#so that we don't have to send it from america for 7 billion dollars and twelve thousand business days. thanks love you

[zosonils]

screaming crying throwing up etc etc

[darkmaga-returns]

10 shocking stories the media buried today.

The Vigilant Fox

Nov 20, 2024

10 - Joe Rogan ERUPTS on The New York Times for “fack-checking” RFK Jr. on toxic food ingredients while simultaneously proving him right.

“That made my brain hurt just reading it.”

The “fact-check” in question all started when The New York Times claimed RFK Jr. was “wrong” about differences in Froot Loops’ ingredients between Canada and the United States.

However, their own reporting admitted that the U.S. version contains harmful chemicals like Red Dye 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), while the Canadian version uses “natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots.”

“So they’re literally saying he was wrong, but he was right,” Rogan scoffed. “That is the f—king dangerous chemicals banned in Canada that we’re trying to get rid of in America!”

Rogan continued to question what possible motivation The New York Times could have to “fact-check” RFK Jr.’s efforts to remove toxic ingredients from the food supply.

“Like, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to remove all leftover credibility? Are you trying to k*ll it all?” Rogan asked. “Are you secretly working for the Chinese? Like, what are you doing?”

Rogan’s guest, Jimmy Corsetti, concluded, “It’s probably backed by Monsanto or something.”

(See 9 More Revealing Stories Below)

9 - Scott Presler tells corrupt Bucks County, PA commissioners who tried to steal the Senate election that he is gunning for their seats right to their faces.

"I have a message: peacefully, we are COMING for your seat in 2027 if you don't resign TODAY. I am coming for your seat."

She replies, "Have at it!"

Credit: https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1859276862272483645

8 - RFK Jr. exposes the disturbing truth about the Ukraine war in three minutes, revealing it as a money-laundering scheme for BlackRock.

In a shocking admission, Mitch McConnell revealed that the hundreds of billions of dollars American taxpayers are sending to Ukraine are actually going to “American defense manufacturers” instead.

“And who do you think owns every one of those companies?” Kennedy asked. The answer is BlackRock.

H/T: https://x.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1859273813763997882

7 - Dr. Peter McCullough reveals that serious side effects from the COVID vaccine were anticipated by the FDA in October 2020.

“Before the products finished their trials, there was a slide saying, ‘These are the side effects that we anticipate: myocarditis, blood clots, paralysis with Guillain-Barre syndrome.’ And the list goes on and on and on.”

Video: https://x.com/P_McCulloughMD/status/1859213716115341605

6 - Laken Riley’s father reads a heartbreaking journal entry Laken wrote to her future husband and family.

Laken, who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant, wrote, “To my future husband. I want you to know that I'm thinking about you… I'm working every day to become the best wife I can be by working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids.”

Video: https://x.com/_johnnymaga/status/1859294663263289501

While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to this page for more daily news roundups.Subscribe

#5 - Sunny Hostin Reluctantly Reads ‘Legal Note’ on Air After Smearing Matt Gaetz as a Sex Trafficker

#4 - MSNBC, CNBC on the Chopping Block as Comcast Drops Bombshell News

#3 - Major NATO Country is Advising Citizens to Prepare for NUCLEAR WAR

#2 - Meghan McCain Defends and Endorses Close Friend Tulsi Gabbard for Trump’s DNI

#1 - ‘Censorship Cartel’ on Its Heels as Trump Appointees, Litigation Crack Open Conspiracy

A federal judge approved further legal discovery in a lawsuit by Louisiana, Missouri and censored doctors against federal officials and agencies including GEC for pressuring Big Tech to censor, months after the Supreme Court ruled they didn't have standing for a preliminary injunction.

Alluding to Vice President Kamala Harris's much-mocked verbal crutch, President Trump nominee Judge Terry Doughty ruled he was "burdened by what has been," the SCOTUS ruling.

But he said the plaintiffs showed evidence that is not "impermissibly speculative": a congressional investigation of Facebook parent Meta that found internal admissions it censored the COVID-19 lab-leak theory because it was "under pressure from the [Biden] administration” to do so, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's similar admission to Congress this summer.

The feds are "uniquely in control of the facts, information, documents, and evidence regarding the extent and nature" of the censorship pressure, and the already disclosed emails show "the pains that certain persons and entities went through to hide their tracks," Doughty ruled while limiting further discovery to resolve factual questions for jurisdiction.

