As I said last night, others know more than me about Agroisleña. I quoted Daniel’s article last night, I leave you today by this excellent and detailed article from Veneconomy that tells you how this nationalization is a total disaster for Venezuela.
Destructive Spiral by Venconomy
The decree officially announcing the expropriation of Agroisleña was published in Gaceta Oficial on Monday, as ordered by the President in a nationwide networked broadcast last Sunday when he said “Agroisleña is expropriated; come to me, I’ve got the winning hand,” the phrase with which he seals all his revolutionary death blows.
This lapidary phrase puts an end to an agro-industrial company that has operated for more than 52 years in Venezuela to become its biggest supplier of inputs for the agricultural sector.
This expropriation of Agroisleña will have far greater consequences than any of the hundreds of expropriations already carried out by this confiscator government.
Agroisleña is a company with Spanish capital that has 90% of Venezuela’s agricultural market and covers a wide range of agricultural activities, among them supplying 70% of the sector’s agricultural chemicals; supplying seeds, in particular for the cultivation of 80% of the vegetables in the Andes, Lara, and Guárico; the supply of farm machinery and equipment; technical consulting services for farmers; and storage services in eight silos belonging to the company. In addition, it finances 90% of the inputs it supplies.
Equally important is the fact that Agroisleña has stood as direct guarantor to some 18,000 domestic producers engaged in producing a wide range of products that are of fundamental importance for Venezuela’s food security. In this cycle alone, it backed the planting of 235,000 hectares of cereal and oil seed crops. It is currently carrying out a special program with some 3,000 agricultural producers, for whom it is standing guarantor for the harvesting of 800,000 tons of a variety of crops, including corn, rice, and sorghum.
It should be remembered that Venezuelan banks are being forced by the present administration to allocate 21% of their loan portfolio to agriculture. Agroisleña has facilitated those loans and has been an ally of small producers by standing as their guarantor, which gives them access to credit that they would have found it difficult to obtain otherwise.
What will happen to those loans now? Who will stand as guarantor? Will this be yet another blow for the banks?
Another sad fact is that the expropriation of Agroisleña will result in a large number of these producers being left up in the air. Who will now stand as their guarantor? A government that has been proved to be in default?
Apart from the perverse effects that this measure will have for these producers, there are the impacts it will have on the country’s already shrunken productive capacity. There are reasons for thinking that the future holds more acute shortages, higher unemployment, and greater dependence on imports.
The government, exasperated by its defeat at the polls and seeking to achieve total control of the productive sector, is once again fueling its destructive spiral to continue swelling the company cemetery with industries that were once in full production.
This is a hold up
The Devil's Excrement 
August 24, 2011 at 9:11 pm
I want to start a blog and I am trying to find a blog site?
June 1, 2011 at 4:27 pm
From all the blogs I’ve be familiar with lately, this undivided seems to be the most impressive – it gave me something to think about.
November 14, 2010 at 8:34 am
you should always keep your garden tools in low humidity area to prevent them from getting rusty .”,
October 8, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Metodex: Wow. Tall order. I don’t think getting into the ICC
would be appropriate. The immense amount of info. Im sure
moctavio would not appreciate it. I will try for short Version
with links so you can read up on it too.
Frame work : UN – UN Security Council – ICC
although the current version was established in the 80s it did not become
a functioning working Trial Court until 2002 when the 60th member
ratified the Rome Statute. (prior to that it was accords) ( language of court/definitions/Jurisdictions) Massive system taking the Constitutions/Legal systems of all Signatories into consideration. In the pre-amb days of the Court the first conviction
was the Genocides in Rwanda – Jean Paul Akayesu 1998.
The most interesting one, that set the precedence for our friend Chavez
was in 2008 for the Sudan Dictator Bashir. If he leaves his country he
will be arrested and imprisoned. The most recent is the June 2010 conviction for the Bosnian Serbs for the 1995 murders of Muslims in Srebrenica.
