CARACAS, Venezuela — The neighbors were fed up. For days, they’d had no electricity or running water because of a massive national blackout. So one morning this week, they piled logs and garbage into a makeshift barricade in their middle-class Caracas neighborhood and started yelling slogans against the government.

Then came the motorcycles.

https://twitter.com/BarbaraUSanz/status/1104878680189353985
Translation #Attention Maduro armed groups shoot at buildings # Chacao They
raise barricades set by neighbors protesting # MegaApagon

There were at least 20 of them, their motors buzzing, driven by men with scarves over their faces, according to interviews with 10 witnesses. The demonstrators scattered. But as people in surrounding buildings started hurling bottles at the bikers, the men raised their weapons — pistols and rifles — and opened fire.

No one was injured. But the neighbors were terrified.

“Now we can’t even protest, because they’ll shoot at us,” said Delia Arellano, 72, one of the demonstrators.

The attack on Sunday was a chilling sign of how President Nicolás Maduro is increasingly relying on paramilitary groups as he clings to power. This week, he publicly urged the motorcycle-riding “colectivos” to intensify their efforts, as the country teetered on the edge of economic collapse and a U.S.-backed opposition movement pressed for his ouster.

“I call on the colectivos; the hour of resistance has arrived, active resistance in the community,” Maduro declared in the speech on Monday.

The colectivos aren’t nearly as big as Venezuela’s armed forces — they number perhaps 5,000 to 7,500 members nationwide, most of them in cities, according to Alejandro Velasco, a history professor at New York University who has studied the phenomenon. But they help explain how Maduro has remained in power even as the country’s economy and poorly maintained power grid have broken down. The paramilitary forces are nimble and committed — and they have an extraordinary ability to sow terror.

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Caracas.- Inflation during the month of February of the current year stood at 53.7%, which translates into a deceleration of the phenomenon that in the month of January was 191.6%, but staying in the field of hyperinflation, informed this Thursday the deputy to the National Assembly (AN) José Guerra.

Via Twitter the parliamentarian published official information in which it was reported that the accumulated inflation in the period from December 2018 to February 2019 was 348.2%

https://twitter.com/JoseAGuerra/status/1106208397509185539

The also member of the finance committee of the Venezuelan Parliament warned about the bulky figure of annualized inflation, in the period from February 2018 to February 2019, which stands at 2,295,981.2%, respectively; being one of the highest inflation rates of recent times.

Venezuela faces a severe economic crisis marked by a shortage of basic necessities, coupled with inflation that "devours" wages, say opponents.

Last month, the Finance Committee determined that daily inflation in Venezuela in January stood at 3.5%, which is why the rise in prices reached 191.6% at the end of that period.

It seems that the cynicism of the Chavistas has no limit and this time the protector of Tachira, who does not protect anyone, admitted that the Clap use it as a mechanism of social control.

In his speech he assures that this mechanism serves so that each head of the community has territorial control of between 20 to 300 families.

There are no words, see the video below.

https://twitter.com/BarbaraUSanz/status/1106214874894557184
Translation: Freddy Bernal defines the CLAP as a "CONTROL MECHANISM" Ensures that each CLAP community leader "is a leader that has territorial control over 20, 30, 40, 50, up to 300 families" Video: @ zuricht94

03-14-19.-Oil production in Venezuela fell during February, according to figures published Thursday by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which also asked the United States to contribute to the stability of the market, reported the AFP agency.

The total production of the cartel fell again by 221,000 barrels per day, to 30.54 million barrels per day (mbd) in February, according to secondary sources (indirect) cited by OPEC in its monthly report.

More than half of this fall is explained by Venezuela, where production fell by 142,000 barrels a day in relation to January.

The country has had to limit its offer for US sanctions against the national oil company PDVSA.

To a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia and Iraq also reduced their production in February.

OPEC also affirms, in the direction of the United States, that there is "the shared responsibility of all producing countries to avoid the return of imbalances and continue to support the stability of the oil market by 2019."

The United States, in full revolution of shale hydrocarbons, should produce an additional 1.80 mbd this year.

The former director of Hidrocapital, Norberto Bausson, assured that 20 million Venezuelans do not have a potable water supply, after the general blackout registered on Thursday, March 7, in almost all the states of the country.

Bausson said that currently Hidrocapital does not have the operational capacity to meet the water demand. "What happened leaves the situation naked in general. The alternative systems parks were also destroyed. "

"In the case of Caracas, we are only going to recover 50% of the demand. We are going to maintain a sustained crisis. Public services are going to stay below demand, "he said during a radio interview.