"We end with the unignorable reality that regime change is imminent" – Trump's second presidential term – and the "wild" possibility that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the "Disinformation Dozen" targeted by the White House, "may soon replace or control" the defendant Department of Health and Human Services as Trump's nominee for secretary.

But that by itself is too speculative to dismiss the case, the ruling concludes.

Read More: https://justthenews.com/nation/free-speech/censorship-cartel-its-heels-trump-appointees-litigation-crack-open-alleged

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BONUS #1 - Vivek Says DOGE Will DELETE Entire Government Agencies

BONUS #2 - General Flynn Issues Grave Warning Ahead of Trump’s Presidential Return

BONUS #3 - Donald Trump’s COVID ‘Game-Changer’ Finds Surprising New Use

BONUS #4 - Bombshell COVID Vaccine Study Passes Peer-Review for the World to Read

BONUS #5 - The Shocking Truth About Skin Cancer: What You’re Not Being Told About the Sun

[catboycumgutters]

text below. now. i don't do celebrities. and the only thing i know about this guy is that thrift shop is a fuckin bop. but @macklemore has good words to share here, so, (the "two words" were "fuck america" btw)

there are nine images in one post from instagram user macklemore. in order,

1/ My thoughts and feelings are not always expressed perfectly or politely. Sometimes I slip up and get caught in the moment. Saturday night was one of those times.

I strive to always lead with love in an effort to bring people together and never to create more division. The "Palestine Will Live Forever" festival I performed at was rooted in peace, love, and solidarity. Unfortunately, the historic event in my hometown that brought thousands of people together to raise awareness and money for the people of Palestine has become overshadowed by two words.

2/ I wish I had been in a better place with my grief and anger. But the truth is I'm not ok. I haven't been.

The last 11.5 months of watching a genocide unfold in front of us has been excruciating on a spiritual, emotional and human level. I have been in utter disbelief with how our government is showing up at this moment in history. I don't think I'm alone.

I see dismembered kids in Gaza being pulled out of rubble, murder by U.S manufactured bombs. I see my own children in their lifeless bodies. I don't think I'm alone.

3/ I listen to their parents scream and hear the deepest cries of pain and helplessness imaginable. I cry with them. I don't think I'm alone.

I have been disillusioned and disheartened as our government has continued to unequivocally fund and support Israel's on-going violence against the people of Palestine. I don't think I'm not alone.

My pain and emotion at times has felt uncontrollable. It boils over throughout the day as I try to pretend I'm ok. I'm not ok. I don't think I'm alone.

4/ I am outraged by the fact that we lack money for healthcare, affordable housing and education in America yet we send billions to Israel to commit internationally recognized war crimes. I don't think I'm alone.

I watch democrats sign bills to ban semi-automatic assault rifles after another horrific school shooting takes place, then turn around and use the same ink to send those same weapons off to Israel to kill the children of Palestine. I feel insane. I don't think I'm alone.

Some days I don't know how to love something that is hurting others so much. I don't think I'm alone.

5/ Yet, I have been mobilized by the millions of people around the world taking to the streets to protest on behalf of all those that have been murdered by Netanyahu's regime. I have been in awe and inspired by those in the Jewish community that have courageously shown up in solidarity, marching with protesters at protests stating "not in our name" and "never again means never again for everyone." I don't think I'm alone.

I have found hope in our young people, who have been willing to risk their degrees by participating in college encampments to demand a ceasefire. I have been revitalized by their hearts guiding them towards justice and peace, risking their future diplomas. I don't think I'm alone.

6/ But some days the darkness outshines the light, and it's hard to see the path ahead to justice. I get lost in what our world has become.

Some days the genocide displayed on my screen is too much for my spirit to stare at in such clarity.

And some days I wake up, see another couple billion dollars given to Israel, or another refugee encampment destroyed, or a father holding a limb from his martyred child, or another speech from a politician justifying the right of Israel to "defend itself" while denying Palestinians the right to exist, and I say to myself... . "Fuck America." I don't think I'm alone.

7/ But do not misconstrue the word "fuck" for the word "hate." It's different to be angry than to disown. My "fuck" - my anger - is rooted not in disdain for where I was born but in anguish for how we can collectively allow this to continue. It is not directed at the people that make up our country, but towards our government who refuse to listen to us. It is directed at the politicians who have put profit over people, who put lobbyist money over their moral compass. I think, "How are these people representing us as a country?" I don't think I'm alone.

