Free Republic

Entrepreneur Bill Moore was in his Austin, Texas, office last Thursday, watching explosive growth for his company’s walkie-talkie app, Zello, inside Venezuela. Zello had become the favorite app of protest organizers there after recently hitting the mark as the most popular app in Ukraine. Over the past few days in Venezuela, the protests ballooned following rapidly rising food prices, controversy over President Nicolas Maduro’s economic policies, public dissatisfaction over crime and multiple other factors. Moore was finding that in Venezuela that popularity had a price. Shortly after 9 p.m., his Twitter feed blew up with messages from users inside the...

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...

Mass protests have been taking place in Venezuela over the past few days to rally against the country’s government, an ignorant regime that has deprived its people of means to survive and allowed escalating criminal acts to go unpunished.Yet even more frightening than the reasons behind these demonstrations is the lack of coverage from a great deal of the Latin American media, which has been making a conscious effort to keep the unrest a secret.This video from YouTube user Andreina Nash explains why thousands of adults, children and students have taken to the streets, as well as what you can...

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Sunday that his government has expelled three US consulate officials accused of meeting with students involved in anti-government protests that have raged throughout Venezuela for nearly two weeks.In an address on Venezuela state television, Maduro accused the consulate workers and the United States government of conspiring with opposition forces to incite turmoil across the country. “We are determined to defend our country,” said Maduro. US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern over Venezuela’s handling of the protests, resulting in at least three deaths, more than 40 injuries and numerous arrests and detentions. “We are...

It's worth noting that there is a university in Caracas called UCLA, which stands for "Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado," which (I believe) would be translated to English as "Lisandro Alvarado Midwest Univerisity." Rodriguez Torres: "Student Protest was manipulated" Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Miguel Rodriguez Torres, said the events on Wednesday in downtown Caracas that left 3 people dead, seeking "a violent solution," adding that such actions had a "conspiratorial characteristics" UCLA Authorities suspended activities until further notice. In extraordinary university council, authorities Lisandro Alvarado University, the university decided to suspend activities. (Presumably, this means all classes.) Capriles to...

Images scoured from the interweb. This is Caracas, Venezuela right now.Alot of shooting going on. Marxist terrorist Red Shirt Chavistas on motorbikes gunning people down. Are Venezuelans finally going to overthrow the marxist dictatorship ?