In Venezuela, life has gone from bad to worse. And the world has quit noticing

The world still notices. I've recently seen a number of articles about the protests and the opposition leader Juan Guaido. In fact the New York Times published an op-ed piece by him fairly recently.

&gt; If there is power, and I can do my job, I’ve been told by my bosses to be more measured in how I cover what’s happening in Venezuela. They’re terrified of being shut down by the government and having their equipment confiscated. That would spell the end of our station.<p>Maybe writing a (non-anonymous) article about the situation for the LA Times isn&#x27;t the best idea?

The baffling thing about this is the vast oil wealth the country controls. Its oil reserves are the largest in the word, yet its economy lies in shambles.<p>That takes some serious mismanagement.

I&#x27;m from Colombia and my family lives in one of the biggest cities that is relatively close to the border. I visit frequently and every time I visit, there are more and more venezuelan immigrants. This started happening years ago.<p>I&#x27;m shocked by the people who pretend that this is all propaganda and that the venezuelan people are ok with their government. I&#x27;m sure that the people living on the streets here aren&#x27;t.

How do their &quot;leaders&quot; still have their heads?

Unfortunately, the population accepted a gun ban back in 2012.

It&#x27;s not just Venezuela, look at what is happening in Haiti.

Regardless of whether this is the &quot;fault&quot; of socialism, socialism demands a lot of centralized government power, which seems like the perfect cover for this kind of horrible government.<p>(Aside: I think a lot of social programs could be run quite well at a local level, but when a politician asks for immense power at the scale of a nation or large state, I get very worried.)

venezuela is under economic attack, see <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.socialistviewpoint.org&#x2F;marapr_19&#x2F;marapr_19_05.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.socialistviewpoint.org&#x2F;marapr_19&#x2F;marapr_19_05.htm...</a><p>that centralized planning doesnt work is just wrong :) look to walmart and amazon as examples of efficient central planning. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.versobooks.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;2822-the-people-s-republic-of-walmart" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.versobooks.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;2822-the-people-s-republic-...</a>

When they have power, Bitcoin has been a solution for wealth preservation and capital movement given their pariah status with western banks and the never ending destruction of their currency. When the dust clears and capitalism is restored, there will be a fascinating case study on this development.

The world could always halt sanctions: the source of the problems.

1. What does this have to do with Hacker News<p>2. Everything but the US point of view seems to have been flagged here. What is the goal of having comments if there is no discussion.