside of their known territories and not seeing any known faces is an automatic switch to a war setup. There were rumors about cubans, nicaraguans, bolivians and even convicts receiving NG uniforms, weaponry and armor, and sent to the demonstrations to kill people. Having lived here over 40 years I trust in this unproven rumors 100%, because they are capable of that and much more. With the 127 death toll, I don´t have any doubt about it. When I read about someone saying “grab a gun and start shooting to the MFs” I can´t avoid smile (I used to get mad but I understand now that people who has not traveled the world believes that all things are just like they have at home) . Someone doing that without a HUGE supporting net for going underground would be toasted in a couple of days. It could be done, though, for a while. But we would need lots of ammo, move fast, and hit hard to those who deserve a good bullet to the forehead, indeed. It will happen eventually, though. Or perhaps with other tools like machetes and forks. A platoon of 50 armed NGs have nothing to do with 500 angry people armed with machetes in a narrow street. They will be vulture lunch before they can get rid of their armor to run faster. But people is getting weaker and weaker. Good news is that many Venezuelans are kind of gossipers by nature 🙂 . Therefore my OPSEC has been so careful. No one in my job knew exactly my degree of preparedness, until the moment I quit my job and said my boss I was not coming back, just as a courtesy for him being so kind.
Dear Marine, it is happening now. Lots of military personnel are not just leaving, they are escaping! desperately of the thugs and criminals that conform a lot of the middle commands. There are lots of reports, too bad they are in Spanish but I am sure someone digs long enough will be able to see just the surface of what has been happening. Pompeo and Pence are now taking the threat more seriously: this guys have given Venezuelan passport to Islamist extremists. I refused to believe initially some reports…but I believe they could be true. One of the many things I started to criticize about uncle Hugo and made my career sink, was the close ties with the Iranian government. I never liked the way the Arabs behave with the ladies, nor the general iron fist over their own people. But uncle Hugo used to hit his wife badly, so, they have the same fur.
Once the officers start to see things going really bad, most of them are likely to abandon and get home to take care of their families. And those prepper-oriented will head for their BOL without looking back.
A lot can be learned from your accounts in Venezuela. It mirrors almost the same thing that occurred in the USA when Prohibition and the crash of the stock market in 1929. Unfortunately, 98% of Americans don’t even have a clue as to the hardships the people had to endure. The major difference is everything that they had experienced didn’t have any major and new technology attached to it. They don’t remember standing in long bread lines hope for one meal. Or losing your home and forced to move somewhere only to be chased off and forced to move again. Then there is living off the land. The land can only support only so many at one time. Again, it comes down to who owns the land.
Over 70 % of Americans in 1929 then didn’t have electricity, a phones, a cars, or radio. Venezuela, on the other hand, is a country that is both rural and modernized. It is the modernization of the country that prevents it to regaining its original stance in the world. It is the rural ways of doing things that has kept the people alive. But it is the greed of the Government, law enforcers and military and mafias that prevent the country from coming back out of the darkness and despair.
It will take a strong Government and those that will support it to stop the acts of greed and monopolies on specific crucial supplies and reopen the supplies lines, food lines, and commerce. In short, it will take an act of faith and cooperation of all the people to work together to get things running again.
Countries all over the world and watching and learning how Venezuela acts and treats its own people. They will put in certain procedures and or policies to prevent an undesirable effects in their own country. If the citizenry turns against the Government; the Government will have installed countermeasures to prevent the same thing that has happened to Venezuela to happen to them even if it means killing the population or putting them into camps, concentration camps or (FEMA CAMPS). Like cattle, people will be segregated into a localized location until needed or destroyed. In any case, they will be rendered harmless and placed out of the way until needed. If they become a strain on resources; they will make excellent fertilizer.
Might the problem be a STRONG GOVERNMENT…..as I see it ALL governments are the problem…..since all want power and control…even the USA……
One thing that comes to mind here in the states is the Deep State ! They are working with one thing in mind and that is taking over this government but most of the general public just won’t believe it and refuse to believe that it could happen here. A closer look at what is going on in Venezuela will convince you that it could very well happenhere and most probably is right now. Most won’t even know it. Obama has set up FEMA camps a long time ago.. We have seen activity on the highways that seems very strange, and there has been a lot of coverage of the caskets that are stored and for what purpose ! There is a lot going on right now. Also the left is using the kids and the school shootings to work at getting rid of the guns and the children and many parents have no clue that it is even happening. We need to pay attention and make sure we vote in every election. Pay very close attention to Venezuela and watch for the signs right here at home.
J. G. Martinez D.,
I hope you are able to be reunited with your family soon.
