I am not in Caracas, but the mood of the people is very clear from this video at the Tiburones de La Guaira versus Tigres de Aragua playoff baseball game last night. A fan starts shouting against the Government and the regular cops (yellow shirts with cross) come to get him and take him out of the game:
The people start saying “¡Fuera!”¡ Fuera!” (Out!, out!). People throw beer and other stuff at the cops, but then in minute 0:59, people start shouting: ¡Y va a caer! ¡Y va a caer! Este Gobierno va a caer. (It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall, this Government is going to fall). Everybody joins and even if the heavily helmeted anti-riot cops show up (the ones with the bubble helmets in min 1:30 or so) they continue. At 2:15 people get mad again, the cops decide to leave. Yes, this is Caracas, but a few months ago, they would not have continued..The mood is turning ugly…
Looting of a drugstore in Maracaibo (including the fingerprint machines) here and looting of a truck here. And the arrival of chicken to a supermarket in Maracaibo here. (From the comments)
(Some people say that the fan that created the incident was not making anti-Government slogans, I am told by the friend who sent it and was there, that this is not true, but I am not sure it changes what happened anyway)
The Devil's Excrement 
January 18, 2015 at 3:56 pm
“Even supporters of the 15-year-old socialist revolution launched by the late President Hugo Chavez joked Saturday that the long wait in the hot sun to get into a rally at the palace grounds echoed the hours-long lines that shoppers across Venezuela have been making outside supermarkets hoping to buy increasingly hard-to-come by items like toilet paper and laundry detergent.”
==Associated Press
January 17, 2015 at 9:13 pm
A parade?
If that’s not reason enough for the civil war to begin, nothing is.
January 17, 2015 at 6:29 am
There has been a country wide failure of Internet (ABA) & mobile data services (Mobilnet) of the government phone company CANTV since around midnite last night.
I’m using my wife’s phone which has a Movistar account and using it as a Wi-Fi point. Works pretty well actually.
I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the supreme coward’s return to the country today?
January 17, 2015 at 10:35 am
The blocking of the DNS servers at CANTV contiues at this hour.
I have changed the DNS locations on my PC to Google DNS (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4 & now have a good Internet connection.
You can see the instructions here:
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2015/01/17/como-configurar-tu-red-para-usar-los-dns-publicos-de-google/
January 17, 2015 at 12:24 pm
CANTV announces the gradual return of service.
What a coincidence that it occurs now that his royal cowardice has returned & is safely in his compound.
No one will ever convince me that this was not a planned event!
January 17, 2015 at 5:44 pm
They’ll say that everyone was so happy that Maduro came home that they overloaded the systems talking about it.
January 16, 2015 at 9:00 am
Link
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-15/maduro-putin-meet-in-russia-to-talk-oil-prices-funding.html
“State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela plans to invest $302 billion through 2019 to boost output”. WTF! Is Muduro going to pull this out of his as$.
January 16, 2015 at 10:26 am
Easy! I understand that Maduro is rushing back to Venezuela at this very moment, after having failed to secure any additional financing from Saudi Arabia, China, Algeria or Qatar, in the hope that his final ace-in-the-hole will agree to lend him the billions to jump-start the Venezuelan economy. Who’s money will save Venezuela? Diosdado Cabello!
January 16, 2015 at 10:55 am
I think he will try the old “outside investors supply 60% of the money and Venezuela keeps total control. Then we use 50% of their money, pocket the other 50% and invest nothing from Venezuela.”
It worked for Hugo, but the bus driver lacks the panache to pull it off.
_________________________________________________________
Or perhaps he is waiting for the fruits of his world tour to ripen and the price of oil to rise to $130bbl.
January 16, 2015 at 4:53 pm
And let’s not forget that especially as of today (after the Obama-Cameron news conference), Iranian oil might be hitting the market again in the not-so-distant future.
Sending prices even LOWER!
January 16, 2015 at 8:55 am
So the idiot is asking Saudi Arabia and OPEC to reduce supply to prop up prices while begging Russia to fund joint ventures so that Venezuela can double production, or triple 2M -> 6M.
I obviously missed that economics class.
January 16, 2015 at 2:58 pm
If The Saudis’ were to cut output, Russia would jump on it in a minute, Venezuela unfortunately would not be able to do a thing.
At this point with their oil production infrastructure in such disarray is Venezuela capable of increasing their output at all. Last year they were able to extract 2.4 million bbls a day, if they were able to get more out of the ground to sell, I have no doubt that they would have done it.
January 15, 2015 at 10:52 pm
Gustavo Coronel had one of those “picture is worth a thousand words” postings. Que les parece esto que dice el cerdo Juan Barreto?
Go to the link. The photo of Juan Barreto indicates that he hasn’t made such sacrifices in quite a long time. A priceless posting, Gustavo.
January 15, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Crime is a career these days in Venezuela. All you need to do is dress up in green and get hold of an AK47.
