It is very hard down in Venezuela. I understand that we are caught up in ObamaCare and other issues.  However, let's not forget how Venezuela is falling apart and people are suffering.

I have many Venezuelan friends.  We need to tell the world about their day to day misery "made by Chavez."

We just heard that the Maduro regime deployed troops into stores, as reported by The NY Times:

"In announcing that military personnel would occupy the five-store electronics chain Daka, Mr. Maduro said that the government would supervise sales at significantly lower prices and that the store's stock would be liquidated.  

"Let nothing remain on the shelves!" he said during a television broadcast. 

Mr. Maduro also dispatched officials to inspect other stores around the country, saying they, too, would be forced to charge what the government considers fair prices. 

Officials said over the weekend that several store managers had been arrested and would face charges of setting overly high prices.

Luisa Ortega, the national prosecutor, said that some people had also been arrested and accused of looting."

The Spanish word for this is "PANICO" or panic. We are watching a Maduro regime totally out of tricks and forced to deal with the economic mess that it inherited from the Chavez' years. 

The problem is not greed or bad merchants.  The real problem is shortages - from cooking oil to other basic foodstuffs. 

President Maduro has now gone on TV to tell people to "calm down" after the government took over some stores.

As one Venezuelan friend say to me last week:   "We never had (Spanish expletive deleted) like this before!  This (Spanish expletive deleted) Chavez should be burning in hell."

All over Venezuela today, men and women wait in line to purchase goods.  The "lines" are another reminder of "the Cubanization of Venezuela".

My friend was in one of those lines last week.

He said that the men wait in line and talk baseball.  They remember the golden years when Luis Aparicio (White Sox) and David Concepcion (Reds) made them so proud of their country.     

The women talk about the other wonder of Venezuela, the Miss Universe pageant. Last week, a young woman from Venezuela won The Miss Universe content:   

"For the seventh time in Miss Universe history, Venezuela took the crown as 25-year-old Gabriela Isler was given the title of most beautiful woman in the universe in Moscow's Crocus City Hall on Saturday night."

And so it goes. Talking "shortstops" and "beauty pageants" is how most Venezuelans take their minds off of this terrible disaster that they are living today.

P. S. You can hear more Venezuela with Fausta Wertz & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.