"What's going on in Venezuela?" Nothing special, just the joys of socialism (of the kind that Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and other limousine socialists have encouraged and applauded). "The people" (not all of them of course) of Venezuela who were going along with Chavez and now his successor Maduro. . . "Really? What did you expect?"
At least they are standing up now.
Would Americans do the same?

Regardless of what happens with these protests, Venezuela is a classic example of a country where a vast proportion of people have conflated Chavez's socialist policies with the country's oil and gas fueled growth from the early 2000s to the GFC. Nothing is likely to change that anytime soon even if there were a change of government.

The problem recently has been the combination of the new president Maduro who does not have Chavez populist legitimacy and the QE tapering in the US which is seeing currencies slide in emerging markets, but mostly in countries that had issues to begin with (Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela).

Economically the country is screwed because of the hugely corrupt and inefficient state owned energy companies, the expropriation and nationalisation of the agricultural sector. The government has responded with minimum wage hikes, printing money and capital controls on currency conversion which all just forestall the inevitable crisis.

As usual with countries like these, what props up the government is the system of patronage between the government and the elite/military. If the government were to make their state run firms efficient and/or privatise them, they couldn't skim off the top. If they can't skim off the top they have no money, no authority and they get thrown out.

I could film myself pooping to the Gladiator soundtrack and it would look epic.

Don't expect anyone from MSNBC to ask Sean Penn what's going on.

Another point of view, BBC News explains the situation in 90 seconds:

If anyone is interrested in a less american biased view of venezuela...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id--ZFtjR5c

If you are referring to the POV of the video, do you mean a less 'South American' view of Venezuela? I believe it was compiled by a Venezuelan.

Wow, I couldn't even pass the 19 seconds mark.

Yes, the "illegitimate government Venezuela has today", if it were a more right-wing administration doing exactly the same things, would be denounced by all of the leftists around the world supporting it today as clientelist, nepotist, incompetent, and corrupt -- because that's what it is (and because double standards are so convenient).

But nonetheless, the "illegitimate government Venezuela has today" was elected last April, and then again in December, in what international observers called fair and democratic elections.

So this is just transparently dishonest *Propaganda.