{"id":46591,"date":"2018-01-30T16:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=46591"},"modified":"2018-02-03T03:42:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T11:42:46","slug":"venezuelans-loot-to-eat-amid-economic-tailspin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/prophecy\/venezuelans-loot-to-eat-amid-economic-tailspin\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelans \u2018loot to eat\u2019 amid economic tailspin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nProtesters in Caracas, Venezuela
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

Problems continue in Venezuela:<\/p>\n

January 30, 2018<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Venezuelans \u2018loot to eat\u2019 amid economic tailspin<\/h2>\n

PUERTO CABELLO, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 The cab of Carlos Del Pino\u2019s big rig gave him a nerve-rattling front-row seat to a surge in mob attacks on Venezuela\u2019s neighborhood markets, cattle ranches and food delivery trucks like his.<\/p>\n

Shortly after pulling away from the docks at Puerto Cabello, the country\u2019s biggest port, he witnessed 20 people swarm a truck ahead of him and in a frenzy fill up their sacks with the corn it was carrying to a food-processing plant. The driver was held at gunpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fills you with terror,\u201d Del Pino said.<\/p>\n

He has hauled cargo for 14 years, and on a good month earns the equivalent of about $100, enough to support his wife and two daughters. Yet, despite his fears, he sympathizes with his impoverished countrymen, who are becoming desperate amid Venezuela\u2019s widespread food shortages and sky-high inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to loot to eat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sporadic looting, food riots and protests driven by the hungry poor have surged in Venezuela, a country that\u2019s no stranger to unrest. But the uprisings playing out recently have a different face than the mostly middle-class protesters who took to the streets for months last year in political demonstrations trying to oust President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese protests are coming from people of the lower classes who simply cannot get enough to eat,\u201d said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, who has spent decades researching Venezuela. \u201cThey want relief, not necessarily to force Maduro from power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela holds the world\u2019s largest oil reserves and was once among Latin America\u2019s wealthiest nations. But after nearly two decades of socialist rule and mismanagement of the state-run oil company, it is being battered by the worst economic crisis in its history. https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/e6af78e0506748d490a646dfb115772e\/Venezuelans-‘loot-to-eat’-amid-economic-tailspin<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, if looting increases then sellers will stop buying and there will be even greater food shortages.<\/p>\n

The Bible teaches:<\/p>\n

\n
30 People do not despise a thief If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving. <\/span>31<\/span> Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; He may have to give up all the substance of his house. (Proverbs 6:30)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Looting is stealing. And while it is not likely that the looters will pay back what they stole, sellers will be less inclined to get more food.<\/p>\n

The government of Venezuela did not anticipate the drop in oil prices or prepare as they should have. Now, people across Venezuela are suffering.<\/p>\n

Here is more on problems in Venezuela:<\/p>\n

Venezuela is a woeful reminder that no country is so rich that it can\u2019t be driven into the ground by revolutionary socialism.<\/p>\n

People are now literally starving \u2014 about three-quarters of the population lost weight last year \u2014 in what once was the fourth-richest country in the world on a per-capita basis. A country that has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia is suffering shortages of basic supplies<\/a>. Venezuela now totters on the brink of bankruptcy and civil war, in the national catastrophe known as the Bolivarian Revolution. …<\/p>\n

Runaway spending, price controls, nationalization of companies, corruption and the end of the rule of law \u2014 it\u2019s been a master class in how to destroy an economy.<\/p>\n

The result is a sharp, yearslong recession, runaway inflation and unsustainable debt. The suffering of ordinary people is staggering, while the thieves and killers who are Chavista officials have made off with hundreds of billions of dollars. At this rate \u2014 The Economist calls the country\u2019s economic decline \u201cthe steepest in modern Latin American history<\/a>\u201d \u2014 there will be nothing left to steal.<\/p>\n

Any government in a democratic country that failed this spectacularly would have been relegated to the dustbin of history long ago. Maduro is getting around this problem by ending Venezuela\u2019s democracy. …<\/p>\n

The goal of Maduro\u2019s alleged constitutional reforms is to no longer have a constitution worthy of the name. Immediately after the vote, his forces arrested two leading opposition figures<\/a> in the dead of night. Video shows one of them, Antonio Ledezma, being taken away in his pajamas and another, Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, bundled into the back of a car.<\/p>\n

It looks like what it truly was \u2014 a pair of kidnappings.<\/p>\n

Denied the ordinary means of dissent via the press and elections, the opposition has taken to the streets<\/a>. Already more than 100 people have been killed in clashes over the past several months.<\/p>\n

