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Little new information escapes from Venezuela, beyond that protests and repression by the Chavista/Cuban regime continue.As Daniel reported today (Saturday), the Organization of American States (OAS) produced a resolution about the situation in Venezuela. The regime scores because not only the OAS will not send any mission or observation, not only the OAS will not go beyond an exhortation but the OAS also writes "Its appreciation, full support, and encouragement for the initiatives and the efforts of the democratically-elected Government of Venezuela ...". there is an "and" after that to include other sectors but the first part is the one...

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It's been several days now since there was any post on Venezuela and the riots. It seems it's all about the Ukraine when the greatest concern should be the people of Venezuela. There was nothing about them in today's newspaper either.

Genesis Camona was a 22-year-old college student who participated in the protests. She was also a beauty queen, having won the title of Miss Tourism in her home state of Carabobo. According to her uncle, she and her mother were peaceful protestors wanting an end to the 15 years of socialism that have plagued the nation. He stated: ‘There’s no food, no milk, no baby food … It is horrible what is happening in this country,’ Gil said. ‘That’s why she was out at the protest.’ During the demonstrations, she was gunned down by members of armed militias known as...

What could go wrong? A lot, if you consider the former peanut farmer and president’s last intervention in Venezuela.Joshua Goodman of AP reports on Carter’s expressed interest in going to Caracas: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expressing concern about Venezuela's escalating political crisis and wants to meet with leaders on both sides in an upcoming trip. Carter, a mediator of past political conflict in the deeply polarized South American nation, made the offer in private letters he sent this week to President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Expressing "grave concern" about the loss of life in recent...

Russia, flush with new-found wealth from oil exports, expands its military reach and political influence abroad. A war-weary America slashes defense spending and retreats from the world. The president embarks on a massive government-subsidized program to develop alternative energy to replace fossil fuels. Pundits cluck about America in retreat, and point to the rise of an Asian economic superpower. That’s the world circa 1976, but it sounds like quotes ripped from today’s headlines. History has a way of repeating itself, or to quote the great Yogi Bera, it’s déjà vu all over again. The Obama administration is looking a lot...

Last week Jimmy Carter fired off letters to Venezuela’s fraudulent President Nicolas Maduro and to Venezuela’s defrauded Presidential candidate Enrique Capriles expressing “grave concern” regarding the political turmoil and bloodshed convulsing their nation. From his pulpit at Emory University’s Carter Center, the former U.S. president calls for “dialogue” among the embattled Venezuelan parties and offers to visit the troubled nation--but not as a formal “mediator.” The news of Carter’s proposed Venezuela visit was only hours old when alarmed Venezuelan anti-socialists sent out an SOS: “Please, desist from your trip,” reads an open letter from Venezuelan blogger/journalist Daniel Duquenal. “You have...

A new low in the disgrace of the American political class was reached when Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) took the floor this week to extol the virtues of Cuban communism. A new high immediately followed, as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) rose to annihilate Harkin, and all the other miserable apologists for left-wing tyranny. The civilized world continues to pay an appalling price for failing to cast out communism with the same vehement disgust we showed towards fascism. Among other things, the difference in our attitude toward these monstrous evils blinds us to their similarities. Too many Western politicians and academics...

In this excellent 14 minute speech, Marco Rubio explains that Venezuela is turning into a Cuban-style dictatorship. He asks what good is Cuba’s high literacy rate if the government prevents the people from reading the things that they want to read. He asks what good is Cuba’s medical care if doctors can make more money from driving a taxi than from working as a doctor. He asks why, if Cuba is as great as its supporters in the U.S. say it is, do so many refugees, doctors, and baseball players flee Cuba for the United States, instead of it being...

