Venezuela is Burning

[jllundqu]

And thus the cycle of statism and socialism continues...

[LibertyEagle]

They're starving. Isn't it the case that Chavez propped up his socialist state with oil profits and now that oil prices have hit the skids, they have no money to hand out?

[tod evans]

I'm betting rural Venezuelans are doing just fine....

[Zippyjuan]

I'm betting rural Venezuelans are doing just fine....

Mandatory prices are set so low farmers can't afford to grow food and sell it. Government has also been seizing farmland. They may be able to grow food for themselves but have no money to buy anything with.

https://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/...zuela-ranchers

For the last decade, price controls have been in effect for food and other basic goods. The socialist government of Hugo Chavez sought to tamp down inflation. But like the U.S. experiment with price controls in the 1970s, government-controlled low prices squeezed profits and producers, creating shortages.

“For many products, the profit margin is nonexistent,” said rancher Finol. “Now we are producing where our costs are higher than the selling price.”

The country’s agriculture has shrunk from a significant slice of economic output to less than 4 percent. Today, Venezuela imports 80 percent of its food.

Still, when cattlemen in Zulia tally their issues, they almost run out of fingers. Since 2001, the government has expropriated – that is, confiscated – private acreage on grounds of land reform and redistribution. It took land from the family of dairy farmer Albert Zambrano’s wife.

[jllundqu]

Yep... I'd bet those farmers hundred of miles from Caracas are laughing at this while the big cities and population centers collapse under the statist weight

[jllundqu]

Mandatory prices are set so low farmers can't afford to grow food and sell it. Government has also been seizing farmland. They may be able to grow food for themselves but have no money to buy anything with.

https://www.marketplace.org/2016/04/...zuela-ranchers

They don't have to sell $#@!... they can grow all they want for themselves prepper style.

[twomp]

Every time I see a revolt/protest against a government that is not liked by our government, I think that the CIA is playing an active role in the protest. Call me cynical but I don't think many revolutions occur without the help of the U.S. government. Venezuela is no exception.

[r3volution 3.0]

I'm betting rural Venezuelans are doing just fine....

Yep... I'd bet those farmers hundred of miles from Caracas are laughing at this while the big cities and population centers collapse under the statist weight

I wouldn't be so sure.

When the Argentine economy went tits up, the countryside was much more dangerous than the cities.

https://ferfal.blogspot.com/

[tod evans]

Yep... I'd bet those farmers hundred of miles from Caracas are laughing at this while the big cities and population centers collapse under the statist weight

Exactly!

Can't happen here soon enough as far as I'm concerned....

My kid is getting older and I'd rather the cities burn themselves to the ground now before some government agency comes looking to use him for cannon fodder later on....

[tod evans]

I wouldn't be so sure.

When the Argentine economy went tits up, the countryside was much more dangerous than the cities.

https://ferfal.blogspot.com/

More 'dangerous' to whom?

[r3volution 3.0]

More 'dangerous' to whom?

To the people living there.

There was a lot more crime; roving gangs doing home invasions in lightly populated areas.

Check out that blog, interesting read on all kinds of issues relating to SHTF from a guy who actually lived it.

[Krugminator2]

"Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all," Michael Moore tweeted nearly four years ago. http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/an-old-tweet-from-michael-moore-underscores-that-socialism-doesnt-work-ever/

"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today."Bernie Sanders. http://www.libertynewsdaily.com/blog-929-flashback:-bernie-sanders-praised-socialist-venezuela-as-model-for-ending-income-inequality


Venezuela has similar conditions to early 70's Chile with hyperinflation brought on by a Marxist government. It's is amusing to me that liberals would rather have the people suffer under a democratically elected Marxist than thrive under someone like Augusto Pinochet. Venezuela could use their own Augusto Pinochet.

[tod evans]

To the people living there.

There was a lot more crime; roving gangs doing home invasions in lightly populated areas.

Check out that blog, interesting read on all kinds of issues relating to SHTF from a guy who actually lived it.

Which part of that 'blog'?

I read about batteries, propane and such on the page you linked to and shut the window...

[r3volution 3.0]

Which part of that 'blog'?

I read about batteries, propane and such on the page you linked to and shut the window...