8/ But I care. My care is rooted in the legacy of protests and resistance of past generations, who stood at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, the movement against he Vietnam War, and the great solidarity movement that defeated apartheid in South Africa. This moment is calling us as Americans to rise and recognize our collective power rather than succumb to our own apathy. It is beckoning us to gain a shared analysis around the systems of oppression that are currently running our country so we can evolve, ensuring that ALL of our children can live in a more equitable world, and not only a few.

9/ I've slipped in front of the world before. I'm sure I'll do it again. But they will not silence my voice, and they will not close my heart. I've lost endorsements, I've lost shows, I've lost business ties. I am still here, unwavering in my support for a Free Palestine. I care about humanity and this earth too much to turn back now. My intent always comes back to the pursuit of peace, love, equality and liberation for all. And that isn't radical, it's human. I don't think I"m alone.

/end

[pidgie-core]

I'm so sorry you lost your cousin. What's happening to Armenia, your family and your people is absolutely horrible and I hope you are able to stay safe. Sending all the thoughts and love because that's all I can, but I wish you the very best in this terrifying, shitty era <3

Thank you anon- please know that my direct family and I are in America and are safe from the fighting. But my extended family- I wish I could be more hopeful about I wish I could say that America and the European countries are going to help us. But I have lost a lot of hope after the 2020 attacks on disputed territory. Now Armenia is being directly attacked. Our country only has a population of 2.9 million. Our military is not strong, we do not have the technology or any of the military drones that the Az*ri military have an are using to shell civilians homes and military bases.

Their president talks about having his dinner in our Capital.

Their mayors talk about how my race is not even deserving of being a servant. Their politicians talk about how their goal is the total elimination of my people from the lands. They post videos of their four year old children burning out flags- their propaganda revolves around us simply not desrving life. It is the continuation of the Genocide, of ethnic cleansing. For the land they have taken from us- they post videos physically destroying our old churches and cemetaries, they torcher prisoners and laugh and smile and taunt us. When we have earthquakes they comment on tiktok that they pray more and more of us die. But well- because A*rbaijan has oil- I guess its not as tragic if our country quietly disappears right? R*ssia attacks Ukraine and the entire world whirls its head around- billions of dollars of military aid, 24/7 news coverage, Ukranian flags in peoples bios. My words do not mean that Ukraine should not recieve the attention- obvioiusly they do, this is a tragedy that deserves coverage. But why don't my people? Is it because we aren't white enough? That we don't have the resources that other countries desire? Because our attackers are too valuable to the comfortably living Europeans and Americans to care about us? Probably all of the above and more. Why arent there Armenian flags in peoples bios? Why is it all 'Please both sides need to stop fighting' - don't people realize we have no chance??? Anyways I know this was a long rant- but I am going through a lot of emotional and cultural pain-my last post has links to resources guys

[smartwebhostingblog]

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

New Post has been published on http://brummy80.com/service-dont-rely-on-venezuelas-state-telecoms-firm-cantv/

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

BARINAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – When Ceferino Angulo heard screams and gunshots one night last year close to his dairy farm on the western plains of Venezuela, he tried to call the police, but there was no phone signal.

A detailed view of a phone lines cabinet of Venezuela’s national telecommunications company CANTV in Barinas, Venezuela September 24, 2018. Picture taken September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez

He was not surprised. A phone tower, built by state telecommunications firm Cantv on his land to provide coverage to his local area outside the western city of Barinas, had stopped working.

The tower, set in rolling grassland on his 57-acre farm, was overgrown with vines snaking up its pylons. Its guardhouse was abandoned almost a decade ago and no Cantv employee had visited in three months, 54-year-old Angulo said.

“We’ve spent four years incommunicado. A telephone signal is one of the things we most need here,” he said.

In the decade since the government nationalized the 88-year-old firm, Cantv has cut investment in new technology, skilled staff have departed and thieves have pillaged its equipment, according to a dozen current and former Cantv employees and internal documents.

Venezuelan businesses struggle to operate because phone lines have stopped working, worsening a five-year economic crisis that has shrunk the Venezuelan economy. People find it difficult to access healthcare or sign up for new passports because they cannot register online.

