Free Republic

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

With Caracas set to sign an agreement to purchase the system, Israel is concerned that Teheran will eventually obtain the anti-aircraft system. Israel has warned Russia of the possibility that an advanced air defense system it is planning to sell to Venezuela could eventually make its way to Iran, according to defense officials. The system, the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world, with a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit...

Beautiful beyond belief and anti-Marxist. Now, that’s a winning combination!… (Powerline)- We missed an important moment at the Miss Universe pageant on Saturday night. The outgoing Miss Universe made a little political statement on her final catwalk that was visible to Venezuelans but probably no one else, holding up an obsolete seven star pre-Chavez era flag. She did it to signal distress in her country, and nowhere is that move evident than in Venezuela’s violent crime. This week the news came out that Caracas is the most violent city in the world, a distinction it holds over Kabul, Baghdad, Sao...

Socialism: Quick, what's the murder capital of the world: Kabul? Juarez? Try Caracas, Venezuela, a city whose dictator, Hugo Chavez, has made murder a means of extending his control. The silent protest at Monday night's Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas was invisible to nearly everyone — except Venezuelans. On her final catwalk, the ranking Miss Universe, Stefania Fernandez, suddenly whipped out a Venezuelan flag in a patriotic but protocol-breaking gesture.

President Hugo Chavez has announced an agreement with China that would have the Asian economic giant devote $20 billion to financing long-term development projects in Venezuela. The Venezuelan president says the financing would go toward industrial and infrastructure projects, among other development plans.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday offered Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a vocal US critic, help in building an anti-air defense system as part of the countries' deeper strategic ties. "We have proposed to your government and your president sharing the experience of creating a defense system for the state," Lukashenko, visiting Caracas since Monday, told lawmakers. "If your president wants to do so, we will be able to do so very soon." "And then you can live peacefully, without having to be looking around to see what the rest of the world may do tomorrow, whether they are going...

Few colonial buildings remain in Caracas. Is Chavez changing that or just haphazardly seizing buildings? Standing at the corner of one of Venezuela’s most historic squares, the Francia building always looked a little incongruous among the Spanish colonial mansions. But for many, this late art deco construction holds fond memories — it housed Caracas’ largest gold market for more than half a century. Many came to buy engagement or wedding rings for their sweethearts, confirmation bracelets for their children or watches or trinkets for themselves. That was until last week when the edifice caught the eye of President Hugo Chavez......

Battling with one of the world's highest murder rates, Venezuela on Wednesday crushed more than 30,000 guns seized from the streets during police raids this year. Policemen used blow-torches to chop up some of shotguns and pistols. They compacted weapons including home-made pistols into a 5 ton block... "This act forms part of the disarmament policies that we have been promoting." With 13,000 murders in 2007... Venezuela's murder rate is about 8 times that of the United States. Crime has risen under President Hugo Chavez...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Tens of thousands marched through Venezuela's capital on Saturday to protest what they call growing authoritarianism by President Hugo Chavez. A few thousand of the president's backers held a separate counter-rally to express support for the government's policies. Anti-Chavez protesters, many of them wearing white, filled the streets of Caracas, denouncing recent arrests of opposition members for alleged violence during protests and a new education law that critics fear could lead to indoctrination in schools. "It's very concerning because education is Venezuela's future," said 23-year-old engineering student Carlos Delgado, who also complained of soaring inflation and rampant...

MEXICO'S volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez has the world's highest murder rate, followed by Caracas, Venezuela and the US city of New Orleans. Ciudad Juarez - the scene of regular and brutal score-settling between rival drug gangs - has 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, the Citizen's Council for Public Security said. Caracas has 96 murders per 100,000 inhabitants and New Orleans registers 95, the Mexican non-governmental organisation said, basing its figures on media and FBI reports. Caracas was listed as the murder capital of the world in the September 2008 Foreign Policy magazine, quoting official figures of 130 murders...