Couldn't tell you, it's an enormous blog, been online for many years. You'll have to search.

[tod evans]

Couldn't tell you, it's an enormous blog, been online for many years. You'll have to search.

I'm not that interested.

[angelatc]

They don't have to sell $#@!... they can grow all they want for themselves prepper style.

There are laws against hoarding. The government will come take it. Soldiers gotta eat ya know. And politicians. Them guys are too busy to grow their own food, so they pass laws demanding other people feed them.

[timosman]

Every time I see a revolt/protest against a government that is not liked by our government, I think that the CIA is playing an active role in the protest. Call me cynical but I don't think many revolutions occur without the help of the U.S. government. Venezuela is no exception.

You think?

[timosman]

There are laws against hoarding. The government will come take it. Soldiers gotta eat ya know. And politicians. Them guys are too busy to grow their own food, so they pass laws demanding other people feed them.

Think how money were invented.

[Keith and stuff]

Many liberals/socialists/communists/progressives like to steal and murder. It is really sad. This disease is destroying a nation that looked promising. Hopefully 10,000,000s of people around the world watch this, become educated that being a progressive is terrible, and change their ways. Time for liberals to grow up.

[angelatc]

Many liberals/socialists/communists/progressives like to steal and murder. It is really sad. This disease is destroying a nation that looked promising. Hopefully 10,000,000s of people around the world watch this, become educated that being a progressive is terrible, and change their ways. Time for liberals to grow up.

The sooner we figure out they don't want to change the sooner we can start making actual progress.

[tod evans]

Venezuela Before Chávez: A Prelude to Socialist Failure

https://mises.org/blog/venezuela-ch%...ialist-failure


Venezuela’s current economic catastrophe is well documented. Conventional narratives point to Hugo Chávez’s regime as the primary architect behind Venezuela’s economic tragedy. While Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro deserve the brunt of the blame for Venezuela’s current economic calamity, the underlying flaws of Venezuela’s political economy point to much more systemic problems.

Observers must look beyond stage one, and understand Venezuela’s overall history over the past 50 years in order to get a more thorough understanding of how the country has currently fallen to such lows.

Socialism Before Chávez

Analysts like to point to rosier pictures of Pre-Chávez Venezuela, but what these “experts” conveniently ignore is that the seeds of Venezuela’s destruction were sowed during those “glory years.” Years of gradual economic interventionism took what was once a country bound to join the ranks of the First World to a middle-tier developing country. This steady decline eventually created an environment where a demagogue like Chávez would completely exploit for his political gain.

The Once-Prosperous Venezuela

To comprehend Venezuela’s long-term decline, one must look back at what made it so prosperous in the first place. Before the completion of its first oil field on April 15, 1914, Venezuela was essentially a Banana Republic marked by political instability. This was largely a consequence of its colonial past and the period following its independence from Spain. Despite gaining independence from Spain, Venezuela maintained many of its primitive political and economic practices, above all, its exclusionary mercantilist and regulatory policies that kept it in an impoverished state.

However, the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century completely changed the entire ballgame. The powerful agricultural aristocracy would be supplanted by an industrialist class that sought to open its oil markets to multinational exploitation and foreign investment. For the first time in its history, Venezuela had a relatively liberal, free market economy and it would reap countless benefits in the decades to come.

From the 1910s to the 1930s, the much-maligned dictator Juan Vicente Gómez helped consolidate the Venezuelan state and modernized an otherwise neocolonial backwater by allowing market actors, domestic and foreign, to freely exploit newly discovered oil deposits. Venezuela would experience substantial economic growth and quickly establish itself as one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries by the 1950s.

In the 1950s, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez would continue Gómez’s legacy. At this juncture, Venezuela was at its peak, with a fourth place ranking in terms of per capita GDP worldwide.

More Than Just Oil

While oil exploitation did play a considerable role in Venezuela’s meteoric ascent from the 1920s to 1970s, this only scratches the surface in explaining how Venezuela became so prosperous during this period. A combination of a relatively free economy, an immigration system that attracted and assimilated laborers from Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and a system of strong property rights, allowed Venezuela to experience unprecedented levels of economic development from the 1940s up until the 1970s.