So sorry to hear this is happening in Venezuela.
Take care!
KY Mom – Jose’s family has JUST arrived from Venezuela this week. They are together again 🙂
Very happy to hear Jose is reunited with his family! 🙂
That is very sweet, thanks you. When I went to look for them in the airport with my mother in law and sister in law, and my young son came running and hugged me, with his teddy bear in hand, in front of almost 100 persons, he burst in tears and did not wanted to let me go. That was a moment. Nothing will can justify ever those tears.
Thanks to all of you who could make this possible, from the bottom of my heart.
A truly sobering article.
I am curious, was jose also able to rescue his dog and cats?
I know some will scoff at this question, but he mentioned them in his posts so I know they meant a lot to his family.
How was jose able to feed and care for them during this crisis?
Glad to hear jose got his family out – we all can learn much from his experience.
I visited Venezuela in 1989 and have been stunned and amazed to read how things have devolved.
It could happen in the USA. the more you think it can’t, the more likely it will…
Hello adminuser.
Yes, the three of them means a LOT for us, our old granny Leona, almost blind and def but who still smiles and licks us while playing with her.
The Osita, Spanish for little bear, (she used to look like those adorable furry creatures of the movie The Empire Strikes Back when she was a puppy) but with a caustic mood, who woke up early morning with me so she could receive a good dose of love while I made my coffee, and everyone else was sleeping(that was the only time of the day she would come close to me). And the little Mily, a tabby grey, who is not particularly smart, and very shy, but she loves my younger son to the point she would call to his bedroom door at nights for a place to sleep. The family joke is her IQ.
A good friend of us who is stuck there with a diabetic son and no passport, (and a sadistic ex husband who won’t give her the authorization to get their kid out of the country) is taking care of them meanwhile. She has the keys of our home, and she will be sent biweekly an allowance for the furry kids food and some cleaning, and we will help her to get medicines for her kid and make a parcel from here, it looks like there is a company who travels by land and they don’t through the main customs in Caracas where most of the corrupted workers are. She will use our kitchen and appliances like fridge and microwave meanwhile, because she lives in another subdivision in a single room with her kid. My dad is going there as well, to check once a month that everything is good.
There is a lot of abandoned dogs and cats, and you can not imagine how that hurts us. Many people seems to think that as the cat is able to hunt they will survive, but the truth is that they need the persons who took care of them. I have seen this happening, and it breaks my heart. My wife relocated a new white and yellow little fellow we named James Blond. to a single old lady whose dog had died recently, in a neighboring subdivision, about 4 months ago. He just appeared in our front door, and was so kind and lovely that she just could not leave him outside and adopted him. After he gained some weight, it was not easy to find him a good home. But that lady is a good person too and she needed company. We can not have them here, for the moment. This is a one bedroom apartment and there are 6 adults (including an “adopted” friend of us who was getting a hard beating there) and our young kid. You can get the picture. Perhaps in the future we will be able to bring them, once our conditions are better.
We are not giving away our little furry family to anyone who we don’t know well. Good thing is, my brother who loves cats (just as much as the tattooed guy of that TV show how deals with cats with an attitude) just made friendship with Osita, and perhaps in the future he could take them with him to my parents home where they will be much better. Our friend goes just at night, stays with them for a while but she has to go home later. We chat with her every couple of days via Facebook. I just hope to see alive my old Leona again. She is 17 years old now, and despite being in good health I am afraid being alone will make her feel lonely.
All of our friends are saying that the city seems to be slowly dying. It is impressive to read that from different people. The bubbling oil business that made the city prosperous and alive is not there anymore. It is getting slowly a ghost town.
Another neighbor, a nice elder fellow, mentions that he misses the rumble of my bike every early morning…he says that noise made his heart beat faster, and feel alive, and he is now feeling older and older without it. Jeez.
Good thing is, that my wife will find a job anytime soon and will take a huge load off my shoulders. I have working a lot to put food in the table, and now deserve a little relief.
God bless you all, people!. Cheers!
I was in Caracas in April 2002 and in Puerto La Cruz the following December when Chavez fired most of the PdVsa employees. Shortly thereafter my business was expropriated. In the years since, I have watched the slow downward spiral. There is not a day that goes by that I dont think of my former employees, friends, and neighbors and what they’re going through. Worse yet is in 2002, it wasnt hard to see where Venezuela was headed. Now the country is there.
Thank you for the beautiful piece you wrote. I am so glad you are all safe and hope for a change in Valenzuela for all the people there. What grief, to live through the wreck of your country….
Has anyone considered that trump might use the current medical crisis as an excuse to declare MARTIAL LAW?
Who’d you vote for in 2016?