Can we prepare for everything?
We never could have imagined…or prepped for…what happened in Venezuela.
In this article, I wanted to analyze my preps, and the nature of the apocalypse we have been forced to face. I don’t know about you, but anything that kicks you out of your place, of your warm bed, your pets, kids, wife, and the rest of your family, for me does not have another better word to describe it.
My comfort bubble was destroyed, my work of an entire life was thrown out by the window, my family insurance full coverage policy is gone with the wind (although with no medications to be had and doctors running away to Argentina and Colombia, it’s not like it was very useful though), and the few preps I had for 4 or 5 months are history now. Of course, they worked pretty well, and we stretched it a little bit, but once the system collapsed, there is nothing else we can do but close the place and bug out to some other place where we can at least buy food.
What happened was something entirely different from what we had prepared for.
I guess that what I mean is, that, within our means, we prepared more or less adequately, but what really happened was something entirely different that we had not prepared for.
We prepared for some of the consequences of turmoil, unrest, riots, crime. We were able to hunker down for a while and able to defend ourselves silently and seriously, without having to leave our haven. The scarcity problems started back there around 2013-2014. Those years were the last time I remember we could buy large amounts of wheat flour, corn flour for arepas (yes, those yellow packages you see people fist fighting each other for on the web), pasta, powdered and UHT packaged milk, rice, and other staples.
An economic collapse this long seemed like something that was entirely out of the question. It was entirely unpredictable. I would have expected a pandemics or a coup d’etat long before this hungry zombie-like scenario.
We knew something disturbing was going to happen sooner or later. We could feel it in the atmosphere…but nothing like this. We never thought it would be impossible to find a battery, or engine oil, or gasoline (Jeez, this was an oil-producing country!!) or that kids were going to be endangered in the very door of their schools. In the worst of our nightmares we could have imagined that one of our rescued cats that we relocated with one of our friends in a barrio was going to suffer a horrendous death (please don’t ask for details).
We never could have imagined that the oil and electricity state companies employees were going to be threatened with imprisonment for treason if they tried to quit their jobs to leave the country. Because THAT IS HAPPENING. When I found about this, I felt a deep sensation of relief as never in my life because I had left. The only similar feeling I can think about, was when my last son was born, and the doctors told me he was just fine, like a champion, and no reasons to worry about.
Under the current situation, being accused of such terrible charges is a complete nightmare. But with the income from the online freelance work, we have been able to at least keep the home running, without the tiny salary that once was more than enough for a good living. Without it…our family would have been condemned to doom, no matter our preps.
So quitting and leaving the country (and my family) behind was one of the choices that have been the hardest in our lives, but the most sound, and the most assertive in the long run. Just by avoiding the potential danger of being (falsely of course) accused of treason and getting in a messy problem, it’s already a huge benefit. I have always given trust to female intuition. When my wife and I discussed about how bad things were going, and the decision for me to leave first, I knew it was her intuition speaking.
We never imagine that cash was going to be another commodity, and that the prices were going to be much different if you tried to pay with debit card instead of cash. If you pay with a debit card, the price will be double than if paid in cash. This is not surprising: the rate of the circulating cash to the non-circulating is deeply distorted. There are people even SELLING the cash: you transfer them one million BsF to their bank accounts, they will give you 500 or 600.000 cash. And that is barely enough for two dozen eggs and some cheese.
In retrospect, what could we have done to prepare for the current situation?
Let’s see.
- A 5 years antibiotics supply, for each family member (please include pets, they could be sick or get wounded too, and we consider them members too), with the assistance of good will, close doctors. This should be considered as an insurance policy; a non-transferable, secret stash of medications for the worst scenario. Cefadroxil, penicillin, and some other similar stuff.