He mentioned that in the case of Caracas, the reservoirs of La Mariposa and Camatagua are available for their supply, but they have not had sufficient maintenance. "The dependence is so much that by not having electricity, there were no forms of supply for the capital."

He warned that the shortage of water in Venezuela "will last over time" in the absence of maintenance of the pipes and treatment plants available, at the time that he said he was surprised by the reports of people who had to stock up on contaminated intakes. .

I never thought in my life to see that people would drink water from Guaire and it happened. People went to the water intakes at the level thousand that the government closed because they said they were contaminated, and still had to open them to the public, "the engineer said.

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This I say for the readers abroad, so that they know the truth.

Here in Venezuela the vast majority of people, including government employees, earn only a minimum monthly salary legitimately, and any other money, those who can do it, they earn it by doing other things --- like theft for example - - since with a minimum wage it is impossible to survive unless you are one of those Indians who barely eat or drink, who eat the air.

See example of a yogi who has not eaten or drunk in 70 years:

Well, the monthly minimum wage here in Venezuela is around 20,000 Bs., That is, around $ 6 (monthly).

The government distributes food almost free of charge once a month (CLAP), which are bags of food that normally contain about 12 kilos of rice, beans, pasta, etc., and two liters of oil, and sometimes, when corrupt officials do not they steal it (I have direct information about this miserable phenomenon), sugar and tuna.

These products in stores currently cost (increase daily) an average of about 7,000 Bs per kilo or liter, then those almost free products that the government distributes once a month is $ 28 dollars per month (14 products X for $ 2 c /or).

This means that the vast majority of the population earn around $ 28 + $ 6 = $ 34 per month.

Yes sir, that is $ 1.13 per day, well below the international level of extreme poverty of $ 1.90 per day.

When Chávez died in the beginning of 2013, the minimum wage was around $ 10 per day, or $ 300 per month.

Yes sir.

In 6 years we have lost 90% of our salary.

Is that fair?

No sir, for nothing.

Is that governing?

No sir, for nothing.

That is normal?

No sir, for nothing.

But that is the truth.

When it emerged on February 27, 1989 as a response of a country to an exhausting political and social situation, this event served to Hugo Chávez and his followers declare such a date as a kind of "People's Day", that is, the looting as a form of social freedom before those who supposedly degraded the nation in those times.

Curiously, this 2019, such date, as it is done every year, was also celebrated by the madurismo, with the respective discourse of the one who now usurps Miraflores as an essential form of what they call "patriotism", which is nothing more than a way of continue to manipulate historical events as if all those actions were part of a sequence of events that led us to a new "independence".

Since Nicolás Maduro came to power, Venezuela has lived through six years of disaster, which has led us to conditions of extreme poverty and poverty, far superior to the destruction of social and institutional life that originated on February 27, 1989. Today, 30 years later, the country is plunged in a terrible hyperinflation that exceeds 2,000,000%, whose economic bankruptcy has unleashed an emigration of more than 3 million Venezuelans, combined with a minimum wage and pensions that barely reach $ 5 a month.

Such a situation, which madurism attributes to an "economic war", has left the Venezuelans in the most complete economic defenselessness. The price of any dishwasher or soap powder exceeds the minimum wage earned by more than 80% of the population, and practically being able to buy about 20 products of the basic diet is needed on average about $ 100, which shows that this regime does not their bonds of 2 or 3 dollars, or the delivery on average of every 4 months of a bag with rice, grains and a package of flour is not enough for Venezuelans, at least to have the right to food guaranteed.

Faced with such a reality, we see how in Maracaibo people loot shopping centers to the point that there is an official pronouncement of Fedecamaras where it mentions an astronomical number of shops that were victims of vandalism, or failing that in Pedraza, Barinas state, part of the population as a result of their frustration and anger ends up torching the mayor's office or any public space, and that such events are repeated in other parts of the country, it is ironic to hear the defenders of madurismo saying that these actions are promoted by guarimberos, when they have sanctified a date like February 27, 1989.

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14 years ago the College of Engineers of Venezuela began to warn about the electricity crisis in the country indicating that its mismanagement could cause a collapse, said today the president of the CIV, Eng. Enzo Betancourt also remembering that this institution offered a year ago an integral plan for the rescue of the national electrical system, "and the government ignored us".

The previous statement was made on the occasion of the historic interruption of the energy supply since last Thursday, which affected more than 80% of the entire national territory creating anxiety and anguish in the population. Since Tuesday, the service has been progressively re-established, but there are still sectors of the country without electricity.

