I can not follow events closely from afar, but Daniel can and has been doing a great job, click here to see his reports on this very sad day.
The Devil's Excrement
Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.
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The Devil's Excrement 
February 15, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Ira, heard of Daniel Restrepo? Architect of Obamas failed Latam non-policy. he was fired after the disastrous Trinidad summit I believe. Ira you have no idea do you?
February 13, 2014 at 10:58 pm
About ten years ago there was a Venezuelan former military and cantv. He ran the trunk lines from cantv to Disip. Jose Guevara. His brothers are well known, they ran the police during IVth. Hiighly respected cops. They led the counter-assault on HCF during 4f…house to house, room to room. It was brutal stuff that real men do. They kidnapped Montesinos who wrongly entrusted them. They where later framed for Danilo Anderson. Jose came up here and stayed. I have not met someone more scared of Cuban and Venezuelan agents here than Jose. They where out to kill hiim or so he thought. These is the real deal Ira.
February 14, 2014 at 5:00 am
Is it you, GWEH?
February 15, 2014 at 12:40 pm
the Great White Elephant Hunter? Never heard of him
February 13, 2014 at 10:41 pm
The fact that the united states today clothes, feeds and medicated Cuba is lost on many. Embargo? What embargo! They have no credit meaning they pay cash and rightfully so. Remittances included the US is pumping billions into the Cuban economy. As much or more than Venezuela. If Ira is suggesting that Havana fears Obama (rattled?) because Obama can shut off the spigot then say it but this would be speculation and assumption on your part. Obama is not about punishing Cuba when he opened it up in the naive hopes of getting something in return which he did not. Obamas Cuba policy has failed. He also a Cuban-5 out of jail and allows him to return home. Still nothing from Havana. Then we’re talking with them about the idiot contractor who took crypto phones (sat phones with encryption) to Jewish groups on the island….Alan Gross. Nada. We’re still waiting. If Obama has the power to rattle them why not bring Gross back home? we just cancelled $17M in aid to Cuba because the Obama government cannot manage this. When Bush diverted Cuba aid to Iraq it was to win a war. At least everyone was on board and committed during Bush….no lo veo con Obama y su Latam team from NSC to State
February 14, 2014 at 4:45 pm
Castro worries every day about el vecino to the north:
ARE YOU KIDDING!?
For Christ’s sake, the idiot’s/idiots’ still worried about an INVASION, as if that would ever happen. (Although I would vote for the presidential candidate who advocated it.)
Cuba is a pimple on America’s ass, and diplomatic niceties aside, easily popped. We hardly think or care about the country at ALL.
Whereas Fidel and Raul go to sleep, every night, hugging their Che dolls and hoping for the best.
February 13, 2014 at 10:23 pm
You ask how do we know a cabinet member was compromised. Over the years we had a lot of high level Cuban intelligence defectors. We know a lot from these guys many are residing here with fictitious names because there’s standing kill orders from Havana. I have met a few and know Brian Latell who ran the CIA Cuba desk for many years. Brian is the foremost authority on Cuban intelligence. Check him out.
February 13, 2014 at 10:54 pm
LE – Here you are on a blog about a country that is sinking into true dictatorship, a country that is imploding from the incompetence and ideology a dictator in training. A country that has vast wealth in the ground and still can’t wipe their butt or buy milk for their children. Yet you and *They call me the breeze* insist on this silly vendetta against the legally elected President of the United States.
Of course there are “agents” of Cuba in the United States. They are here because we accepted them as a matter of policy when we accept everyday Cubans who wish for a better life, a free life. Republican and Democratic Presidents have shown the ability to allow those few bad apples so we could accept the thousands of Cubans who desire to be free.
Show the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and other people with similar situations the respect they deserve by taking your idiocy to Breitbart or FOX News.
February 14, 2014 at 4:11 am
Dude, you need to read the comments posted before attempting to comment on them. Take a deep breath……then post.
February 13, 2014 at 10:14 pm
Ira, the Cubans are probably the best In the business using deep penetration agents. State dept and DIA are two cases. There is one unsolved case involving a deep penetration mole at US cabinet level. They never found out who it was because Fidel personally handled him. That high. So yes, Cuban infiltrators and agents are to be found everywhere in DC, NY and MIA. This is not about Bush who you obviously dislike yet you are clueless about what he did with Venezuela. Under Bush, Venezuela made the daily presidential brief. One of only six countries. Obama does not want to hear about Venezuela…they avoid even going there. Did you know that Jeb Bush lived in Caracas with his wife….he has fond memories of his time there. He told me himself.
