Must Watch Surviving In Venezuela How People REALLY Are When Faced With Hunger

Surviving In Venezuela: How People REALLY Are When Faced With Hunger

“You must not underestimate people because they are different than they normally are when dealing with hunger and poverty.” Surviving in a Venezuelan city is a lot different than it is in a country retreat. Each location has its own problems and benefits. I wrote before about the dangers of rural retreats and today I will write about the dangers in a city. You must not underestimate people because they are different than they normally are when dealing with hunger and poverty.

I would like to dissect a little bit about the importance of a parameter that is paramount for “the retreat,” or whatever you may want to call it. Location is everything when it comes to your safety, especially when you live in the city.

It is all about the location before and after a collapse.

I like to think that I am a smart buyer. After all, money is made when you buy, not exactly when you sell something. For me, buying our home was a lengthy process. Selection of the place was not just based on pricing, like most of my fellow co-workers.

We looked for a house located in an area of the city close enough to go to the supermarket on foot, and near a school, too. I used an engineering method to select the best option after we had selected five neighborhoods. It was quite an interesting exercise for the intellect.

You need to select the must-have variables, pondering each one in a debate (that is, if you and your family can do it peacefully LOL), and summarize the results to provide a final conclusion, based on an evaluation supported by a common ground that enhances the most important parameter, selected by the work team based on its relative importance.

How we selected our location in the city

The result was a house close to a supermarket, a couple of mini-malls with lots of services and shops (back then), and with an independent water supply (something that would make us very happy afterward, indeed). Independent meaning that the supply was not provided by the national (now seized, and state-owned, almost absolutely useless) water companies.

Oh, and it was a casual distance to a liquor store. Haha. I don’t drink a lot, but walking 10 minutes to drink a cold beer after a hard work day, has to be healthy. Oh, and we had a local beer around that was delicious.  I hope it has survived the apocalypse.

Getting back on topic, I had a neighbor pretty close by that worked as a mechanic, and we struck up a good friendship. Other acquaintances were in the surrounding subdivisions, so it was easy enough to get a ride sometimes if I needed to.

When we realized how important an independent water supply was

The water supply was much more important than anything else (I always liked the fact of the independence factor and this was one of the most important parameters), and we would discover that the hard way.

One of the bigger oil spills in the national history of our country was in that area in 2012. It contaminated an entire river that is the water supply of the city. I was on a business trip that took several weeks, and the entire city was drying like a carcass in the middle of the Death Valley. The water treatment plant was also contaminated, to a degree.

Being the water supply of almost half a million people, you could imagine the problem.

During the first days, the mayor of the city tried to provide clean water with trucks. This would become a HUGE business in the next months. Truck owners would pay a fee, and the corrupted mayor would “assign” contracts for them to supply the water to the city…by the trucks, rather than using the financial resources to fix the issue. In addition, this solution was combined with using the state oil company that generated the problem in the first place.

In those years my son was a small child. By selecting the water independence off-the-grid as one of the main parameters, rather than good grid power supply (15 years ago, remember) my family did not suffer the hell that other people had to endure, in a city with temperatures over 32 C (about 90 F) the entire year.

Instead of misguided protest, you need to be practical.

What made me somewhat angry was to hear the stories of the people protesting on the streets, almost like now, but no one was asking for a loan to buy plastic barrels and rain gutters to store rainwater, or filters (in that area, it rains almost every day).

People with lots of space to collect water NEVER moved a finger to collect the water for their basic needs like toilets or showering. I mean, they spoke out for the need for clean, treated water; but never took the time to research how to purify it…jeez, even with sun-power that could be done with some ingenuity!

I have the entire design for my place, including a grey water tank under the washroom sink that goes into the toilet tank for our main bedroom. And another for the guest restroom, in the middle of the house. For the house expansion, some other tanks were going to be added. With this apocalypse, we rather preferred to exchange the house for some machinery (we have an empty, small plot of one thousand square meters… if we come back some day to live there again).

How predators learn about your location and valuables

This good choice allowed my wife to take the kid to school without a car, and go to the market and even the mall on foot. Risky, provided that the streets were owned by thugs, but luckily nothing happened. I can´t explain how, indeed. But I give thanks for that.