Worse is yet to come. 08\/01\/17 http:\/\/nypost.com\/2017\/08\/01\/venezuela-a-nation-devoured-by-socialism\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Venezuela is crumbling and with it, the left’s idea of a perfect socialist system. Yet … Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, refuses to realize this obvious fact and instead, has resorted to political violence to silence his opposition. As the economy crumbles, the future of the oil industry Venezuela once relied on has been called into question. The devastation in Venezuela has grown from a political crisis to both an economic and humanitarian one.<\/p>\n

During a vote last month, the Venezuelan people were asked to select, from a trusted list of allies in the governing party, a group to rewrite the nation’s constitution and maintain power in Venezuela until their work is finished. This would give Maduro and his ruling party the authority to dissolve branches of government such as the legislature, which is currently controlled by Maduro’s opposition party.<\/p>\n

Voters were not given the ability to reject the plan, simply decide who they wanted on the council. The list was so corrupt it included Maduro’s own wife. While Maduro boosted high voter turnout, the election results have already been called into question.<\/p>\n

Opposition spokesman Vicente Bello<\/a>, criticized the lack of voter protection practices, such as the fact that voters were not asked to give proper identification. Voters were only allowed to cast ballots in any of three different locations.<\/p>\n

Even a software company involved in setting up voting systems announced the turnout figure had been altered by at least one million votes.<\/p>\n

While Venezuela is clearly operating under an illegitimate democracy, the situation only gets worse as Maduro responds to opposition with force.<\/p>\n

Following the election<\/a>, two opposition leaders under house arrest, Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, posted videos to YouTube urging Venezuelans to protest the election results and called the newly formed council a fraud. Within days, both individuals were imprisoned for making political statements.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has quickly imposed additional sanctions on President Maduro as a result. Trump hopes this encourages the release of all political prisoners held there.<\/p>\n

But these two are not the only Venezuelans suffering.<\/p>\n

James Kirchick explained in the LA Times<\/a> that, “Socialist economic policies \u2014 price controls, factory nationalizations, government takeovers of food distribution and the like \u2014 have real human costs. Eighty percent of Venezuelan bakeries don’t have flour. Eleven percent of children under 5 are malnourished, infant mortality has increased by 30 percent and maternal mortality is up 66 percent. More than 100 people have died in anti-government demonstrations and thousands have been arrested.”<\/p>\n

Economically, Venezuela cannot support its own people. Years of big government socialist policies have led to media crack downs, over printing of money, and a war on capitalism that the country can simply not win. 08\/03\/17 http:\/\/www.hngnews.com\/sun_prairie_star\/opinion\/columns\/article_008196f4-7850-11e7-8613-8b6c41f5a0bd.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Venezuela has continued to fall apart.<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s oil wealth and geographic location had the potential for it to be one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America. Despite the drop in oil prices, it still should be.<\/p>\n

However, various government policies have not served the people well. Consider:<\/p>\n

12 Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths. (Isaiah 3:12)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A country that should be wealthy has many hungry.<\/p>\n

Jesus warned:<\/p>\n

\n
7<\/span> For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. <\/span>8<\/span> All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8)
\n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Those that believe that being part of a Western nation will always keep them fed would do well to notice the following secular news article:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The Geopolitics of Food Scarcity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\n

In some countries social order has already begun to break down in the face of soaring food prices and spreading hunger. Could the worldwide food crisis portend the collapse of global civilization?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Spiegel <\/strong>– Feb 11, 2009<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

World carryover stocks of grain (the amount remaining from the previous harvest when the new harvest begins) have dropped to only 60 days of consumption, a near record low\u2026<\/p>\n

No country is immune to the effects of tightening food supplies, not even the United States<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If China turns to the world market for massive quantities of grain, as it recently has done for soybeans, it will undoubtedly look to the United States, which dominates world grain exports. For US consumers, the prospect of competing for the US grain harvest with 1.3 billion Chinese consumers with fast-rising incomes is a nightmare scenario. It would be tempting for the United States to restrict exports, but this is not an option with China which now holds well over one trillion US dollars. Like it or not, US consumers will share their grain with Chinese consumers regardless of how high food prices rise.<\/p>\n

If the food crisis worsens, national restrictions on grain exports coupled with various bilateral arrangements could tie down much of the exportable supply of grain, making it increasingly difficult if not impossible for weaker, less affluent countries to find grain to import. Many countries heavily dependent on imports could be left out, and the result would be hundreds of millions of desperate people. Desperate people do desperate things: They riot, they fight over food, they overthrow governments, and they mass migrate to more food-secure countries.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/international\/world\/0,1518,606937,00.html<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Expect to see looting in the USA. The massive amount of debt that Western nations, like the USA, have acquired somehow needs to be dealt with. And while at some point, leaders will restrict certain food exports, that will not guarantee that their people will have food (they may even need to import if their currencies are any good). If indebted nations restrict their food exports that puts them at risk of totally destroying their currencies, and cause other severe civil disruptions<\/span> (see also Anglo – America in Prophecy<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Hunger problems are not going to be limited to parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.<\/p>\n

