Venezuela's insane socialist dictator, who claimed that his predecessor came back in bird form, is currently under indictment in the United States for his role in the drug trade. But the mere fact that much of his country is starving or has fled hasn't stopped his flow of insanity.

The socialist dictatorship decided to expand its failed state activities into naval piracy, for some reason. It's what failed states do.

But the Bolivarian revolutionary regime is as bad at this as it is at everything else.

In what sounds like it could be an April Fools joke, a Venezuelan Navy offshore patrol vessel recently sank after ramming a cruise liner in the Caribbean Sea. The cruise ship, which had no passengers on board at the time and has a reinforced hull to sail through ice-filled waters, suffered only minimal damage in what the operating company, Columbia Cruise Services, has called an "act of aggression ... in international waters." The 403-foot-long Resolute, which is flagged in Portugal, reportedly had a gross tonnage of around 8,445 tons at the time. The ship was laid down in September 1990 and completed in June 1991. Intended for Antarctic cruises, it has a reinforced ice-capable hull. The Naiguatá, which is just over 262 feet long, is a Guaicamacuto class offshore patrol vessel and displaces around 1,720 tons with a full load. Naiguatá is the third ship in the class and entered service in 2011. Spanish shipbuilder Navantia designed and built all of the Guaicamacuto class ships and had been working on a fourth one, named Comandante Eterno Hugo Chávez, which translates to Eternal Commander Hugo Chavez. The shipbuilding firm halted work on this last ship, which was named after the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, after Venezuela descended into a major, and still ongoing, political crisis in January 2019.

A collision between the two was not a good idea. But socialism is just a bunch of bad ideas that you have to try at gunpoint.

"While the Master was in contact with the head office [in Germany], gun shots were fired and, shortly thereafter, the navy vessel approached the starboard side at speed with an angle of 135° and purposely collided with the RCGS Resolute," the statement continued. "The navy vessel continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to turn the ship’s head towards Venezuelan territorial waters."

This is a punchline to a joke in real life.

"This is a destroyer. Turn at once." "Sir, this is a bridge."

And the Venezuelan naval vessel sank.

Maduro, Venezuela's insane socialist druglord, is not taking it well. And is accusing the cruise ship of cowardice.

Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, has accused a Portuguese cruiseship of an act of terrorism and piracy. According to reports from the Venezuelan ministry of defence, the 184-metre long RCGS Resolute crashed into the patrol boat with 44 men onboard just north of La Tortuga islands. The impact came within Venezuelan territorial waters, and the Resolute then ‘fled’ – something the ministry has dubbed ‘cowardly and criminal’. Speaking from the presidential palace in Caracas in the context of a Council of State to debate solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic, president Maduro elaborated on the debacle, describing it as if a “giant boxer of 100 kgs” had grabbed “a boxer boy” and hit him.

When you attack a cruise ship, a civilian vessel, in international waters you don't get to accuse it of cowardice.

"Our poor naval vessel was just minding its business, ramming into the cruise ship, when it sank because of the criminal cowardly treachery of the capitalists who made its hull too strong."

But I'm sure Max Blumenthal or Glenn Greenwald will have a whole episode on the heroism of the Venezuelans.