In the past few weeks, there was a shooting in our neighborhood. Two attackers followed a potential prey in the subdivision next to ours, only to find out that the man was well armed… and drew his gun, killing one and hurting the other. The neighbors jumped to help, and several of them (those who REFUSED to give up their guns) fought back, shooting and providing fire support for the attacked.

This was narrated to me by someone who was there. This person was amazed of learning how the attackers knew the place, considering it is an enclosed subdivision, with just one gate. It is a small city, indeed. Families are usually large and that includes those with black sheep in their herd, too. Therefore, collecting intelligence information about who to steal from is easier for those lazy MFs.

Usually they sent in small kids, in teams, around 9-12 children, or women with babies, to beg for anything, and they will eyeball flatscreen TVs in your living room, or if your furniture is fancy, main air conditioning or any general indications of wealth, how many cars, bikes, or whatever goodies their older relatives could steal… usually at gunpoint.

Get creative before predators strike

If you are lucky, they would enter when there’s no one at home. If you are not, your doorbell rings, perhaps early in the morning, and you just see a poor woman with a baby throughout the door peephole… until you open the door and find yourself suddenly with a gun in your forehead and four guys in your living room unplugging your electronics, and the dog gets killed with a beating.

As one very useful tool against this, one of my favorite deterrents is sonic weapons (artificial intelligence for automatic machine guns is not that advanced yet… and they must be hard to maintain and feed). I know how it looks, but I would prefer to make someone with bad intentions run and not come back, than risk the lives of my loved ones. There is no permanent damage done, either (not too much anyway).

Sonic weapons are cheap, effective against several people simultaneously, and can be triggered remotely if the setup is well executed. Use it outside your BOV and you will spread a mob surrounding if the volume is powerful enough. Designing a setup that could be installed in a matter of seconds in the roof racks is not such a big deal, provided precautions have been made to provide energy. Such devices would be enough for city dwellers though.

Or… perhaps portable devices and the people in the back seat properly protected, pointing the annoying devices to the surrounding mob? Possibilities are plenty, indeed. However this is not my specialty (proper consulting with a professional will point you in the right direction, just let us know so we can all learn from that too), and I am only wildly speculating and being creative, which has helped me a lot in a strange environment…

Location, location, location – and security

A proper choice of location can be the difference between having problems… or avoiding them. We could have bought quite a fancy two bedroom apartment in our city, with a pretty high monthly quote for services like gas, WiFi, electricity and backup gensets for the entire building.

The security was absolutely remarkable. There is a pool, and it is in one of the best parts of the city. Negative aspects?…well, the security employees have left. Those still remaining can be easily tempted to work for the mafia… indeed, sometimes associated with organized crime.

Those of you that think I am exaggerating, you have no clue about how people really are when they are faced with hunger and poverty and surrounded by wealthy (to their eyes) people while their own families are struggling.

 

Venezuela gold holdings in Bank of England soar on Deutsche deal -sources

CARACAS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela’s gold holdings in the Bank of England have jumped after it closed out a gold swap deal with Deutsche Bank, according to two sources, as Britain remains reluctant to release gold held for the troubled OPEC nation.

The government of Nicolas Maduro has since last year been seeking to repatriate about $550 million in gold from the Bank of England on fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country.

Its holdings at the bank more than doubled in December to 31 tonnes, or around $1.2 billion, after Venezuela returned funds it had borrowed from Deutsche Bank AG through a financing arrangement that uses gold as collateral, known as a swap, one of the sources said.

Under the deal struck with Deutsche Bank in 2015, Venezuela put up 17 tonnes of gold in exchange for a loan, according to one of the sources who asked not to be identified because it is not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

The country’s gold holdings fell to 134 tonnes in November compared with 150 tonnes at the start of 2018, according to central bank statistics.

This is in part because Venezuela last year started carrying out gold barter operations with Turkey to import food following U.S. sanctions that have made international banks reluctant to handle Venezuelan transactions.

The motivation for paying back the funds from the Deutsche swap was not immediately evident. But redeeming the swap would give Venezuela more gold for barter operations with Turkey.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Venezuela’s Central Bank did not reply to an email seeking comment.

The Bank of England did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When queried about Venezuela issues in the past, it has said it does not comment on customer operations.

POLITICAL PRESSURE

The Bank of England is facing political pressure from Venezuela’s opposition and from members of British parliament to not assist Maduro, whose just-begun second term has been widely described as illegitimate.

