Free Republic

A survey by Caracas-based Datincorp found that 57 percent of all Venezuelans said they want to leave the country, up from 49 percent in May 2015. Broken down by political affiliation, the poll found that 24 percent of all government supporters and 71 percent of those who consider themselves the opposition want to emigrate. "People don’t want to leave for political reasons. It's not that they hate the left or socialism," said Datincorp President Jesús Seguías. "It’s because quality of life has tanked." From 1990 to 2015, the number of Venezuelans living abroad more than tripled from 185,282 to 606,344,...

Jaime Otrupo chanted a solemn prayer then wrenched a chicken’s head from its body, allowing the blood to pump into a ceremonial clay pot as an offering to the gods. At his feet were the sacrificed corpses of a dove and a chick, both of which were beheaded with a kitchen-knife while his wife and young daughter looked on. This disturbing ritual, which was filmed by MailOnline in Mr Otrupo’s sitting-room in Caracas, Venezuela, may appear cruel to Western eyes. But to the father-of-five, the traditional healing ceremony was an act of desperation. For the collapse of the economy has...

Venezuela is a country rich in oil made poor by the government takeover of a kleptocracy with socialistic underpining.The solution to problems in that philosophy come with governmental edicts, followed by destructive policies.  In Venezuela’s case, the drop in oil price made it much harder to buy votes.  Votes are hard to buy when you do not have any money. The Venezuela government followed its predilections for solving society’s problems by outlawing the private ownership of guns, with the purported purpose of reducing crime.What happened was predictable for anyone who knows basic economics.  Guns became so valuable that police...

How many people have to die before the world, including many Americans, realizes that socialism never works, always fails, and kills people? Look at the unspeakable tragedies that continue to unfold in Venezuela right now. People are scrambling just to get food to eat. Armed guards have to protect stores and trucks with food from being looted. Stories are emerging of people eating zoo animals and of Venezuelans feeling less safe than war-torn Syrians. The amazing thing about this tragedy is just how avoidable it is. But it’s almost as if each generation in the last 150 years has to...

Carlos Parra used to love waking up to see his pet albino boxer, Nina. Now, seeing her skeletal body on the floor next to his bed has become a daily reminder of the economic crisis engulfing Venezuela. His other dog’s thick fur barely hides her ribcage as Parra struggles to feed his pets after losing his job at a shoe store. “It’s terrible to sit and eat, see them watching me with hunger, and not be able to do anything,” said the 30-year-old. As Venezuela’s economic crunch worsens, food shortages and rising poverty are forcing once middle-class Venezuelans to do...

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Nicolás Maduro was chased at a routine political event by a crowd of angry protesters banging on pots and yelling that they were hungry, just days after thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to call for his ouster, local news media reported on Saturday. Scenes from the confrontation late Friday, which also appeared in videos uploaded to social media, captured the attention of Venezuelans, many of whom blame the unpopular president for the country’s food shortages. In one video, Mr. Maduro tries to calm the pot-bangers by walking among them, only to be surrounded as...

othing was going to stop Nelson Rivas from joining the Taking Caracas demonstration on Thursday — not his wheelchair, not the six-mile distance over uneven pavement, not the whiffs of tear gas, not the ominous threats of arrests from President Nicolas Maduro. “I came to demand that the recall election take place according to the constitution,” said Rivas, 35. “Whatever your point of view, the condition of the country is the worst.” Rivas took his place in the ranks that filled Francisco de Miranda Avenue, one of three main streets in the capital brimming with thousands and thousands of protesters,...

Millions rise up against socialism Anti-socialist protesters flooded Venezuela’s capital in one of the largest mass protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s rule in over a decade – and one of the largest protests in world history.

There is a solution to Venezuela’s social and economic tragedy: The recall referendum, a constitutionally sanctified mechanism allowing the voters to remove the president. The opposition is trying to force a recall, but autocratic President Nicolas Maduro and the “Chavista” military, which lost the the National Assembly elections in December, won’t allow it because Mr. Maduro would lose. Instead, they are bent on eliminating all civil resistance and political opposition. The result is a potential humanitarian nightmare for the Western Hemisphere. In one week, 400,000 Venezuelans flocked across the reopened border with Colombia looking for food and medicine; some are...

White-clad opposition supporters from all corners of Venezuela were descending on Caracas on Thursday for rallies intended to press for a recall referendum this year against unpopular socialist President Nicolas Maduro. With protestors coming in from the Amazon jungle to the western Andes, the opposition hopes a million people will gather in a show of anger at Maduro and Venezuela's deep economic crisis. Maduro, 53, says the opposition-dubbed "Takeover of Caracas", disguises a US-fomented coup plan, akin to a short-lived 2002 putsch against his mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez. Edgy authorities arrested some well-known activists in the run-up, with 13...

