'We loot or we die of hunger': food shortages fuel unrest in Venezuela.
"On the night of 9 January, for example, a hungry mob took just 30 minutes to pick clean a grocery store in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz. By the time owner Luis Felipe Anatael arrived at the bodega he'the opened five months earlier, the looters had hauled away everything from cold cuts to ketchup to the cash registers.
'We are like a bomb': food riots show Venezuela crisis has gone beyond politics "It makes you want to cry," said Anatael in a telephone interview. "I think we are headed for chaos." Evidence for his prediction can be found in towns and cities across Venezuela that have been hit by an outbreak of looting and mob violence. Angry about empty supermarket shelves and soaring prices, some people are breaking into warehouses, ransacking food trucks and invading outlying farms.
During the first 11 days of January the Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict, a Caracas rights group, recorded 107 episodes of looting and several deaths in 19 of Venezuela's 23 states..."
[URL]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/21/venezuela-looting-violence-food-shortages[/URL]
Commenter:
"I think we are headed for chaos. " Sounds like already there. This is what happens when the money is worthless and the free Obamaphones and Obamacare is gone and the welfare EBT cards don't work. Watch out for the FSA aka Free Shxt Army coming for tourists like you! "Sean Penn, Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama were unavailable for comment."
Fat tourists who look like Michael Moore might want to avoid Venezuela. Starving locals might develop a taste for "Long Pig", a traditional African delicacy of either BBQ or Stewed meat.
Digital payment options in Caracas.
Hi all,
I heard that digital payment apps are making strides in Caracas. Notably apps like Tpago, Vippo are mentioned in internet sources. If this is true, it could solve one of the big headaches in traveling to Venezuela. (which is acquiring cash). I would like to hear from anyone on the ground if this is true. Thank you.
P.S.
I've been keeping tabs on Caracas and Venezuela in general hoping to visit one day. I submitted my application for a tourist visa, but the clerk at the consulate heavily hinted not to keep my hopes up. Despite of this I would like to establish contacts on the ground in the event that my visa comes through. Please DM me if you are on the ground and can provide Cash exchange, taxis, or guide service.
Venezuelan Pirates Rule the Most Lawless Market on Earth.
Their industry all but destroyed, former fishermen now run guns one way, [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord131][CodeWord131][/url] another. On the sea with the desperate and ruthless.
Venezuela and the island of Trinidad are separated by only 10 miles of water and bound together by the most lawless market on Earth today. Playing out at sea and on the coasts, it is a roiling arbitrage—of food, [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord131][CodeWord131][/url], weapons, drugs, and women—between the desperate and the profit-minded. Government is absent, bandits are everywhere, and participating can cost you your life. But not participating can also mean death, because the official economy of Venezuela is in a state of collapse, and the people are starving.
On the shore I met Gabriel, a 30-year-old Venezuelan fisherman who was loading a rickety wooden boat with infant formula and [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord131][CodeWord131][/url]. Gabriel still fishes: he'the arrived from Venezuela in the morning with a load of shrimp and sold his catch to waiting buyers. But he was about to become more than a fisherman; this would be his first smuggling run, and he admitted to being frightened. "The pirates take the motors and steal the food of people coming in to Venezuela from Trinidad who want to feed their families," he said. "And it is not just civilians we classify as pirates. The Venezuelan Coast Guard and National Guard are also involved in this. We are more afraid of them than the actual pirates. " Over the past two years, dozens of Venezuelan National Guard members have been arrested for collaborating with smugglers. In a single sweep in September 2015, 50 were rounded up on criminal charges.
As we left the coast of Trinidad, a solitary fisherman stood in his anchored boat. He stared at us while pulling in a net that contained a single silvery fish, maybe the size of his palm. He looked at the flopping fish and tossed it back into the sea, as if it were a bother. I was reminded of a conversation a day earlier with a leader of the local fishing cooperative who told me that fishermen are hired to work as the eyes and ears for narcos and thieves. "They have walkie-talkies and call the bandits when we go out," he said. "If the bandits rob and steal from us, then they get a commission, a percentage. " he said he'the been "taken" four times."
[URL]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-30/venezuelan-pirates-rule-the-most-lawless-market-on-earth[/URL]
If you want to see real live pirates, now's your chance! If you survive the encounter, you might want to stay in Trinidad instead of sailing to Venezuela and the waiting pirates looking to plunder your wallet. . .
Busses from the Colombian Border to Maracaibo and / or Caracas
Does anyone have info on how to get a bus from the Cucuta border crossing / San Cristobal to Maracaibo or Caracas? Is there a website to book tickets? How reliable, safe would it be? Please only post based on personal experience, not fear-mongering from folks who haven't used the bus between the two cities. I already know I'm crazy for even considering it. Thanks!
