Free Republic

........."We were 'Chavistas'," said Julio Coromoto...a workman next to a queue of dozens at a shabby supermarket."But they destroyed this town.".... Nationwide polls predict voters will punish the socialists next month, possibly taking away their majority in the National Assembly for the first time since Chavez took power in early 1999.To hold on to loyalists, the government is milking Chavez's legacy at every turn, re-naming voting centers after him, splashing his smiling face on billboards and filling state television with his most rousing speeches.In Barinas, his brother Argenis and cousin Asdrubal are running for the legislature, hoping to follow in...

The daughter of Hugo Chavez, the former president who once declared 'being rich is bad,' may be the wealthiest woman in Venezuela, according to evidence reportedly in the hands of Venezuelan media outlets. Maria Gabriela Chavez, 35, the late president's second-oldest daughter, holds assets in American and Andorran banks totaling almost $4.2billion, Diario las Americas reports. ... Others close to Chavez managed to build up great personal wealth that was kept outside the petrostate. Alejandro Andrade, who served as Venezuela’s treasury minister from 2007 to 2010 and was reportedly a close associate of Chavez, was discovered to have $11.2billion in...

The Socialist Utopia has come to Venezuela and so has triple-digit inflation. Inflation is soaring at about 65%, murder rates are the second highest in the world, they don’t have food, chocolate,cooking oil, sugar, beer, shampoo, chicken, beef or even toilet paper. Businesses put the blame on the socialist government’s economic policies and the government blames it on everyone else. A number of U.S. movie stars have gone to Venezuela many times to applaud their regime and compare their economy to ours. Sean Penn was one. ... American leftists cheered the Socialist government and the social justice he forced on...

Private companies in Venezuela say the government has ordered them to distribute food staples to a network of state-run supermarkets amid chronic shortages of basic goods. The Food Industry Chamber said Monday that authorities ordered producers of milk, pasta, oil, rice, sugar and flour to supply between 30 percent and 100 percent of their products to the state stores. …

..But what about Trump’s contention that Mexico is sending us criminals and rapists? In fact, the very opposite is true. Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, like all immigrants, have lower rates of criminal behavior than the native born... ...As for incarceration rates, immigrant men ages 18 to 39 are less than half as likely to be incarcerated than native-born men the same age, according to the Ewing study. Mexican men are even less likely to be incarcerated: Their rates are one-third that of natives with similar demographic characteristics. And Salvadoran and Guatemalan men are incarcerated at one-fifth the rate of...

MIAMI – Union leader Dolores Huerta prefers a woman in the White House in 2016, saying that “there’s a lot at stake for Latinos” if one of the current Republican hopefuls wins the election, even if he has “a Latino name or speaks Spanish.” The tireless 85-year-old activist said in an interview with Efe that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) “took two steps back” when he could have used his “influence to pass immigration reform” in 2013. “Some of those candidates who are Latinos in reality don’t represent the values of the Latino community, who for the most part are working...

The thing that caught our eye in the plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport and its oil lines concerns a detail in respect of the arrest of one of the key Guyanese suspects. It was the fact that the former member of the Guyanese legislature who was fingered in the plot, Abdul Kadir, was arrested in Trinidad on his way to Caracas, Venezuela. According to Mr. Kadir's wife, who was quoted in the Guyanese press, he was there to pick up an Iranian visa that would enable him to attend an Islamic conference in Tehran. No doubt...

On January 16, 2013 Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, said it will ship back home all 374 tonnes it had stored with the Banque de France in Paris, as well as 300 tonnes held in Manhattan by the US Federal Reserve, by 2020. Fast forward a year and Buba, as the Federal Bank of Germany is affectionately (or maybe not) known, has only managed to bring home a paltry 37 tonnes of gold. And a mere 5 tonnes of that came from the US, the rest from Paris. The US Fed holds 45% of the total 3,396 tonnes German gold....

The international price of oil has dropped by more than 40 percent in the past six months. To put it lightly, this presents a major challenge to oil-exporting nations. Many analysts agree that, of all oil rich countries, Venezuela is the most vulnerable. A combination of persistent fiscal deficits, out-of-control inflation, and plunging public support for President Nicolás Maduro threatens to make the nation of 30 million ungovernable. What can Maduro do to survive? In order to answer this question, we must differentiate between what Maduro can do, and what he most likely will (or, rather, will not) do.

Procedure: (1) Gain control of the “purse”; (2) Buy lots of votes; (3) Be the dictatorial ruler. Chavez: (1) Controlled Venezuela’s oil & oil revenue; (2) Created entitlements for the masses; (3) Became dictator for life. Obama: (1) Remember the nearly $1T stimulus legislated to Obama to use, which he gave as bailouts & required repayment be made to “his” stimulus fund & NOT to the US treasury (thus purse created & under his control); (2) Exec Order “amnesty & entitlements (paid for from his purse, thus bypassing Congress) to the massive number of illegal immigrants so they become a...

