Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao being squeezed by Venezuala!

[Snoweman]

Reading the article, it sounds like food and goods are being smuggled into Venezuela from the three islands - and NOT drugs.

 

[gopbroek]

Venezuela is inching closer to collapse

 

[herman]

As I read the next article, they are also producing a lot less oil......so let me see if I have this straight- their people are starving and in need of medical supplies because smugglers are bringing food and supplies from the ABC's INTO the country and they are going to punish the ABC's by not selling them oil which they are not producing anyway...and desperately need to sell. Makes total sense.

 

[tcpip95]

Venezuela created this mess by grossly mis-managing its budget. Most of the oil that they have is "thick, gooey stuff" that is expensive to refine and transport. In the late 2000's, when oil was $100/barrel, the US imported it and could refine it. This allowed Chavez to spend money like a drunken sailor on social welfare programs. He borrowed money from around the globe, counting on the continued sale of his thick gooey crude at $100/barrel. Now, with oil being in to $40-50/barrel, nobody is buying that oil, so Maduro is stuck without a chair when the music stopped. Lots of loans defaulting, etc. They invested poorly in modernizing their oil fields so all they have left is that thick crap that nobody wants. Here's a link to a good article on the subject. It's a year and a half old, but very enlightening in terms of the fallout. Disregard the part about "what would happen if Trump gets elected" (they totally missed that).

Oil Made Venezuela Rich, And Now It’s Making It Poor

 

[tkaelin]

It can not be a good thing to have small relatively defenseless islands so close to a relative large country lead by questionable leadership on the verge of economic collapse, especially where the islands are full of supplies and the country is not. On the bright side, Polar being brewed elsewhere and should be in ample supply. Will be in CUR in 2 weeks.

 

[herman]

That's not a problem, I wouldn't exactly call the ABC's defenseless. A few years ago Chavez was threating to take over the ABC's. I flew to Bonaire via Cur at the time and the Cur airport was lined with US and Dutch fighters and AWAC planes. Somehow I think he got the message......and Venezuela is easily within US based aircraft range. Since they are a Dutch protectorate I would assume they are covered by NATO as well.

 

[tcpip95]

That's not a problem, I wouldn't exactly call the ABC's defenseless. A few years ago Chavez was threating to take over the ABC's. I flew to Bonaire via Cur at the time and the Cur airport was lined with US and Dutch fighters and AWAC planes. Somehow I think he got the message......and Venezuela is easily within US based aircraft range. Since they are a Dutch protectorate I would assume they are covered by NATO as well.

Yep. Their "invasion" wouldn't last 24 hours, and they'd end up with an EXTREMELY bloody nose.

 

[Hoag]

I would hardly say that the islands are defenseless. Look at what the Brits did when the Argentinians got "frisky" with the Falklands in 1982. The Dutch do not have the naval might of the Royal Navy, but the do have Article V of the NATO Charter. If this ever actually reaches the point of being a "Blockade" things could get very messy very quickly since a Blockade is normally considered and act of war and I don't think that anyone wants to go down that route.

 

[tkaelin]

I think the key word was "relatively" and the main point was that it is not a good thing to have a country on the brink of collapse next door.

 

[tkaelin]

From my Bonaire contact sounds like a non issue with the only thing noticeable so far was not as many bananas available. The bigger issue on supplies/staples was cruise ships delaying docking and off loading of container ships.