There are so many cases waiting to get in that it sets one in awe.
There is a world petition now to have “ the right to clean drinking water”
added to the Jurisdiction of the court. ( that should make Hugo Happy )
Here are the links:
How it works is fascinating. Once a modest understanding of it ( such as mine ) is obtained then political actions around the world are understood in a different light. IE: Columbia wants seat on UN-Security Council / Brazil invited to Sec.Coun.
Chavez afraid of ICC – signed Rome statute in 2000
USA not afraid – not signed yet-they just “collaborate” with ( like a Bounty Hunter)
http://www.iccnow.org/?mod=download&doc=4348
This is a PDF file from the
ICC web showing member information.
News post on Bosnia Trial
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/06/10/2010-06-10_two_bosnian_serbs_get_life_in_prison_for_srebrenica_genocide_at_hague_trial.html
This is a history on the ICC from a Gov. of Canada website
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0211-e.htm
this is info on Oslo Freedom Forum Diego Arria ( x Ven. Ambasador who wrote the Arria Formula for the UN Security Council. ) you will find interesting info on the recent election in Ve on this site. Well then… jajajaja get busy.
http://www.oslofreedomforum.com/
October 8, 2010 at 11:34 am
Miguel-
Yes, I hear you on the level of imports of just about everything except fresh fruits and vegetables. But the government’s ability to import grains,beans, and meat depends on their available cash flow and credit, which I think is stretched pretty thin these days.
I don’t do a lot of consulting work in agriculture in Venezuela but I have contacts who do. Last Sunday I met with them (ironically, just about the time HC was announcing the takeover of Agroislena). They were telling me about some very encouraging progress being made in some of the farms in los Andes area. At the same time, I have been hearing about just how abused and worn out the soil is not only on these farms but others in the country. They have been whipped like a tired horse, or perhaps a better way to state it would be like a tired racehorse shot up with drugs so it can make it across the finish line one more time. Serious erosion, no organic matter left in the soil, the rivers filling up with silt, and the soil fertility barely sustained by the few chemical fertilizers that are added.
We were talking about changing all that, and feeling very hopeful last Sunday. I don’t see how it can happen if ignorant and corrupt officials take over Agroislena.
Maybe the barrios in the major metro areas won’s starve for lack of fresh vegetables but I see a good chance of the farmers starving because they can’t get the financing, seeds, and fertilizers they need to grow a crop.
October 8, 2010 at 9:00 am
moctavio maybe the only ones who wont be in short supply and low prices will be pudreval and bicentenario and all those government stores.We all know they’re hoggin all the food,thats why it became rotten.
October 8, 2010 at 7:45 am
Sorry guys, I dont see an agricultural collapse as causing famine or anything like that. Venezuela imports 70% of its food. That includes, corn, soy, milk, meat, chicken, so none of that will be in short supply. What we will not have is tomatoes, lettuce, fruits, that type of stuff, all of which will soar in price and people will not buy it. Yes, the agricultural sector will be damaged, but there will be no famine, just more inflation.
October 8, 2010 at 1:01 am
I was waiting for m_astera to weigh in on the takeover, since he is a professional in agriculture. The only question is: how long does it take?
My guess is that the production collapse will occur before the 2012 elections.
Will that be an excuse to suspend the elections, due to an emergency?
October 7, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Thanks for the reply odef.Some interesting shit there.
Here’s something thats been itching my brain.
What does the hague do? i mean
when was the last time they did a trial to some corrupt president or government official?? was that person sent to rot in a jail? i know nothing about the international criminal court. enlighten me
October 7, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I think the damage that will be done to Venezuela by the takeover of Agroislena, the destruction of an already weak agricultural sector and the mass starvation it could cause, will do more harm to the country than any number of bombs. Zimbabwe? hell, this place could turn into North Korea. Know any good recipes that call for grass and dirt? Or just dirt?
