Free Republic

BEJUMA, Venezuela - In this deceptively tranquil farming village, people still talk about the ''Bejuma massacre'' in a whisper, partly because one man who spoke out is in a grave, partly because the killers were allegedly policemen. But the source of the fear can be summed up in a single word: drug trafficking, on the kind of massive level and involving corrupt government officials that has long been a profound problem in neighboring Colombia. Drug seizures in Venezuela doubled in the past four years. There are mounting allegations of drug-fueled corruption at the highest levels of the security forces, accompanied...

A group of men identifying themselves as Venezuelan soldiers published a video on social media calling for an overthrow of the socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro, shortly before the government announced it had quelled an uprising in Carabobo state on Sunday. The incident, which Maduro claims was orchestrated by the American Department of State and unspecified Colombian agents, has added more intrigue to the increasingly chaotic situation in what was once Latin America’s wealthiest state, following Maduro’s imposition of a parallel socialist legislature tasked with drafting a new constitution more favorable to his regime.