A Cantv spokeswoman declined to comment. Cantv President Manuel Fernandez did not respond to emails and text messages.

Last year, Fernandez said on a government website that Cantv was a “powerful tool” to give telecoms access to people and build the socialist state. Internet use in the country had quadrupled since 2007, he said.

Cellphone connections are patchy across Venezuela, however, and people are reporting ever more network outages, which the government has blamed on right-wing saboteurs.

Barinas, also the area where former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lived and studied as a youth, has been one of the areas hardest hit by the deterioration in Cantv service. In some places, coverage has been completely lost.

Rusting service vehicles sit abandoned outside the phone company’s local headquarters, as it cannot afford new tires or batteries, the current and former employees told Reuters. Cantv’s own offices there often spend days without internet, they said.

Some of the rusted electrical circuits providing internet to Barinas homes have not been replaced since the early 1990s and several residents said they had gone over a year without a connection.

“There is a crisis of investment,” said Jose Luis Machin, Barinas’ former mayor.

A Cantv technician taking a Reuters journalist on a tour of the company’s infrastructure in Barinas said over 100 meters (328 ft) of copper cable had been stolen the night before from a bridge, severing the neighborhood’s connection. Thieves melt down the copper or even sell the cables back to Cantv, the technician and two other employees said.

For telecoms services, Barinas’ nearly 300,000 residents now depend on network terminals built during the past few years by Chinese telecoms firms ZTE and Huawei.

On one block, a ZTE terminal was considered so valuable that a guard from the National Bolivarian Militia, a branch of the armed forces, said he had been posted there to protect it from vandals.

“FROZEN IN TIME”

Cantv, founded in 1930, was re-nationalized by President Chavez in 2007 as he moved to consolidate his socialist revolution.

The company was once Latin America’s leader in the telecommunications sector. It was majority-owned by U.S. firm Verizon Communications and traded on the New York stock exchange. In the past it invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology each year, attracted top talent and paid them generous salaries, the former employees said.

Since its nationalization, they said, Cantv had filled thousands of vacated positions with unqualified staff. The company has stopped upgrading its servers and maintenance on its fiber optic network was halted, causing ever more frequent service disruptions, they said.

Fernandez said last year that, before its nationalization, Cantv was an elitist U.S.-controlled company which took its profits abroad instead of investing in the country.

According to the Speedtest Global index, Venezuela ranks among the worst five countries for both mobile and broadband connection speeds.

Cantv had 2.45 million internet subscribers, nearly 7 million fixed line subscribers and almost 14 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2015, according to internal data seen by Reuters. The country’s population is around 32 million.

Average salaries at Cantv are now worth less than $8 a month and pay often arrives late. People who oppose the ruling Socialist Party do not get promotions, employees said.

“The company is frozen in time,” Jose Maria De Viana, a former chairman of Cantv’s mobile phone unit, said.

Cantv publishes few financial details but a copy of its private results, seen by Reuters, for the January-October 2016 period shows the company can no longer fund itself.

It was short 2.72 billion bolivars, then the equivalent of $1.8 million, to meet its investment target and needed 390 million bolivars in “external funds” to help cover the shortfall, data in the documents showed.

Between 2013 and 2016, Cantv’s payroll for its 15,000 employees quadrupled as the government lifted wages to compensate for inflation, according to the report seen by Reuters.

Two executives with access to company data, who resigned in recent months, told Reuters that Cantv has to request funds from the central bank to pay its staff.

The company also suffers from the government’s insistence that it keeps its fees low, currently the equivalent of less than one dollar per month.

Cantv was dependent on agreements with ZTE and Huawei to supply equipment and staff and the firms were paid in dollars out of the Venezuela China Joint Fund, a bilateral financing program, the current and former employees said. Cantv sends its employees to China to receive training, they added.

President Nicolas Maduro has turned to ZTE, in particular, to implement technology projects. Last week, Reuters reported details of ZTE’s role developing a new smart card ID that critics say Maduro is using as a tool to monitor the populace and allocate scarce resources to people his government deems most loyal.

Su Qingfeng, the head of ZTE’s Venezuela unit, said in a phone interview that ZTE was not Cantv’s biggest provider and received no preferential treatment with contracts. A Huawei spokesman declined to comment on its relationship with Cantv.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Even Cantv’s pro-government union has complained about the company’s “serious problems.”