Engineer Betancourt then pointed out that "Mr. Luis Vásquez Corro was not wrong," to whom today time has given him reason, when in Barquisimeto two years ago he reported "the complications that exist in the Guri dam, which could cause great national blackout ". "As a result of these statements, the colleague was arbitrarily detained by police agencies, and was called to create alarm in the population." "The manifest incapacity, coupled with negligence is hidden under the already hackneyed and unlikely argument of" sabotage ", when a contingency occurs in the electricity sector, and this case could not be the exception".

- The lamentable losses could be avoided - it said - if the government had acted from the beginning with good disposition and desires to face the problem, but unfortunately the crude and sad reality indicates us something else. Until satiation we have been denouncing that the national electricity system is not in a position to provide an efficient and reliable service. We have carried out exhaustive analyzes of the situation, and we have presented solutions and suggestions. There is no maintenance of stations and distribution plants. There has also been an exodus of professionals due to poor working conditions and low salaries, and investments have not been sufficient. In 2009 the electrical emergency was decreed, and its results have been highly negative because the problem is getting worse and worse, and it is regrettable to say it, but if the necessary corrections are not applied, this contingency tends to repeat itself more frequently, He referred the Eng. Betancourt.

-In the Venezuelan Engineers Association -he highlighted- we have presented viable formulas, with highly qualified personnel, that allow us to face this problem that affects the quality of life of Venezuelans, their safety and even their lives. Unfortunately, these proposals were never taken into account. However, we continue to insist, and before this new and unfortunate circumstance, the guild that I preside proposes the creation of a national interdisciplinary commission and even, with international participation, to carry out an audit of what happened and present a report to the country with their respective solutions .

Finally, he emphasized that "our law of the exercise of the profession establishes that the Venezuelan College of Engineers is guardian of the public interest, and from there all our pronouncements necessarily depart.

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NB 1 - For the readers who do not live here, based on my observations, this is only the second time that Maduro has been visibly disturbed so much by some tragedy or catastrophe that has happened here in Venezuela, the only other time I have seen him to react like that --- with so much indignation --- it was when they tried to kill him on a platform in August 2018, although I remember, that is, if nothing else has bothered him so much, not even thousands of people starving or missing of medicine, nor the prices of products that exceed prices in Canada and Europe, nor the fact that the minimum wage here in Venezuela is below $ 6 per month, all catastrophes of gigantic proportions and fully visible, well, then be that this blackout affected him directly, personally, that is,He was so outraged because he would have affected him, nothing more, in my evaluation of this character of extra low spiritual quality in my opinion, he does not care about El Pueblo, no sir, nothing, and that is why I am unworthy time he refers to El Pueblo.

NB 2 - Yesterday I went to buy a bottle of 1.5 liter soda for children, do you know how much it cost?, 9,000 Bs., Or about $ 3USD, that is, half a minimum wage, that is, 11 days of work, yes sir, that's right, that is the real disastrous monumental reality of which neither Maduro, nor his collaborators, nor his followers ever speak, the fault is always, without exception, of others, while they eat meat or chicken or pig every day and we eat arepas stuffed with rice or veija pasta. Yes sir, that's right, all that in flagrante, in front of our noses, shamelessly, without hearts, without souls, without any conscience.

1. State and Government in Venezuela

A state is a coercive organization of the ruling elites to impose their class interests - particularly economic exploitation and political domination - on the majority of citizens. This coercive organization ceases to exist when its civil (ministries) and / or armed (military) bureaucracy collapses. Currently, the state of the dominant elite madurista is in an advanced process of dissolution. To accelerate its collapse and consummate its coup d'Etat , the final offensive of Washington attacks on three fronts: 1. Cause the collapse of the civil bureaucracy; 2. precipitate the implosion of the Armed Forces and, 3. reduce the economic and communicative activities of the nation to zero.

Unlike the State, which in anatomical terms is the skeleton that sustains society, the government is essentially a software or operative subsystem, which regulates the daily activities of the macrosystem known as the Nation. Replacing a State is only possible on the ruins of its bureaucracy. Substituting a government, on the other hand, is an act of rotation, equivalent to an alternation in power. In Venezuela, the apocalyptic ineptitude and irresponsibility of the Taliban in power, to understand and manage reality, has brought together both processes of transition. The table is set for the tragedy of the people and the banquet of the Empire.

2. Government, without vital signs I

When, in the 21st Century, a government can not guarantee the supply of electricity in a country, then it has ceased to exist, because without the energy, the body life of the Nation is not possible. When that State can not guarantee the existence of a general equivalent of value (money), then it has ceased to exist, because the metamorphosis of commodities becomes impossible and the bloodstream of the economy dries up. Finally, when a State has not been able to sustain its productive and distributive metabolism (agriculture, industry, oil), then the vital signs of its corporeality remain at zero. Disappears, Requiescat in pace (RIP).

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