Caracas (AFP) – Rolling out tanks, missiles and 100,000 men, Venezuela launched 10 days of military exercises Saturday, amid sky-high tensions over US sanctions slapped on officials accused of an opposition crackdown.
President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist, Cuban-allied government — struggling with sliding oil prices, the region’s highest inflation, desperate shortages and rising discontent — threw the spotlight on its Chinese armored amphibian tanks, Russian-built missiles and other military hardware.
“Congratulations to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, and to the people, for the joint exercises,” tweeted Maduro, who in two years time has alleged over a dozen coup bids against him and his government by the United States or local opposition members.
“Civilian-military union to keep having a Fatherland,” Maduro added. “And may our sacred fatherland never have a (US) imperial boot set foot on it. Long live Venezuela!”
Let’s see… fixate attention of phony foreign threats… flex military prowess for domestic consumption… they seem to be following the old soviet playbook to a tee.
Again, liberalism in full practice. Government seizing control of assets, income, and entire industries and people of Venezuela are powerless against the corrupt liberal government that accumulated all the resources and wealth.
If you want a concentration of wealth problem, here it is, because the people of this country suffer from the government resources, seized from private sector, being underutilized by corrupt Marxist liberals. (There is no other kind of Marxist because absolute power corrupts absolutely.)