Venezuela's Maduro rails at 'stupid' U.S. sanctions calls

[Zorro]

Source: Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has reacted furiously to calls in the United States for punitive measures against his government for alleged rights abuses in response to three months of street protests.

Some U.S. lawmakers are urging sanctions on Venezuelan officials, or even wider measures against the economy, but President Barack Obama's government has said that may harm prospects for political reconciliation here.

Anti-government demonstrations since February have led to violence in which 42 people have died. About 800 people have also been injured and some 3,000 arrested, including more than 400 remaining behind bars, in what Maduro has cast as the suppression of a coup attempt but opponents say is a wave of repression.

"Now they're going round with this stupid idea that they're going to sanction us," Maduro said late on Friday, using the word "estupidos" which has a stronger connotation in Spanish.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-maduro-rails-stupid-u-sanctions-calls-180010998.html

[DeSwiss]

1. Indeed, they are stupid.

- For human rights abuses America, look here ------>

K&R

[hughee99]

2. Sanctions aren't needed to hurt the Venezuelan economy.

Maduro is doing a fine job of that by himself.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. What can we do to Maduro's economy, that he hasn't already done? Perhaps his....

most fierce supplicants will accept his tired old "blame the US" canard, but they won't accept it forever. At some point, he (and they) will have to accept that he's a loser, and he don't need no outside help with that.

[MADem]

4. When he's not SAYING the wrong thing, he's DOING the wrong thing.

How many times can he wail "The Yanquis are coming, the Yanquis are coming!!!" and the Yanquis, damned or otherwise, don't come?

He had a chance to let the movement peter out like Zucotti Park, but NOOOOOOO....he and his high handed Cuban advisers/GNB buffoons just had to get all up in it:

Last week's breakup of four student protest camps in Caracas, with the arrest of 243 youths, has revived tensions across Venezuela just as the movement appeared to be losing steam. Students and supporters were marching on Saturday.

He deserves his stupidity. His problems--since he has "rule by decree" authority--are his OWN.

Moron! He's as stupid as Bush, but without a Cheney!

[joshcryer]

6. Whataboutism!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

[MADem]

8. Ha!

I love a straightforward explanation of horse shit!

[MADem]

15. Oh yes indeed...poor little Nicky should be permitted to violently repress his population

without any interference....

From the USA...

From the United Nations...

Or even from the POPE!

Because, after all, he's Nicky Maduro, and no one should say a word against Mister "Rule By Decree" .... even when he's dead wrong and on the wrong side of history, to boot!

"Any president" would not have this view, because "any president" wouldn't prop up their regime by shooting and imprisoning students, and using Cuban military personnel seeded into the GNB to manage it, in the first place--it takes a very special (and not "special" in a good way either) president to do that kind of thing--and Nicky is something else, he is...

Then again, you'd need a President "in his right mind" (your words) to be able to parse all this out.

Of course, all we REALLY need to do if we want him to "get correct" is tell Nick it's "cash only" from now on out. No need to sanction him at all--he owes BILLIONS, and even all those loans from China aren't sufficient to cover his bills, never mind keep the red shirts happy.

What Nick doesn't have is competence, or time. His economy is collapsing because he's a thief surrounded by thieves, and he isn't very smart, either.

Does this mean that "the opposition" will win? Highly unlikely. It's far more likely that the guy who gave him "rule by decree" authority, someone who was far closer on a personal and professional level to Hugo Chavez than Maduro ever was, will be the instrument of his demise than anyone from the wide ranging opposition camps (which are not at all united in their attitudes, proposed solutions, or anything of that nature--their only point of absolute unity is that they think Maduro stinks on ice).

It's not about ideology at this stage--it's about competence.

[heaven05]

7. the whole mess

centers on......wait for it......OIL.

[EX500rider]

9. Sure it does...if you mean because of declining production due to mismanagement and corruption..

...leaving Venz. less money to hand out and keep everybody happy.
But no foreign power has made Maduro be so heavy handed or enact so many counter productive decrees.

As to the heavy handedness, lets extrapolate the number to the US and ponder how DU would have viewed such.

Since February, 41 people on all sides have been killed and 785 injured during the protests. At least 2,200 have been arrested.
The US have roughly 10x's the population so the number's are easy.
So how benign would we have considered the crackdown on Occupy if 410 people were killed, 7,000 injured and over 20,000 arrested?

The calls of Fascism would be loud and continuous.

[firesalesman]

10. Fascism?

What does such an attack have to do with fascism?

[EX500rider]

11. Not sure why u don't get it..

....if the US govt had killed over 400 protesters and locked up over 20,000 of them many/most people here at DU would be loudly calling that fascism.

[firesalesman]

12. Well, then lots of people here don't know what "fascism" means.

It is a precise political term. I does not simply refer to the actions of an authoritarian government.

[EX500rider]

14. OH, i totally agree there, it's gets thrown around like confetti here by some.

[MADem]

16. Since China is buying the stuff from VZ for five bucks a barrel in some cases, they're happy!

And with those E-Z Finance Loans that are mortgaging VZ to China for eons at usurious rates, Maduro had better be prepared to give most of their National Treasure to Beijing for a long, LONG time--or Beijing will have something to say about it.