- Diarrhea stopping meds
- Serum
- Needles and tubing
- Surgical gloves
- Breath cover masks, and a couple of reusable syringes that you could sterilize in a small backpack stove or a bonfire in the backyard…
- A solar power array with a small battery pack just for lighting
- A large, buried diesel custom-made aluminum tank with a proper sized generator (there is not too much space left in our place: we live in a subdivision, houses are wall to wall next to each other) with a homemade silencer, and adequately rigged to the wiring of the house for the largest systems, like freezers and air conditioning. Specially designed plastic diesel tanks would have been best as they don’t rust and they are cheap and strong; but the aluminum seemed a better idea because they make it with the size you want, and as the space is limited I would have optimized it. It could have been possible even designing an aesthetically attractive setup, something like a strong wood frame with the tank on top, and with a small hanging plants gardening to obstruct the view of the tank, and wrapping the feeding lines to the generator in ivy.
- Enclosing our garage before the steel rebar disappeared from the white market and the production was destined to the black and grey market. (I hate fencing, it is like living in a birdcage, but this would helped a lot for peace of mind).
- A sun-protected small herb garden in the roof of the small workshop in the back of the house, with spices and medicinal plants. The excess of production (These are the tropics, plants here grow like weeds from one week to another, remember, lots of sun and rain) could be exchanged for some staples.
- Perhaps a chicken coop with a couple of hens. The eggs price has been so inflated this days that a single egg costs more than the minimum wage. A hen produces more than a laborer. Do you remember that stories about the eggs, chocolate, and potatoes acting as currency in the WWII? It is becoming currency here too.
- Perhaps even growing our own sugar cane to squeeze, grind and get what we call here “papelon” (solidified sugar cane juice) for sweetening would be possible in our small front garden
- A couple of corn rows, not the hybrid Monsanto genetically modified crap that needs industrial fertilizer, weed killers and unable to generate seed, but the Amazonic variety: larger production in much smaller time, just needs sun (we have more of it than what we would like) and water.
- Another SUV, with a much taller ground clearance, larger tires, diesel-powered with no electronics and a huge front fender. Something heavy, strong, black or dark grey, windows covered by that plastic clear bullet proof sheeting, able to plow a pack of thugs in motorcycles out of the way without a blink.
Yes, I know how it sounds. But I don’t care after some things I have known these MFs can do, like a guy being shot 30 meters from the person who told me the story by a criminal in a motorcycle, and me and my family almost being stopped in a desert road at 8pm in the middle of nowhere with a log in the middle of the way (I just push it to the floorboard, and we jumped over it).
There is no possible way to have stockpiled pasta and other dry goods for such a long period without buying another house, or building a second floor adding about 60 or 70 square meters to the house. And even so it would have been risky: someone watching in the wrong moment and we would have been in deep trouble, accused of “hoarding” and yadda yadda (insert your favorite “socialist” excuse for stealing private property here). Our goods seized, the 10% sold in public to “the poor people” for the government-owned newspapers and the 90% stolen by you-know-who.
Self-supplying proteins with our current setup in a subdivision is much harder. There is not too much space. Rabbits and other rodents are out of the question as the flies their poop attract here in the tropics are a problem, and economically not viable by the way. The cleaning products and food are too expensive and, as you must suppose, scarce. The people in country cottages already will be much better prepared than we nerdy, espresso-addicted, city dwellers.
In this light, it seems that the best choices would have been moving out to a cottage, don’t you think?
It’s not that easy.
Our laws don’t approve home schooling; driving one hour from the country cottage to the school everyday is out of the question because getting car parts and consumables is nearly impossible, or too expensive.
Crime is getting increasingly nasty. A cottage with crops and cattle is an easy target for hungry people that was too lazy and ignorant to prepare themselves when they could. Getting a tool like a shotgun for defense just would bring more problems. Thugs see this as an attraction too big to resist. Since weapons and ammo are scarce, they are a real treasure. They know where you are, and they are organized and have the proper contacts to be able to put you in a very difficult position.
It would have been much worse to take down something trying to mess with you in your own home, as they never steal alone. The castle laws won’t apply, unless the deceased has been a real pain in the backside and a dangerous criminal in his life, and if that’s the case, chances are that a lot of his friends are similar. A second “visit”, perhaps with more prepared thugs will come, because they know you will be able to do whatever you need and won’t take horse manure from anyone.
