(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best hispanic & latino biographies

If you're interested in Venezuela under Chavez, or even strange politics in general, I highly recommend the following:

https://www.amazon.com/Comandante-Ch%C3%A1vezs-Venezuela-Rory-Carroll-ebook/dp/B008EKONCE

Written by a journalist who was in Venezuela, it is an incredibly good account of Chavez's impact- and is noticably unbiased.

Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Eritrea, South Africa, Congo, Angola again etc are cases where they actually deployed soldiers

G2 has previously worked to destabilize Puerto Rico and support leftist paramilitaries in Latin America. Recently they have been aiding Venezuela in providing personal security for the president and spying on members of opposition leaders.

All while miring their population in brutal dictatorship and economic misery.

But hey at least its not some yanqui shithole like amerikkka.

que cagada se lanzo la oposicion vale... yo me lei este libro por rory carroll y habla de la presunta paranoia que enveneno a chavez despues de esto y el paro que lo llevaron a acercarse aun mas a fidel castro para profundizar la "revolucion", osea radicalizarse (poco despues nace el slogan "patria socialismo o muerte") y la perdida de confianza. es solo la opinion de este escritor pero yo me pregunto que hubiese pasado si hubiesen dejado a chavez gobernar sin tanta traba y luego el harakiri legislativo en las parlamentarias de 2005.

Fuck you. Mexican food had no foothold outside of the southwestern US before taco bell.

source: http://www.amazon.com/Taco-USA-Mexican-Conquered-America/dp/1439148619

Most people have no idea about the history of Venezuela.

Venezuela was basically an average South-American country. It was run a brutal military dictatorship. The military dictatorship was backed an oligarchy of capitalist white families while most of the country was black or mixed-race. They owned almost every single big business. Monopolies were everywhere and inequality was extreme. The poor suffered tremendously. The rich families backed the military junta that raped activist with metal bars and tortured to death screaming people.

Eventually, just like every south american country with extreme inequality, there were extreme political consequences. The military system was overthrowed in a coup d'Etat by a soldier named Hugo Chavez.

He was a christian socialist and an anti-imperialist. He installed regular elections but without checks and balances. He opposed global corporate power, he condemned the invasion of Irak, he shook hands with Ahmadinejad (who was put on the "Axis of Evil" by Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice), he called Tony Blair a war criminal and he said George W. Bush was the devil at the U.N. Assembly.

He massively increased social spending on the poor and medical care on the poor and his friends stole the rest. Child mortality went down, life expectancy went up. In a country where the poor lived a life of suffering and the rich lived life of incredible luxury, it made him tremendously popular. He was praised by Jeremy Corbyn, Jean-Luc Melechon, and a large part of the left around the world. The capitalist class in the United States portrayed him as a monster. Fox News and CNN were bashing him 24/7 as a dangerous socialist.

He was neither a hero nor a monster. He replaced a capitalist thug mafia with a highly corrupt socialist system who helped the poor more than his predecessor. He build no checks and balances and no real hierchical bureaucracy. The rich families got fucked really hard under him. So they put most of their assets offshore (Cayman Islands, Bermuda Islands, London) and all the rich supported the political opposition.

There was real social tensions between the poor and the rich. The private medias were not normal opposition but kept calling for his removal even if he won elections. He was so popular with the extreme poor he won every election no matter how corrupt. He went live on national TV portraying his ennemies as "the ennemies of the people" (remind you one any president recently ?). Some people tried a coup against him at some point with support from the USA. After the coup, he cracked down brutally on what was left of the free media but kept organizing somehow free elections. Then, the guy died and he was replaced by Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver.

Maduro was a professional thief. He stole as much money as possible. The prices of oil completely collapse and the state could no longer afford the social progress it achieved under Chavez so they started cutting all the help to the poor. Chavez had also replaced the previous corruption system with a secret corruption system. Maduro not only did nothing to stop it, he increased it a lot more.

All help to the poor has been cut, Corruption is now extreme and the country is turning into a dictatorship.

The Oligarch white families have been fucked really hard by Chavez but most of their wealth is now offshore. Many of them have managed to build strong connections to Nicolas Maduro. The new thief, same as the old thief but with even less oil.

Here is a recent description of where Venezuelan wealth now is :

>On a Saturday evening in April, Miami’s Four Seasons Hotel hosted a particularly lavish quinceañera — the party traditionally thrown by Latino parents to celebrate the coming-of-age of 15-year-old girls. Outside, visitors watched luxury cars deliver their charges. Inside, girls in eveningwear teetered on high heels across the lobby, while their consorts wore black tie. Many chattered excitedly in Venezuelan-accented Spanish; Justin Quiles, a reggaeton star, was even rumoured to be playing. Guests said that spirits were high as the teenagers made their way to the Grand Ballroom on the sixth floor.

>Yet the party’s most notable feature was the twin hosts’ father, Mauro Libi. This self-described “visionary” has built a remarkable business empire over the past two decades. As well as food businesses in Venezuela, Mr Libi is an owner, shareholder, director or legal representative of some 30 companies across three continents, according to public records reviewed by the Financial Times, including banks in Panama and Spain, a $7m Manhattan apartment and dozens of Miami-registered companies.

>What makes Mr Libi’s success extraordinary — and provides the context for the multiple corruption allegations on which he has been investigated — is that he built his fortune in a country better known for shortages of basic goods, obscure business dealings and revolutionary confrontation rather than wealth creation. Indeed, as Mr Libi’s twin daughters and guests danced that night, Venezuela ended its 29th day of protests

>Even as three-quarters of Venezuelans lost an average 9kg of body weight last year, according to studies, and 10 per cent of infants suffer malnutrition according to the Catholic charity Caritas, the corporate made this comment on April 19: “Being vegetarian is an excellent way to reduce calorie intake.”

Source : Financial Times

https://www.ft.com/content/25055a2a-6332-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895

What's happening in this country is a real tragedy.

Source : I became friend with some venezuelian foreign students in my university and I watched a ton of documentaries about this country

If you went to learn more about this fascinating country, I highly recommend your order those two books :

>Crude Nation: How Oil Riches Ruined Venezuela

https://www.amazon.com/Crude-Nation-Riches-Ruined-Venezuela/dp/1612347703/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501774049&sr=8-3&keywords=venezuela+history

>Comandante: Hugo Chávez's Venezuela.

https://www.amazon.com/Comandante-Ch%C3%A1vezs-Venezuela-Rory-Carroll-ebook/dp/B008EKONCE