As mentioned earlier, Venezuela was at the height of its prosperity during the military dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez’s regime. Like Juan Vicente Gómez’s regime, Pérez Jiménez’s stewardship of Venezuela was characterized by heavy political repression.

Venezuela’s capitalist structure remained largely intact during Pérez Jiménez’s tenure, albeit with creeping degrees of state involvement. Pérez Jiménez did introduce some elements of crony capitalism, pharaonic public works projects, and increased state involvement in “strategic industries” like the steel industry. Nevertheless, the Pérez Jiménez regime was open to foreign investment, let the price system function normally in most sectors of the economy, and did not embark on creating a profligate welfare state.

The Road to Social Democracy

Despite the prosperity brought about by Venezuela’s booming economy in the 1950s, Marcos Pérez Jiménez’s government drew the ire of many left-leaning activists due its heavy-handed measures. The tipping point came in 1958, when these leftist activists, working in tandem with a sympathetic military, successfully overthrew Pérez Jiménez in a coup. Pérez Jiménez would live the rest of his life in exile and would be a figure of derision among Venezuelan intellectual and political elites, despite the unprecedented economic and social development under his watch.

Following the 1958 coup, naval officer Wolfgang Larrázabal occupied the presidency briefly until general elections were held later that year. Notable social democrat political leader Rómulo Betancourt would come out on top in these elections and assume the presidency from 1959 to 1964. The Fourth Republic of Venezuela — Venezuela’s longest lasting period of democratic rule, was established under Betancourt’s administration. In 1961, a constitution was introduced, dividing the government into 3 branches — executive, legislative, and judicial — and establishing an activist role for the Venezuelan state in economic affairs.

This political order was further consolidated by the establishment of the Punto Fijo Pact. The Punto Fijo Pact consisted of a bipartisan agreement between two political parties — Acción Democratica (Democratic Action) and COPEI (Christian Democrats) — that laid the foundation for a social democratic political order and alternation of power between the two parties.

What seemed like a genuine move toward democratic stability, Venezuela’s Fourth Republic marked the beginning of a process of creeping socialism that gradually whittled away at Venezuela’s economic and institutional foundations.

The Socialist Origins of Venezuela’s Pro-Democracy Advocates

Venezuela’s current collapse did not happen overnight. It was part of a drawn out process of economic and institutional decay that began decades before.

When Venezuela returned to democracy in 1958, it looked like it was poised to begin an era of unprecedented prosperity and political stability.

However, Venezuela’s democratic experiment was doomed from the start, and one needn’t look any further at the political background of its very own founder, Rómulo Betancourt, to understand why it’s entire political system was built on a house of cards.

Rómulo Betancourt was an ex-communist who renounced his Marxist ways in favor of a more gradualist approach of establishing socialism. Despite evolving into more of a social democrat, Betancourt still believed in a very activist role for the State in economic matters.

Betancourt was part of a generation of intellectuals and student activists that aimed to fully nationalize Venezuela’s petroleum sector and use petroleum rents to establish a welfare state of sorts. These political figures firmly believed that for Venezuela to become a truly independent country and free itself from the influence of foreign interests, the government must have complete dominion over the oil sector.

Under this premise, a nationalized oil industry would finance cheap gasoline, “free” education at all levels, healthcare, and a wide array of other public services.

This rhetoric strongly resonated among the lower and middle classes, which would form the bulwark of Betancourt’s party, Acción Democrática, voter base for years to come.

At its core, this vision of economic organization assumed that the government must manage the economy through central planning. Oil would be produced, managed, and administered by the state, while the government would try to phase out the private sector.

Interventionism from the Start

Betancourt’s administration, while not as interventionist as succeeding 4th Republic governments, capped off several worrisome policies, which included:

Devaluation of the Venezuelan currency, the Bolívar.
Failed land reform that encouraged squatting and undermined the property rights of landowners.
The establishment of a Constitutional order based on positive rights and an active role for the Venezuelan state in economic affairs
Betancourt’s government followed-up with considerable tax hikes that saw income tax rates triple to 36%. In typical fashion, spending increases would be accompanied with these increases, as the Venezuelan government started to generate fiscal deficits because of its out of control social programs. These growing deficits would become a fixture in Venezuelan public finance during the pre-Chávez era.