Or even worse, LEOs will prosecute the cottage owner because they are a ‘threat to the government.’ They will empty the house of whatever is inside as possible “products of a crime” and the owner will be unable to prove the contrary from inside the jail. I have known from several people who had to pay monthly to the guerrilla militia the products that they preferred to sell at a loss.
Having kids to take care of and provide for, the lone wolf option is not really an option. If the BOL is not far away enough or well hidden enough, sooner or later someone will discover it. The best option is to band together with some other families, each in their cottage, and build a communications network reliable enough and with good backup, in case some packs try to attack. I know this would be much easier for USA people, as their access to all kind of defense tools is much better.
Personal note:
I want to thank to those who have sent assistance, from the bottom of my heart. However, building the needed amount has been slow: I have still to buy some mattresses, a small table with chairs, and some other stuff, despite sending some money home weekly for food as well, before getting the tickets to get my people out. I had to leave all of my gear back at home, and starting from zero.
I appreciate your comments, even if I have not responded to most of them yet, but I promise you I will submit a special article with the answers to all your questions, as they are very interesting and I know you will be interested in a lot of what I have to say about those topics!
Thanks, my dear readers, and see you next week!
Clearly the collapse of the Venezuelan economy is tragic event that was created by many things but largely do to the dependence on the exports of oil and other resources without proper husbanding of the financially gained benefits.
No country looks forward to this but I fear the U.S. and Canadian economy are following the same path despite the B.S. that is being spread about how good things are as nothing could be further from the truth and the people are not prepared for the worst. Your suggestions on how to survive are excellent and those with land and with some hands on experience their chances of survival are greater. Recent predictions by Dr Ron Paul former American presidential candidate indicated the he suspects “the stuff” is about to hit the fan with the stock market and federal reserve.
Liberalism is a societal disease: one that is often fatal.
I value Mr. Martinez insights, observations and thank him for sharing what it is he and his family are going through.
I take notes accordingly.
Same with Selcos posts/interviews.
However, I do not think they would be a one for one if something similar were to happen here in the US.
There would be similarities.
And there would be differences.
What those are is anyones, at most, a WAG.
Is my retiree neighbors, who they make us cookies every Christmas, and we give them some of our home grown pork, or if she needs me to come over and “be tall” and get something for her from the attic, turn into MZBs overnight and come to kill us for our things?
In a word, no.
But I would not doubt the level of savagery, and violence once the JIT big box stores, or local grocery stores run out of food.
Nor do I doubt there will be some, but not all, who will use their positions of authority to take from others to keep themselves or their families fed and safe (e.g. Hurricane Katrina).
As both Mr. Martinez and Selco point out, the lone wolf, bunker bunny is a non-starter. Safety in numbers is the reality. A group or community with diverse skill sets, access to land, fresh water, and the ability to defend that land has a better chance at survival than the single Rambo, tacti-cool wannabe.
One of the memes I see on various prepper sites is the idea of hordes of inner city gang members will come swarming out of the cities, into the country side and murder all us country bumpkins. Currently I am reading that the latest school shooting wacko’s rifle jammed, he did not have formal training and could not clear the jam, ending his shooting spree. Inner city gang members are in the same category. They are all big and bad in their turf, doing drive by shootings that are more likely to kill innocent bystanders then they are the rival gang member they are trying to kill. But in a stand up fight? Against people who shoot on a regular basis? Many been brought up with firearms as soon as they were as tall as the rifle? Not so much.
Another meme: hordes of useless eaters will come out of the cities like locusts, and devour everything in their path. Have you seen the average American? I was at Wall-mart the other day. Can you see those people, average Americans, doing any such thing? Me neither. Heck, they have a hard enough time waddling from their cars to the front doors of Wall-mart without getting winded.
Ultimately what would a real SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, really look like? Here in the USA?
Who knows.
I know what works for me and mine.
Keep prepping.
Thank you for keeping us posted on the events and your progress. What a blessing for the family to have parents that work together and tried to prepare for the event that no one wants to believe can happen. We will send PayPal this evening and pray for you and your family!
Dear Jerald,
Much appreciated!. After the recent events with my kiddo getting sick, the prayers of all the readers have been very effective, if you read my last article you will understand why.