Might have to import Haitian advisors to teach how to make mud cookies. Quiere una galleta de tierra?
October 7, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Thanks to Chávez’s model, Venezuela currently imports 70% of its consumption. He destroyed the productive capacity of the country. Now, with Afroisleña’s expropriation, things get worse. Despite he didn’t win the supermajority of the National Assembly, Chávez has two more years in power and he will do anything to consolidate socialism in Venezuela.
Follow us on: http://www.facebook.com/WhatsNextVenezuela
October 7, 2010 at 6:31 pm
m_astera: Thank you for taking the time to include me in the debate.
Thanks to you too metodex.
met: unfortunately I share your view. The man will not go out democratically. Hence the FARC/ETA web and the road to la Haye. I believe the link is real and the knowledge by the hierarchy is also real. To reply to both of you at the same time I submit
the following “theory”.
Yes Ve can buy and does buy arms amo etc. from Russia and a few others. However everything that has turned up in the hands of the farc/eta has been traceable back to VE. purchase. That’s the problem with buying arms legally all sales are registered. Chavez has given the excuse to many times that “ weapons were stolen”. Well you can only claim incompetence for so long before the links start showing up.
Today a story was posted by El Universal on line. Link:
http://caracas.eluniversal.com/2010/10/07/int_ava_creen-que-eta-y-farc_07A4573811.shtml
Apparently Spain believes that both groups have made weapons in VE. also.
The term “ jotake-Handia” “cilindro-bomba” are the same thing using the same chem. Fertilizer. The later however is a cylinder the same as was shipped by Argentina to Bariven. Chavez needs a front to move money and weapons. He is not just being watched, he is being scrutinized. And the faster the better.
October 7, 2010 at 6:00 pm
“The Venezuelan government can buy arms, shells, rockets, and bombs, from many sources in the world, all quite legal and aboveboard I’m sure Norinco would be glad to trade bombs for some the loaned Chinese yuan.”
Arms which are wholly and exclusively given to the most sloppy, leaky and corrupt military establishment of Latin America. Venezuela’s. No wonder you regularly found Venezuelan military and police weapons on criminals, before Chavez, and nowadays. Now, we Venezuelans, ALL live in Fantasy Island regarding our government and military. The clamor on all sides to give the State the monopoly of weapons (they have it already in theory, look at the results!). To give the military and the Interior Ministry an even more absolute control over arms shops and arms owners/licensees (yikes! they cannot keep track of their own hardware!). Maybe we believe we are in Sweden or France. Nope, we are in Venezuela. The idea of considering our own military trustworthy with valuable and dangerous goods is pure surrealism, or rather applied dadaism.
October 7, 2010 at 3:44 pm
The Venezuelan government can buy arms, shells, rockets, and bombs, from many sources in the world, all quite legal and aboveboard I’m sure Norinco would be glad to trade bombs for some the loaned Chinese yuan.
They don’t need to take over a farm supply company to get their hands on the materials to make fertilizer bombs.
October 7, 2010 at 1:29 pm
woah woah odef!!!i think chavez is preparing to arm up FARC and ETA and get huge profit from this,not necessarily for the good of el pueblo. It wouldnt surprise me to see some heavy(relatively) activities from ETA and FARC after say….february?
By the way,i love democracy.Democracy is my life.but when some military punk comes in and stablishes a “dicta-blanda”(look it up on the net) its not democratic,and therefore, he needs to be removed. Ethically by means of suffrage.But after 11 years you start to give up. i’ve just read of a meeting with Leopoldo Lopez and Zapatero through his twitter. Are they planning to FINALLY putting a halt to Chavez’s bullshit LEGALLY using the ETA-FARC-Chavez connection??? i certainly hope so. But it would be difficuly, since i think Spain’s government is kinda…racist.Just my thought.And by the way,i think External Forces do have some sort of power. THE MEDIA.And if they keep attacking Chavez with the media in a legal and ethic fashion, that would be part of his downfall cause i dont think many people would like to cooperate with guerrilla and terrorism except some extremes of the left.The other side of his crashed landing could be…himself-Expropiations and shit management of the companies will soon be much much noticed in the future.