Losing the gold would be a significant blow to the country’s finances by undermining Venezuela’s ability to obtain hard currency crucial to importing items ranging from food and medicine to auto parts and consumer electronics.

But refusing to hand over the gold, which belongs to Venezuela’s central bank, could cause alarm among countries that store their own bullion in the Bank of England’s coffers.

Maduro’s government is struggling under hyperinflation now approaching 2 million percent annually, and a broad economic collapse has fueled an exodus of some three million people since 2015.

Opposition critics, including exiled leader Julio Borges, have argued that the gold should not be repatriated because it could be used to finance corruption.

Calixto Ortega, president of Venezuela’s central bank, met with Bank of England officials in December to discuss repatriating the gold but was unable to convince them, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Venezuela for decades stored gold that makes up its central bank reserves in foreign bank vaults, which is common among developing nations.

The country’s late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, citing the need for Venezuela to have physical control of central bank assets, in 2011 repatriated around 160 tonnes of gold from banks in the United States and Europe to the central bank in Caracas.

Maduro says his government is victim of an “economic war” led by the opposition and fueled by Washington’s sanctions. His critics blame the country’s struggles on a state-led economic model, stringent exchange controls and nationalization of private companies. 

Venezuela to Refine Gold in Turkey Amid US Sanctions – Report

The South American country stopped refining its gold in Switzerland in 2017 amid fears that it could become subject to US or EU sanctions. Washington did indeed impose sanctions on Caracas' gold reserves in November 2018.

Venezuela plans to refine tons of gold in the central Turkish province of Corum and has sent a delegation, led by Venezuelan Minister of Industries and Production Tareck El Aissami, to assess the gold refining facilities and conduct negotiations, Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported. The results of the delegation's mission will later be reported to Maduro, the outlet added.

In 2017, Venezuela stopped refining gold in Switzerland and in 2018 announced the repatriation of its gold reserves from the UK amid concerns that it could be frozen under US or EU sanctions. Also in 2018, Caracas sent around $834 million worth of unrefined gold to Turkey.

The US has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Venezuela in recent years, limiting its oil and gold trade. The latest batch was introduced on 8 January 2019, targeting several individuals and entities. Maduro slammed the sanctions as "economic persecution" and noted that his country would not bow to threats and orders from economic "oligarchs" in Washington. Venezuelan Opposition Urges Bank of England not to Return Gold to MaduroThe call comes after reports emerged that the Venezuelan government is looking to repatriate gold bars worth about $550 million from the Bank of England out of fear that the holdings may be affected by US sanctions announced by President Trump early last month.

Venezuelan opposition leaders Julio Borges and Carlos Vecchio have urged the Bank of England not to hand over $550 million worth of gold to Venezuela.

In a letter to the bank, they claimed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would either pocket the gold or use it to illegally imprison and get rid of the government's opponents.

Borges and Vecchio, who currently live in self-proclaimed exile, also warned that if the Bank of England allows Maduro to repatriate the gold, it will further violate the bank’s legal obligation to fight money laundering and corruption.

The letter came after Reuters cited sources as saying in early November that the Venezuelan government is seeking to repatriate 14 tons of gold bars worth about $550 million from the Bank of England over concern that the holdings may be affected by US sanctions.

On November 1, US President Donald Trump imposed new restrictive measures against Venezuela, specifically prohibiting US companies and individuals from buying the Latin American country's gold.

Maduro accused Trump of "schizophrenia" and pledged that Caracas would not "kneel down before American imperialism."

According to Maduro, the Venezuelan government is in the process of certifying 32 gold fields which would turn Venezuela into "the second largest gold reserve on Earth." With both public and private sector investment, the government is also building 54 gold processing plants.

In July, Venezuelan Minister of Ecological Development and Mining Victor Kano said that in light of the agreement that was signed this year with Ankara regarding the processing of gold, gold ore mined in Venezuela will be sent to Turkey for processing, purification of impurities and casting of gold bars. Venezuela was ordered by a Canadian court in 2016 to compensate Canada-based Crystallex International Corporation for having nationalized its gold mining operations.

The Canadian company had demanded that Venezuela be forced to auction off its principal foreign asset, the U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp refining business, but a settlement was reached. On Nov. 23, according to a filing in the Ontario Court of Justice, Caracas completed an initial payment of $425 million, mostly in the form of "liquid securities".