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[–] GIF-lLL-S0NG 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

giving out bank notes can be interpreted as "paying them in toilet paper". The food and guns to the police are what keep the mansions from being raided, the gold being stolen, the oil being sold the American companies. Paging the CIA

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[–] 10027147? [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

no, the were literally giving toilet paper to the soldiers and citizens can't get any.

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[–] intrepiddemise 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Bolivars are basically worthless at this point, and food and good shortages are dire. Paying your security forces (who, at this point, aren't much more than armed thugs) with food and goods like toilet paper is more likely to keep them loyal to you than paying them with near worthless paper money.

Make your thugs feel important by giving them first crack at the best goods and allow them to settle old scores and you'll buy their loyalty quite easily. Weak minds are easy to manipulate, and in a country with low education and a low standard of living, where things are consistently getting worse, there are plenty of weak (but ambitious) minds willing to serve a strongman like Maduro for the right price. They can even justify it to themselves as being necessary for their (and their family's) survival. In fact, I can almost guarantee that's how some of the worst atrocities are being justified. A casual look through world history will show this situation playing out again and again. The more things change, the more they stay the same.