@racocn8 Has the embargo been effective?

The embargo has not been effective in terms of pressuring Maduro to step down. It may have worsened the poverty of Venezuelans, but Maduro is so crooked, it is unclear they would be any better off.

[csis.org]

@LovinLarge The US couldn't care less about dictators. The United States has used dictators to enforce their interests and when they have no use for them any longer, they get rid of them.

The US has a fascist, authoritarian, "Monopoly Capitalism" problem.

State Monopoly Capitalism:
“The main Marxist–Leninist thesis is that big business, having achieved a monopoly or cartel position in most markets of importance, fuses with the government apparatus. A kind of financial oligarchy or conglomerate therefore results, whereby government officials aim to provide the social and legal framework within which giant corporations can operate most effectively.” - Wikipedia

Basically this is favoring the rich and not holding them accountable, even for egregious crimes, while controlling the people using low wages, prison for non-violent crimes and small infractions, and while suppressing their vote and protests. Either wealth will be regulated for the benefit of the people or the people will be regulated to serve wealth.

"Monopoly Capital:
An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order is a 1966 book by the Marxian economists Paul Sweezy and Paul A. Baran. It was published by Monthly Review Press. It made a major contribution to Marxian theory by shifting attention from the assumption of a competitive economy to the monopolistic economy associated with the giant corporations that dominate the modern accumulation process. Their work played a leading role in the intellectual development of the New Left in the 1960s and 1970s. As a review in the American Economic Review stated, it represented "the first serious attempt to extend Marx’s model of competitive capitalism to the new conditions of monopoly capitalism." It attracted renewed attention following the Great Recession." - Wikipedia

Example:
“This is monopoly capitalism in action,” said Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “Whenever Amazon takes over more and more and more of any consumer area, that gives consumers less choice. And now it’s food.” - [truthout.org]

Political implication:
“Ever since monopoly capital took over the world, it has kept the greater part of humanity in poverty, dividing all the profits among the group of the most powerful countries. The standard of living in those countries is based on the extreme poverty of our countries.”
— Che Guevara, 1965 -Wikipedia

@nogod4me Yes, I am on board with this, thank you. If talks fail this week, strengthening sanctions against Russia and lifting the Venezuelan embargo seem justified to me. There should also be a ceasefire during talks but I have not heard that mentioned yet.