January 15, 2015 at 11:56 am
Did I hear them shouting something about Cuba? (Perhaps “go back to Cuba”?)
January 15, 2015 at 11:30 am
In the end, do they get hold of the guy shouting first?
January 15, 2015 at 11:07 am
Almost a year ago was when the protest started in San Cristobal, Merida and so. I am from Merida. I grew up there. When I was reading the news on internet I keep thinking, the only sectors doing the heavy protest (at least in Merida where I know the neighborhoods) were middle class areas. None, None of the areas were the people in most need and most lower salaries live protested. I remember this looking at the video of the baseball game. People from Catia and the barrios bajando a la Guaria attend these games?
January 15, 2015 at 12:37 pm
My in laws are working class (father in law is a bus driver), and protesters starting their neighborhood (back in 2013) were met with a visit from the colectivos from the local barrio. It was not a friendly visit.
To take part in protests, they all have to travel to more prosperous areas of Caracas where it was safer to do so.
The violence dissenters face in poorer areas is the reasons most protests do not take place there.
January 15, 2015 at 2:31 pm
I guess Caracas is way more polarised, people in Higuerote protest and block the road to Caracas every month or two, protesting about the insecurity, murdered bus and taxi drivers and so on. Sure, they’re local concerns, but they’re a reflection of the daily reality that people live, and in a very chavista (and very poor, the nice areas like Puerto Encantado and the quitas and condominios along the road to Carenero belong to caraqueños) area as well.
People there are very careful to distinguish between being chavista and madurista, and the worse things are under Maduro, the better they look in retrospect under Chavez.
January 14, 2015 at 11:34 pm
January 14, 2015 at 11:23 pm
So how many are squinting with the neut format!?
January 14, 2015 at 9:10 pm
Cuidado con las trompetas y no te quedes dormido bajo esa mata!
January 14, 2015 at 9:09 pm
January 14, 2015 at 9:06 pm
Si bill cosby no sea osea escapolamina! sodium pentathol se queda pendejo!
January 14, 2015 at 9:03 pm
It´s a food soul movie!
January 14, 2015 at 9:30 pm
Ladies and gentlemen–this is really bad. Don’t waste your time.
January 14, 2015 at 11:20 pm
it really is!
just equivocating!
January 14, 2015 at 11:21 pm
though a good flick for high chorus!
January 14, 2015 at 6:53 pm
How about the 4,000 Cuban troops in Caracas. Castro will not let venzuela go without a fight.
January 14, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Regarding the Cubana Ilyushin VIP vs Airbus 319CJ:
Maduro actually upgraded the executive VIP fleet w/o anyone noticing. Air Force transport group #5 I believe it’s called.
The Airbus is too small. Whenever Chavez flew, it was not unusual to have a three-aircraft convoy. These additional aircraft would sometimes be chartered from the Empire. Once the Russians sent fighter jets to intercept them because no flight plan filed and the three radar bleeps freaked them out.
The Airbus was not secure. This includes aircraft communications and hidden recording devices within the aircraft. Not that it happened but it was always on the table everytime the aircraft went to Bordeaux or was left unattended overnight in strange land (this happened more than once causing Chavez to fly back on other bird).
Airbus pilots could not be trusted. Because they train in America or Europe.
The Cubana bird is basically free. The pilots are trustworthy Cuban military, the aircraft has in infirmary and four engines for those long over water hops lilke CCs to Moscow. There is little to no risk of listening devices.
January 14, 2015 at 6:03 pm
There is little to no risk of Nicolas and his entourage being bugged because the aircraft is Cuban? Really?
January 15, 2015 at 3:54 pm
“The Cubana bird is basicaly free”
Really? we paid for it buddy, how is that free?
January 14, 2015 at 11:46 am
January 14, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Uh–I don’t get the point.
January 14, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Ira, it’s in the titles.
January 14, 2015 at 11:43 am
January 14, 2015 at 11:08 am
Dark prospects in the article Ira linked here: “”The deprivation that awaits the Venezuelan people is far, far worse than anything they are experiencing at the moment. Attracted by the lure of socialism and promised equality and prosperity, they have walked an all too well-trodden path – the road to hell.””
January 14, 2015 at 11:42 am
Maduro will try to talk Putin into lowering production because it’s the Ruskies who are most to blame for the increase. Maduro is weak and susceptible. Will Putin sink his claws into him?
January 14, 2015 at 11:47 am
Putin has his own troubles, he will not reduce production.
January 14, 2015 at 8:48 am
Yesterday they said Mexico, today is Russia. Totally improvised.
January 14, 2015 at 8:59 am
From a geographic perspective, this is nuts! Algeria, …all the way BACK to Moscow? ..in the cold? …and for what ferchrisakes? Stunning development. I hope he had his silly multi-colored scarf washed and ironed. He’ll need it again.
January 14, 2015 at 10:33 am
He will go anywhere as long as it’s not Simón Bolívar International Airport.
January 14, 2015 at 6:55 pm
Looking for asylum?