I am also positive on those deputies on the AN to give some nice ethic(well just a few,ethics in vzla are crap) speeches to turn a few heads.
As always,it is of most importance for me to hear some of your thoughts on my comments please.
October 7, 2010 at 4:55 am
It was an ammonium nitrate bomb that was used in the Oklahoma
bombing. In Pakistan and Afghanistan it has been banned because it
is being used to produce such product.
Wall Street Journal: Feb 3/2010 link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703822404575019042216778962.html
FARC/ETA have this product of choice. Low cost low volatility.
In Aug. this year the car bomb in Bogota was made from this. I think in many countries you need licence to buy too. Properly mixed it is as powerful as TNT.
My point is that Agro has access to this type of chemical with no
problem. They are respectable and have been doing a great service
for a long time and this makes them beyond reproach, hence the Front.
moctavio I am jealous … I have never done well with orchids and I have
been trying for years 🙂
October 6, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Miguel and Nash, thank you for your answers.
October 6, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Astera: I have some of that NH4NO3 at home, I bought it at Agroisleña for my orchids a while back.
October 6, 2010 at 10:32 pm
“In Agro industry many of the chemicals that go into making fertilizers and
Pesticides are also used to make bombs.”
The only potential explosive that I am aware of that one might find in an agricultural warehouse is ammonium nitrate. Mixed with diesel fuel and set off with a blasting cap it makes a low-grade explosive suitable for minor demolition or blasting out tree stumps from a field. It is not used in the construction of modern weapons.
October 6, 2010 at 8:37 pm
albionboy is correct about the oil business. Chavez can destroy (is destroying) the infrastructure, but the oil remains. Oil doesn’t need to be profitable, just there…and it surely is. And that answers Koyla’s question about the Chinese, they’ll get their oil, don’t worry about that.
Jau is also correct when he makes the point I’ve been trying to make for a long time: Chavez isn’t leaving by the ballot box. Dictators simply don’t do that. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
Regarding food shortages, dictators and starvation, I recommend you read up on Mao’s reign of destruction (~25 million starved to death).
October 6, 2010 at 4:57 pm
AgroIsleña is a Canary Islands founder company. From emigrant the live more of 60 years in Venezuela.
In the Islands, the news is like a catastrophe. They have experience of other farmers and Industrial owner forced to leave their properties now and receive the refund money when and how Robolution think.
Most lost the effort of generations; they are not rich capitalistic, most of these families return to the Islands to receive help of Spain’s Social Security.
In the radio I heard the case of a canarian farmer with a some hectares in Venezuela, after 60 years of working only can have enough money to buy a car in Spain.
Here and there expropriation means catastrophe.
October 6, 2010 at 4:55 pm
metodex,
I’d agree with you, but only partially. Venezuela today is not the Soviet Union, or Cuba. In those two scenarios even the 40% mandate the opposition got on 09/26 (or 52%, depending on how you want to account for it) would not have been even remotely possible. Not even a severely tampered with election would be possible in those countries.
I have thought over and over how would Venezuela move forward from the current abyss it is in, and I keep saying thru a democratic path, only by elimination of other scenarios (not necessarily because the democratic one is the most “natural”). a) I hope I don’t have to remind you that a military uprising won’t happen (the FAN are either bought out, or spied on, or cleaned out of non supporters, or all-of-the-above). b) Other external forces (i.e. the USA) won’t magically come to the country’s rescue. c) And, a general uprising is too unpredictable (what set of conditions will get it going, and what the outcome of it will be).
