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Univision's star anchorman, Jorge Ramos, got a taste of what a real dictator is over in Caracas, when, after showing Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro a cell phone video of starving Venezuelans eating out of a garbage truck, found himself and his television crew shoved in a dark room for two and a half hours in detention, only to be released with their expensive television equipment and interview material stolen. Here's the Washington Post report of what went down: Journalist Jorge Ramos and his Univision team were detained at Nicolás Maduro's presidential palace in the Venezuelan capital Monday, reportedly because Maduro didn't like the...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence plans to have his first meeting with Venezuela’s Juan Guaido in Colombia on Monday, Pence aides said, in a signal of support for the opposition leader after a weekend of violence. On Saturday, troops loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blocked convoys of U.S. humanitarian aid from crossing from Colombia to Venezuela, using teargas and rubber bullets and killing two protesters. The violence could lead the United States to impose new sanctions as early as Monday to cut off the Maduro’s government access to revenues.

Venezuela has been in a deep crisis under the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Maduro was narrowly elected in 2013 after the death of populist President Hugo Chávez, who had served since 1999. Maduro’s regime has exhibited high levels of corruption and economic mismanagement, which have exacerbated the impact of a decline in global oil prices on the country’s economy. According to the International Monetary Fund, Venezuela’s economy contracted by 18% and inflation exceeded 1.37 million percent in 2018. Nevertheless, Maduro has used the courts, security forces, and electoral council to...

And thus Juan Guaido returned to Venezuela. Through the normal entry point at Maiquetia airport. He went in a triumphant caravan all the way to Caracas to attend a rally. That caravan and rally were immense... ….it was a major defeat for chavismo that had to bow to international pressure, and to a popular will favoring Guaido for which denial is now useless. True, several ambassadors were waiting for Guaido in Maiquetia to shepherd him to Caracas. But had the regime wanted to arrest Guaido it would have done so at customs.... ….the regime caved in, at least for now....

President Trump is imposing financial sanctions on six of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro’s top military and internal security officials, the Treasury Department announced Friday. “We are sanctioning members of Maduro’s security forces in response to the reprehensible violence, tragic deaths, and unconscionable torching of food and medicine destined for sick and starving Venezuelans,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. The move came the same day Trump's State Department announced it was expelling dozens of Maduro loyalists from the United States. The new Treasury blacklist includes a major general with the Venezuelan National Guard, three senior officials responsible for Venezuela’s internal defense,...

The mess in Venezuela is getting worse, but while that country is literally starving to death under the yoke of an incompetent, corrupt and malignant socialist dictatorship the hopes of a Ukrainian-style peaceful revolution or bloodless coup that would end the Nicolas Maduro regime are dimming. That was the most apparent conclusion following last week’s attempts by the U.S.-recognized interim president Juan Guaido to ship desperately-needed food and medicine into the country. The government fired on aid workers at Venezuela’s borders both with Colombia and Brazil, setting trucks laden with humanitarian aid ablaze and kicking off civil unrest everywhere. Conditions...

More than 300 Venezuelan soldiers have defected in just four days as the country plunges deeper into chaos. Soldiers who have sought refuge in Colombia since the weekend told the Associated Press that the catalyst for defection was the command from above to keep desperately needed humanitarian aid from their compatriots. "I was tired of people seeing me as just one more of them," Sgt. Jorge Torres said, referring to President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government. "I'm not." A high-stakes plan by the Venezuelan opposition to bring humanitarian aid into the country floundered over the weekend when National Guard troops loyal...

We won't go awarding Wolf Blitzer a journalistic Profile in Courage just yet, but let's give him some credit for posing this question to Bernie Sanders in last night's CNN town hall with the socialist senator: "Senator, why have you stopped short of calling Maduro, of Venezuela, a dictator?"Check out the video to catch Sanders's stumbling response. First, a long pause, then, "well, [pauses again] he, I, I think it's, it's fair to say that the last election was undemocratic." Ya think? Sanders follows with this lame excuse for his fellow socialist: "there are still democratic operations taking place in...

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and members of his team have been detained in Caracas, Venezuela after dispute President Nicolas Maduro "didn't like the questions" they were asking during an interview, the network tweeted Monday night.

... Earlier, Pence met with Venezuela's interim President Juan Guaidó to express "resolute" U.S. support for Guido's leadership. Pence spoke alongside Guaidó and the President of Colombia Iván Duque Márquez during their trilateral meeting. Pence said Mr. Trump sent him to Colombia "to stand with you and to stand with our friends and our allies in Venezuela." He called it a "great privilege" to be able to meet with the interim president, adding, "we are with you 100 percent." The U.S. is "proud to recognize you as the legitimate president of Venezuela," Pence said. Pence urged the international body on...

