What Can Preppers Learn About What Is Happening In Venezuela

Venezuela was once the pearl of South America having a high living standard, oil, and rich in natural resources, yet now is a cesspool with people having to get their drinking water from ditches. Preppers should carefully study what is taking place in Venezuela and use it as a reference for our own planning.

This page was written by A. Paul Towers. It was originally posted on his blog as What can preppers learn about what is happening in Venezuela?

What is happening in Venezuela is a real-life Catastrophic Future Event (CFE) taking place before our eyes. Once the Venezuelan power grid began to fail the people of that country have begun to experience 100+ hour outages, they’ve had no potable water, food is very scarce, medical help is non-existent, there are riots in the streets, armed thugs control the neighborhood, and a corrupt government controls the country. All of this is pretty much why many of us prep, so what lessons can we take from what is happening in Venezuela? Here are some thoughts from the top of my head:

Make sure you keep your guns – One of the first laws that where passed by the previous dictator of Venezuela was to disarm the population. Never trust a government that wants to disarm you.

Bad governments are often voted into power – Beware of the politician that tells you to trust them with your safety and your well-being. Chavez came into power by offering “free” stuff and with a promise to bring equality to the masses, and now everyone in Venezuela is equally poor, except for those in power who live in luxury.

Be among the first to leave – If you can get out of the city, or country, while things are somewhat normal, do so. The Venezuelans that migrated out of the country after Chavez took control in the 1990s are the ones that have best survived this event. Those that left the major cities and moved to the country with their families have also done better than the people that stayed in the major cities. The key here is leave early while you still can.

Set aside Food and Water for emergencies – Of course, food and water are the staples of prepping, and for a good reason. When the power goes out and you don’t have water pressure, you’re still going to need water, and you’ll get it even if is from a ditch. Even if the super markets no longer have products you will still need to eat, and you will eat anything when you’re hungry, so set aside enough food to survive NOW while is still available.

Take care of your health while you can – There is no medicine available in Venezuela and people are dying every day from treatable diseases. Take care of your health while you’re able, have your annual checkup, and try to have extra supplies of any medicine that you depend on.

Have extra money for emergencies – If you are going to leave the country, city, etc., make sure that you have money on hand that does not require a visit to the bank. With cash on hand you can buy food in the black market and pay-off officials to look the other way.

Money is not always just cash – Have a good credit card that you can use to buy a one-way ticket out of the danger zone. Sometimes large sum expenses like airplane tickets are best handled using a credit card, and sometimes credit cards are required by the vendors.

Sometimes money is worthless – Have some silver or gold on hand in case that the national coin collapses, like it did in Venezuela.

The collapse is not always sudden – The collapse of Venezuela began over 20 years ago with the election of Hugo Chavez. The collapse that many of us are “watching-out-for” does not always happen overnight.

Don’t fall in love with your “things” – Many people in Venezuela refused to leave the country, and the major cities, because they where afraid to leave their possessions behind. In an emergency, go ahead and leave that flat screen behind, it can’t feed you or provide you with drinking water.

There is so much more that I could add to this list, but I think that this is enough to get us thinking. Always remember that what happened in Venezuela can happen anywhere. We must always be ready to make intelligent choices based on the knowledge gathered from proven facts. For many of us preppers we look at Venezuela and shake our heads in disgust, knowing that something similar could happen here, where we live. For others, who think that a self-sufficient life style is a dumb waste of time, well…I hope that they wake up and realize that they’re not as safe as they think they are, and that society’s facade is paper-thin.

For my prepper friends, continue to do what you do, continue to strive to be self-sufficient. Don’t let the opinions of those that are uninformed bring you down. Continue to learn about prepping, and continue to set food and water aside, because we never really know when the hard times might be around the corner, but if hard times do come…we’ll be ready.

A. Paul Towers

A. Paul Towers is the author of Surviving Catastrophic Future Events, is a life-long prepper, a bilingual (Spanish) public speaker, a firearms aficionado, and a recognized advocate of modern prepper practices. A. Paul Towers is a strong believer that the American citizens are now facing greater catastrophic dangers than what was faced during the cold war.

A. Paul Towers believes that the only hope for our survival is for everyone to become aware of the future dangers and develop the skills needed to survive the coming future catastrophes.

A. Paul Towers holds a 4-year degree in psychology, and additional degrees in Telecommunications, and Electronic technology. In a previous life, A. Paul Towers worked in the field of Military Secured Telecommunications, he also worked in the civilian telecommunication sector as a Telecommunication Engineer, and for the past 20 years has worked as a software developer for various companies.

Cover image by sunsinger / Shutterstock.com. CARACAS, VENEZUELA - JANUARY 14, 2018: Empty supermarket shelves in Venezuela. Due to the economic crisis and hyperinflation in Venezuela there is a large shortage of food and medicine.

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