A prison on fire with people trapped inside is a metaphor for the socialist nation Venezuela has become under Chavez first and now Maduro. People are starving and the borders are closed to prevent people from fleeing to safety or bring food into the country if they live close enough to a border.
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This article felt to me like an insidious attack on VZ in general, the type of article that has historically been published prior to our (& other) governments' invasions, attacks, or regime change maneuvers...so that the public feels, "they were jerks anyway"
The aspects of this article giving rise to this feeling include attacks on/criticisms of its prisons system without comparisons to similar problems in either in other Latin American countries nor the US. (The propaganda parts include this sentence extrapolating on riots that had occurred in '13: "prompted Venezuela to create a ministry JUST to handle overcrowded prisons". The implication is that the situation was SO bad, that the ministry had but a single goal...rather than that they were actually trying to deal with this aspect of the prison situation.
"Long operated extortion rackets with impunity". "A celebration within a police station". "Conjugal visits". extortion is a common situation within most Latin American prisons given that we are dealing with populations including experienced drug dealers who've learned alternatives to kindly open aired market centers' trading. Conjugal visits and parties are also commonly allowed; the implication here, though, those should not be allowed...that the harsh models in the US should be followed. Look up the figures for death rates in US prisons that have risen -- with more suicide, drug and alcohol deaths, look up the overcrowding here. Without context, we can demonize!
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As far as natural resources endowment, Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In the second half of last century, the country was an island of growth, prosperity and political stability in a revolutionary Latin America.
Since 1998 and without a bloody civil war Syrian-style, democracy was slowly destroyed by politics. There are no winners, only losers.
Venezuela of Chavez/Maduro is exhibiting A of a country in which voters were tricked to elect a con politician disguised as the 'Savior' and 'Protector of the poor working-class'.
An important conclusion from Venezuela's tragic hell on earth case. It can happen anywhere in other countries of the hemisphere.
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Venezuela would not be in this condition if the citizens had guns.
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Agonizing, terrible! To be trapped inside an inferno of smoke & fire = worst scenario of slow , torturous death or survive an incomprehensible aftermath: whether be house, natural disaster, 9/11, incarceration centers, etc.. So sad for All --inclusive of the ones battling ferocious fires... :’(
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Castro? Keep blaming Castro for everything that it goes wrong with the left in Latin America? Is also Castro's fault for the right winged governments disastrous policies of Honduras, Haiti. The poorest countries in the hemisphere by far.
The fact is Latin American countries have high levels of corruption, a culture and history not in the tradition in anglo America law or philosophy no John Stuart Mill, nor a Magna Carta, Bill of Rights... ( now watch the NYT readers go nuts calling me a white racist ) So guess what, a system that as no standards to even question and no consequences.
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The genius who wrote "all men are created equal" raped slaves. Think about that.
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"Dozens perished in the smoke and flames, screaming for help.
Yet the pain didn’t end there. Witnesses said that grieving relatives who had come were sprayed with tear gas by security forces who tried to disperse them."
An instant snapshot of the insanity infecting the ruling politics of Venezuela.
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"An instant snapshot of the insanity infecting the ruling politics of Venezuela."
Another example of a failed political philosophy, Socialism.
No doubt many of the unhappy people were happy when they were voting for Chavez and his give away programs and ignored the lack of basic freedoms under his dictatorial administration.
But there is no longer anything to give and times are harder than at any time in their lives and the life of the nation. There is less freedom than ever and it has to be endured without food and medicine and a government that is accountable to no one. Many will tell you they'd vote for Chavez again because he isn't being held accountable for for the deterioration of their country and lives.
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Venezuela is ruled by a criminal gang of politicians and military officers relying on armed thugs to beat up, extort, and kill innocent people. The rulers make money from the drug trade and corruption. Starvation, massive unemployment, and brutality have driven hundreds of thousands to flee the country Most of the rest are barely surviving. It's a hole in the map of South America where there used to be a country. Venezuela's neighbors won't intervene with military force to overthrow the corrupt criminals responsible for the suffering. The US under Trump is hardly the right country to apply military force. But it doesn't even provide leadership in one of the great human tragedies of history. China and Russia keep afloat the Venezuelan regime, and the international community should put pressure on them to help reach some solution.
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This kind of treatment is just not acceptable. How do we even begin to help?
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Venezuelans didn't learn from the Cuban experience. They elected Chavez, a populist and a demagogue, and a close friend of Fidel Castro. They are now paying the consequences.
We also didn't learn from the history of autocratic regimes, and more than 60 million Americans voted for the present occupant of the White House. So, we should not be surprised what we are seeing now in our country. There is no doubt, worse things are yet to come. Perhaps, we deserve them like the Venezuelans.