Hunger will one day hit the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand:<\/p>\n

16 When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. 17 So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.'” (Ezekiel 5:15-17)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other lands will also be affected (cf. Revelation 6:5-6).<\/p>\n

This whole world needs the millennial Kingdom of God<\/a>. Before then, more hunger is coming!<\/p>\n

\n

Some items of possibly related interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n

Mexico, Central America, South America, Brazil, and the Caribbean in Prophecy<\/a> [Espa\u00f1ol: M\u00e9xico, Am\u00e9rica central, Suram\u00e9rica, Brasil y el Caribe en la profec\u00eda<\/a>] [Portugu\u00eas: M\u00e9xico, Am\u00e9rica Central, \u00c1m\u00e9rica do Sul, e Brasil na profecia<\/a>] What will happen to those of Latin America? Will they have prosperity? Will they cooperate with Europe? Will they suffer in the future? What role might the various Caribbean nations\/territories play?
\nUnited Nations: Humankind’s Last Hope or New World Order?<\/a> Is the UN the last hope for humanity? Or might its goals end up with sinister results? Two related videos include UN’s ‘New Universal Agenda’ is a False Gospel!<\/a> and United Nations and Vatican Are Planning the New World Order<\/a>.
\n<\/a>Physical Preparation Scriptures for Christians<\/a>. We all know the Bible prophecies famines. Should we do something? Here is a version in the Spanish language Escrituras sobre Preparaci\u00f3n f\u00edsica para los Cristianos<\/a>. Here is a link to a related sermon: Physical preparedness for Christians<\/a>.
\nFour Horsemen of the Apocalypse<\/a> What do each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse represent? Have they began their ride? Did Jesus discuss the any of this? Might their rides coincide with the “beginning of sorrows? Do they start their ride prior to the Great Tribulation? Did Nostradamus or any other ‘private prophets’ write predictions that may mislead people so that they may not understand the truth of one or more of the four horseman? There is also a related YouTube video titled The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse<\/span><\/a>.
\nDid The Early Church Teach Millenarianism?<\/a> Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it? Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near? Two related sermons are available Millennial Utopia<\/a> and The Millennium.<\/a>
\nDoes God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End?<\/a> Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2023 or 20xx? There is also a video titled The 6000 Year Plan: Is the end of humanity’s reign almost up?<\/a> Here is a link to the article in Spanish: \u00bfTiene Dios un plan de 6,000 a\u00f1os?<\/a>
\nWhen Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2018, 2019, or 2020?<\/a> Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: \u00bfPuede comenzar la Gran Tribulaci\u00f3n en 2018 o 2019? \u00bfEs el Tiempo de los Gentiles?<\/a> You can also see the English language sermon videos: The Great Tribulation from the Mount of Olives<\/a> and Can the Great Tribulation begin before 2020?<\/a> A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation begin in 2018?<\/a>
\nThe Times of the Gentiles<\/a> Has there been more than one time of the Gentiles? Are we in it now or in the time of Anglo-America? What will the final time of the Gentiles be like? A related sermon is available and is titled: The Times of the Gentiles<\/a>.<\/span>
\nThe Gospel of the Kingdom of God<\/a> This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to three related sermons: The World\u2019s False Gospel<\/a>, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments<\/a>, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution<\/a>.
\nAnglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel<\/a> Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Saxon (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo-Saxon nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first? Here is a link to the Spanish version of this article: Anglo-Am\u00e9rica & las Tribus Perdidas de Israel<\/a>. Information is also in the YouTube sermons titled Where are the Ten Lost Tribes? Why does it matter?<\/a><\/span> and British are the Covenant People<\/span><\/a>. A short YouTube of prophetic interest may be: Are Chinese threats against Australia for real?<\/a>
\nWill the Anglo-Saxon Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves?<\/a> Will the lands of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand be divided? What about Jerusalem? What does Bible prophecy teach? Are there non-biblical prophecies that support this idea? Who will divide those lands? Who will end up with the lands and the people? Here is a link to a video titled Will the USA and other Anglo-nations be Divided and Their People Made Slaves? <\/a> Here is a related item in the Spanish language \u00bfSer\u00e1n divididas las naciones anglosajonas?<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protesters in Caracas, Venezuela COGwriter Problems continue in Venezuela: January 30, 2018 Venezuelans \u2018loot to eat\u2019 amid economic tailspin PUERTO CABELLO, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 The cab of Carlos Del Pino\u2019s big rig gave him a nerve-rattling front-row seat to a surge in mob attacks on Venezuela\u2019s neighborhood markets, cattle ranches and food delivery trucks like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prophecy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46697,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46591\/revisions\/46697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}