Cabello sinks, the army can shoot with real bullets, Patricia Janiot exposes. Maduro panics?

In defence of your nation, religion, and laws,

Today the regime decided to intervene Farmatodo, the big pharmacy store chain of Venezuela, the first one to operate US style (all, from medicines to pop sodas). And it did so nastily by putting in jail its CEO and attendants.

What is unusual here, so to speak, is that the take over was carried on a Sunday. What is curious here is that Farmatodo did follow some of the "advice" of the regime such as limiting purchases to spread evenly the goods, and even put up finger prints. So why seize Farmatodo instead of, say, Locatel?

The charges that "justified" the takeover were that Farmatodo did not sell all the stuff it received in December (how much? what type? could it distribute it timely to its nation wide chain? why would it leave the field to its competition that we must assume did sell their stuff?). The excuse was that Farmatodo promoted public disorder by creating long visible lines of people through the artifice of having only a few cash registers open.

I feel, I feel the deity within,

This is all bogus of course. If there are lines at Farmatodo these days, it is because they have received something (toilet paper, diapers, soap...). Never mind that in normal business times having a line at your store is an actual discouragement for customers to come. Only Apple stores can get away with this as a marketing tool.

His radiant glory erst display'd;

I suppose that if Maduro decided to do such a media catchy takeover (it is about medicine, you know) it is because CNN in Spanish has released this weekend a damning one hour report on the Venezuelan economic crisis. The star was Patricia Janiot who had to leave Venezuela in a hurry last February after she was threatened by the regime. But she came back and she took her revenge. Trust me on that one,m I watched it twice (not complete on You Tube yet).

I have to give it to her, she did represent very well what Venezuela is today. And she got the furies of chavismo unleashed upon her. But no matter how many chavista sycophants answered the appeal of their masters, Maduro needed to do something to prove to his dwindling followers that he was in charge. Farmatodo would do. Who cares of the consequences?

The cause of Heav'n your zeal demands.

This is that's there to it. The country is ruined. Maduro knows it. But he needs to keep providing circus. And more circus as there is less bread tweetered a wit. That his main rival Cabello seems suddenly on the fritz is not big consolation for him. Unable to change course, there is no other option left but rushing forward, a la Thelma and Louise. Maduro has a lost cause: his retaining office.

Arm, arm, ye brave! A noble cause,

In his cause Maduro is not alone. The military know that the way things are going repression will have to be brutal. So they made this week "legal" even though it is unconstitutional, to allow the army to shoot real bullets when they are called upon to keep protests at bay. The protests they have in mind are of course those of the chavista hoi polloi that will realize sooner than expected that taking over Farmatodo did not fill up its shelves. Far from it, in fact. The medical crisis is going to get much worse fast.

Judas shall set the captive free,
And lead us all to victory.

Some wishful thinking to end this entry. Though I fail to see at this point a possible, not too painful, way out of the mess Maduro is driving us into.