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Well Venezuela is a nightmare of a dictatorship with a failing economy and various plagues gaining strength every week, as the food runs out. The people who were tear gassed should count themselves lucky they weren't just slaughtered with machine guns. Because that is coming, there is no real stopping the fall of Venezuela into complete barbarism.
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Absolutely tragic. As an ex-prisoner, prison abolitionist and someone on the Left, I am appalled. The direction Venezuela has taken under Maduro is quite unacceptable. Where is the Left Opposition to his authoritarian regime? This fire is emblematic of atrocious prison and jail conditions throughout Venezuela. The UN must issue a strong statement against all nations that fail to protect those being detained, from Venezuela to Russia, from the Ukraine to the USA.
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"The UN must issue a strong statement against all nations that fail to protect those being detained, from Venezuela to Russia, from the Ukraine to the USA."
Yes, words from the UN will solve the problem. Meanwhile Rohingya refugees are starving, White farmers in South Africa are being murdered, and numerous other injustices are taking place around the world. Meanwhile the UN delegates enjoy their fancy apartments in Manhattan and dine at the city's finest restaurants while ignoring parking regulations and accruing millions of dollars in parking tickets that they don't have to pay.
Is there a more worthless organization anywhere?
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Between the abominations revealed today in the NYT regarding lack of compassionate release and no parole in the federal prison system for elderly, sick and dying inmates plus now the horror of Venezuela's prisons, we should all be coming the conclusion that prison is not a solution to crime.
Imprisonment, except for those guilty of the most violent and heinous crimes should not exist. Society gains nothing from prisons. They are crowded, costly, ineffective, and inhuman. Locking people down forever in a dank cell with a toilet is beyond cruel and unusual punishment. Its a nightmare.
I'm appalled at what is happening in Venezuela. There is no justice there. And after today's article about the American federal system, there is no justice here either.
We must find a better to deal with crime and punishment. We should be an example for the world to follow.
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To the dictator Maduro does not care about the people of Venezuela, why would he have to import a handful of criminals in prisons? The bad thing about all this is that in prisons are also the political prisoners who only aspire to release themselves from their evil government.
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Maduro and chavismo are clinging to power amid an absolute destruction of Venezuela, jails, hospital, access to food, healthcare, the oil industry, roads, blackouts, water supply, everything is collapsing. By many measure it is a genocide in progress. Financed by Putin-Kremlin and China, who are pillaging minerals from the jungle, have decades of future oil assigned to them and might then invade and take place of a very strategic geopolitical location. Venezuela is disappearing.
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I read this and I ask myself, how much suffering can one country take?
Thank you NYT for your great reporting.
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Another day of the misery brought about by the government of Maduro
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"Another day of the misery brought about by the government of Maduro"
No, another day of misery brought about by the defective philosophy of Socialism. It finally ran out of other people's money.
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Just like sweden
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This is so sad. The oil boom appears to be over in Venezuela. Or maybe any profits are taken by the corrupt government of Nicolas Maduro. He's another "socialist" like Hugo Chavez who convinced the poor in his country that he was on their side, only to have them suffer from his policies.
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Unfortunately, this is not the first time neither would be the last that something like this happens in this failed country. Poor Venezuelans 20 years under a incompetent, corrupt and authoritarian regime with no end in sight...
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Social justice in action. Where are all the Hugo Chavez fans?
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How many people are going to die before the civilized world intervenes?
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If this plays out as civil war strife usually does, I'd say 20 percent of the population, or about 6.2 million people. More from starvation and disease than violence, of course.
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OK, who's in to defend socialism now? Stalin. Mao. Castro. Now the ruin of Venezuela while the demivovs get ric. I know that Times the commentators will make it all about white male Christian Americans and some evil foreign policy - but I'm going to be honest - it's just going to be fun to watch the contortions
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Pure propaganda.
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For what purpose is this "pure propaganda?" For what audience? Why would papers owned by different companies with different audiences (Reuters, NY Times, Wall Street Journal) feel the need to share the same propaganda? And most importantly, what information leads you to make this assessment?
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What do you mean propaganda? For who? Venezuela has been a terrible mess now for year, and the rate of decay is accelerating. There is no denying that its both a humanitarian and human rights disaster. That's not propaganda, that the unvarnished fact. Its not for nothing that hundreds of thousands of Venezuelas have been fleeing the country in practically every direct.
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How is this pure propaganda? 68 humans are dead, and their loved one are grieving. The Venezuelan police dispersed them with tear gas. How is that propaganda? It's dismissive and partisan posturing like yours that erode the values this country.
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Yikes, this sounds worse than Attica. What a sad situation. I suspect some of our own prisons are going this direction...
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