What I Didn't Know About Venezuela Until This Morning

Almost nothing including finding it on an unmarked map.

Before I continue to humiliate myself, I thought it would be a fun geography lesson to see how many of you can find Venezuela on an unmarked map. I failed. It’s ok if you have to peek. I’ll give you a hint; it’s not the big blue one. That’s Brazil. Just for kicks and giggles, see how many you can name.

Who can find El Salvador? Not me.

I know. We all think we’re really hot shots until our knowledge is put to the test. I was going to write ‘hot shits’ and then thought I would look more middle class if I didn’t. I only had to change one letter to ‘o’ instead of ‘i’. The things I’m learning today. Stuns me. It really does.

Before this morning this is what I knew about Venezuela:

Zero … De Nada

I know even less about El Salvador but that’s for tomorrow’s story. One country at a time is all I can handle.

I’m reading about all these horrible, horrible people, according to Trump, coming into our amazing country. I realize I really don’t know why they are coming. Is it because they want to go to Disneyland? Or maybe because Trump makes McDonald’s look so tasty they just want to try one.

Is there any possibility that our country had anything to do with their poverty and strong arm dictators? I wanted to know so I set out this morning to find out.

The first place I went for what I hoped was accurate information was the Official Website of the United States Government. As it says, so official. There’s lots there but this seemed relevant:

Here is a Venezuelan representative.

1/20/21 under Biden:

But, wait:

Since Trump came into power the ‘Official Website of The United States Government’ has changed. I was quite surprised. This is what it looks like now.

Boy, Rubio is doing a great job!

Maduro has been very busy since he claimed illegally to be president of Venezuela. (I keep testing myself to see each time if I can spell ‘Venezuela’. So far … zip.)

Maduro’s rigged election was globally condemned. That really affected him. How did he do that? Easy; through intimidation, disenfranchisement of voters, improper tabulations of election results, outright bans on participation with popular political parties and candidates, imprisoned civic military and political leaders, and was supported by Cuba, Russia, Iran and China.

Whew! What a guy.

Let’s review:

One Third of the Venezuelan population is food insecure

In the US, 13.5% of the population is food insecure. That is a disgrace based on our wealth but in Venezuela it’s 113,000,000 people.

With good economic management, the Venezuelan government could feed its people, but Maduro and Trump share the same philosophy of ‘It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s all mine’. Sharing is a dirty word.

So Venezuelans put whatever they can carry on their backs, including their children and leave their home behind looking for a stable food supply for their families.

I am not suggesting for a minute that anyone in the world suffering food insecurity should be allowed into the United States and that our government feed them.

Of course the United States did have interests in South America and felt that it was fine to guide their government policies to be more alined with ours.

This from the Venezuelanalysis.com website:

Should I continue checking to see what our involvement was and is in Venezuela or do you get a feel for our policies? It’s the oil, baby, oil. We want it. We will have it. Period. Even if we have to install a sadistic, brutal dictator of our choosing to get it.

But now that we have raped Venezuela of its democracy and its resources we would prefer that their hungry refugees find another country to flee to. Just not ours.

Learning about our history makes me proud.

Charlie Sykes’s substack is one of my all time favorites. He tells it like it is which can be difficult to hear. But he ends each one with a picture of his dogs. It calms me. Joyce Vance sends pictures of her chickens.

I am going to end with a picture of one of my animals each time. Hope they make you smile.

This is a picture of me with Merry Legs who my mother and I found dying along a farmer’s fence. The mother had twins. Sheep can only care for one at a time so the other was left to die. Merry Legs rode home on my lap. She came of age in our kitchen. The floor was always a little slippery with her pee and poops but she was adorable.

That’s me before a complete mouth overhaul. Woof, that was bad.

c