One of my former employees who came to the US from Venezuela called me to join her and her husband for dinner. At dinner she thanked me for my company assisting her and her husband become American citizens after 10 years.

During the December 2016 automotive Christmas shutdown, they flew back to Venezuela to visit her family for the first time in 3 years. I asked her husband if it were really as bad as we see on the news with all the empty shelves and 5 hour lines.

He said that it is bad. The last time they were there 3 years ago, shelves were partially full but that you needed a lot of Bolivar or USD to buy stuff. This time in December 2016 the shelves are empty. No amount of money can buy what doesn't exist.

One day they were at a local shopping mall when there were a series of gunshots. Everyone ran for cover. One of the shopkeepers waved them into their store where the steel door was rolled down and chained shut. After a hour some of the men rolled the door up and peeked from below. The place was swarming with cops. There was a gang hit and both sides opened up. A dozen people were killed or injured. That night on the news there was not a mention of the event. There were plenty of stories of shootings in Chicago, New York and Miami.

Black market items are approximately 4x government prices.  

My employee's family has formed the habit of buying broken iPhones as decoys. My employee's sister was robbed a gunpoint three times in two weeks. She gives the robbers the broken iPhone. I don't have any pics but I've seen her picture. She's lucky they only took her iPhone.

Remember the days when we used to play baseball outside until the streetlights come on? Well over there they also go inside when the lights come on because only bad guys (crooks and corrupt cops) come out at night.

So apparently socialism is working just fine in Venezuela.

Came here expecting a cuisine critic . . .    :)

Part of the problem is that Chavez mismanaged the country. When the country was flush with oil money he didn't invest that money into revenue producing industries, and so this is where they are at today.

Opposed to a fake Venezuelan? 

A second wallet with old cards and just enough walking around cash for a few hours is an old trick when visiting shitholes, the busted smart phone is an interesting new twist. 

There was this article that one US dollar could get a lot, including picking up a street prostitute. That was last year.
I read a comment by a liberal who said all of Hugo's socialists programs are not the reason for their current financial problems, but it is the fault of bad politicians embezzling money.

In other words "they just didn't do it right".  His polices are the DIRECT cause of all this and it happens every damn time.  He kicked the farmers off and took the land to give "to the people".  Well turns out the people aren't farmers and still can't grow shit.  No grow, no food.

It's fascinating to learn of what he did and how in just 15 years destroyed the nation, less than one generation.

I didn't even bother responding.
He was a pro-Hillary Clinton voter, which told me enough about how he viewed all of Hugo's socialists' programs. 

Venebabwe...

TC

So where did all the money go?

When I visited in '93 from a cruise we bought a small coffee and a small can of beer with a dollar in Caracas and told them to keep the change. Nuts. Went to a really nice glass blowing factory up in the mountains. Nice people in general. 

Wow!  real Venezuelans ! I mean that is pretty cool.  Is there a shortage of real Venezuelans?

I am not an expert at this, but I would guess Hugo Chavez's and his cronies Swiss bank accounts

Hugo Chavez's daughter is this richest person in Venezuela, coincidence ????? If someone would airdrop a few thousand liberators in to the hungry masses I wonder what would happen.

Gee, who'd could have seen gun control coming?

The socialist leader of Venezuela announced in a speech to regime loyalists his plan to arm hundreds of thousands of supporters after a years-long campaign to confiscate civilian-owned guns.

"A gun for every militiaman!" Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said to uniformed militia members outside the presidential palace, Fox News reported on Tuesday. The Bolivarian militias, created by Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez, already number in the hundreds of thousands and are being used to supplement the regime's armed forces. Maduro is boosting the number of armed supporters in hopes of keeping control over the country from what he labels "imperialist aggression."

The arming of Maduro's supporters comes five years after Venezuela's socialist regime outlawed the commercial sale and civilian ownership of firearms. Only the military, police, and groups like security companies can buy guns and only directly from one state-run arms company under the law passed in 2012, according to the BBC. The country recently doubled down on its gun ban through a combination of gun buybacks and confiscations in the summer of 2016.

"We are going to bring disarmament and peace," Interior Minister Nestor Reverol told Reuters during one confiscation event.

BBC - Venezuela crisis: Teenager and woman shot dead at anti-government protests

YUP......If Hillary had won the election we would have seen......

The arming of Maduro's Hillary Clinton's supporters comes five years after Venezuela's after the democrat's socialist regime outlawed the commercial sale and civilian ownership of firearms. Only the military, police, and groups like security companies can buy guns and only directly from one state-run arms company under the law passed in 2012 on January 20, 2017, according to the BBC. The country recently doubled down on its gun ban through a combination of gun buybacks and confiscations in the summer of 2016 January 2017.

"We are going to bring disarmament and peace," Interior Minister Nestor Reverol Huma Abedin told Reuters during one confiscation event.

Aloha, Mark

Never been done before!  This is totally a new approach. Share this history with any libtards. Our founders were genius in knowing the evils of man.

Well everybody is a Venezuelan now.

Everyone gets a passport

Well he was a bus driver so it's not like he wasn't qualified.

I think he once stayed at a Holiday Inn too.

V.I.N.O.s

Anybody remember when he got elected?  I member. I member this is very bad.

I was on vacation and met a couple from Venezuela. They said they were getting the fuck out. I member that election.  Hope they got the fuck out. That was in 99 I think.