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Venezuela’s socialist regime announced this week the launching of a reality television show called M Factor, where local musicians will compete to have their songs become part of dictator Nicolás Maduro’s official soundtrack for the upcoming sham presidential election. The upcoming weekly reality show, Maduro regime officials announced on Tuesday, will begin airing on April 28 and will conclude on June 15. Casting for the show’s participants will run from Friday, April 12 to Sunday, April 14. The show will be aired by TVes, a channel that is part of the socialist regime’s massive state-owned media apparatus. TVes was launched...

She hasn’t ever held a public post or campaigned for office. But 80-year-old Corina Yoris, a widow and grandmother to seven children, had been plucked out of her quiet life in academia, one of scholarly tomes on philosophy and classes on Venezuela’s 1940s-era history, to challenge that country’s strongman in July’s presidential election—if she isn’t banned from participating first. Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy secure.helloalma.com/Marriage/therapy Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy Ad “It’s totally surreal because I’ve dedicated my life to academia, to the university life,” Yoris told The Wall Street Journal. “Aspirations...

The second to worst worst thing that can happen to a civil society is civil war. The only thing worse than that is what Venezuela is living with right now, a dictatorship in which there is no hope of democratic change or equal justice. In Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela his voice is the only one that matters. It has been that way since he took over as the hand-picked successor to communist blowhard Hugo Chavez in 2013. Since then, opposition figures have tried everything to get a fair chance at defeating Maduro at the ballot box and at every turn they...

The Biden White House criticized Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday for barring the leading opposition candidate from his country’s upcoming elections — after Democrats tried to do the same to Donald Trump. Maria Corina Machado, 56, won the opposition primary in Venezuela last year and has been favored in the polls to beat Maduro in the July elections, possibly putting an end to the authoritarian rule of Hugo Chávez’s successor. But the Maduro regime blocked the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) opposition coalition from registering its candidate by midnight early Tuesday. Machado’s chosen successor, Dr. Corina Yoris, was also blocked.

Venezuela Readies for War While Joe Biden Sleeps – The United States is a zombie empire abroad and a banana republic at home. On the world stage, Washington went from being the first among equals following the end of the Cold War; the sine qua non of the world system that it had helped to foster, to today being a cancerous growth to an international order trending toward multipolarity—specifically, a tripolar system in which China and Russia triangulate against the United States. snip The kleptocratic socialist dictatorship under Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela has failed to thrive economically, politically, or socially....

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela this week arrested four bakers making illegal brownies and other pastries as President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government threatens to take over bakeries in Caracas as part of a new "bread war". Maduro has sent inspectors and soldiers into more than 700 bakeries around the capital this week to enforce a rule that 90 percent of wheat must be destined to loaves rather than more expensive pastries and cakes.

Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments. In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country.

Facing a bread shortage that is spawning massive lines and souring the national mood, the Venezuelan government is responding this week by detaining bakers and seizing establishments. In a press release, the National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights said it had charged four people and temporarily seized two bakeries as the socialist administration accused bakers of being part of a broad “economic war” aimed at destabilizing the country. In a statement, the government said the bakers had been selling underweight bread and were using price-regulated flour to illegally make specialty items, like sweet rolls and croissants. The government...

Venezuela is running out of just about everything. Food, medicine, electricity, toilet paper, condoms -- you name it. And over the weekend at least two large international airlines -- Lufthansa and LATAM -- said they will suspend service to Venezuela in the coming months due to the economic crisis. The widespread scarcities and fleeing businesses reflect a country in crisis. "There's a shortage of everything at some level," says Ricardo Cusanno, vice president of Venezuela's Chamber of Commerce. Cusanno says 85% of companies in Venezuela have halted production to some extent. Venezuela's economy is spiraling into extreme recession. It is...

Turns out Nicolás Maduro's still the guy the world has to talk to in Venezuela. But recognizing Juan Guaidó as the country's legitimate president is still a useful tool. This week Colombia’s leftist President-elect Gustavo Petro said he recently discussed bilateral issues with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — despite the fact that Colombia does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state. But even top aides to President Biden are visiting Caracas lately to talk with top Maduro aides, even though the U.S. doesn't recognize Maduro, either. (On Thursday, the Biden Administration said it would make it easier for...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) reacted to the Biden administration reportedly looking to increase oil imports from Venezuela by stating that there is no need to go to the Maduro regime in Venezuela that President Biden declared a national security threat five days ago for more oil when there are other nations the U.S. can get oil from and domestic production that is already licensed.

