Is Venezuela on route to disaster as sanctions hit?

[Zorro]

President Barack Obama has ordered sanctions against key figures in Venezuela, where supermarkets are to install fingerprint scanners at the tills to stop food hoarding and panic buying, in the latest signs that the hard-line socialist country is heading for economic ruin and further isolation from the West.

Obama declared a U.S. "nation emergency" on Monday with regards to Venezuela due to the "unusual and extraordinary threat" posed to security and foreign policy.

Seven Venezuelans were hit with sanctions blocking or freezing their interests in U.S. property, barring them from entering the U.S. and banning Americans from conducting business with them.

In an executive order, the White House said: "This new authority is aimed at persons involved in or responsible for the erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to anti-government protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of anti-government protesters, as well as the significant public corruption by senior government officials in Venezuela."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-short-road-disaster-125808467.html

[Marksman_91]

1. No doubt this new attitude towards Venezuela has to do with that guy who talked some months ago

Leamzy Salazar, the former officer who was in Chávez's inner security ring, has had a lot of things to say about who's really running the show in Venezuela, namely Godgiven Hair, and if his accusations about Cabello running a giant drug cartel are true, then there's certainly cause for concern. I wouldn't be surprised if there are dealings related to the FARC themselves. Castro did good in deciding to start cozying up to Obama back in December; he saw from a mile away the shithole that Venezuela was heading to, and even now, the rest of the LatAm nations are becoming less and less vocal about their support for Maduro, especially after the atrocities that have happened in the last year, and ESPECIALLY after the last couple of months. Hell, even Pablo Iglesias, the head of the Spanish leftist Podemos party, expressed his disagreement with Antonio Ledezma's arbitrary arrest.

[COLGATE4]

2. The rats aren't fleeing the sinking ship just yet -

but they're certainly making notes about their place in the life boats.

[Marksman_91]

3. The question is, where will those rats flee to?

Perhaps Ecuador or Cuba, maybe Bolivia. But if they step foot in a country that's a close ally to the US, especially Cabello, you can bet your ass they'll eventually be arrested, and hopefully extradited back to Venezuela where they'll be tried for all the atrocities they committed that would come to light after a new government is in place.

[COLGATE4]

4. My money's on Nicaragua. Ortega won't turn his back on

them and nobody cares what goes on in Nicaragua. Correa is way too slippery - I don't believe they think they can trust him and Cuba is now singing another tune. Maybe Bolivia although who knows if Evo would welcome them.