The Nationalization of the Oil Industry

While Betancourt did not achieve his end goal of nationalizing the Venezuelan oil industry, his government laid the foundation for subsequent interventions in that sector.

Thanks to the large oil boom of the 1970s, the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez capitalized on the unprecedented flow of petroleum rents brought about by the 1970s energy crisis where oil-producing countries like Venezuela benefited handsomely from high oil prices.

Betancourt’s vision was finally achieved in 1975, when Carlos Andrés Pérez’s government nationalized the petroleum sector. The nationalization of Venezuela’s oil industry fundamentally altered the nature of the Venezuelan state. Venezuela morphed into a petrostate, in which the concept of the consent of the governed was effectively turned on its head.

Instead of Venezuelans paying taxes to the government in exchange for the protection of property and similar freedoms, the Venezuelan state would play a patrimonial role by bribing its citizens with all sorts of handouts to maintain its dominion over them.

On the other hand, countries based on more liberal frameworks of governance have citizens paying taxes, and in return, these governments provide services that nominally protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens. The state is not the owner, thus giving the citizens a strong check against the Leviathan should the government overstep its boundaries.

Oil Nationalization: A Pig Trough for Politicians

Pérez would take advantage of this state power-grab to finance a profligate welfare state and a cornucopia of social welfare programs that resonated strongly with the populace. As a result, deficit spending became embraced by the political class and increasing levels of foreign and public debt would become the norm in Venezuelan fiscal affairs.

At this juncture, Venezuela’s economy became overwhelmingly politicized. Oil boom periods were characterized by an inflow of petrodollars that the state used for pharaonic public works and social projects as a means to pacify the populace.

In reality, no real wealth creation took place during these boom periods, as the state redistributed the rents according to political whims and usurped functions traditionally held by civil society and private economic actors. When politicians and bureaucrats oversee businesses, decision-making is based on partisan and state interests rather than efficiency and consumer preferences.

Although the nationalization of the petroleum industry did not result in an immediate economic downturn, it laid the groundwork for institutional decay that would clearly manifest itself during the 80s and 90s.

[Firestarter]

The state propaganda want us to believe that Hugo Chávez is to blame for the crisis in Venezuela.
Look no further than the usual suspects: World Bank, IMF and Goldman Sachs.

After Chávez was killed Nicolás Maduro (for the banksters) finishes off the Venezuelan economy, with the end result that the economy can be bought pennies for dollars...

See the following quotes from another thread: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...d-Bank-and-IMF

DESTROYING - ECUADOR, BOLIVIA, ARGENTINA, CHILE, BRAZIL
The following is based on Greg Palast’s The Best democracy money can buy (2002): http://www.chemtrails911.com/books/T...0Palast%20.pdf
The strategy to destroy economies is something like: take money out of circulation to crash the economy, then the big bankers buy the economy pennies for dollars, while in the meantime the country has been indebted, and has to do what the World Bank tells them.
In 1983 the IMF forced Ecuador’s government to borrow $1.5 billion to take over the private debts of Ecuador’s elite. In return Ecuador had to hike prices in electricity and other necessities, and eliminate 120,000 jobs. Then in 2000, 2001 to finish Ecuador off, it was ordered to: 1) raise the price of cooking gas with 80%, 2) eliminate 26,000 jobs, 3) cut wages with 50%, 4) transfer its biggest water system to foreign operators, 5) allow British Petroleum’s ARCO to build an oil pipeline.

In Bolivia some riots broke out, when Bolivians couldn’t get drinking water. To “help” Bolivia: Samuel Soria deposited $10 million on a Citibank account in New York, that never returned to Bolivia. Water prices, could rise with 150% under the new owner, International Waters Ltd (IWL) of London.
In 2001 Argentina got ordered to cut their government budget deficit from $5.3 billion to $4.1 billion. Taking 1.2 billion dollar out of the economy already in recession, did wonders: by the end of March 2001, Argentina’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had already dropped with 2.1% compared a year earlier. Argentina had to reduce jobs, wages, and pensions. While the IMF offered an $8 billion aid package - Argentina had to pay $27 billion a year because of their debt of $128 billion (to the likes of Citibank). The French bought the water system and raised prices up to 400%. And Argentina got threatened with sanctions by the USA to liberalise the pharmaceuticals industry.