August 14, 2009 Protests fail to halt passage of Chavez's 'socialist indoctrination law' Police in riot gear used tear gas yesterday against Venezuelan demonstrators angry about a law that they believe could lead to the "socialist indoctrination" of the nation's schools. Officers fired tear gas into crowds who were protesting in Caracas against President Chávez's plans to broaden state control over the education system. Scuffles broke out as clouds of caustic, white gas wafted through the air outside the predominantly pro-Chávez National Assembly. Inside, legislators began debating a Bill which would order schools to base the curriculum on "the Bolivarian...

President Hugo Chavez says he has a new book for President Barack Obama: "What is to be Done?" by communist Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet state. Chavez says he'll "give it to Obama at the next meeting." "What is to be Done?" is Lenin's political treatise on the role of intellectuals and the proletariat in promoting revolution, written more than a decade before he led the Bolshevik takeover of Russia in 1917.

BLOG: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Iran, Venezuela to Expand Defense Ties Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, heading a high-ranking defense delegation, arrived in Caracas on Monday to promote Tehran-Venezuela relations. During his three-day visit, Mohammad Najjar is slated to attend meetings with senior Venezuelan political and defense officials. The visit to Caracas by the Iranian defense minister is the first since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Source: Fars, Iran, April 27, 2009 Posted at: 2009-04-28

And in what people still think is a democracy, the Chavez Government decided to get back by legislation what it lost in the November elections, as it approved the new Bill for the Capital District, a Bill that castrates the newly elected mayor of the Metropolitan District Antonio Ledezma. Just like that, Ledezma not only will have a boss appointed by Chávez, but the Bill also takes away his office and his budget. His office will now be occupied by the new Chief of the Capital District, who will also get most of Ledezma’s budget. Ledezma’s budget will now be...

By David Paulin Caracas now ranks as the world's No. 1 murder capital, according to Foreign Policy magazine. It's an assessment that will surprise few credible Venezuela watchers. During President Hugo Chávez's tumultuous ten-year rule, Venezuela's quality-of-life indices have been in an ongoing tailspin – thanks to epic levels of corruption and mismanagement; not to mention El Presidente's increasing concentration of power in his own hands. When I was a Caracas-based journalist in the 1990s, Colombia's Bogotá was the world's No. 1 murder capital. But in the years before Chávez's election, high-crime Venezuela was catching up, boasting South America's...

Caracas, Venezuela Population: 3.2 million Murder rate: 130 per 100,000 residents (official) . . . The numbers also don’t count those who died while “resisting arrest,” suggesting that Caracas’s cops—already known for their brutality against student protesters—might be cooking the books. Cape Town, South Africa Population: 3.5 million Murder rate: 62 per 100,000 inhabitants According to the South African Police Service, most of the Cape Town area’s violent crimes happen between people who know one another, including a horrific case last year in which four males doused a female friend in gasoline and lit her on fire. New Orleans, United...

Archbishop Roberto Luckert Caracas, Jun 30, 2008 / 12:35 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Roberto Luckert of Coro and vice president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference deplored the founding of the self-proclaimed “Reformed Catholic Church,” whose leaders have aligned themselves publicly with “Bolivarian Socialism” and are receiving financial backing from the government of Hugo Chavez. Speaking on Union Radio, the archbishop said that the church’s leaders “want to give the impression that the Catholic Church in Venezuela is divided. They are going to dress like priests, baptize and confirm, with everything paid for by the government, which seeks to destroy the...

<p>CARACAS - Grimacing from contractions, expectant mother Castuca Marino had more on her mind than birth pangs.</p> <p>She was nervous about whether she and her newborn child would make it out of the hospital alive. Interviewed as she stood in the emergency room of Concepción Palacios Maternity Hospital here last week, Marino had heard news reports of six infant deaths there over the course of a 24-hour period late in March.</p>

Plane Carrying 46 Missing in Venezuela

This is one of the best short online videos I have seen in a long time.Go to the link above, or here:http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_multimedia.php?q=med/5947Let it load (be patient if not on good broadband), turn up your speakers, and get dig this totally ballistic Hugo Chavez supporter after losing an election in Venezuela recently.You won't be disappointed. This is right after the communist Reds in Venezuela under Chavez lost a vote to anti-Chavez forces.