We’ll get to our Down The Rabbit Hole segment shortly but first…The New York Times had a headline that read “Despite Help For Venezuelans in South America, Many Are Still Heading North”. OK, so I only got a quick glimpse of the body of the article before I got blocked. They wanted me to create an account and since I have an anti-New York Times bias (at least I’m honest about it) that won’t happen. However, I have a comment ….Duh!

 We had a piece a couple of weeks ago from IOM- UN Migration giving a breakdown, country by country, of Venezuelan migrants in Latin America. Remember, 7.1 million Venezuelans have already fled the Maduro regime and 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism. The bottom line is South America is filling up with Venezuelan migrants.

 All the countries closest to Venezuela (except Brazil where the border crossings are in remote areas) are overwhelmed so these days it’s either try and make it south to Chile or north to the US. Remember, most of the countries criticized the US, at the beginning of the Venezuela migrant crisis, for not having an open border until they were inundated with fleeing Venezuelans and put in place restrictions, controls, and deportations themselves.

 With a minimum wage of, last time we checked, $6 A MONTH, constant blackouts, medicine shortages, lack of access to fresh water, and on and on (like the 1,400 extrajudicial killings a year by Maduro’s security forces), the exodus will continue. Having already lost 20% of it’s population to migration (again, 7.1 million and counting) it seems the only thing that will stop Venezuelans from fleeing the Maduro regime and 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism is when there’s nobody left.

 And speaking of migrants, UNHCR tells us that Peru contains 1.5 million Venezuelan migrants and among them are medical professionals that previously had difficulty finding work in their chosen profession in their adopted country.

 Due to administrative hurdles it could take a year and a half for validation of licenses. Now, with a new program by UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency) whereby they pay the first three months salary for migrants onboard, many of these professionals are finding work in their profession. Funny how a little money can spreed up the process.

 Let’s head Down The Rabbit Hole…

 Chapter 17 continued…

 …In case you didn’t know, Venezuela used to have an impressive amount of gold reserves (key phrase : used to have). As recently as 2011 they had over $30 billion in gold in vaults around the world. To great fanfare, Hugo Chavez repatriated almost all of these reserves, supposedly to protect it from those who would sabotage “The Revolution”. (You know…protect it for “the people”) The cameras were rolling and the flashes were popping as the gold arrived, was loaded onto trucks, and driven through the streets of Caracas in a parade-like or circus-like atmosphere. One had to wonder (at least we did), where was it going and more importantly what would happen to it? (As if we didn’t know) That over $30 billion is now under $5 billion and falling. If it weren’t for the narco-trafficking dollars coming in those reserves would be gone by now.

 This one is self-explanatory : In 2018 suicides were up in Venezuela by 500%.

 We already know that the Chavistas are completely ignoring the health and welfare of the children of Venezuela, for that matter everyone in Venezuela who isn’t Chavista, but let’s stay with the kids. What about their education? Forget about the fact that as soon as Hugo Chavez came to power one of his first moves was to replace all the school books with the new “Chavista- revised” version of everything. This is a common trait of socialist regimes. They want to wipe out history so you’ll have nothing to compare their “New World Order” to…because, as we’ve covered before, it’s always a dismal failure. How about just getting the kids in school? Chavez did a good job in the beginning, seeing that all children had access to an education. Just like every other aspect of 21st Century Bolivarian Socialism it turned bad…then it turned really bad. Check this out…

 As of June,2019 78% of children did not attend school.

 67% of teachers missed work on a regular basis.

 87% of schools didn’t comply with the national school food program.

 Of those that do comply, 96% don’t meet the basic nutritional standards of the program.

 For both the children and the teachers it’s not difficult to figure out why they’re not in the classroom. It’s all about money and food (aside from the lack of basics like electricity and water) . The adults, parents and teachers alike, don’t earn enough to buy hardly anything…food, clothing, medicine, cleaning supplies, personal care items …nothing! Instead of being in school teachers are trying to find their next meal. Students are helping their parents try to find their next meal. When the government supplied meals in the schools parents would make it a priority to get their kids to school if for no other reason than to get a meal. Now, why bother?

 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. There is currently an investigation by the ICC (International Criminal Court) into the Maduro regime’s gross and systematic Human Rights violations and possible crimes against humanity. Investigations by the ICC take years and even if they find that violations and/or crimes were committed by the Chavistas (the evidence is overwhelming) it’s unclear what action(s) would be taken. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the UN to invoke “The Responsibility To Protect” before such time as the ICC 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 Venezuela 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. For eight straight years the economy contracted.

 More tomorrow….