In a private letter to members last year, the Fetratel union chairman, Jose David Mora, wrote that Cantv could not obtain new equipment due to a lack of foreign currency. He said the company was deep in debt to Chinese firms.

“There is total impunity for those that have bled this company dry,” he wrote, citing “zero confidence” in the current leadership. Fetratel did not respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Angus Berwick; Additional reporting by Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal and Andreina Aponte in Caracas; editing by Dan Flynn, Phil Berlowitz and Rosalba O’Brien

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[lazilysillyprince]

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

New Post has been published on http://brummy80.com/service-dont-rely-on-venezuelas-state-telecoms-firm-cantv/

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

BARINAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – When Ceferino Angulo heard screams and gunshots one night last year close to his dairy farm on the western plains of Venezuela, he tried to call the police, but there was no phone signal.

A detailed view of a phone lines cabinet of Venezuela’s national telecommunications company CANTV in Barinas, Venezuela September 24, 2018. Picture taken September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez

He was not surprised. A phone tower, built by state telecommunications firm Cantv on his land to provide coverage to his local area outside the western city of Barinas, had stopped working.

The tower, set in rolling grassland on his 57-acre farm, was overgrown with vines snaking up its pylons. Its guardhouse was abandoned almost a decade ago and no Cantv employee had visited in three months, 54-year-old Angulo said.

“We’ve spent four years incommunicado. A telephone signal is one of the things we most need here,” he said.

In the decade since the government nationalized the 88-year-old firm, Cantv has cut investment in new technology, skilled staff have departed and thieves have pillaged its equipment, according to a dozen current and former Cantv employees and internal documents.

Venezuelan businesses struggle to operate because phone lines have stopped working, worsening a five-year economic crisis that has shrunk the Venezuelan economy. People find it difficult to access healthcare or sign up for new passports because they cannot register online.

A Cantv spokeswoman declined to comment. Cantv President Manuel Fernandez did not respond to emails and text messages.

Last year, Fernandez said on a government website that Cantv was a “powerful tool” to give telecoms access to people and build the socialist state. Internet use in the country had quadrupled since 2007, he said.

Cellphone connections are patchy across Venezuela, however, and people are reporting ever more network outages, which the government has blamed on right-wing saboteurs.

Barinas, also the area where former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lived and studied as a youth, has been one of the areas hardest hit by the deterioration in Cantv service. In some places, coverage has been completely lost.

Rusting service vehicles sit abandoned outside the phone company’s local headquarters, as it cannot afford new tires or batteries, the current and former employees told Reuters. Cantv’s own offices there often spend days without internet, they said.

Some of the rusted electrical circuits providing internet to Barinas homes have not been replaced since the early 1990s and several residents said they had gone over a year without a connection.

“There is a crisis of investment,” said Jose Luis Machin, Barinas’ former mayor.

A Cantv technician taking a Reuters journalist on a tour of the company’s infrastructure in Barinas said over 100 meters (328 ft) of copper cable had been stolen the night before from a bridge, severing the neighborhood’s connection. Thieves melt down the copper or even sell the cables back to Cantv, the technician and two other employees said.

For telecoms services, Barinas’ nearly 300,000 residents now depend on network terminals built during the past few years by Chinese telecoms firms ZTE and Huawei.

On one block, a ZTE terminal was considered so valuable that a guard from the National Bolivarian Militia, a branch of the armed forces, said he had been posted there to protect it from vandals.

“FROZEN IN TIME”

Cantv, founded in 1930, was re-nationalized by President Chavez in 2007 as he moved to consolidate his socialist revolution.

The company was once Latin America’s leader in the telecommunications sector. It was majority-owned by U.S. firm Verizon Communications and traded on the New York stock exchange. In the past it invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology each year, attracted top talent and paid them generous salaries, the former employees said.

Since its nationalization, they said, Cantv had filled thousands of vacated positions with unqualified staff. The company has stopped upgrading its servers and maintenance on its fiber optic network was halted, causing ever more frequent service disruptions, they said.

Fernandez said last year that, before its nationalization, Cantv was an elitist U.S.-controlled company which took its profits abroad instead of investing in the country.

According to the Speedtest Global index, Venezuela ranks among the worst five countries for both mobile and broadband connection speeds.

