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At least 55 Venezuelans have died during protests against Nicolás Maduro’s socialist dictatorship since April 5, according to official tallies. Venezuelan media claim the number is much higher, however, tallying up 71 dead, among them over one dozen teens as young as 14. Venezuela’s Attorney General’s office places the number of deaths since the Supreme Court attempted to annul the National Assembly in March at 55. The Argentine newspaper Clarín, citing the government as well, reported Thursday morning that 58 people had died in anti-government protests. The Venezuelan independent website Runrunes says the number is much higher, however. Runrunes is...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's president delivered his most scathing critique of President Trump on Friday, telling him to stop intervening and "get your pig hands out of here." Speaking before a crowd of supporters, President Nicolas Maduro accused Mr. Trump of promoting an interventionist policy that infringes on his socialist government's sovereignty. "Go home, Donald Trump!" he said in heavily accented English....

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivered his most scathing critique of U.S. President Donald Trump yet Friday, telling him to stop intervening and “get your pig hands out of here.”

“People don’t have enough to eat. People have no food. There’s great violence. And we will do whatever is necessary, and we’ll work together to do whatever is necessary to help with fixing that, and I’m really talking on a humanitarian level,” Trump said. Trump’s remarks came during a joint press conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House. Western Venezuela shares a long border with Colombia. President Trump did not specify what kind of help the U.S. would provide but said the U.S. would work with Colombia and other countries. Congress recently approved $450 million in...

Description of video: In the first ten seconds protestors hold rocks and containers of feces and excrement to hurl at the government riot police and thugs. Masked and helmeted protestors walk towards the regime forces, their path blocked. The protestors mass their makeshift shields, tear gas projectiles thrown back as they land on shields and bounce off. (The thugs are firing head on into protestors bodies) Eventually the "Bull Connor Trucks" move in with water cannon dousing and toppling protestors. Protestors fighting back. At times they approach the water cannon trucks and beat on them with their shields. At the...

The fate of Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world, ought to be the final lesson conclusively proving that socialism is a delusion that impoverishes those it purports to help.  An entire nation is starving, unable to feed itself, generate enough electricity, or produce toilet paper.  In the midst of boundless opportunity, its economy is grinding to a halt because of socialism. The fate of Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world, ought to be the final lesson conclusively proving that socialism is a delusion that impoverishes those it purports to help. An entire...

I don’t really follow North Korea (mostly, I try to stay up-to-date on a few countries that begin with the letter “I”), but it seems to me that we are looking at recent events in the wrong context. North Korea is a charter member of the Axis of Evil, and works hand in glove with the other surviving regime of that infamous trinity, Iran. I’ve been writing for years about the intimate relationship between the two, ranging from North Korean assistance in digging tunnels in Iranian mountains and in the Tehran subway system, to Iranian cooperation with North Korean missile...

One month ago, when discussing the latest “explosive” turn in Venezuela’s political situation, we predicted that the worst case for president Nicolas Maduro who has so far managed to keep the army on his side even as Venezuela faces now daily violent and in some cases deadly protests, would be the start of the local army turning on the regime, and defecting to join the protesters. Overnight, according to Thor Halvorsen of the Human Rights Foundation, this “inflection point” appears to have arrived when he observed in a Tweet that “the military in parts of Venezuela has begun to defect....

Roughly one month ago I asked what the end game in Venezuela might look like as the country continues to spiral out of control. Judging by what’s been happening this weekend we may be getting close to an answer to that question. Despite the ramped up “militias” of President Nicolas Maduro and the dozens of people who have died in violent clashes between protesters and militia groups, starving and disaffected citizens continue to take to the streets. In one Venezuelan city, a statue of former dictator Hugo Chavez was torn down and smashed in the streets. (Video via the Daily...

.....women have marched in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, continuing a wave of protests against the rule of President Nicolas Maduro. The women, dressed in white and led by opposition MP's, denounced what they consider repression by security forces. The US has also expressed concern about what UN ambassador Nikki Haley called a "violent crackdown". At least 36 people have died and hundreds have been injured in weeks of protests. In a statement, Ms. Haley accused Mr. Maduro of "disregard for the fundamental rights of his own people", which she said had "heightened the political and economic crisis in the country."...

