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THE DAILY DRIP
THE BROCHURE IS OVER
By Stub Froth — February 3, 2026
Costa Rica was the planet’s favorite exception.
No army. Pure vibes. Sloths moving through trees like creatures who have never once checked a crime blotter. It was the country people used to win arguments about human goodness.
“See?” they’d say. “Civilization doesn’t need force.”
That was the brochure.
Then Sunday happened.
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STUB FROTH: RUNNING VENEZUELA — Day Thirty-One
From Daily Shock to Weekly Signals
February 2, 2026 — 5:15 AM ET
For the past 31 days, we tracked Venezuela in real time.
Coups, captures, diplomatic pivots, oil deals, prisoner releases — the kind of velocity that makes daily reporting feel necessary just to keep up. The country wasn’t just changing. It was lurching.
That phase is ending.
Not because the story is over.
Because the story has shifted.
Venezuela has moved from the shock phase of regime collapse into the installation phase of a new political and economic order. Less spectacle. More structure. Fewer explosions. More paperwork.
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