Saab was charged with money laundering in the US One of President Nicolás Maduro's closest aides has been extradited from Cape Verde to the United States, where he's been charged with money laundering. The US Treasury says Alex Saab worked as a front man for Mr Maduro's regime. The Venezuelan government suspended talks soon afterwards with the US-backed opposition. The talks were to resolve a political crisis that has led to violence and the collapse of the economy

Last September, 39-year-old Matthew Heath, a former marine, was arrested in Venezuela and charged with spying and plotting to overthrow the government of dictator Nicolas Maduro. He was tossed in prison and cut off from all contact with his family and the outside world since October. Attorneys for Heath allege that their client has been literally tortured in prison, frequently being locked down in a tiny cell for extended periods of time. The question now is what, if anything, the Biden administration can do to ensure justice for Heath in what’s expected to be a kangaroo court show-trial and bring...

President-elect Joe Biden has made clear in his staffing plans and public remarks that he intends to return America to many of the foreign policy positions championed by his former boss, President Barack Obama. While American mainstream media has largely cheered this – and glowered at President Donald Trump for defending his achievements by making regression more difficult under Biden – many of America’s allies, and some of its foes, around the world are making moves suggesting they expect a full return to the state of global affairs in 2016. The Obama administration’s foreign policy was defined by the tension...

Venezuela’s congressional election on Sunday will almost certainly give President Nicolás Maduro control over the country’s last major independent institution, but will do little to improve his image at home and abroad. Maduro, who already has the loyalty of the courts, the military, prosecutors and other institutions, seeks to load the National Assembly with members of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Critics say he’s guaranteed that by rigging the system to smother the last remnants of democracy in Venezuela. An opposition coalition led by U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó is boycotting the vote. The European Union, the U.S. and several...

America’s Future? Marxist Tyrant Maduro Looks to Capture National Assembly — Will Complete Stranglehold on Venezuelan People Since Rigged Smartmatic Election for Chavez Back in 2004.. Joseph Stalin famously said: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” Stalin was right. Smartmatic, a UK based company, is a George Soros linked company that has provided voting technology in 16 states including battleground zones like Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The company was formed in 2000 and a Chavez campaign adviser was placed on the board as well. The chairman of Smartmatic...

Iran is supporting embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government with weapons and troops, a U.S. military official told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, bolstering suspicions that the two governments — which have been roiled by economic and political pressure from the United States — are developing stronger military ties. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to bring an end to Maduro’s regime, which it has called a human rights abuser and a national security threat, doubling down on efforts by former President Barack Obama. The United States has placed heavy sanctions on the country, and after Maduro’s questionable reelection...

Multiple COVID-19 vaccine trials are in the final stages around the world. But in one unlikely place, that being the collapsed state of Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro touted Sunday, in an appearance on state television, that his government scientists have developed a "highly effective antiviral" that kills the virus without any side effects. Maduro tweeted: "Tremendous News! We certify the DR10 molecule as a highly effective antiviral in the fight against Covid-19." He continued: "We have started the World Health Organization (WHO) certification process to offer this treatment to the world. I thank the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research...

Venezuela is staggering in the face of a years-long power struggle, food shortages, hyper-inflation and an exodus of its citizens. The country’s foreign minister says, Blame Canada. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza is part of Nicolas Maduro’s government, which most Western countries no longer recognize, but it does still control most of the country’s institutions. He was speaking through Zoom to a Canadian audience on Thursday, in an event organized by the left-leaning Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. Canada and most other Western nations have backed Juan Guaidó, a former member of the country’s national assembly who declared himself the interim president...

The John Durham investigation into the origins of the Justice Department's probe of alleged Russian collusion involving President Trump and his 2016 campaign leading to a guilty plea in Washington DC today..... A pro-Syrian government grouo claiming responsibility for a rocket attack on a US military base in the eastern part of the country...... The Prime Minister of the Bahamas backing down from a seven day complete lockdown of New Providence, the country's most populous island where the capital city of Nassau is located..... The "Conservative' Prime Minister of Australia a close ally of President Trump and the United States,...