Venezuela Protests Broaden, 'Poverty Reduction' in Question

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From: The David Pakman Show

[fasttense]

1. I usually like David

But he has it all wrong on this issue.

Meet Venezuela's Opposition Leader: Front Man for the Oligarchs Sidelined by Hugo Chavez
Leonardo Lopez is the new darling of the West for leading protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
http://www.alternet.org/world/meet-venezuelas-opposition-leader?paging=on

With our US tax dollars going to fund these opposition groups (Obama has a line item in his budget to fund opposition groups and activities in Venezuela), it's hard to believe these protests are nothing more than a tantrum by the upper crust. People like the Koch brothers have also been dump big bucks into anti-Venezuela groups to support the protests.

[MADem]

2. Many of the people in that crowd voted for Hugo Chavez the last time he ran.

There's only so much in terms of inflation (50-60-%) and lack of basic, essential goods that a person can handle. People have to eat, they have to wipe their behinds, and they have to wash their dishes, and they can't do any of that easily because there's no damn chicken, flour, milk and other basic goods on the shelves, no toilet paper, and no dishwashing liquid to be had, without paying usurious prices, in VZ. Never mind just about the worst crime rate in the world, never mind government censorship of television, never mind the government throttling the internet to interfere with communications, it's just absurd, all of it. People have HAD ENOUGH.

This isn't just the "privileged" protesting. This is people from all walks of life, including the POOR.

When "Chavista" governors are saying "Maduro is an idiot, he sucks!" then Maduro has a problem.

This is a very realistic assessment of what's going on. Corruption is rampant in VZ, the economy is in the shitter, and the government LIES. That's the take-away.