Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

No Peace

To Read: Changing Venezuela by taking Power by Gregory Wilpert available on Amazon.

Quote:I went down to Venezuela and ended up renting a helicopter and flew with my sons to the tops of the tepuis, these freestanding jungle mesas, 'lost worlds' as it were. In fact, it's almost impossible to access them without one. So we were able to land and spend some time there. We were trapped for about six hours by clouds that came in. Harrison Ford
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/harrisonfo733017.html?src=t_venezuel...

" El Libertador, Simon' Bolivar, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who played a leading role in the establishment of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama as sovereign states, independent of Spanish rule." {reference:www.Wikipedia.org} He was considered a great ruler. There is a page for him explaining all he accomplished, when he helped Spanish America break free of the rule of Spain and the church of Spain on Wikipedia.org This year on the day Venezuela celebrates El Libertador, people took to the streets in Caracas to demonstrate their feelings about the upheaval in the Government of their country.

The Cable Car ride, that has been closed for a few years to be upgraded is now open. However, only school children and special government excursions are allowed presently to ride it. The fact that Lyn was able to get us on this spectacular ride is a feat of tourism guidance. The ride is the highest cable car ride in the world. There are 4 stops during the ride and the highest point is near freezing. Also, the air gets thinner as you go up which made me feel a little dizzy and silly as the car climbed. The view is worth any discomfort.

I was impressed with the staff at the Marriott who constantly tried to make their guests comfortable in all ways even though you could tell the strain they were under. We were warned that the walls between rooms were thin so to be careful of noise.

I found the above tour of the city to be special. However, the Marriott had their own cars to escort us around. Recent problems of the passed two days were evident. Piles of burned motorcycles and other debris from the struggle between street thugs, who terrorize the local population, apparently with the support of the Guadia National, were evident everywhere we traveled.

Menus in the places we ate were changed at the drop of a hat, since food supplies continue to dwindle. To tell the truth I wished I could give away food since there is so little to go around within the city. The population is suffering from lack of medicines, bread and other food we take for granted.

One news caster stated that this is what happens when a socialist country changes its political system. The fact is, that the new system is leaning toward a dictatorship, which is against the will of the people of Venezuela and the new congress will rewrite the constitution. Living under these kinds of circumstances is making life here unbearable for people.

Another news item stated that because the public is not allowed to have guns, all the guns are in the hands of the Government enforcers and bad people. It is a very dangerous situation but there probably will not be a civil uprising because of the lack of weaponry. The Guadia National represses protests with a savage hand.

As beautiful as this city once was I won't be sorry to leave. The constant danger to ordinary people is evident and the local population is paranoid because of circumstances beyond their control. They don't meet the eyes of people on the street, there is no one smiling, they turn and walk away if they see another person near them and you cannot tell where a problem may erupt at any moment.

My heart breaks I want to change the world. Pray for the citizens of Venezuela.

I also used CBS News, BBC News, www.theatlantic.com and www.cato.org as references in this article.