A democratic outcome is the only possible or viable scenario. From the timing standpoint, if conditions are not yet ripe for 2012, it will then be later (unfortunately), but the timeframe will already be defined. And yes, for this to really be viable the oppo candidate would have to win by a landslide in which the result cannot be manipulated. I’ve said in previous comments an oppo win in 2012 seems to me a long shot. But, it is a long shot at the rate of decomposition the country has been moving lately. Nothing determines events will keep moving at the same rate, and public opinion may shift sufficiently and quickly enough making the scenario possible for 2012.
Again, to get to that point will mean a lot of grief. But, if that point is not reached, there will also be a lot of grief.
October 6, 2010 at 4:18 pm
From what I’ve been told, Agroisleña was a fully-integrated partner in the large scale production of Venezuela foodstuffs, without which said industry would simply crumble. The most crucial service rendered by Agroisleña is questionably it’s technical consulting services for farmers. Having not only the technical know how, but all the tricky agro-science testing and so forth, as well as the infrastructure and wherewithal to carry this out, the individual farmers avoided having to just wing it, and were afforded the best technology available to determine what to grow and when to grow it, on a given plot of land, and plenty of progress reports as the things progressed.
Now the one thing that Chavismo has demonstrated conclusively, in virtually every instance of nationalized assets, is their total inability to sustain anything. We are living presently on the remnants of previous systems and infrastructures (power grid, et al). Very little is being undated or even maintained. Per Agroisleña, there are simply no personal in the entire Chavez camp that are remotely capable of carrying out the work this company has done over the last 50 years, in 90% of the farms out there. The idea that Hugo is going to send out his soil experts and run the tests and so forth is sadly, a complete and total impossibility with this administration, who’s Homeric incompetence in almost without equal in the hemisphere.
So much for food . . . All those farms are going to go fallow in no time. There’s nothing to sustain them. Tis one will cost the caudillo dearly, and sadly, the poor will be on arepas and agua ahora.
Que lastima, pues…
Juancho
October 6, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Good questions, Kolya. I have no answers, though.
October 6, 2010 at 2:59 pm
How about the Chinese?
A speculative question to those who know more than I do about such things.
China is rising and rising. Some analysts believe that within the next twenty years China will stop on its tracks without moving any further or perhaps even implode. Many more, however, think that just as the 19th century belonged to Great Britain and the 20th century to the US, the 21th century will belong to China. Regardless of what the future will hold for China, the last twenty years have shown that the Chinese are hard-nosed and astute negotiators that take the long view.
So here is my question. Why did China lent so much money to Venezuela? They are obviously not blind to how Chavez is ruining Venezuela’s economy, and I don’t think they’ll shed many tears if Chavez is driven out of office. Whether with or without Chavez, the Chinese somehow believe that they made a good long term investment. Why?
October 6, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Thank you host…
The “hold-up” of this long term institution has caused me enough anxiety
that it makes me ill. It is not just the financing it provides to the 1800
small/mid size Agros but also the free consultation service they provide and the Hybrid pest resistant seed that reduces pesticide use and increases crop success. More food shortages and price increases are inevitable. Increased Port economy is beneficial when you want to hide something in the import/export game. Nothing to do with providing food at better prices either.
In Agro industry many of the chemicals that go into making fertilizers and
Pesticides are also used to make bombs. I add to this the small seamless
Titanium cylinders that Argentina is supplying to PDVSA via the Purchaser
Bariven S.A and being shipped back to Ve. and the Gold mine expropriations of Canadian company where Uranium has also been found. Mix in a little Iran help and my conclusion is not that this company was expropriated in order to benefit the food supply but to act as a front for something else. Conviasa flights to Iran stop as of the 26th of October. Shipping will now start using Argentine ships. Chavez has ordered some but they will not be available from Russia for a while. 1+1=2.
Then again this is a theory … I am just connecting dots and trying to think like a mad man who wants nothing more than to subjugate this side of the world – not help his country.
