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Venezuelans on Tuesday woke up to discover that the government-controlled price of corn flour -- used to make corn patty arepas, a staple of local cuisine -- has risen 900 percent. The socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro had kept the price of corn flour frozen for 15 months at 19 bolivares a kilogram (two pounds).

As pure desperation has set in, crime has becomes inevitable. A man accused of mugging people in the streets of Caracas was surrounded by a mob of onlookers, beaten and set on fire, who published a pixeled-out but still graphic video of the man burning as mob justice is now the supreme arbiter of who lives and who dies: "Roberto Fuentes Bernal, 42, was reportedly caught trying to mug passersby in the Venezuelan capital and before police arrived at the scene, the crowd took the law into their own hands." The video can be seen here. Now, in the latest...

As for March, there was an increase in yearly prices due to inflation — a 582.9 percent increase for food,

"He gave his life for the field worker," said Adan Ramirez.

Three years ago today, I wept for my friend Chavez and myself, for the people of Venezuela and the world.In 2006, shortly after my first peace camp in Crawford, Texas to confront the person who I felt murdered my son Casey: George Bush, I was invited to Caracas, Venezuela to attend the World Social Forum. Amazingly, at the time I really had no idea that the World Social Forum was about socialism, and I really didn't know much more about President Hugo Chavez other than that he was a very vocal opponent of my opponents: George Bush and the U.S....

It's easy to underestimate Donald Trump. The other Republican candidates in the race continue to do so, writing him off as a clown, a charlatan, a fool. Today, David French of National Review writes him off as a conventional Democrat: Trump doesn't threaten the Republican establishment because he's too conservative or too populist. He threatens the Republican establishment because he belongs in the other party. There's truth to this - there's a reason that Code Pink essentially endorsed Trump over the weekend, after Trump veered into Iraq trutherism and blamed George W. Bush for 9/11. And Trump, as I've written...

As if the politically charged streets of Venezuela's capital weren't plastered enough with the gaze of Hugo Chávez , supporters of the late socialist leader are now vowing to put up images of the "eternal commander" on every street corner. Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodríguez gave the order at a rally Thursday to protest the decision by the new opposition-controlled congress to banish from the neoclassical legislature building all images of Chávez and his mentor, independence hero Simon Bolívar. ... Opponents say the socialists' outrage is being feigned to distract from the economic crisis that led to the government's thrashing in...

Dictators are typically bad losers. Whenever the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez felt in danger on the eve of an election, he would conjure the possibility of violence, death,or chaos if the vote didn't go his way. The modern dictator doesn't threaten a bloodbath, of course; rather,he suggests obliquely that "forces could be unleashed," that the "will of the people" cannot be denied, or that the "streets will erupt.".... Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro followed suit in the final days of Venezuela's parliamentary election..... the opposition's tally could rise to 112 or 113 seats. If the opposition wins a supermajority, it...

"... Venezuela is the true end point of socialism and the politics of class warfare. Not hope and peace, but misery and violence. Socialism in Venezuela was not successful,just propped up by massive oil reserves.In order to be elected in the first place, the Chavista Maduro resorted to widespread intimidation, shackling of independent media and outright voter fraud. He has resolutely continued the failed socialist policies of Hugo Chavez,resulting in 200 percent inflation,massive shortages of basic goods,skyrocketing violence and a general descent into a de facto police state.Chavez used oil to build political ties with the small nations of the...

........."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...