World View: Venezuela Blames Disastrous Economy on U.S. Economic 'Sabotage'

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Terrorist attack in northwest Pakistan 3rd Sunday in a row
• Venezuela blames disastrous economy on U.S. economic ‘sabotage’

I know that this is hard to believe, but there’s actually been news inother places around the world besides Washington.

Terrorist attack in northwest Pakistan 3rd Sunday in a row

The historic Qissa Khwani bazaar marketplace in Peshawar, Pakistan, on a ‘normal’ day

Two car bombs exploded in the historic Qissa Khwani bazaar marketplacein Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sunday, killing at least 42 people. A twostory building collapsed, and at least 50 shops were damaged orcompletely destroyed.

This is the third Sunday in a row where a major terrorist attack hasoccurred in or around Peshawar — an attack killed three army officerson September 15 in Upper Dir, just north of Peshawar, and a majorattack on a Christian Church in Peshawar on September 22 killed 84.In addition, on Friday, bomb blew up a bus carrying governmentemployees on the edge of Peshawar, killing 18 people.

This would appear to be the final nail in the coffin of the plan bythe new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to negotiate withTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP – the Pakistani Taliban) to endterrorist attacks in Pakistan. As soon as the peace talks wereproposed, the TTP immediately started to impose conditions: TTPprisoners must be released from jail, the army must be withdrawn fromthe tribal areas where it has been fighting the Taliban, and thegovernment must agree to impose Sharia law on the country. And thenthe TTP stepped up its terror attacks. So the TTP is humiliating thePakistan government with promises of peace talks in the same way thatRussia and Syria are humiliating the American government. Daily Times (Pakistan) and LA Times

Venezuela blames disastrous economy on U.S. economic ‘sabotage’

As we wrote last week, Venezuela’s economy is approaching full-scalehyperinflation, with the inflation rate at 45.4%, thanks to theextravagant spending and vote-buying by the late president, HugoChávez. (See “26-Sep-13 World View — Venezuela’s economy approaches full-scale hyperinflation”)

The country is plagued by shortages of everything from milk andcooking oil to toothpaste and toilet paper, and now Chávez’s Socialistsuccessor, Nicolás Maduro, has decided to blame the United States.According to Maduro in a televised speech to the nation:

“We detected a group of U.S. embassy officialsdedicated to meeting the far-right and to financing andencouraging acts of sabotage against the electrical system andVenezuela’s economy.

I have the proof here in my hands. … Yankees go home! Get out ofVenezuela! Get out of here! I don’t care what actions thegovernment of Barack Obama takes.I’m not going to allow any action that stirs violence in thiscountry.”

There’s no U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, so Maduro has expelledAmerica’s chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, along with two diplomats.

Apparently, not everyone in Venezuela agrees with Maduro. Oppositionleader Henrique Capriles called Maduro’s speech a “joke alert,” andsaid, “It’s just smoke to cover up that they can’t manage thecountry!” Reuters

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