Once Latin America’s richest country, Venezuela can no longer feed its people, hobbled by the nationalization of farms as well as price and currency controls YARE, Venezuela— Jean Pierre Planchart, a year old, has the drawn face of an old man and a cry that is little more than a whimper. His ribs show through his skin. He weighs just 11 pounds

Economics: Why is it that reporters keep scratching their heads about Venezuela's descent into extreme poverty and chaos? The cause is simple. Socialism. End it and you will end the misery. When the New York Times wrote about Venezuela's ongoing collapse a year ago, it described how the country was suffering "painful shortages … even of basic foods," and how "electricity and water are being rationed, and huge areas of the country have spent months with little of either." Here is how the Times explained the reason for Venezuela's dire situation: "The growing economic crisis (was) fueled by low prices...

Leopoldo Lopez has not seen a visitor for 37 days in his Venezuelan prison. Senator Marco Rubio said he was taken to a hospital in a very serious condition. There is concern about what the regime did to him. His wife has stood outside the prison seeking to be allowed in. In Nevada, Ammon Bundy was beaten and shackled earlier this week for a 13 hour period with guards threatening to leave him that way for 72 hours leaving Bundy fearing for his life. He sounded broken and hurt when he called his wife and activist Kelli Stewart afterwards. The...

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said Wednesday he had confirmed the rumor that jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez had been taken to a military hospital in Caracas "in very serious condition." Mr. Lopez's wife, Lillian Tintori, rushed to the hospital, waited to see him and was told he wasn't there. Mr. Lopez has had no visitors in 37 days, though the government says he's alive......

Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have set up roadblocks and staged demonstrations demanding elections as the country's political and economic crisis deepens. They responded with defiance to his call for a new constitution to end unrest that has killed 28 people... The U.S. said it was a bid to cling to power, while Brazil called it a "coup"..... "The constituent assembly that Maduro has announced is a manipulation to escape elections," AFP news agency quoted student Raul Hernandez, 22, as saying. He was among about 100 people blocking a major road in the capital Caracas. Elsewhere, security forces deployed...

..... with the crowds I found these nuns in perfect anti Maduro gear. The crowds, patiently waiting, were already significant...... ... walking all the way uphill to the Cota Mill avenue where we would supposedly turn left to bypass already installed blockades....... I heard a big rumor while I was walking up a hill. By the time I turned back I realized it was a squadron of well, "freedom fighters." The youth of Caracas has learned to fight and to get organized. What you see is the mere tail end of one of those groups that went by me, albeit...

Venezuela’s increasingly embattled president called Monday for a new constitution as an intensifying protest movement entered a second month amid clashes between police and demonstrators. After hundreds of thousands took to the streets again to call for his ouster, President Nicolás Maduro announced that he was calling for a citizens assembly and a new constitution for the economically flailing South American nation. He said the move was needed to restore peace and stop his political opponents from trying to carry out a coup. Opposition leaders immediately objected, charging that Maduro was seeking to further erode Venezuela’s constitutional order. …

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Venezuela was going to be a workers' paradise. President Hugo Chávez said so and declared early into his first term, in 1999, that Venezuela and Cuba would sail toward the same “sea of happiness.” Not surprisingly, Venezuela is now a workers' hell. Authoritarian and dysfunctional, the oil-rich yet impoverished South American nation of 31 million people suffers dire food shortages; soaring levels of violent crime (28,479 deaths reported last year); and epic levels of corruption and drug trafficking. Unemployment is soaring – not surprising given that large swaths of the economy have been nationalized. Venezuela's court-ordered seizure of...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled against an American oil drilling company that claimed Venezuela unlawfully seized 11 drilling rigs in 2010. Siding with Venezuela, the justices ruled 8-0, with Justice Neil Gorsuch not participating, to throw out a 2015 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a 60% increase in the country's minimum wage, effective from Monday...... The pay rise is the third this year from Mr. Maduro, and aims to benefit government workers and the military. It comes a month after deadly protests erupted in the country...... Even residents of traditionally pro-Maduro districts have been joining the protests. "I have been a month now joining in all the protests because I want my country to be free of this dictatorship," said 42 year-old Yoleida Viloria, a hairdresser from the capital, Caracas. Observers fear 1 May could bring a spike...