The click-clack of guns being cocked echoes in the cement safe house where seven kidnappers keep watch over a western Caracas slum, their 33-year-old gang leader boasting of grenade attacks on police and growing wealth and power. Venezuela's socialist economy is suffering triple-digit inflation, severe shortages and a third year of recession, but gangs like this have found strength and profit in the chaos. They are teaming up with former rivals and buying heavier weapons to control ever-larger territory in the capital and beyond, the criminals, the government and criminologists say. "The majority of the other slums are our friends....

The ongoing crisis in Venezuela could escalate this Thursday. The opposition party is holding a rally designed to pressure the ruling socialist government to allow a referendum which could remove unpopular President Maduro from office. In a sign that his government may be preparing a crack down on the protest, President Maduro said Monday that the planned protest was part of a U.S led coup attempt. UPI reports: “It has become clear the brand and authorship of the coup d’etat planned for this coming Sept. 1, 2016, in Venezuela in complicity with the anti-democratic opposition and the international right,” Maduro’s...

New evidence suggests Iran received help from Venezuela with its nuclear program despite a decade of U.N.-mandated sanctions aimed at curbing the rouge regime’s controversial nuclear and ballistic missile programs. A 2009 document obtained by Brazil’s leading weekly, Veja magazine, shows late dictator President Hugo Chavez signing off on the release of funds to help Iran with its nuclear ambitions. Specifically, the document states the funds were to be designated for the import of equipment for a gunpowder factory and the development of production plants for nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose, elements used in rocket propulsion for Iran’s government. There is also...

Bernie Sanders offers a real solution that the current condidates wont have. Bernie Sanders would first of all return tax levels to the way they were in the 1950s, tax the rich 90% and use the massive massive massive surplus from that tax to create jobs for the unemployed. One trillion should be paid for rebuilding infrastructure and bridges and creating jobs. Another trillion will be used to create new healthcare opertunety for workers to earn doctors degrees and to heal the sick and poor. Bernie sanders will also create government funded industries and factories that will create paying jobs...

Venezuela has not been able to import all the crude and fuel it needs this year to cover shortfalls at oilfields and refineries as state-run PDVSA struggles to pay suppliers on time, according to trade sources and internal company data seen exclusively by Reuters. The decline is the largest in five years as the worst economic crisis in decades undermines PDVSA's ability to buy oil imports, which fell 21 percent in the first seven months of this year to 154,465 barrels per day (bpd), the data showed. Venezuela is also on track to suffer its steepest annual oil output drop...

Eighteen Foods and Medical Goods to Receive General Leadership Venezuela will be appointing a “general” for 18 foods that are scarce in the country, officials announced Wednesday, August 24. The announcement was made by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who who was recently given power over the economy by President Nicolás Maduro. “I have assigned a general, along with a civilian-military team, for each food item,” the minister said. “A general or admiral will be chief of rice and will display on a map everything related to production, importation and commercialization.” Padrino, in charge of the “Great Sovereign Mission for...

With no job, just 50 cents...having run out of acquaintances with whom to stay, 26-year-old Carlos is facing the grim reality that he may have to sleep on the street... Since he arrived to Miami... he has only managed to find a couple of temporary jobs... "I have been eating one meal a day," Carlos said... Like many Venezuelans, Carlos said he could no longer live in a country where the collapsed economy, soaring inflation, food shortages and rampant crime have erased the middle class life he and his family once had. In the past couple of years an increasing...

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It's a sad day for socialists everywhere You may recall that the Bernie Sanders - the wealthy, multi-homed, socialist that he is - has a “thing” for breadlines. As he famously said: “It’s funny; sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is, that people are lining up for food. That is a good thing. In other countries, people don’t line up for food: the rich get the food and the poor starve to death.” Bernie’s also had a lifelong affinity for the glorious socialist uprisings throughout South America and in Cuba. You and I might laugh at this,...

President Nicolás Maduro Raises Minimum Wage 50 Percent Venezuela’s national minimum wage was raised 50 percent this week, but experts warned President Nicolás Maduro the increase could result in closures to small businesses. During a national radio and television broadcast, the president said the minimum wage will be set at VEF $22,076 (US $2,218) monthly, while the food bonus will be VEF $42,480 (US $4,269). Maduro has bragged in the past about the 14 increases in minimum wage made over the last three years, but fails to address that the country faces the highest inflation in the world. Economists predict...