God Bless you and send you many blessings for you and your beloved ones,
Stay safe,
Jose.-
Dear Marine and people, please check this footage and you will see how bad things are getting down here.
https://youtu.be/HcKIX-91hTE
Thanks for your kind words!. I write everything with lots of consideration for all of you fellow preppers worldwide, and will keep doing it as much as I can with my best possible advice.
Stay safe, and may God bless all of us.
I have a relative who lives in the country, about one hour’s drive from the nearest city. She says the urban teens regularly make that drive and cruise up and down the country lanes looking for likely houses to invade and rob. She and her neighbors will see carloads of unfamiliar young men cruising the dirt and gravel FM (farm-to-market) roads. This is happening right now, no SHTF situation required. To presume all city dwellers are too fat and unfit to drive out to the country and overwhelm the residents of a farmhouse is not realistic.
imho, the worse thing to happen to farm houses is not yet on the radar of many people.
In the USA, Obama made the Census get the GPS coordinates of every farm house, not just to their mail box, but, literally to their front door.
Considering how porous computer security is in the USA’s Federal government, do you think China and Russia do not have copies too of every farm address in the USA? Think if they land troops here they will not know where every major farm is to support their own troops?
Hillary Clinton (watch the tape – looks like a product placement) said POTUS has only 4 minutes to react to a nuclear strike with it’s own. So, with her saying that, how much of a warning will the next attack (aka Pearl Harbor) be given the USA, two minutes?
If Russia/China attacked the USA at harvest or sowing time, and dropped a conventional cruise missile on each farm house and barn at 5 am on the 50 biggest farms and then one on each capitol state building and governor’s mansion, for 200 submarine cruise missiles launched off the coasts, you would kill the USA (and most of the world’s population to boot). You would not need a nuclear attack to kill 2/3 of the population, they would starve to death!
There are about 50 families that travel farm to farm across the USA harvesting the big crops with big equipment, you kill those 50 families, you kill most of the population of the USA with starvation.
I can see people coming out of the USA cities to TRY to steal from small farms, but, the reality is those smaller farmers will hide their own supplies and likely kill all or most of those that attack them. Someone who shoots a crow off a stalk of corn is likely to be more likely to kill a target 300 feet away then a gang banger in a Honda Civic with AK-47 or 9mm.
Like always, I think your biggest threat is from your OWN government (aka Waco, TX) or those that invade, not from your fellow citizens because the governments will bring armor and stand off weapons (such as catapults in the past) to bear on their walled prepper enemies.
I bet the godless prepper Sodomites thought they were safe in their 2 foot thick stone walls along with a sea for their back, that provided food and security, they were not. The sea is dead now and so are they.
imho, When you prep it is good to keep both things in mind.
GOD’s written word does say cities are turned basically into hell holes and gangs travel city to city taking (raping) what they want. Seeing how we have access to cars, bikes, and paved roads, I can see people traveling to farms too. Though I think most will end up dying in that pursuit. What ever passes as the government in control will likely protect the farms for themselves, be it the USA, Russia, or China.
What does North Korea do when it can not feed it’s army? Send them to the farms to take what they want, from a people that have nothing and no weapons to oppose them.
Not true. I personally headed a team in the last US Census. Not sure where you supposedly got your information but never took ANY gps for anyone. Thanks
> Not sure where you supposedly got your information
Supposedly you worked for the census, yet, missed the fact the USPS mail carriers had to drive to each farm house door (vs. the mail box drop) to deliver the census forms and mark the GPS coordinates of each farm? I hope you are not a SEIU sheeple speaking out of turn?
Anyway, I wrote on 2010-03-23 (seven years ago…), how the census was spending $3,000,000,000 on hand held devices GPS devices that did not work correctly and the company connected with them …
Since you are a census expert, answer this for the edification of those involved …
Regarding the 2010 census multi-colored logo graphic, who designed it and why were these letters spelled out?