Cantv had 2.45 million internet subscribers, nearly 7 million fixed line subscribers and almost 14 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2015, according to internal data seen by Reuters. The country’s population is around 32 million.

Average salaries at Cantv are now worth less than $8 a month and pay often arrives late. People who oppose the ruling Socialist Party do not get promotions, employees said.

“The company is frozen in time,” Jose Maria De Viana, a former chairman of Cantv’s mobile phone unit, said.

Cantv publishes few financial details but a copy of its private results, seen by Reuters, for the January-October 2016 period shows the company can no longer fund itself.

It was short 2.72 billion bolivars, then the equivalent of $1.8 million, to meet its investment target and needed 390 million bolivars in “external funds” to help cover the shortfall, data in the documents showed.

Between 2013 and 2016, Cantv’s payroll for its 15,000 employees quadrupled as the government lifted wages to compensate for inflation, according to the report seen by Reuters.

Two executives with access to company data, who resigned in recent months, told Reuters that Cantv has to request funds from the central bank to pay its staff.

The company also suffers from the government’s insistence that it keeps its fees low, currently the equivalent of less than one dollar per month.

Cantv was dependent on agreements with ZTE and Huawei to supply equipment and staff and the firms were paid in dollars out of the Venezuela China Joint Fund, a bilateral financing program, the current and former employees said. Cantv sends its employees to China to receive training, they added.

President Nicolas Maduro has turned to ZTE, in particular, to implement technology projects. Last week, Reuters reported details of ZTE’s role developing a new smart card ID that critics say Maduro is using as a tool to monitor the populace and allocate scarce resources to people his government deems most loyal.

Su Qingfeng, the head of ZTE’s Venezuela unit, said in a phone interview that ZTE was not Cantv’s biggest provider and received no preferential treatment with contracts. A Huawei spokesman declined to comment on its relationship with Cantv.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Even Cantv’s pro-government union has complained about the company’s “serious problems.”

In a private letter to members last year, the Fetratel union chairman, Jose David Mora, wrote that Cantv could not obtain new equipment due to a lack of foreign currency. He said the company was deep in debt to Chinese firms.

“There is total impunity for those that have bled this company dry,” he wrote, citing “zero confidence” in the current leadership. Fetratel did not respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Angus Berwick; Additional reporting by Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal and Andreina Aponte in Caracas; editing by Dan Flynn, Phil Berlowitz and Rosalba O’Brien

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[hostingnewsfeed]

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

New Post has been published on http://brummy80.com/service-dont-rely-on-venezuelas-state-telecoms-firm-cantv/

Service? Don't rely on Venezuela's state telecoms firm Cantv

BARINAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – When Ceferino Angulo heard screams and gunshots one night last year close to his dairy farm on the western plains of Venezuela, he tried to call the police, but there was no phone signal.

A detailed view of a phone lines cabinet of Venezuela’s national telecommunications company CANTV in Barinas, Venezuela September 24, 2018. Picture taken September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez

He was not surprised. A phone tower, built by state telecommunications firm Cantv on his land to provide coverage to his local area outside the western city of Barinas, had stopped working.

The tower, set in rolling grassland on his 57-acre farm, was overgrown with vines snaking up its pylons. Its guardhouse was abandoned almost a decade ago and no Cantv employee had visited in three months, 54-year-old Angulo said.

“We’ve spent four years incommunicado. A telephone signal is one of the things we most need here,” he said.

In the decade since the government nationalized the 88-year-old firm, Cantv has cut investment in new technology, skilled staff have departed and thieves have pillaged its equipment, according to a dozen current and former Cantv employees and internal documents.

Venezuelan businesses struggle to operate because phone lines have stopped working, worsening a five-year economic crisis that has shrunk the Venezuelan economy. People find it difficult to access healthcare or sign up for new passports because they cannot register online.

A Cantv spokeswoman declined to comment. Cantv President Manuel Fernandez did not respond to emails and text messages.

Last year, Fernandez said on a government website that Cantv was a “powerful tool” to give telecoms access to people and build the socialist state. Internet use in the country had quadrupled since 2007, he said.

Cellphone connections are patchy across Venezuela, however, and people are reporting ever more network outages, which the government has blamed on right-wing saboteurs.

Barinas, also the area where former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lived and studied as a youth, has been one of the areas hardest hit by the deterioration in Cantv service. In some places, coverage has been completely lost.

