March 27, 2014: Lawsuit filed in Miami accuses Venezuela top official, Diosdado Cabello, of bribery “A lawsuit filed in Miami accuses the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly of receiving at least $50 million in bribes from a company doing business in that country....
Joe DeMaria, the companies’ attorney, said Halvorssen’s allegations are absolutely false.
“My clients build power plants. They supply electricity to millions of Venezuelans,” DeMaria, of the firm Tew-Cardenas, said in an email.
....The payment of bribes to high-ranking government officials has become common practice in Venezuela, according to Transparency International, an NGO that ranks Venezuela as the most corrupt country in the hemisphere, second only to Haiti.
And Cabello, one of the most influential officials in the Nicolás Maduro administration, has been accused more than once of being involved in kickbacks.
According to reports by the U.S. embassy in Caracas, made public in 2012 by WikiLeaks, Cabello is the central figure of “one of the three main centers of corruption”
March 26, 2014: 3 Venezuelan generals arrested, accused of coup plot “(CNN) — Venezuela’s President says his country has arrested three air force generals accused of plotting a coup.
“Last night we captured three generals, who we had been investigating...three generals who were trying to turn the air force against the legitimately constituted government,” President Nicolas Maduro said in remarks broadcast Tuesday on state-run VTV. “They were organizing a coup. This captured group has direct ties with sectors of the opposition, and they said that this week was the decisive week.”
The generals, whom he did not name, will be charged in military court, he said.
Maduro revealed the arrests as he spoke to a commission of South American foreign ministers who are visiting his country as part of efforts to facilitate dialogue as political tensions mount........”
March 29, 2014: “Venezuela’s neighbors watch as it spirals downward “VENEZUELANS DESPAIR at the lack of international interest in the political crisis that is rocking their country. Since anti-government protests began early last month, at least 34 people have been killed, most of them opposition supporters gunned down by security forces or government-backed gangs. Some 1,600 people have been arrested, and many say they were beaten or tortured. One of the opposition’s top leaders has been jailed for more than a month.
............A delegation from the UNASUR group — promoted by Venezuela as an alternative to the OAS — subsequently visited Caracas and won a commitment from President Nicolás Maduro to accept a “good-faith witness,” possibly from the Vatican, to mediate talks with the opposition. But there’s not much reason to believe that Mr. Maduro — who refers to opposition leaders as “Chucky,” in a bizarre reference to the horror movie — is ready to compromise, or that the UNASUR group will pressure him to do so.
The problem with this fecklessness is that Venezuela desperately needs outside help. With one of the world’s highest inflation rates and one of its highest murder rates, severe shortages of basic goods, chronic power outages and now daily street confrontations, the country is in danger of collapse............”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3138909/posts#1
“.....An attacker shot Luis Manuel Diaz dead on Wednesday evening in the central Guarico region at a campaign rally for the December 6 legislative elections, party officials said, ratcheting up fears that violence could erupt in the lead-up to the polls.
.......................The event was also attended by Lilian Tintori, the wife of a jailed opposition leader and a high-profile critic of Maduro.
“They want to kill me,” Tintori told a news conference later. “I hold Nicolas Maduro directly responsible.”
The European Union expressed concern about rising violence linked to the elections.
“Yesterday’s assassination of Mr Luis Manuel Diaz, the regional secretary of the Accion Democratica party, marks a further deterioration of an already tense situation in the run up to the parliamentary elections on 6 December 2015,” the EU said in a statement.
It called for a swift investigation and said those responsible must be brought to justice.
Polls have indicated Maduro’s socialist government could lose its majority in the National Assembly in next month’s vote, potentially weakening his grip on power.
Maduro has warned that if the opposition wins, his side is “politically and militarily prepared to deal with it” and would “take to the streets.”
Diaz was regional coordinator of the Democratic Action party, part of an opposition coalition against Maduro, though Diaz was not running for office.
The United States condemned the killing, calling it the “deadliest of several recent attacks and acts of intimidation” against the opposition.
Observers have warned the elections could spark unrest in the Latin American nation of 30 million people, already wracked by violence and an economic crisis with many families short of basic supplies.
Maduro said authorities were investigating the “regrettable” killing and “the interior ministry has evidence that suggests it was a contract killing to settle a score between rival gangs.”
In a speech to supporters, he rejected a claim by the chairman of Democratic Action, Henry Ramos Allup, that the shooter was a member of an armed gang linked to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
“Forensic investigations and testimonies from people who were there show that is totally false and is a reckless accusation,” he said.
Tintori’s husband Leopoldo Lopez is in prison for incitement to violence in 2014 anti-government protests, though a fugitive prosecutor in the case has cast doubt on his conviction................................