Venezuela Sitrep

[CharlesHarris]

A resident of Venezuela listed what he should have done to prepare for the current situation.

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/never-...venezuela/

[Straight Shooter]

Excellent Charles thanks for sharing ....It could quite easy become that reality in any country (world over ) ....there is much to take away and learn from here......what good are my polytunnels and raised beds ? .....a rethink is in order.... gorilla hedgerow gardening for a start ....root cellar (which is already on the cards) going to test out this stuff .

[Mortblanc]

I suppose this article is more about survival than prepping, and the writer is not the survivor in this situation. He is sitting somewhere safe and well fed while his wife and family try to survive the situation HE FLED!

We have to remember that the Venezuela situation has been going on for a decade now. the government prepped for it with years of social engineering and gun control, to make it impossible for the population to resist or overthrow the corrupt administration. The only well feed people are the politicians and soldiers.

And the article has a distinctly "American urban prepper"/helpless latino tone to it. Almost a 1,2,3, hit the high points pattern found here. His first scream was he lost his health insurance coverage! Who in their right mind when faced with a decade of famine, financial collapse and separation from family places medical insurance ahead of everything else?

He also justified not properly prepping for the long term with a small holding because it would cost too much to drive (VZ was giving away gasoline) and someone would just take it away from him, so he left the country leaving his entire family to face danger, uncertainty and turmoil alone.

The family is probably better off without him.

Each nation and society will have its own brand of problems to deal with, but VZ has been dealing with problems they created themselves for a decade and they have been paying the price for their idealistic, socialistic experiment for that entire time. They simply ran out of other peoples money and pi$$ed off the sources for continued credit.

My first question is, why has he not removed his family from the situation in VZ? Their borders are wide open, unless one simply feels compelled to walk through a check point on the highway.

It's not like they were on an island or something.

Yep SS, your concentrated agriculture efforts are for good times with social order. But they could also be an excellent cover for clandestine survival efforts. Rovers on the tramp might think that if all this good stuff has been stripped there is nothing left to take.

So get out there on the sunny side of the hedgerows and plant some spuds and turnips. A couple hours with the rotovator might keep you alive for a year. Chances are no one will even know what they are if they walk past them. Build a good enough fence to turn out a couple of hogs. Let the chickens run. Plant the unused sections of land with some maize even if you do not "need" it. You can always feed the present surplus to the small stock you do not feel you can afford to feed now.

Remember that maize, runner beans and squash were Native American crops, grown originally in patches we would refer to as guerrilla gardens. They still do well under adverse circumstances.

[MaryN]

I don't think there is much hope for Venezuela. Once things have deteriorated to that level, coming back up to a stable society is going to be pretty near impossible within a lifetime. RIP Venezuela and the socialist idiots (polite, you notice) who did the damage.
SS, you may worry about your polytunnels and raised beds being no use in such situation, but it not very likely to occur in Wales. Think positive. You are doing your family a favour by providing fresh food and a decent lifestyle in the meantime, and there are very many people who would envy you these days. You keep at it.

[Straight Shooter]

One thing struck me....he mentions small holdings ....as it dragged on even the out the way places were HIT....this reminded me of BIG PAUL's posts.... where he thought being out the way... out in the sticks he was safer than most....people would die off before they reached his location...although to a point his view does hold some water...but i have always maintained (up high and out the way )......someone WILL turn up....eventually... its inevitable....and will want to take what you have...by any means possible especially if their a group, safety in numbers works both ways.....comms another point (localised) although i have this covered along with a solar capability......which always brings me back to the same place i always end up at....my greatest fear.....desperate sheeple and even worse desperate well organised criminal gangs.....who exist to .....well ...exist ...its hard for most people to contemplate such a concept...when most right now! can't see what's in front of them .... like most on here i have long since given up with close friends and even closer family to prepare.....i am nuts....until the day they will need something to eat ....that day gets closer every day! ......so newbies ...step it up however you are able, always move forward every week even if its a packet of seeds....take a long hard look at what,s going on ALL around you ! although SS may well be nuts? but i could turn out to be closer to the truth than even you could imagine.

[Mortblanc]

And to think that Hugo Chavez lectured Obama on how to properly run a country.

And Obama sat wide eyed and worshipfully listened to him.

As for the UK going down the same rabbit hole any time soon????

Remember that VZ began their dependence on a one product (oil) economy in the 1980s and refused to use the profits to diversify their economy, handing out the new wealth as individual subsidies after the leaders skimmed what they wanted off the top. When the oil prices collapsed in the 1990s the subsidies collapsed with it and they had 60% unemployment and over 100% inflation.

The oi prices recovered after a decade and did the leaders have better foresight? No, they again tried to buy political support with oil rather than use the finances to diversify and stabilize. Oi prices again collapsed, imagine that! The unemployment returned, hyperinflation returned, this time unabated by new oil price increases, and the economy has collapsed with the government attempting to hold the population in serfdom to starve until needed again.

But VZ is a South American fluke, much like Cuba and with the same end result. People like to point at it and claim the same could happen anywhere. Anther world wide Great Depression, except worse than the old GD, worse than the collapse of 2008?

The UK is not in that condition. It is not in the condition that VZ was in or will be in. The world economy, and the economy of the UK us in better condition than it has seen for 20 years.

Total collapse, roving mobs of looters, individual survivalists roaming the countryside hiding in the hedgerows and stealing from the sheds.

I don't think so, not for a few years.

It took VZ nearly 20 years of willful mismanagement, hyperinflation and lopsided unemployment to get where it is now.

No kidding, they had to try really hard!

You are not there yet.

You have too many options and resources to draw on and they are very diverse in nature, insuring all do not collapse at the same time.

So enjoy building the raised beds and planting in the poly-tunnels on rainy days. The Golden Horde will not show up this season, probably not next season either. Besides, they will not know where you are or how to get there with their phones not working and the GPS out of whack.

I do not envision the UK falling into chaos without a full scale and unexpected war that also envelopes the rest of the world and a leadership that refuses to properly react to the crisis.

Watch out for those submarines, they play hell with shipping schedules.