Venezuelan Soldiers Desert in Droves With Presidential Election Ahead

[thackney]

Venezuelan Soldiers Desert in Droves With Presidential Election Ahead
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-07/venezuelan-soldiers-said-to-desert-in-droves-with-vote-ahead

Military officers are joining the exodus of Venezuelans to Colombia and Brazil, fleeing barracks and forcing President Nicolas Maduro’s government to call upon retirees and militia to fill the void.

High desertion rates at bases in Caracas and the countryside are complicating security plans for the presidential election in 13 days, which by law require military custody of electoral materials and machinery at voting centers.

“The number is unknown because it used to be published in the Official Gazette. Now, it is not,” said Rocio San Miguel, director of Control Ciudadano, a military watchdog group in Caracas. She said soldiers are fleeing for the same reason citizens are: “Wages are low, the quality of food and clothing isn’t good.”

Last week, officers who rank as high as general were called in and quartered for several days at their units. Retired officials and militia members were also contacted by their superiors, according to one retired officer who asked not to be named for fear of angering the regime. Government officials are training these fill-in personnel for the election, said a second retired officer.

The shortage of troops comes as hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flee a societal collapse, crowding cities and makeshift camps throughout the region in the largest mass emigration in modern Latin American history. Hyperinflation has made the currency virtually worthless, and malnutrition is endemic. Almost 2 million Venezuelans are living outside the country....

[driftdiver]

one thing you have to say for them, they implemented socialism so well they managed to do in about 15 years what its taken other countries much longer to accomplish.

[endicom]

Venezuela is not an island like Cuba. Maybe they should have considered that.

In Rwanda, the Hutu nutjobs drove out many Tutsi, some returning as a military force to overturn the Hutu regime. That could happen as well in Venezuela.

[Frank Cannon]

“Wages are low, the quality of food and clothing isn’t good.”

So they are fleeing because the seems on their shirts don't hold up like they used to?

[Cyber Liberty]

“Wages are low, the quality of food and clothing isn’t good.”

So they are fleeing because the seems on their shirts don't hold up like they used to?

That comment from the story was spoken like a true bureaucrat....

Hey lady:  They're deserting because now even the soldiers, who are usually at the front of the chow and toilet paper line, are starving.

[thackney]

“Wages are low, the quality of food and clothing isn’t good.”

So they are fleeing because the seems on their shirts don't hold up like they used to?

Remember, this is quality on the Venezuela scale, not the US scale.

If it has reached Military Officers, it has reached nearly everyone except the highest Officials.

Why Venezuelan Migrants Are Making Handbags Out of Worthless Banknotes
http://time.com/5265941/venezuelan-migrants-bolivares-banknotes/

In the dusty Colombian town of Maicao, four men and women huddle along a shady patch of concrete and form an assembly line. One unpacks a rubber-banded heap of banknotes. The next person folds each bill in half. Another performs a few more folds. Finally, the last one in line makes the braid that turns the finished product into a handbag. The process takes about eight hours, and each bag is made up of 500 banknotes worth less than 50 cents in total. They retail for $12.

“I’d be so hungry if it weren’t for these bags,” says Orlando Silva, the young man in charge of the business, who asked TIME to use a pseudonym because he fears for his safety....

[dfwgator]

“Wages are low, the quality of food and clothing isn’t good.”

 

Well, they voted for it.  Oh,  they didn't realize that's what socialism is.

[Cyber Liberty]

Well, they voted for it.  Oh,  they didn't realize that's what socialism is.

No, but the next chance they had to vote on it, it was vote for the Socialism or vote for a bullet in your head.  Socialism is one-man, one-vote, one-time.