In Venezuela, shit may be about to get serious, as defectors from that socialist shithole (but I repeat myself) country are arming themselves and planning to overthrow Maduro.  Excerpt:

Wearing camouflage shirts and combat boots, a Venezuelan militia group stands in formation in the Colombian city of Cucuta as their commander, a former Venezuelan army sergeant, outlines plans to seize towns across the border before heading to Caracas to help oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Eight men, who said they were defectors from Venezuelan police, army and intelligence services, had gathered near the two nations’ tense frontier, from where they said they will lead an attack aimed at overthrowing Maduro and handing the reins of power to opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Dubbing their planned offensive “Operation Venezuela,” the ex-army sergeant, Eddier Rodriguez, said there were around 150 men ready to take part with his group. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the status of the eight men or the size of the militia.

“Our goal is to liberate the country,” said Rodriguez, 37, who said he is currently working as a security guard in Bogota. “We’re troops willing to give our lives if necessary, all 150 of us.”

You can’t fault these guys for determination, ambition or guts, but they’re going to need a whole lot more than eight guys.

But this may be the start of something.  Venezuela’s neighbors can’t fix what’s wrong with that failed nation; the United States can’t and shouldn’t try to fix this mess.  The Venezuelan people need to fix their own nation, and a small militia like this could be the genesis of that.

There’s an old saying that holds that ‘the reason peasant revolts succeed so often is that there are just so damn many peasants.’  There’s a problem; the Venezuelan people have no arms with which to contest with their illegitimate government.  That right was never allowed in Venezuela, and since Hugo Chavez seized power, civilian gun ownership has been ever more tightly restricted.

But this rumored militia; they came from the Venezuelan military.  Presumably they took some weapons with them.  So far Maduro has kept a lid on the military, presumably because the top generals are getting as rich as Maduro himself, as the Top Men in socialist states always seems to do.  But the rank and file?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I see two endings for Maduro.  He can flee to Russia or Cuba, or face a rope and a lamp post.  His top generals, if they get caught on the wrong side, may end up joining him.