“seura”
Let us see if you know the truth and/or can actually tell it …
FWIW, All you have to do is google “census data gps farms”
How do you think they build these maps???
https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resources/Ag_Atlas_Maps/Farms/
I think it was the History Channel, even they did a series of shows on the top families that go farm to farm harvesting crops for those larger farms that can not afford the millions of dollars in equipment.
I stand by this statement, that if you were to kill these families and destroy their equipment a HUGE part of the USA population would starve to death.
FWIW: I encourage you to jump down into the rabbit hole concerning the Census and for whom you were actually working and what the goals were.
Anyone that preps should do it with water and seed storage in mind.
a great example of why your preps are only a hedge until your self sufficiency plan kicks in – no matter what the initial igniter SHTF may be – other tangent SHTFs can compound and join into a larger & longer & serious SHTF … in so many words – don’t sit on your azz and preps thinking that this minor SHTF will only last a month and your 6 month supply won’t even be dented ….
I worked with a man in the states that was from Venezuela.in 2007 . His family was still there and he said how quick things got bad then as government took over businesses. They closed up only paper factory there and could no longer get toilet paper. This situation has been a long process and it can happen before you know it.
Great article.
Thank you both Mr. Martinez and Selco for sharing with us. The true experience is where it is at. Everything you have noted has been recorded for the future and is being acted on. I have been getting ready for forty years. Your thoughts about storing medical items are very real and necessary. One reason I became a medical practitioner. One comment is that chickens make a lot of noise and would be investigated. Remember to not ever give-up.
Thank you,
Ridgerunner
Dear readers,
Thanks for all your comments. I appreciate a lot your support, and knowing that you find our life experience valuable really encourages me to keep writing . I hope that you never go through some similar situation, though.
I have read some of the Selco´s post and there is a lot of similarities, trust me. Perhaps we have it easier, our weather allows growing a bunch of stuff, but the problems is that the roving bands will take everything they can. Please check the video (it is a very crude one, people killing a cow with stones and sticks,not exactly for sensible people) in my response to 1srtMarineJarHead below, that is what we have been experiencing. The press note is in Spanish but the video talks by itself.
Jose, I saw that this article had been cross-posted to another website (www.shtfplan.com), and I read the outrageous, insulting comments that a number of the readers there have posted in response. Jose, please be aware that the American prepper community is afflicted with “keyboard commandos” who collect guns, talk tough, and do nothing to restore freedom in the most repressive cities and states of the United States. The Americans who call you a coward for wanting to emigrate, who exhort you to start a resistance, are the very same Americans who have emigrated to rural states like Idaho and Montana, where they cower and hide and do nothing to restore freedom in their own country. Until these folks are “leading the resistance” in New York or California, there is no reason to pay any attention to their tough talk.
Agreed 100%
> and do nothing to restore freedom in their own country
As previously noted, I sold my 30 acre SHTF property in Maine, and decided to try to help my local city neighbors instead.
Out of all my neighbors, I could convince none of my ‘Christian” neighbors to prepare. Kroger and Walmart are right down the street … Do you know whose two backyards I tilled? A war refugee family from Iraq (Kurds) and a family from Nepal. The Kurds, I taught BOTH the boys and girls how to use power tools and how to chop down trees and make firewood. I managed to get one of the girls to learn before she turned 13 (after that they study to become a wife). The Kurds garden died because no one weeded and water it as needed …
As for gardens, the family from Nepal was the best! After I tilled it, I gave them (heirloom) seeds to plant and not only that, they got seeds from Nepal and planted their own native crops. They even installed a 330 gallon water tank like I have at my house. I can not say I was too crazy about the taste of some of their native greens, but, they had food from their little 20×30 plot for 5-6 months.
I use to have a martial arts instructor that use to say “It is better to be a live chicken then a dead hero”, nothing wrong with fleeing a war zone. Jesus’s family fled to save their own lives (and Jesus).
Dear people,
I could not care less about what some lazy fat-butted with overweight could say about me leaving the country.
If I were 15 years younger, with better health and without any responsibilities, the story to tell to my grandsons would be MUCH different. Trust me. This bling bling-toting generation simply lacks of the needed speed of mind and skills to do something significant to make their voices being heard in unconventional ways.