For some reason the left can never see the dark red side of communism. Yet they'll trumpet every flaw about America!Yesterday I posted in pictures the story of student protests in Venezuela and asked why the left was either silent in support or on the side of the oppressive government thugocracy? A day earlier, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), an arch liberal reported on a recent trip to Cuba where he swallowed every bit of left wing propaganda that was served up to him by the Cuban government. Senator Rubio (R-FL) followed Harkin to the floor with the real story about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wKhXurFyI

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expressing concern about Venezuela's escalating political crisis and wants to meet with leaders on both sides in an upcoming trip. Carter, a mediator of past political conflict in the deeply polarized South American nation, made the offer in private letters he sent this week to President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Expressing "grave concern" about the loss of life in recent protests and the risk of more conflict ahead, Carter in the letter to Capriles said that for dialogue aimed at easing tensions to succeed both side must...

Anti-government demonstrators set up barricades and started fires in Venezuela's capital on Monday despite calls from within the opposition to rein in protests in which at least 12 people have died in the OPEC nation. Traffic slowed to a crawl around Caracas, and many people stayed home, as protestors burned trash and debris along main avenues a day after opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on them to keep demonstrations peaceful. "We know we're bothering people but we have to wake up Venezuela!" student Pablo Herrera, 23, said next to a barricade in the affluent Los Palos Grandes district of Caracas....

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Hugo Chavez was an incompetent, communist dictator, who wreaked havoc on Venezuela’s ability to produce goods and services Last year, Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, died.How do I know that Chavez was a dictator?Because only a dictator would use the military to seize food from private owners.How do I know that Chavez was incompetent?Because only a complete incompetent could create a shortage of gasoline in a country that has some of the world’s biggest oil reserves.How do I know that Chavez was a communist?Because only a communist would label toilet paper as a “luxury.”Hugo Chavez...

Venezuelan political opposition leader and founder of the Popular Will Party, Leopoldo López, will spend the next 45 days in the Ramo Verde jail in Los Teques. During that time, the Public Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether it seeks to convict him of the alleged planning of the violent incidents that happened after the opposition rally on February 12 in the center of Caracas. Judge Ralenis Tovar Guillén delivered the detention measure today at 1:00 a.m. inside the military prison where López is held. She made use of a “mobile court” unit — basically a bus repurposed to function as...

U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties By TIM GOLDEN Published: October 29, 2006 The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez. Enlarge This Image Tim Boyle/Getty Images A touch-screen machine by Sequoia Voting Systems was used this month during early balloting in Chicago. Politics Blog News, updates and insights on the midterm elections, the race for 2008 and everything in-between. Go to Election Guide More Politics News The inquiry is focusing on...

President Nicolas Maduro is taking a page out of the Castro playbook to violently oppress Venezuelans who are demanding an end to his disastrous rule. February 21, 2014 (202) 228-7561 WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz released the following statement regarding the crisis in Venezuela:"As opposition protests drag into their second week in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro is taking a page out of the Castro playbook to violently oppress Venezuelans who are demanding an end to his disastrous rule. Activists have been detained and abused, and even shot dead in the streets. Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who has emerged...

Venezuelan police and opposition demonstrators have clashed at the end of a march that gathered tens of thousands of people in Caracas. Several people were injured, as police fired tear gas and activists hurled stones in the Altamira district....

With intensifying unrest and the Maduro regime fighting a losing battle for survival, it appears that Hugo Chávez’s ‘Bolivarian revolution’ will outlive him by about a year. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is fighting a losing battle to salvage his regime, and student demonstrations that will continue today are only one of his problems. As details of his government’s bankruptcy are made public, his political base will continue to splinter. And as he follows Cuban advice to use brute force against peaceful demonstrators, the nationalist military will find the growing violence intolerable. In short, Maduro’s condition is terminal.According to a source...

The protesters in Venezuela do not seek anything extraordinary: They demand to be secure in their homes and their persons, they demand an end to current shortages of staple foods and other goods in the country, and they demand the right to free speech. That these things should be considered a challenge to the Maduro regime is what is extraordinary, along with the regime’s brutal response to the protests — both speak to the character of the current Venezuelan government. If honoring such basic human decencies requires a regime change in Caracas, that is more a reflection on the current...