Rusting service vehicles sit abandoned outside the phone company’s local headquarters, as it cannot afford new tires or batteries, the current and former employees told Reuters. Cantv’s own offices there often spend days without internet, they said.

Some of the rusted electrical circuits providing internet to Barinas homes have not been replaced since the early 1990s and several residents said they had gone over a year without a connection.

“There is a crisis of investment,” said Jose Luis Machin, Barinas’ former mayor.

A Cantv technician taking a Reuters journalist on a tour of the company’s infrastructure in Barinas said over 100 meters (328 ft) of copper cable had been stolen the night before from a bridge, severing the neighborhood’s connection. Thieves melt down the copper or even sell the cables back to Cantv, the technician and two other employees said.

For telecoms services, Barinas’ nearly 300,000 residents now depend on network terminals built during the past few years by Chinese telecoms firms ZTE and Huawei.

On one block, a ZTE terminal was considered so valuable that a guard from the National Bolivarian Militia, a branch of the armed forces, said he had been posted there to protect it from vandals.

“FROZEN IN TIME”

Cantv, founded in 1930, was re-nationalized by President Chavez in 2007 as he moved to consolidate his socialist revolution.

The company was once Latin America’s leader in the telecommunications sector. It was majority-owned by U.S. firm Verizon Communications and traded on the New York stock exchange. In the past it invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology each year, attracted top talent and paid them generous salaries, the former employees said.

Since its nationalization, they said, Cantv had filled thousands of vacated positions with unqualified staff. The company has stopped upgrading its servers and maintenance on its fiber optic network was halted, causing ever more frequent service disruptions, they said.

Fernandez said last year that, before its nationalization, Cantv was an elitist U.S.-controlled company which took its profits abroad instead of investing in the country.

According to the Speedtest Global index, Venezuela ranks among the worst five countries for both mobile and broadband connection speeds.

Cantv had 2.45 million internet subscribers, nearly 7 million fixed line subscribers and almost 14 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2015, according to internal data seen by Reuters. The country’s population is around 32 million.

Average salaries at Cantv are now worth less than $8 a month and pay often arrives late. People who oppose the ruling Socialist Party do not get promotions, employees said.

“The company is frozen in time,” Jose Maria De Viana, a former chairman of Cantv’s mobile phone unit, said.

Cantv publishes few financial details but a copy of its private results, seen by Reuters, for the January-October 2016 period shows the company can no longer fund itself.

It was short 2.72 billion bolivars, then the equivalent of $1.8 million, to meet its investment target and needed 390 million bolivars in “external funds” to help cover the shortfall, data in the documents showed.

Between 2013 and 2016, Cantv’s payroll for its 15,000 employees quadrupled as the government lifted wages to compensate for inflation, according to the report seen by Reuters.

Two executives with access to company data, who resigned in recent months, told Reuters that Cantv has to request funds from the central bank to pay its staff.

The company also suffers from the government’s insistence that it keeps its fees low, currently the equivalent of less than one dollar per month.

Cantv was dependent on agreements with ZTE and Huawei to supply equipment and staff and the firms were paid in dollars out of the Venezuela China Joint Fund, a bilateral financing program, the current and former employees said. Cantv sends its employees to China to receive training, they added.

President Nicolas Maduro has turned to ZTE, in particular, to implement technology projects. Last week, Reuters reported details of ZTE’s role developing a new smart card ID that critics say Maduro is using as a tool to monitor the populace and allocate scarce resources to people his government deems most loyal.

Su Qingfeng, the head of ZTE’s Venezuela unit, said in a phone interview that ZTE was not Cantv’s biggest provider and received no preferential treatment with contracts. A Huawei spokesman declined to comment on its relationship with Cantv.

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Even Cantv’s pro-government union has complained about the company’s “serious problems.”

In a private letter to members last year, the Fetratel union chairman, Jose David Mora, wrote that Cantv could not obtain new equipment due to a lack of foreign currency. He said the company was deep in debt to Chinese firms.

“There is total impunity for those that have bled this company dry,” he wrote, citing “zero confidence” in the current leadership. Fetratel did not respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Angus Berwick; Additional reporting by Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Anggy Polanco in San Cristobal and Andreina Aponte in Caracas; editing by Dan Flynn, Phil Berlowitz and Rosalba O’Brien

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