October 6, 2010 at 1:55 pm
The problem with the “poorly run oil company” scenario is that you are assuming that you are living off of the profits, however short they may be. Chavez is mortgaging the country on a daily basis on promises of oil to come for the next twenty years. You can only “go to the well”, intentional pun, so many times. Chavez is living on credit, not profits, and that is not self sufficient.
October 6, 2010 at 1:55 pm
“(and unfortunately along with that failure Venezuelans will be have to endure a lot of grief and suffering).”
A lot, including some starvation, it seems now.
Some governments behave like mafiosi. These have the guts to denounce those places in Earth where the government actually behaves decently and does not tax thrice as Tax Havens. While they can, these governments are sustainable. As long as they can keep the economy going in spite of their behavior.
Some governments behave like robbers and racketeers. They will empty your wallet periodically and maybe steal your car, maybe pistol whip you once in a while. But you limp home and produce some more so they can rob you again.
But Hugo is an out and out barbarian. He is not contempt with passing the racket or with pistol wiping. He takes the whole farm and then ruins it. He is unsustainable. Or rather we would be sure he is unsustainable, except that oil produces so much money. Be optimistic, the Mexicans and the Argentineans got their oil companies to lose money. Be pessimistic, he will sell oil under ground in futures if need be.
The cartoon understates the case. A revolver AND a torch (or axe) should be featured. The robber would leave the owners to recoup their losses.
October 6, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I do not understand how you most of you call Chavez a dictator and then say that his ending is going to be democratic…. really! explain that to me please!!!
A dictator that goes down by votes, hmmmmm!! I can only recall one, Pinochet, and he was heavily pressured by the military to accept the defeat, so you could almost count that one as a coup d’etat.
Lets all wake up from that nice dream and face the reality, the ending (hopoefully a happy ending) is going to be very messy.
October 6, 2010 at 12:43 pm
please,if there was a democratic solution to dictators(ish) Castro and Stalin would have died a long time ago.Election frauds nobody will get to prove, political prisoners.Its history all over again.No hope
October 6, 2010 at 12:35 pm
albionboy,
I’ve heard a similar comment to yours many times. One “good” example would be Lybia (Libia en espa~ol), with the longest running dictator in Africa (I think that’s the correct stat). Anyway, the Lybian oil industry was crippled by Gadaffi, but it sill has produced just enough $$$ to keep him in power for a very long time (and no ending in sight yet).
However, as I’ve said in previous post replies, last Sunday 09/26 Parlamentarias result, even though they were not as decisive as some oppo supporters would have liked, to me it indicated that Chavez’s plan is spinning out of control. Whether the popular reaction will be definite enough (or timiely, rather) for the 2012 re-election is yet to be seen. But, I really think Chavez’s regime is not self sustainable, it is deemed, by its own deffinition, to fail (and unfortunately along with that failure Venezuelans will be have to endure a lot of grief and suffering).
October 6, 2010 at 10:19 am
Socialism, did not work in Cuba for Castro, because he didn’t have an ATM, Chavez does, PDVSA.
Chavez only needs 25% of the population supporting him, if they are holding the guns.
As Rockefeller said, the third best business in the world is a badly run oil company (first is a well run, second not well) so, with the third best business in the world he can hold on for years to come.
October 6, 2010 at 9:20 am
Uno de estos días Huguito se va a poner preso a sí mismo.
October 6, 2010 at 8:52 am
Chavez is counting on the fact that more opposition will choose to leave the country because of his latest, and future radical expropriations. In parallel, he will be granting citizenship and voting privilages to any poor soul he can recruit before 2012. Increasing the International exit tax at the airport would allow him to wrench additional Bolivares from the pockets of the ones choosing to exit. Not a bad plan in a deranged, sadistic form.
October 6, 2010 at 8:49 am
“…PDVAL was storing rancid vegetable oil in that company’s warehosuses. Yesterday Chavez called for the expopriation of the warehouses.”
