Gallery of improvised Ukrainian Weapons

Tom Jamieson’s Weapons of Maidan | The Escapist.

As with anything having to deal with life and death, mindset is the key. Ukrainians quickly realized that peaceful protests and singing “We Shall Overcome” with a balalaika was not getting them anywhere but to having their asses kicked. They made the conscious and for many deadly decision to pump the volume to 11 on the aggressive side of things. Things there are still not over,  specially with the threat of Putin sending troops to “reclaim” Ukraine but the dictator was finally forced out.

Venezuela in the other hand is playing the tired old game of “Peaceful Demonstrations have Moral Superiority.” Apparently it has not dawned on them that this particular game only works if your intended target has what it is known as Morality. President Maduro has had no qualms on sending Regulars to quells by “Less Lethal” means dissension and he is also sending Irregulars to use more permanent solutions and terrorize folks into submission and silence. The last official numbers are 28 dead,  over 360 wounded and about a thousand arrested.  There is a good record of the injuries and deaths caused by the government goons in the internet, but that is just that: a record.

Other than erecting flimsy barricades, the methods used to counter government forces have been throwing rocks, running away and tossing paint bombs to obscure the view of armored personnel carriers sent to dissolve protests. The Ukrainians went a different way regarding APCs:

But finally in Venezuela, they have decided to step up the game against those infernal machines and against the goons. I found this “tactical” instruction in Twitter not long ago:
The underlined passage states to “Fill mayo or baby food jars with “cat, dog or human feces” kid you not, that is the new strategy.  Shit washes off, pellets & bullets tend to leave a much lasting impression and the Government knows it.

And if anyone out there is asking him and herself “Wait. Isn’t Venezuela an Oil Producing country? Gasoline is pretty cheap down there. How come we don’t see Molotov cocktails being used like cheap cologne?” And the answer would be…. I don’t know. Maybe they are afraid of hurting those who are trying to maim and kill them and lose the alleged moral superiority they think they have.

It shall make for a nice inscription in their tombstones.