January 14, 2015 at 1:47 pm
Valued Customer, I believe you may be on to something. Maduro’s road trip is definitely taking longer than planned.
January 14, 2015 at 6:07 pm
Conspiracy theories abound where military is waiting for his return to seek his resignation
January 14, 2015 at 8:40 am
He’s going to Russia? Er, ah, wasn’t he, like, there last week? What in God’s name could be the purpose of this fool showing-up in Russia, again? They’re broke too!
January 14, 2015 at 12:51 pm
At the moment, I suppose, anywhere seems better than going back to Venezuela.
January 15, 2015 at 2:43 pm
Putin doesn’t want the sword anymore… what kind of symbolism is that?
January 14, 2015 at 6:17 am
A very good piece in Forbes yesterday–also useful as a primer for those unfamiliar with what led to the bad state of affairs:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2015/01/13/the-impending-collapse-of-venezuela/2/
January 14, 2015 at 12:14 pm
Indeed an excellent synopsis. The author was unflinchingly blunt in her final conclusion:
“The deprivation that awaits the Venezuelan people is far, far worse than anything they are experiencing at the moment. Attracted by the lure of socialism and promised equality and prosperity, they have walked an all too well-trodden path – the road to hell.”
January 14, 2015 at 4:16 am
I read very nasty comments about the way things are in Facebook pages. This is a two edge sword, because it allows the G2 to map out relations and use software to identify people they should target for close surveillance. They must have a couple of thousand Cubans getting tapped into venezuelan Internet flows and drawing maps, making dossiers, and picking out targets (that’s the real purpose for that fiber optic cable they have between Caracas and Havana).
I wonder if the cubans are aware that traffic going through that cable is transparent? I hear even the Polish secret service gets to read Alejandro’s FSB email. Think about it.
January 13, 2015 at 11:27 pm
The music on this one I’d great;
January 13, 2015 at 11:27 pm
IS great
January 13, 2015 at 11:51 pm
Once you watch it, it automatically queues to the next video on this guy’s channel. You have to reload the page or exit your browser and return to get back to my intended video.
January 14, 2015 at 9:02 am
Very good, I added it to the links in the post.
January 14, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Miguel, your link isn’t working on my iPad.
January 13, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Octavio the video of the truck looting is from mid December. I have seen it before. However this is very disturbing, something very scary is in the air. Also in Anzoategui and Falcon there have prohibited the “colas” at night.
January 13, 2015 at 10:23 pm
Far from the centers of population, on Margarita Island, the mood can be described as “grim”.
January 13, 2015 at 10:16 pm
They are always there. Maduro? He is not even in Venezuela, but he would never dare march like in Paris the other day.
January 13, 2015 at 10:12 pm
The cops in riot gear showed up quickly. Does that mean they are always prepared for an uprising? The gov. must have them on high alert at all times. Does Maduro stay at Miraflores, most likely no.
January 13, 2015 at 9:22 pm
You should hope bullets are in short supply like everything else.
January 13, 2015 at 9:18 pm
There are an estimated 6 million guns in the hands of Venezuelans, not sure it can be a good thing no matter in which hands they are.
January 14, 2015 at 2:30 am
If everyone had a gun and ammo and knew how to use them, you wouldn’t see Venezuela become a tyranny/
January 15, 2015 at 11:28 am
This is the most stupid statement I have EVER heard.
January 15, 2015 at 12:00 pm
I suspect that malandros have more guns than law-abiding citizens do.
January 13, 2015 at 9:04 pm
I think it was Kepler who commented the other day about there being millions of guns in Venezuela. As long as they are not all in government hands, this can be a good thing.
January 14, 2015 at 1:50 am
I have talked about guns but not in that sense. If you want to use guns, mejor te vas a EUA para que las uses allí. En Venezuela eso llevaría a una guerra civil peor de la que Colombia vivió en el tiempo de la Gran Violencia.
January 14, 2015 at 8:53 am
If it is true that the rate of violent deaths in Venezuela are higher than in the most war torn countries in the world, then I don’t understand your point of view. Is it better to bleed slowly? Time, money and power are on the side of the current reigime, not the people of Venezuela. The only clear advantage is numbers.
January 14, 2015 at 10:10 am
Kepler believes guns are fine as long as only the government has them? Were the riot police who showed up at the ball game armed? Of course, but that’s good because they are with the government, right? No matter who or what the government is, they should be armed, the people should not. Is that about right?
As to the comment about a civil war worse than Colombia? Oh really, are there ideoligical revolutionaries with camps in Amazonas or something? Listen man, the only ideology in Venezuela is money. People pretend to believe in socialism or whatever if it gets them free shit or a position where they can work the dollar arbitrage or take bribes and payoffs. There is no other ideology.
January 13, 2015 at 8:45 pm
There’s footage out there, I saw it on Oscar La Haza, that shows the entire packed stadium chanting that. The above clip doesn’t show how big this spontaneous demonstration actually was.