Inflation has become hyper-inflation and the socialists who managed to ef up the wet dream of an oil-rich Venezuela are watching their country disintegrate. People flee abroad and the security forces are starting to wonder if they are the bad guys:
Maduro surrounds himself with armed loyalists and Cuban security advisers. Yet rumors of military and police disenchantment proliferate. StrategyPage.com reported Maduro commanders "are not sure most of their troops could be trusted to fire on angry civilians if there were widespread anti-government demonstrations the police could not handle."
Bay notes that Hugo Chavez, who set up the system that Maduro has ridden to disaster (for the people--not for him, he's rich on plunder), considered invading Curacao--a Dutch island just off of Venezuela--in 2007.
I've highlighted, since 2005 as near as I can tell, the threat Venezuela poses to the Netherlands.
Maduro in desperation may hope that a short and glorious war against a distant and small European country could rally the people around the Bolivarian vision of a Venezuelan-led empire--starting with rallying around the flag at home.
In 2007, Chavez surely thought that was the first step to glory. Now it would be a desperate step to survive. Let's hope the Dutch are staying alert and that SOUTHCOM has contingency plans updated to support our NATO ally if attacked.
No worries for the socialist fanboys (and girls) here. Venezuela was a socialist success story only while it had other people's money to spread around. Now that the source of that money has run out and the specter of starvation and disease stalks the land, I'm sure we'll be told this wasn't "true socialism" after all.
Which is convenient.