So those were government warehouses?
October 6, 2010 at 7:44 am
In 2005 or 2006 Chavez nationalized INVETEX, created a coop called Hilandera Tinaquillo, which despite millions never got off the ground. This year they found that PDVAL was storing rancid vegetable oil in that company’s warehosuses. Yesterday Chavez called for the expopriation of the warehouses.
October 6, 2010 at 7:28 am
And yet another achievement for “the revolution”:
One of the worst internet speeds in the world, 148th place.
Congratulations everybody.
http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/
October 6, 2010 at 7:27 am
And yet another achievement for “the revolution”:
One of the worst internet speeds in the world, 148th place.
Congratulations everybody.
October 6, 2010 at 6:50 am
Humberto,
It is an accounting issue. If the airport authorities count the extortion money they get from the travelling public as income, I think that Maiquetia beats Jose Marti in profits hands down. Imagine the extra earnings if they were able to attract some tourists to Caracas. I see a lot of potential for creative accounting with the people’s Agroisleña.
October 6, 2010 at 6:38 am
Humberto.
Chavez has said on numerous occasions that the companies that have been taken over are not profit driven under his socialist ideas.
He’s made a pretty good job of proving that.
October 6, 2010 at 6:34 am
I suspect the biggest implication of this move will be seen at the next harvest and will be blamed on poor weather conditions.
October 6, 2010 at 6:11 am
Humberto,
THAT is why it is called “Chavismo”.
October 6, 2010 at 2:55 am
While Chavez takes over Agroisle\~na, he complains the airport in Caracas, already owned by the government through an “autonomous” entity, is not profitable.
So, let’s see. The principle here is that it is a *must* to be profit-driven if its is a government enterprise but if you are private it is *evil*??
Sadly, it takes one a nano-second to realize there is no principle, let alone logic. It is whatever Chavez wants… That’s the definition of 21st century socialism.
October 5, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Chávez can do anything he wants, but when he affects the food supply, he’s playing with fire. There was a joke during the Krushchev era; that he had won the Noble Prize in agriculture by planting wheat in Kazakstan, and harvesting it in Kansas. Collective farms NEVER work, as Chávez will all too soon find out.
October 5, 2010 at 11:14 pm
deanadash i feel the same way,actually,i plan to travel and live outside venezuela in the future.There is no hope for the people.
But i’ve felt this awesome patriotic feeling too, im really sad of whats happening to my country.Where i grew up,etc. it’s harder than i thought!!!
October 5, 2010 at 10:51 pm
ESCAPE while you can. Doubly so IF you are a “producer”. And be sure and take your minds with you.
You can always build / buy new things – your life itself is what is priceless. Chavez is mentally ill enough (drunk with power) that there is literally NO LIMIT to what he is capable of. And yes, I do mean murder on a horrific scale. (As if even just one murder of an innocent wasn’t horrific.)
October 5, 2010 at 10:46 pm
continuing with posters of past revolutions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMH_9ODvU2M&feature=related however the Fascists were not much better.
October 5, 2010 at 10:18 pm
If this agro takeover is a red flag, isn’t the Maiquetia airport takeover a whole parade?
October 5, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Having a backyard large enough to have crops that can sustain you is quite imperialistic and a luxury the the burgoise.
Instead you could give extra rooms for people that don’t have a roof.Live in peace with them.And don’t forget the food in PDVAL and Bicentenario is of the best quality and the best prices. people dont really need to OWN stuff do they?
October 5, 2010 at 9:22 pm
How many people reading this and living in Venezuela have a backyard vegetable garden, or a place to grow one? How many have seeds or know where to get them? Fertilizer? Garden tools? A source of water that isn’t full of chlorine and fluoride or sodium so it can be used to water crops without killing them? How many have ever grown food?
How many have food put aside for the three months or so it will take to get a crop, even if they have everything listed above?