I have never had military training, but that would not be necessary with the proper skills and a little creativity….
But can´t say much more. We are slaves of the things we say.
I used to work for a company that builds flow meters. We sold hundreds of millions of dollars of them to the Venezuelan government on credit. In the past this had not been a problem but around 2012 the writing (that Venezuela was screwed) was on the wall from my point of view.
First, the Chavez government defaulted on the loans we had given them (failed to pay the installments on the units they had when they were due). This was something the company was willing to deal with since, with 95% market share, their oil companies had no where else to turn to. However, we cut ties with and wrote off their government completely when the next step occurred.
These big flow meters start at $800,000USD and go up from there. They are, bar none, the world’s best. They’re made mostly from stainless steel but some have some more expensive tube sets inside them that cost more. The Chavez government, were they smart, would have pumped more oil and paid us back but instead they sent out workers with acetylene torches to cut up the units. Now, they could have sold each one used for something like $400,000-$500,000USD but instead they destroyed them for scrap. However they didn’t get any scrap because cutting up stainless with a torch RUINS the stainless. So they took units they could have either used to make money or sold used to get money and turned them into worthless piles of junk.
At that point we said “no mas”. Company police became to not do business with Venezuela AT ALL.
That’s what socialism gets you.
What an amazing story, I never knew that about the meters. Though with Soros promoting the off shore drilling with mobile rigs, taken from the gulf of Mexico, you have to wonder if the destruction was not planned ahead of time to profit certain individuals?
You might read the Book of Enoch and the Apocrypha to learn how the WHOLE world descends into total civil war at the end times. It does tell you one place to flee to avoid the chaos. This is what Isa 4 references
Isaiah 4:1 (KJV)
4 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Luke 17
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
The “reproach” and the days of Noe, reference the fallen angels having sex with women, which will happen again after no more babies are being born (born again through the water) and there is hardly any men left, lost to civil war. Once that happens, crops will rot in the fields because no one will be left to pick them.
If that is far fetched, imagine the whole middle of the USA filled with wheat and corn, and having no harvesters to harvest them. imho, The WHOLE thing about GMO/sterile seeds is NOT profit, it is Satan trying to undo the word of GOD by not having food crops that can reproduce by nature alone. Satan fails in the attempt.
You might know what curse the USA is under (whore of Babylon founded by free masons) before you decide to flee here:
““Curse of the Zeroes” – the Book of Judgments”
http://www.obamasucks.tv/docs/curse-of-the-zeroes-part0.pdf
When the USA goes down, the whole world goes down into starvation. Under Obama they even sent a free 50,000 tons of grain to an Arab country. The elite know it is coming and have built places hidden in the rocks (under the mountains), and will support Satan who they worship.
It is just the common man that will be cannon fodder and there is basically nothing you can do about it, because the future events are already written, all you can do is avoid it as much as possible by believing and loving Jesus.
Plus, take some common sense approaches and be ready to flee to where GOD takes you, because there is no rapture and you are sure to be stuck here until Satan gets his time in as the false messiah.
I’m not sure when the curse of zeros was written, but before the Supreme Court ruled that sodomite marriage was “legal” in all 50 states, Missouri voted that marriage was between one man and one woman. It is not on the list on page 42. There has been no vote to overturn that law on the state level. I was curious if that list is current with the Supreme Court ruling, or if that list was from before the ruling. If it’s not before, how do those states keep from legally certifying sodomite marriages? Please understand that I am not trying to challenge what you are saying, just curious how you obtained your list. Thank you.
There is one very helpful prepper item that Jose has overlooked; perhaps because he is unaware of it.
The CPT program originated by the Oathkeepers which was inspired by the Green Berets. It shows you how to pull your neighborhood together like ‘circling the the wagons’, one might say, or neighborhood watch with teeth. This would make it harder for groups of marauders to successfully attack.
I used to live in Venezuela. Love the place. So sorry to hear about Oscar Perez’s death.