In 1973 General Pinochet took dictatorial control of Chile, and destroyed the economy. The CIA, since October 1970, had helped Pinochet to oust president Salvador Allende. US Ambassador to Chile, Edward Malcolm Korry explained that US companies used the CIA as an international collection agency. In 1973 Chile’s unemployment rate was 4.3%; by 1983, after 10 years of free market liberalisation, unemployment was at 22%, while wages had declined by 40%. In 1970 20% of Chile’s population lived in poverty, by 1990 – when dictator Pinochet left office - this number had doubled to 40%. In 1982 and 1983, the GDP dropped with 19%, and foreign companies bought 85% of Chile’s profitable industries. The USA the State Department reported: “Chile is a casebook study in sound economic management”. The respected economist Milton Friedman called this “The Miracle of Chile”.

In 1998 —the World Bank, IMF, Inter-American Development Bank and the International Bank for Settlements — offered $41.5 billion credit to Brazil. The World Bank designed a “Master Plan for Brazil” to create a “flexible public sector workforce”: reduce Salary/Benefits; Pensions; Job Stability; Employment, and increase Work Hours. After the Brazilian real dropped with 40%: British Gas bought the SaoPaolo Gas Company, while Enron and Houston Industries bought the Rio and Sao Paolo electricity companies and a pipeline.

Venezuela, one of the largest oil exporters in the world, for many years has been a country that exports more than it imports for (which should have made this country wealthy). In Venezuela there is both a shortage of products in the supermarkets and power cuts: http://www.infowars.com/scenes-from-...king-for-food/

After Hugo Chávez in 1999 seized power in Venezuela he nationalized the oil industry, because it would be unfair if oil was running out of Venezuela without benefit for the population. In May 2007, he closed the door on the IMF and World Bank. In 2009, Chávez had to beg for a loan from the IMF, which obligated him to devalue the Venezuelan bolivar (causing inflation).
Chávez died in March 2013 and was probably killed by the CIA: http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/...chavez_eath-0/
If Chávez was murdered, he didn´t have cancer, but was poisoned and the Cuban doctors, that gave him radiation, chemotherapy and surgery no less than 4 times, were complicit to murder. Eva Golinger suspects a bodyguard of Chávez, Salazar, who after his death was granted asylum and federal protection in the USA: http://www.strategic-culture.org/new...ir-tracks.html

In 2013 Nicolás Maduro was helped to the presidency. Maduro effectively hampers the industry so that it produces less and less, then sells the imported goods so cheap that these are exported (back) abroad at a profit, so hyperinflation broke out: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fea...236836920.html
The next masterful stroke of Maduro: selling oil and gold reserves. I would say that if Venezuela exports oil, it should be as rich as Saudi Arabia. Selling the gold (e.g. to Citibank and Goldman Sachs) means that Venezuela becomes poorer and poorer: http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/29/news...old/index.html

Because the underpriced products are exported to other countries, the crisis can spread across South America.

[TheTexan]

[Firestarter]

Stop listening to others, and start thinking for yourself for a change!

An important part in the destruction of Venezuela has been played by the Venezuelan Jew, Martín Rodil (president of the Washington based Venezuelan American Leadership Council, a group that brings "freedom and democracy" to Venezuela).

Rodil arrived in Washington in 2000 and was quickly hired by the IMF.
In 2003 he met former Israeli army commando Tal Hanan. In 2006 (?), Hanan called him to help bring Venezuela to its knees by accusing it of violating the sanctions imposed on Iran.
The money was transferred using Swiss bank accounts through JP Morgan Chase, violating US laws, but this “respectable” bank is not under investigation…

Rodil officially quit the IMF and went into partnership with Hanan. He was also hired as a consultant for Roger Noriega, assistant Secretary of State under George W. Bush (of the notorious drugs trafficking Bush family that use the CIA to protect their interests…).

Rodil had been an intern at the Venezuelan PDVSA oil company, and used his connections to negotiate deals with rich Venezuelans to become informer to US law enforcement to destroy Venezuela.
In some cases, Rodil blackmails Venezuelans (helped by the US cops) by threatening with legal trouble in the USA.

