The Venezuelan military, the mess and how to avoid a coup

Chinese Cherries to avoid a coup?

Everybody heard about the recording of propaganda man Mario Silva talking to apparently a Cuban intelligence operative. Nothing of what Silva said there is new but all the details in the mouth of such key character will have implications, even if Maduro and the attorney are on complete denial mode.

The division between those under Cuba's control and with a heavy ideological orientation - Maduro, the Defence Minister Molero are on that side - and the extremely corrupt, more independent and less ideological-minded military around Diosdado Cabello became clearer than ever in that recording. Mario Silva is, obviously, on the Cuban side and he was acting as a Cuban agent. But divisions run all over the place. Here you can see a "Marxist believer" ranting about Mario Silva, for instance.

Shortages of the most essential items are becoming more painful for the population. Blackouts on an almost daily basis, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for several hours, are the usual thing outside Caracas. The government doesn't want to risk it with Caracas but everywhere else people are suffering a lot from these blackouts.

And now the government decided to announce a special credit to buy 20000 cars for the military and their relatives. There is an initial credit of 1.65 billion Bs for that. Why should the government give those cars to the military? Why not public transportation? If the state in any country needs to spend money to buy cars for individuals, why should it be for the military and not for the nurses or for the teachers or for the farmers or for the construction workers?

Something worth mentioning: the minister of Defence, Molero, was the second worst in his class. Diosdado Cabello, on the other hand, was the second best in a very large class. You can imagine what this might mean for many military.

The country really does not have the money for these expenditures. The government needs to devalue but it can't. It needs to import what is not being produced in the country but money is running short. And now this.

The opposition announced a new recording for next week.