Interestingly, for me what it reminds me of is Venezuelan police force raids. They are infamous for taking anything that is not bolted, when not directly extorting money.

The people in that building have been living this twice.

No terminan de asumir que la guerra que ellos causaron fue una inmoralidad y un crimen, igual que el régimen salido de ella.

A esta gente lo único que le parece legítimo es la fuerza. A ver cuando se enteren de que no la tienen.

I love the "every newyorker" bit.

Yes, for sure, if you discount all the voters for the guy that won, you get "every newyorker"... And that is before the supposed exodus from the city...

They like 1 game and nothing else, prob.

Dont know about what will the future have in store for her, but "badly" is more or less the baseline for the country for decades now.

May be a different flavor of badly, but still.

And we can now close the "Maria Corina seems to have matured as a leader and left the crazy corner" period, as she return to her classic style of ranting from the crazy corner.

At this rate he will forget about Colombia too with the Nigeria thing, and them move to, I dont know, threaten Luxembourg or something.

If you think the root cause is "Maduro didnt break the right enough", instead of Maduro and the rest making their own oligarchy and mismanaging the country, well, what can I say, is hopeless. 25 years, 12 with Maduro, but the problem is not them, sure.

The paragraph you quoted is saying, clearly, that the events dont match that narrative of how the problem is the sanctions. Those things were inconsequential for the economic collapse of Venezuela because that already happened. Thats not argument - thats recorded history.

I you want to argue "the sanctions didnt work", ok. If you want to argue "the sanctions didnt help the Venezuelan economy recover", ok. If you want to argue that they shouldnt have been done, ok.

What the sanctions are not is the root cause of the economic collapse. That happened before them.

Alternatively, this is the truth and you are repeating Chavista propaganda.

Because everything in that paragraph is the absolute truth.

The fact that the Trump admin is a revolting cesspit of corrupt sadistic assholes doesnt mean the Maduro admin is anything but the same.

So, a day that ends in Y.

As another Venezuelan, if somehow Maduro, Cabello, the Rodriguez siblings, Padrino López and a long long etc just get what they deserve, I'm not going to cry for them.

But what I dont see is how the rest of the story goes for the country in this scenario. Except bad.

The Maduro admin is a clear and present danger. To Venezuelans. For the US, probably the only important bit is the massive exodus and how part of it goes north, but even that is not the ridiculous invasion the Trumpistas say it is.

When I saw the tumbnail, I thought to myself "This has to be clickbait, right, there is some angle in the video that is more reasonable but this is just to bring views". And then didnt click on it cause I already have too many videos to see.

So... I was absolutely wrong, then.

Bonus point if they are loudly "Christian".

I remember learning to loathe baseball even more than all other sports (I suck at them all) by having too many cases of "this series or movie I really wanted to see today is not airing cause this stupid game is still going on"

Ouch. But... well, I can see it.

Worse than the first? The first was nice, but about 8/10

All that is left is for Lula to get into the mix. I mean, he was talking about being mediator between Venezuela and the US, but given this trayectory, Trump is going to sanction him in 3 weeks.

Jesus Christ, what a ridiculous year are we having, and is just the first.

At this point, the distractions are even more awful and horrible than the Epstein thing, and the Epsteing thing is very awful and horrible.

It is the whole package.

Nowadays things are different, but get back 2 centuries and those are the places where a bunch of caudillos got some hundreds guys with horses and lances and went to do a coup or a civil war every 10 years or so.

Plenty of places and cultures. In the Llanos (plains) in Venezuela and Colombia, you have "contrapunteo", that is basically the equivalent of a rap battle but with different music. Two (and sometimes more) guys going about how they are the real guy with the real skills.

I really dont see how it will be anything but a massive flop. Yea, come see the matches, there is a chance you end up deported to a different country than the one you are from...

So, the classic "No, I'm not a Nazi, I'm just dumb as a sack of bricks" defense.

YouTube video by W Radio Colombia Así funcionan los semisumergibles que transportan droga

Not sure if anybody has done something like that, but if you are a bit curious about how they look, there is this bit from a Colombian news channel:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YoE...

Now this other attack, the one Petro is saying, who knows, but it wouldnt surprise me one bit that it is true.

No, those guys 99% were doing something. I mean, even the Petro administration has said the repatriated Colombian is going to prison for drug trafficking. There is not much else you do with a semi-submersible.

Not that it justify summary extrajudicial execution on the sea, of course.

Long time I've not read something from Quico Toro. Excellent as always.

First Trump government, I joked without much fun that Trump surely had to envy Maduro, he could do all Trump would want to do if not for his minders.

Second Trump government, he doesnt have minders, just enablers.

Chávez was a very lucky guy, he even got to die at the best time possible, just before the oil prices took a nose dive. Without the same amount of money and with the charisma of a lamppost, Maduro had only more repression as a path to keep power