February 13, 2014 at 5:06 pm
All is not lost, at least we have a massive surveillance infrastructure capable of grabbing everything in Venezuela and Cuba for processing by a team of capable analyists in Texas, Miami and MD… Not!
February 13, 2014 at 5:02 pm
USAid to Cuba just got cut out. Mismanagement, greed, corruption, incompetence, infighting…sounds like Venezuela! Some programs will go on under different authority but things are not good here either. This shit did not happen under bush
February 13, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Bush was, is, and will continue to be a mental midget, his policies notwithstanding.
February 13, 2014 at 7:49 pm
Here we go again….it’s useless with you. You have your mind made up yet. you cannot substantiate a single remark. Do you have contacts in the state dept and Washington? Who the f do you know. What is the basis for your claims
February 13, 2014 at 8:17 pm
Hey, Einstein:
You’re the shmuck who started defending Bush over Obama.
Don’t blame ME for pointing out what an idiot you are.
February 13, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Who’s the best guy in Maduro’s cabinet that I should email, outlining and confirming our step-by-step plans for the golpe?
Divide and conquer, as they say.
Plus, I’m in Florida and I don’t give a shit if he knows my IP.
February 13, 2014 at 4:57 pm
Ira, we are so infiltrated by Cuban intelligence in South Florida and Washington that all you have to do is open your window and shout.
FWIW, president bush dealt with this much better than Obama. We had a plan under bush starting 2006. We have nothing with Obama. All our might and power is useless under obama
February 13, 2014 at 6:02 pm
You must be living in a different United States than I live in.
But I can assure you that in either of them, not only does Cuba have no intelligence that matters here, but they were/are scared shirtless under both Bush and Obama. As a matter of fact, Obama has done more to rattle their cage than anyone:
Imagine, an ultra-liberal American president (so they thought), who is such a socialist slash communist (so they thought), who’s also a MUSLIM (so they thought), and an enemy of Israel (so they thought)…who is hardly giving an INCH to Cuba unless they clean up their act.
Obama pisses a lot of conservatives off because he’s often more conservative than THEM, not to mention his record deportations of illegals.
It’s like they have to hate him, even if they love what he’s doing in certain areas.
February 13, 2014 at 7:44 pm
Can you please stick to the subject matter without ad-hominem attacks. The architect of Bush policy towards VZla is ambassador Shannon. And Cuban agents do have the run of DC and Miami. You must be living is section 8 housing or something because your comments are very ignorant of reality. Obama rattled Castro? Examples please! You know you have to back up what you say and I’m not going to give you a pass.
February 14, 2014 at 9:05 am
Ummmm, LE, YOU’RE telling someone to stick to the subject matter? I thought this post was about young men being murdered in the streets of Caracas.
February 13, 2014 at 7:46 pm
Your comment is pretty ignorant
February 13, 2014 at 8:16 pm
I think that anyone who defends Bush against Obama…who thinks Bush is smarter than Obama…isn’t just ignorant.
He’s retarded.
Meaning YOU!
February 15, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Divide and conquer!
February 13, 2014 at 1:25 pm
“Lapatilla” site has been out since yesterday. It’s been blocked too?
February 13, 2014 at 3:56 pm
Where are you? lapatilla.com is up, I use their RSS feed… though there are times when no updates come through, and it took a few retries to get the page to load this morning. It might be high traffic, or maybe DOS attacks. BBM and Whatsapp messages are also sometimes taking a long time (5-10 mins) to be delivered to mobile in Venezuela, for example, yesterday afternoon this was the case. It could just be high traffic.
February 13, 2014 at 10:18 am
Meanwhile, those shining defenders of democracy at home and in the Mercosur, I am talking of Brazil and Argentina, don’t peep a word. Pretty shameful.
February 13, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Friends don’t let friends drink and drive.
But they let them shoot.
February 13, 2014 at 2:37 am
The road to North Korea/Cuba was never not going to be violent.