In what could be interpreted as Turkish reaction to President Trump's decision to keep US troops in Syria after saying they would be withdrawn back in December, the Turkish Interior Minister says his government will reveal the links between Kurdish groups considered terrorists by Turkeu and American generals..... Hundreds of suspected Islamic State fighters have been turned over to Iraqi authorities by Kurdish forces operating in eastern Syria...... President Trump tweeted Sunday evening that sufficient progress has been made in trade talks with China to delay tariff increases.... The talks between Afghanistan's Taliban and the United States resumed today in...

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio shared an image Sunday showing a bloodied Muammar Gaddafi, the former authoritarian leader of Libya, in the moments before he was killed — drawing criticism from some who read the Florida lawmaker’s message as one of support for United States-led regime change in Venezuela. Rubio’s tweet had no text. It simply contrasted one picture of the authoritarian Libyan leader smiling in a white jacket and sunglasses, alongside another image...

With his stirring repudiation of socialism, both at home and abroad, President Trump is proving himself to be the very champion of liberty and freedom the world needs. While previous U.S. leaders have opposed totalitarian regimes, no American president since Ronald Reagan has confronted the evils of socialism as forcefully as Trump is doing today by supporting the people of Venezuela as they retake their country from the corrupt socialist dictatorship of disputed president Nicolas Maduro. President Trump deserves more credit than he is getting for taking this stance against an economic system that throughout its history has created nothing...

"Today #MaduroRegime killed unarmed civilians of their own country to keep food & medicine from entering They they celebrated murder & burning of trucks carrying aid as a victory The world & those inside #Venezuela will reflect on what happened today & it will give rise to action" US Senator Marco Rubio On Twitter 2/23/2019 From the moment that Interim President Juan Guaido designated today, February 23rd, as the day for humanitarian aid to be brought into Venezuela it was obvious that this day was going to be a day of confrontation between the opposition forces and the Maduro government....

<p>2:40 p.m.</p> <p>Democratic presidential candidate and California Sen. Kamala Harris says she doesn't "condone military action at this point" to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Venezuela.</p> <p>Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has blocked such aid at the border and resisted calls to step aside and let opposition leader Juan Guaido take power.</p>

Good Morning. At the top of the Newsdump. The total number of US soldiers remaining in Syria was increased to 400 on Friday. After the initial announcement by the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Thursday, the media was told 200. But on Friday the number was increased in the information parcelled out to the media..... Two were killed and other wounded Friday when forces loyal to Nicolas Maduro opened fire on civilians trying to keep the border with Brazil open after he ordered it shut down to prevent humanitarian aid coming across. Interim President Juan Guaido made it across...

"First reports of attacks by Pro-Regime gangs this 23F. A bus carrying members of the National Assembly was attacked by a Maduro gang carrying assault rifles. Gang stole their personal belongings. Several unarmed civilians wounded" Marco Rubio Twitter 2/23/2019 (145 AM EASTERN US TIME) At around midnight word was tweeted out from the Vice-President of the Nicolas Maduro regime of closure of the border with Colombia......

Latin American artists from throughout the hemisphere convened in Cúcuta, Colombia, Friday, on the border with Venezuela, for the Richard Branson-sponsored “Venezuela Aid Live” concert to demand dictator Nicolás Maduro allow international aid into the country. The long list of diverse artists — many who have been household names in Latin America for decades — did not shy away from making political statements in support of Venezuela’s legitimate president, Juan Guaidó, and demanding that Maduro step aside. Several artists indulged the audience in what has become a common back-and-forth chant at anti-socialist protests: “Maduro, ¡el coño de tu madre!” or...

The White House warned Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Friday that any "egregious" human rights violations by troops under his government's command would not "go unpunished" as Maduro's forces seek to keep foreign aid out of the country. The Trump administration issued the statement following media reports that two indigenous people died and others have been injured following clashes with Venezuela's military as the U.S. pushes to deliver aid to the country. Around the same time Friday night, The Associated Press reported that Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, had announced the closure of several border crossings with Colombia, citing a...

The NY Times reports that tensions along Venezuela’s border have escalated to the point that government security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least two people. The battle between the government and protesters is over food. The U.S. and other countries have sent aid to the border. Juan Guaidó has said he wants to get that food aid across the border and into the hands of starving people but Nicolas Maduro’s has ordered his security forces to block the border crossings and reportedly threatened truck drivers about bringing the food across the border. Venezuelan opposition leaders and their...