Free Republic

MIAMI -- It’s the country that gave us Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown, Luis Aparicio’s game-changing speed, Dave Concepción's Gold Glove defense and Jose Altuve’s October taters.But for all the talent Venezuela has brought to MLB –- more players, in fact, than any foreign nation other than the Dominican Republic –- its importance to the sport had been underrepresented on the World Baseball Classic stage. The South American nation had not only never won the event but had never previously reached the finals.Until now.

A report published by the Spanish newspaper ABC on Thursday claimed that Venezuela’s deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro spends his nights in prison yelling “I am the president” and claiming that he was “kidnapped” by the U.S. Maduro, long wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges, led the Venezuelan socialist regime from March 2013 to January 3, 2026, the day the United States executed a law enforcement operation in Caracas to arrest him and his wife, Cilia Flores. The now-deposed dictator clung to power after the end of his first term in 2019 by holding sham presidential elections in...

NPR correspondent Eyder Peralta was amazed during a segment Friday by his recent trip to Venezuela following President Donald Trump's arrest of the country's president Nicolás Maduro. "It is absolutely surreal because you land at the airport and the signs are in Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, which tells you just where this country was facing a few months ago," Peralta told host Steve Inskeep. "And then you go out on the streets and people here tell you that they feel like a weight has been lifted." He continued, "For the first time in a long time, there are street...