Dear StormN,
No, I have not overlooked it, I was leaving it for other article :). I am entirely aware of this. But I would like to comment briefly about what happens with some neighbors in my area. Despite being a middle class subdivision, there are some socialist party supporters.
This said, it is not easy to organize a self defense network, because those same neighbors are betraying people that they see as “hoarders” or a “threat” to the “revolution”…just for a bag of groceries. I have seen it. Just like in the worst repressive period in Cuba or Russia. We have very silently organized with our closer neighbors a small, strategically distributed in the subdivision, grid of self-defense minded neighbors, but keep it underground. One of the socialist party supporters a few years ago was pushing the seizing of the home of an elder lady, while she was living in Caracas because of medical treatment unavailable locally. She had to rent her house to pay for living and medical expenses in Caracas, to the brother of this varmint(she did not know these guys were that dishonest), and they were just this close to force her to sell her house to this tenant(uncle hugo submitted bills to over protect the tenant, prioritizing over the private property protected by our Constitution. The neighbors banded together and submitted him a formal complain to make him leave the house.
And we made him now he was undesirable in the subdivision with some other tricks and deeds. I myself let my dog poop right in his front door lots of times. LOL.
Finally the guy leaved for good, and the poor lady came back to her house. She is pretty nice, and did not had any family. She sold her house and went to live in Caracas…I hope she is doing fine. God Bless her.
Jose, Que tal,
Hace muchos anos, cuando jovencito you vivia cerca de Punto Fijo en Cardon que era un ‘campo’ del la compania Shell.
You probably cannot afford to subscribe and watch the survival course of Selco: One Year in Hell. In a nutshell, his Balkan city was under siege under constant sniper fire for a year. Him and his family were not prepared at all. His circumstances where horrific but he and his family survived. He admits to having some behavior problems adjusting after it was all over. This is not unusual. Still, it was easy for him to get a hold of AK-47s and ammunition. You and your neighbors need those, Jose. You and your good neighbors need to learn how to use them. Be discreet of course.
There are people you can approach who can, at some point, get them for you for the right ‘price’ or barter item. But take a lot of time being careful in completing any transaction. I suggest that you make it clear that you only need them to protect yourself and your family.
When the time and situation is right, you may need to do what is necessary to force out the ‘bad’ neighbors: communists, sexually depraved, thieves, etc. from you neighborhood. Be careful and aware(if not already) that the sexually depraved may have started acting out their terrible fantasies.
It is too easy for me to say, but I would not spend too much time dreaming of leaving the little patch of earth that God is allowing you and your family to live on.
To have peace(of mind), Jose, you need to be prepared for war (violence).
It is great to heard that most of the people who has been to Venezuela understands how much we love it, those honored with being born there.
StormN, your words are truly encouraging, and I appreciate a lot your message. Yes, this is something that has been discussed before I left. Still is, but under this commie scheme, is incredibly hard to find such tools. But a strong advantage I have is that I am an engineer, and I know how to calculate maximum pressures, I know about more than basic chemistry, where to take a piece and ask for machining a thread on it…and how to put together common devices. I know you see where I am going with this… :). It is only that I have to be extra careful. We are slaved by those things we say, but we own that ones that are kept for ourselves.
I hope some day to be able to invite you some seafood empanadas in Punto Fijo, if you are lucky enough to come back once this is over.
Cheers.!
> We are slaved by those things we say, but we own that ones that are kept for ourselves.
OPSEC
Thank you, Jose, for what you have written. You make some incredibly valid points here. This also goes very well with the recent article about “being the gray man.” And of course, it’s very important to think of all the unexpected ways you might need to prep! One of those way s is to get out of a Socialist country if you live in one. Unfortunately, I can’t get out of my Socialist country – the US – because I can’t get a passport. For those readers who say it’s not Socialist, I say, give it time. It’s going in that direction at full throttle.
Quick story: A neighbor of mine once came into my house and the pantry door happened to be open. She said “oh, I know where I’m going if there’s a disaster!” No, no she’s not – not unless she contributed ahead of time. So friends, keep your pantry doors closed!
All my best goes to your family and I’ll try to send another contribution when I can. It may not be much, but if we all work together…!