A ballet depicting the life and glory of their hero, Hugo Chavez, is the current rage among all good Chavistas. Barack Humble Obama, who has brought us greater peace, prosperity, happiness and even laughter than Chavez ever did, deserves far better. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNCPfYwALQc] Video linkBy Presidential Memorandum released on December 1st, Obama directed: Presidential Memorandum re. public  acknowledgment  of My unsurpassed greatness, December First, Year the sixth of the reign of Obama: By virtue of the authority vested in Me as the Dear Leader of the True American Revolution, We I hereby direct all Federal entities, and request all significant stakeholders, to collaborate in the creation of a...

President Nicolas Maduro's government said on Thursday it had taken over warehouses around Venezuela crammed with medical goods and food that "bourgeois criminals" were hoarding for speculation and contraband. The socialist government says businessmen and wealthy opponents are trying to sabotage the economy to bring Maduro down, while also seeking to make profits from hoarding, price-gouging and smuggling across the border to Colombia. Critics say 15 years of failed policies of state intervention are to blame for the OPEC nation's widespread shortages, high inflation and apparently recessionary economy. They accuse nouveau riche officials and military officers of illegal business practices....

HAVANA — Call it "Eau de Revolution." Cuba's biggest producer of natural products has come up with a pair of colognes for the discerning supporter of international socialism who wants something more than just the iconic "Che" T-shirt. A woodsy and refreshing citric scent with notes of talcum powder called "Ernesto" honors guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara. For those seeking something softer and fruitier, there's a blend with hints of mango and papaya called "Hugo," for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church has admonished the ruling Socialist Party for re-writing the Christian "Lord's Prayer" into an ode to its beloved late leader Hugo Chavez. "The Lord's Prayer, the typical prayer for Christians around the world, comes from the very lips of our Lord Jesus Christ... and is therefore untouchable," the local Catholic Church said in a statement. A party member introduced the prayer on the podium of the party congress on Monday, imploring Chavez for protection from the evils of capitalism."Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and in us delegates," red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella...

A member of Venezuela's Socialist Party has rolled out a variation of the classic Christian "Lord's Prayer" to implore beloved late leader Hugo Chavez for protection from the evils of capitalism. "Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and we delegates," red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella Uribe recited yesterday at the PSUV party Congress. "Hallowed be your name, may your legacy come to us so we can spread it to people here and elsewhere. Give us your light to guide us every day," she said in front of an image of Chavez. "Lead us not into the temptation...

CARACAS (Reuters) - A member of Venezuela's Socialist Party has rolled out a variation of the classic Christian "Lord's Prayer" to implore beloved late leader Hugo Chavez for protection from the evils of capitalism. "Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and we delegates," red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella Uribe recited on Monday at the PSUV party Congress. "Hallowed be your name, may your legacy come to us so we can spread it to people here and elsewhere. Give us your light to guide us every day," she said in front of an image of Chavez. "Lead us...

Socialism: As Venezuelans prepare to be fingerprinted to buy bread, it bears noting that their country's transformation came with the late Hugo Chavez's promise of "a sea of happiness." Some happiness. Fact is, socialism has made Venezuela the most miserable place on earth. But don't take our word for it. That's the result of objective research by Johns Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke. He has created a "Global Misery Index" based on the original inflation-unemployment misery index of the late economist Arthur Okun and the interest rate and GDP per capita additions of Harvard economist Robert Barro. Put them all...

In light of the recent "Child" immigration show brought on by Obama, it is interesting to look at what has been happening in Latin America under Obama's watch. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are over their heads with gangs and cartels in the drug trafficking trade that Obama helped install --------------------------------- 2010-Resurgent Communism in Latin America Many Cuban refugees risked everything to escape the murderous regime of Fidel Castro. Oftentimes they made treacherous voyages aboard rickety rafts, hoping only to reach the free shores of Florida with their lives. Many died along the way. But communist rule was vicious and...

A relative of labor leader Cesar Chavez, filed a legal challenge on Tuesday to have a man using his grandfather's name stricken from the ballot in Arizona. The challenge, alleges that the man who changed his name to Cesar Chavez from Scott Fistler should be removed from the primary election ballot for misleading voters in the largely Hispanic seventh congressional district.

When the Venezuelan government defends itself from its critics, it usually points to declining poverty rates as proof of its success. For a while, this worked; poverty figures indeed improved during a portion of the chavista years. But the days when poverty was a winning issue for chavismo are over. Official statistics now show that poverty is rising rapidly. Venezuela's official statistics office (INE) mostly spends its time producing reports charged with political language -- but it still manages to report actual data once in a while. A few weeks ago, the statisticians published proof that one in three Venezuelans...