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Venezuela’s socialist government adopts forced labor law
Hot Air ^ | July 29, 2016 | John Sexton

Posted on 07/29/2016 6:28:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has a plan to “guarantee food supply, social justice, and democracy.” As with most of Maduro’s plans, it will accomplish none of those things. Vice News reports:

“A new decree establishing that any employee in Venezuela can be effectively made to work in the country’s fields as a way to fight the current food crisis is unlawful and effectively amounts to forced labor,” Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday.

President Nicolás Maduro signed a decree at the end of last week that gives powers to the labor ministry to order “all workers from the public and private sector with enough physical capabilities and technical know-how” to join a government drive aimed at increasing food production.

They can be required to work in the agricultural sector for a 60-day period that can be extended for another 60 days “if the circumstances require it.”

Naturally, Maduro continues to blame the dire circumstances of his country on an economic war brought against him by the Unites States. He’s been saying that for months and even suggesting on occasion that the U.S. was ready to invade.

The reality here is much simpler: socialism has been a disaster for Venezuela. The latest attempt at central economic planning is reminiscent of the Soviet Unions five year plans in the 1920s and 1930s. The difference here is that Venezuela is working on 60-day plans because, with inflation already in the triple-digits, it’s hard to imagine how the country could continue for another five years unless something changes.

One survey found that about half of Venezuelans can no longer afford to eat 3 meals a day. Dumpster diving for food, food riots and cross-border grocery shopping have become facts of life in the country. Today the BBC published a story explaining just how dire the hunger situation in Venezuela has become:

Travelling through the country this month I saw endless queues of people trying to buy food – any food – at supermarkets and other government-run shops.

I was stopped at a roadblock in the middle of the countryside by people who said they had eaten nothing but mangoes for three days.

I saw the hopeless expression of a mother, who had been eating so little that she was no longer able to breastfeed her baby…

“We’ve always been poor here, that’s true, but we’ve never been hungry,” said Zulay Florido, a community leader in her 50s.

“Since (President) Maduro took power we are in a very bad situation. We call it here ‘the Maduro diet’.

Venezuela’s socialist are holding an entire nation hostage, effectively threatening to let them starve rather than relinquish power.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Government
KEYWORDS: agriculture; bitcoin; blameamerica; cryptocurrency; famine; forcedlabor; hunger; labor; leftists; maduro; madurodiet; nicolasmaduro; progressives; slavery; socialism; tyranny; venezuela; workforce
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1 posted on 07/29/2016 6:28:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He’s gone full Khmer Rouge.


2 posted on 07/29/2016 6:29:29 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Was Sean Penn available for comment?


3 posted on 07/29/2016 6:30:43 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Will Maduro make them pick cotton too?


4 posted on 07/29/2016 6:31:02 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (Never be more than two steps away from your weapon.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is a front row seat to the natural end point of a socialist/communist command economy.


5 posted on 07/29/2016 6:32:31 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (Fear is the mind killer.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It always starts with me getting free stuff somebody else pays for and always ends with a bullet in the back of my head.


6 posted on 07/29/2016 6:33:01 PM PDT by stormhill
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

yep , pol pot Cambodian genocide Part Deux


7 posted on 07/29/2016 6:33:09 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Odd how we never see things like this on the DNC Network (formerly known as CBS/ABC/NBC).

Even more odd would be the obvious point that this is where Her Majesty Who Can Do No Wrong will take us.


8 posted on 07/29/2016 6:33:12 PM PDT by Regulator (Evita Lives!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Is a Maduro decree much like an 0bama executive order?


9 posted on 07/29/2016 6:33:52 PM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Farmer Dean

I think this calls for a rendition of......

https://youtu.be/yyJtGNk9iEU

Sad he was a commie. Great voice.


10 posted on 07/29/2016 6:36:07 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: stormhill

Yep. Here...it’s like a boiling frog. First, abortion. Then assisted suicide. Then.....it’s mandatory. Object? Pow, pow.


11 posted on 07/29/2016 6:39:38 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

America in the not so distant future. Should we continue down the rat path.


12 posted on 07/29/2016 6:43:35 PM PDT by vpintheak (Freedom is not equality; and equality is not freedom!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

13 posted on 07/29/2016 6:46:19 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Return to serfdom! A real step ‘forward’ for Socialismo!


14 posted on 07/29/2016 6:54:06 PM PDT by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Can guarantee Maduro aint hungry.

None of this is a surprise.


15 posted on 07/29/2016 6:57:49 PM PDT by Made In The USA (Rap music: Soundtrack of the retarded.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting about the breastfeeding mom. Have a friend who traveled with her husband to Mexico. She had just had a baby. Health care was non-existant. Her milk happened to cease and her baby was starving. The water was bad and didn’t trust giving formula. She had to use a ‘wet nurse’ to feed her baby. I can’t even imagine as a mom.


16 posted on 07/29/2016 6:58:31 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: Made In The USA

Happens EVERY time these morons elect a ‘man/woman of the people’. Without fail.


17 posted on 07/29/2016 7:00:34 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Isn’t it amazing that the godless communist will never question his ideology no matter how spectacularly it fails? The decrees become insane and on he goes.


18 posted on 07/29/2016 7:03:48 PM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Trying to tackle Venezuela’s severe food shortages by forcing people to work the fields is like trying to fix a broken leg with a band aid.”


Because, as Amnesty International knows, food grows itself.


19 posted on 07/29/2016 7:11:17 PM PDT by sparklite2 ( "The white man is the Jew of Liberal Fascism." -Jonah Goldberg)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

forced labor = you have no choice in the matter
slavery = you have no choice in the matter

And the difference is...? Ah, one started with good intentions.


20 posted on 07/29/2016 7:13:57 PM PDT by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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