We’ll continue with Down The Rabbit Hole, “Scattershot” in a moment but first, the news feed. The headline in PRR says it all, “A Snapshot Of Hell.” It refers to a video of a police execution showing two officers holding up a man while they shot him. Now just to be clear, nobody is claiming the man who was killed was an angel and he was probably guilty of all manner of crimes, perhaps even murder but that’s not the point. First, it’s the brazen manner in which he was executed and the second point is the most frightening. When asked to comment on the video, you know, one of those “expert commentary” kinda’ deals, an officer was critiquing mistakes made by the officers in the video. What’s striking about his commentary is it didn’t deal with the violence or what is and is not proper protocol, but went into detail on the clumsy handling of the cover up!  The article continued to inform us that 1/3 of homicides in Venezuela involve intervention of security forces. This is simply routine.

 And speaking of killers, Telesur (government media) reports “President Maduro Highlights Ernesto Che Guevara’s legacy.” He spoke of him in the glowing, hero-worship terms many use when reminiscing on “Che”. We prefer something like “Fidel’s killer on call.”

 Remember us talking about how puzzling it is (not really) that even though Venezuela has no economy to speak of they are in the top 7 or 8 in both offshore bank accounts in tax havens and private jet ownership? The economy is so bad there was only one (1) new car produced in Venezuela so far this year. Well, Insight Crime reports that Venezuela is a big market for stolen luxury vehicles. So the criminals with the offshore bank accounts and private jets have no problem with buying stolen cars. How is this news?

 Mark your calendars! Telesur reports that the next round of talks in Mexico between the Maduro regime and the opposition are scheduled to begin October,17th. Is that the day the Chavistas pull a no show (like last time) or the day both sides tell us they’re happy with the progress (like last time) or they adjourn after nothing of substance and schedule the next round (like last time)?

 And here’s a little Covid-19 news that would be a head scratcher  if it wasn’t Chavismo. BNN Bloomberg reports that Covid-19 cases are on the decline in South America…except in Venezuela,where they are spiking…??

 And when Maduro wasn’t singing the praises of Che last week he was putting out the latest on his massively fraudulent CLAP,government food program. He tells us that the CLAP program now reaches 7 million families, up from 6 million. Since there is no way to verify this do we take Nico at his word? And if so what does “reaches” mean? Is that the woefully inadequate delivery every month or so of poor quality or expired food items? One thing we can be sure of is that his claim that all the items in the food box are domestically produced is not even close to being factual.

 It’s as good a time as any to head Down The Rabbit Hole….

 This one is a bit of a reach and will never go anywhere but I can’t help thinking about it.It’s the United Nations resolution ratified in 2005.It pertains to four items, among them crimes against humanity,and is called The Responsibility To Protect. It states that the UN may intervene when a government is committing crimes against humanity.190 countries signed off on this.As we’ve said before, there is currently a petition before the ICC (International Criminal Court) requesting an investigation into the Maduro regime’s gross and systematic human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity. As we know, investigations by the ICC take years and even if they find that violations and/or crimes were (and are) committed by the Chavistas it’s unclear what action(s) would be taken.I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on the UN to invoke The Responsibility To Protect before such time as an “official investigation” is concluded and probably not afterward but the possibility,no matter how remote,is out there.

 We’ve dealt a lot with Chavismo’s destruction of the Venezuelan economy.Each year since Maduro took power he has proclaimed it as the year of the “Revolution’s Economic Miracle” and the huge projected boost in productivity.Each year production declines and GDP contracts. What is it…8 years in a row? Eventually things have to level off, don’t they?

 My personal favorite was 2017. That was the year that, in addition to the usual rebound claims, Maduro laid out his plan to recover lost production (although they never admitted it was lost). I know, it’s hard to beat the solutions of urban farming on the rooftops of Caracas or that Venezuelans shouldn’t view their cute little bunnies as pets but as two and a half kilos of meat but this was a comprehensive plan. It was called the 15 Economic Motors of Productivity. It was hailed as the strategy that would finally allow “The Revolution” to win the “economic war” being waged against them.

 Each category,such as agricultural,industrial,technological,and so on, was referred to as a motor of productivity and a chief was assigned and committees were formed. Maduro loves committees and ministries. Chavez had 11 ministries. Maduro had 32 in 2019 and I’ve lost track of how many have been added since but you get the idea. Anyway…Tareck El Aissami, Maduro’s Ex-VP, was put in charge of the project and all chiefs would report to him. You know him, the guy under indictment in the US with all the ties to drug trafficking and terrorism.He’s also the guy put in charge of restructuring Venezuela’s debt forgetting (or not caring) that since he was under sanction personally the bond holders were not allowed to be in contact with him. Sounds like just the guy for an economic turnaround project.

 To be continued….