Saturday, November 26, 2016

The Threat from Curacao

Venezuela's two-decade experience with socialism has effed up an oil-wet dream for Venezuelans who are now taking to boats to escape their Bolivarian Paradise. Curacao officials fear they will be stuck with the bill for the refugees. Those officials should be worried that they will be stuck with the blame for attracting the refugees. The Netherlands should be nervous.

Hoo boy:

Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East.

But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora.

Now a second diaspora is underway — much less wealthy and not nearly as welcome.

Well over 150,000 Venezuelans have fled the country in the last year alone, the highest in more than a decade, according to scholars studying the exodus. [Emphasis added. To translate, that means "socialism."]

And one of the destinations for flight is the Dutch-owned territory to the north, Curacao:

The journey to Curaçao takes them on a 60-mile crossing filled with backbreaking swells, gangs of armed boatmen and coast guard vessels looking to capture migrants and send them home.

With talk of imminent collapse of Venezuela's economy, would that nutball Maduro order his forces to invade Curacao citing weak and distant Netherlands as a threat to Venezuela by merely existing as a destination to flee?

This would not be the first time that Curacao has been in Venezuela's sights as a "threat" to the Bolivarian Paradise.

The Dutch should really keep their powder dry and have the phone number to America's SOUTHCOM on speed dial.

Don't count the Dutch out. They actually fought at our side in Afghanistan and the Venezuelan military is no doubt in as bad shape as their oil industry and economy in general.