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20 responses to 10 Survival Rules When Society Collapses: Lessons from Venezuela

Ali Harris December 5th, 2018 at 1:40 am

I left Venezuela 3 months ago. Every neighborhood now has a street lord or two that run things. Your safe if you pay them, they like you, or you have a recurring revenue stream to give them. When you run out of money you run out of safety. The person sitting in the chair is a gang elected lord. Anything they say goes. Even the police don’t bother them and sometimes ask permission to enter the street. They run things. They even tell the water trucks which houses they can service and which ones they can’t. The best way to stay unnoticed is to dress badly, carry around what looks like garbage in a clear bag. If they think you have nothing of value your safe. Not worth their time.

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Todd - Prepper Website December 5th, 2018 at 7:18 am

Thanks for your comment Ali. Do you feel these street lords have some wits about them or are they just common thugs?

Peace,
Todd

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Wesley H Owens December 5th, 2018 at 6:21 pm

Holy crap. I read news stories about Venezuela all the time, but I guess they are just sanitized for the American audience. I cannot imagine trying to live in these conditions.

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Todd - Prepper Website December 5th, 2018 at 6:24 pm

They couldn’t let the socialist govt. in Venezuela look negative now could they? 😉

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Catherine December 5th, 2018 at 9:41 pm

This makes me really sad, and angry. And very grateful for my life in this country.

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Anonymous December 5th, 2018 at 9:46 pm

Why waste a dozen rounds of ammo and gasoline for currency that is essentially worthless?

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Jerry December 7th, 2018 at 10:06 pm

I pray that it never gets that bad here,but I feel that at some point it will. Seems like your brother would be better off fleeing to the jungle and living of the land if he has the skills and knowledge. I’ll pray for them.

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G Cole December 8th, 2018 at 9:11 am

Matthew 24:21 says ‘there will be a tribulation such as has never been’this was soon after Jesus followers were taught to pray for God’s kingdom to come. We are very close to the end of these dreadful things.Articles like this show how close we are to the beginning of a new world.

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john December 11th, 2018 at 7:26 am

ye and we got the dem want to go down the same rd all fuck tarts.

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Nicus December 11th, 2018 at 4:53 pm

Don’t waste your time storing meat and “protein”. Only about 10% of your calories need to be protein. Grains and legumes contain plenty of protein, are cheaper, and easier to store long term. If you get enough calories from these sources to survive, then you will get enough of all essential proteins. Funny how that works. It’s as if God had a plan…

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RWinDC December 13th, 2018 at 8:40 am

Shouldn’t you have started the paperwork to sponsor your brother, wife and offspring to come here? I.e., nice you’re here and you’re leaving them there because …?

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SAA2 December 18th, 2018 at 12:42 pm

Thank you so much for sharing. It’s worse than I had imagined or read about. Even dystopian, apocalyptic novels don’t show life in these evil, graphic terms. I feel sad for unbelievers who have no hope.

You have helped many refine their preps and storage today. Just common items and not only foods.

Again, thank you.

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Elaine December 18th, 2018 at 1:01 pm

I can’t imagine the horror you’ve described. What would I do in such a situation?

1. I would try to place some kind of explosives in/around my home so that if a fatal invasion is inevitable I can push the button and take some of the bad guys with me.

2. Be sure to have some food storage which has been poisoned. If it’s stolen, you’ll at least have the satisfaction of knowing your enemy had a few unpleasant moments before death.

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gman December 19th, 2018 at 6:45 pm

americans pride themselves on firearms ownership. in your opinion, would the situation in venezuela be better or worse if individual citizens had their own firearms?

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ARJAY December 19th, 2018 at 11:21 pm

@Elaine. IF you are going to have a supply of poisoned food, make sure it is RELATIVELY easily found, with your GOOD food safely hidden.

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SP December 20th, 2018 at 5:26 am

The big lesson I’m taking from this is that preparing is one thing, but being able to hold on to what you gathered is quite another.

A single cat was enough to attract a mob of 50. If someone finds out you have years of food then you’re done for and even if you’re armed to the teeth it would be quite difficult to repel such an attack. Even if you do, follow up attacks will occur until you’ve been cleaned out. After all, if you’re defending your house that vigorously there must be something of value inside.

The other issue is sheer number of ways your stash can be discovered. It can be something innocuous as one of your kids telling their friend that they aren’t hungry at the moment. Their friend may tell their parents and the question gets asked “Why aren’t they hungry? Everyone is hungry…”

Even if a mob doesn’t show up outside your house, the local gang leader certainly will and your “tax rate” will likely increase substantially.

I don’t read many prepper websites but the odd articles I do see often overlook the extremely important factor of community. Essentially you have to have your own gang ready to go (with their own chair on the corner) before someone else imposes one on you.

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Todd - Prepper Website December 20th, 2018 at 7:12 am

I agree. The “My 4 and No More” won’t cut it. It will take people banning together to make a true go of it!

Peace,
Todd

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JohnTyler December 20th, 2018 at 9:21 am

So, if we are to understand your line of (non) reasoning, if the price of oil had not dropped, then things in Venezuela would be OK.

God forbid you should mention that the govt. there – a socialist pro-Cuban gang of thugs, propped up by the Cuban secret police – have destroyed that nation while they – the ruling thugs – live just fine.
Yep, socialism at work; ONLY the ruling thugs get rich, while the ENTIRE citizenry becomes destitute.
I guess you could contrast this to evil, racist, capitalism; where some get rich, but most of the citizenry does OK and many “ordinary” folks do in fact move up the socio-economic ladder.

You remind me of some idiot journalist who recently said that Stalin (a tyrant who exterminated betwixt 20 and 50 MILLION souls) was a force for good because he fought against fascism.

Recall that Hitler “only” exterminated 12 million souls and that Stalin labeled Lenin’s former close advisor, Leon Trotsky, a fascist).

Anyway great article. I suggest you move in with your brother – perhaps you can take Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Occasional-Cortex with you too – so you can all enjoy residing in a socialist paradise.

And for all readers who live in NYC; there are literally tens of thousands of NYC residents who formerly lived communist nations (USSR, Eastern Europe, the Baltics, etc) .
Seek them out and ask them what is was like living in a communist nation.

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Juha April 24th, 2020 at 10:47 pm

Why didnt you warn the elderly lady?

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