Rodil has helped to bring more than two dozen Venezuelans to the USA. For these services, he gets a nice hourly rate or is kept on retainer by the rich Venezuelans.

In April, Diosdado Cabello, one of Venezuela’s most influential figures, used his TV show to describe Rodil as a traitor to his country, who gets rich by helping corrupt Venezuelans escape to the USA, by giving secrets to the enemy.
But never mind that; the Venezuelan state media are (of course) not independent...

Trump’s victory has turbocharged Rodil’s practice.
All of this information is from the following article, but don’t be surprised if Bloomberg finds my summary not very appropriate: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...-up-in-the-u-s

[jllundqu]

The economic hitmen are going to reap huge profits from Venezuela once the smoke clears and the blood is washed from the streets.

[Krugminator2]

The state propganda want us to believe that Hugo Chávez is to blame for the crisis in Venezuela.
Look no further than the usual suspects: World Bank, IMF and Goldman Sachs.

F

Hugo Chavez is to blame. Venezuela is a Marxist country. Marxism NEVER works. Goldman Sachs didn't kill Chavez nor does anyone at Goldman Sachs care. But if they sat around and said, "Let's assassinate Hugo Chavez and buy assets in Venezuela for pennies on the dollar." Good. Give them a medal.

And I see you are posting left wing anti-Pinochet trash. The CIA did help Pinochet. And that was a good thing for the people of Chile. We live in the future and can see the results. The country had hyperinflation and the Soviets were trying to turn it into a another Cuba. Pinochet saved the people of Chile from tyranny.

[Keith and stuff]

The sooner we figure out they don't want to change the sooner we can start making actual progress.

I moved beyond them years ago when I learned about the idea of the Free State Project, and how it is the best path towards liberty. Still, not all pro-liberty people are going to move as part of the Free State Project due to a few issue. I don't want the liberty people that choose to live among the great masses of socialists to suffer too much So it would be nice if a few of the socialists stopped being so terrible.

[oyarde]

I could have predicted this , they never asked me . I would have even waived my normal fee for security assessment and just took a case of beer .

[Firestarter]

And I see you are posting left wing anti-Pinochet trash. The CIA did help Pinochet. And that was a good thing for the people of Chile. We live in the future and can see the results. The country had hyperinflation and the Soviets were trying to turn it into a another Cuba. Pinochet saved the people of Chile from tyranny.

Sure; another great victory for the CIA...

In 1973 General Pinochet took dictatorial control of Chile, and destroyed the economy. The CIA, since October 1970, had helped Pinochet to oust president Salvador Allende. US Ambassador to Chile, Edward Malcolm Korry explained that US companies used the CIA as an international collection agency. In 1973 Chile’s unemployment rate was 4.3%; by 1983, after 10 years of free market liberalisation, unemployment was at 22%, while wages had declined by 40%. In 1970 20% of Chile’s population lived in poverty, by 1990 – when dictator Pinochet left office - this number had doubled to 40%. In 1982 and 1983, the GDP dropped with 19%, and foreign companies bought 85% of Chile’s profitable industries. The USA the State Department reported: “Chile is a casebook study in sound economic management”. The respected economist Milton Friedman called this “The Miracle of Chile”.

Hugo Chavez is to blame. Venezuela is a Marxist country. Marxism NEVER works. Goldman Sachs didn't kill Chavez nor does anyone at Goldman Sachs care. But if they sat around and said, "Let's assassinate Hugo Chavez and buy assets in Venezuela for pennies on the dollar." Good. Give them a medal.

Communism was the brain child of the rich banksters to get rid of the House of Romanov and as an experiment in total slavery; see "WALL STREET AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION" by Antony C. Sutton: http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/S...volution-3.pdf

But you probably don't want to read books that tell the truth, and prefer to watch the telescreen, where you can hear the same lies over and over again

[juleswin]

Sucks for the Venezuelan people, but I hope they realize that their country is most likely being set up by the same people who orchestrated the Chilean and Ukrainian coup. The best thing they can do is try to be steadfast and ride this out, the pressure will eventually be let up if the people refuse to give in.

Good luck to them.