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Under the news radar, two ugly power grabs from a pair of would-be Marxist dictators were announced yesterday from South America. From socialist Venezuela: CARACAS (Reuters) -Maria Corina Machado, one of the favorites to win the Venezuelan opposition's nomination for president in an October primary, has been barred from holding public office for 15 years, the country's controller general said in a letter. Machado, a 55-year-old industrial engineer and former lawmaker, is leading polling for the 13-candidate primary, convened to select a unity candidate to face socialist President Nicolas Maduro in a 2024 election. A previous ban placed on her...

This is a sad story which just keeps getting worse. Socialist dictators Nicolas Maduro stole the recent election and seems to be getting away with it despite clear evidence that his opposition opponent Edmundo Gonzalez won by a wide margin. To solidify his rule, Maduro has been cracking down on dissent, jailing hundreds of opposition figures and forcing others to flee the country for their own safety. Last week, his government issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez himself. In a letter posted on X on Monday, the Prosecutor’s Office said Gonzalez is suspected of “crimes associated with terrorism” including “usurpation...

The U.S. welcomes the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas. Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S. soil. Maduro's illegitimate regime has undermined Venezuela's institutions, violated human rights, and endangered our regional security. We extend our gratitude to all personnel involved in this operation and to our partners who assisted in securing the safe liberation of these Venezuelan heroes.

Venezuelan security forces surrounded the Argentine embassy in the capital Caracas on Friday after two opposition members took refuge inside, according to posts by the opposition duo on social media. The pair joined four other Venezuelan opposition figures who have taken refuge in the embassy this year. One of the men, Pedro Urruchurtu, the international coordinator for opposition leader María Corina Machado, wrote on X that there were patrols of hooded and armed officials surrounding the diplomatic building. The other, former deputy Omar González, also posted on X, writing: “They cut off the electricity service to the Argentine embassy in...

Iranian officials and military personnel are residing in the South American country, with some members being offered political asylum should they need it. Maria Villaroel Maria Villarroel / Published Jan 10 2025. Iran officials and military personnel now reside in Venezuela, with some members of the elite being offered political asylum and properties in the country. Getty Images Iran is increasing its military presence in Venezuela, with officials and personnel, with some members of the country's elite acquiring properties in the Latin American country and being offered political asylum should they eventually need it. The presence comes amid regional conflict...

MIAMI - President-elect Donald Trump issued a stern warning to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday after the brief detention of prominent opposition leader María Corina Machado, who had been leading massive protests against Maduro's government. On Truth Social, Trump called on Maduro to ensure the safety of opposition leaders, writing: "Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado and President-elect González are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime. The great Venezuelan American community in the United States overwhelmingly support a free Venezuela and strongly supported me....

An explosion at a high rise building in Tel Aviv early Friday morning. One killed, eight wounded...drone attack... Disturbances in the Harehills section of Leeds, England... Comedian Bob Newhart dead at the age of 94... Longtime business news anchor Lou Dobbs dead... A police officer attacked with a knife in Paris this evening... French politics the election of a President of the National Assembly... An Air India Boeing 777 airliner...making an emergency landing...Krasnoyarsk in Russia...a technical issue... US politics the latest release of polls all done in various key states showing leads for Donald Trump... "Senior Democrats believe that Joe...

She hasn’t ever held a public post or campaigned for office. But 80-year-old Corina Yoris, a widow and grandmother to seven children, had been plucked out of her quiet life in academia, one of scholarly tomes on philosophy and classes on Venezuela’s 1940s-era history, to challenge that country’s strongman in July’s presidential election—if she isn’t banned from participating first. Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy secure.helloalma.com/Marriage/therapy Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy Ad “It’s totally surreal because I’ve dedicated my life to academia, to the university life,” Yoris told The Wall Street Journal. “Aspirations...

The second to worst worst thing that can happen to a civil society is civil war. The only thing worse than that is what Venezuela is living with right now, a dictatorship in which there is no hope of democratic change or equal justice. In Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela his voice is the only one that matters. It has been that way since he took over as the hand-picked successor to communist blowhard Hugo Chavez in 2013. Since then, opposition figures have tried everything to get a fair chance at defeating Maduro at the ballot box and at every turn they...

The Biden White House criticized Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday for barring the leading opposition candidate from his country’s upcoming elections — after Democrats tried to do the same to Donald Trump. Maria Corina Machado, 56, won the opposition primary in Venezuela last year and has been favored in the polls to beat Maduro in the July elections, possibly putting an end to the authoritarian rule of Hugo Chávez’s successor. But the Maduro regime blocked the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) opposition coalition from registering its candidate by midnight early Tuesday. Machado’s chosen successor, Dr. Corina Yoris, was also blocked.

Latin America: Since 9-11, the U.S. has tried to spread democracy not by buying candidates, but by encouraging civic institutions. It's in everyone's interest. One country, however, wants to throw someone in jail for it. Today an outrageous court hearing will take place in Caracas, Venezuela. Organizers of last year's recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez are facing potential charges of treason. Their crime? Taking a U.S. National Endowment for Democracy grant to advance democracy. It's not just political revenge from a victorious Chavez. It's also an attack on civic institutions and, if successful, opens the door to dictatorship and...

The threat to Latin America's fragile democratic order grows steadily more visible, from the latest round of paralyzing strikes in Bolivia, to the creeping Sandinista coup against Nicaragua's beleaguered president, to Hugo Chavez's preparations to militarize Venezuela with Cuban-style popular militias. But the greatest danger of all may be the refusal of the region's remaining democrats to acknowledge what they see. As President Bush addresses the general assembly of the Organization of American States today in Fort Lauderdale, his aides will quietly be struggling to persuade the organization's new secretary general, Jose Miguel Insulza, and the region's big governments to...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela on Wednesday condemned as "meddling" and "a provocation" President Bush's meeting at the White House with a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In a move that strained already frayed relations, Bush met on Tuesday with Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition activist who helped promote a recall referendum last year against left-winger Chavez. Chavez won and remains in office. The nationalist Venezuelan leader, a fierce critic of Bush's policies, has branded Machado a "traitor" for receiving U.S. Congress funding for her pro-referendum activities in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. "I think this...

President Bush held a news conference this AM (text found here), which will be replayed by C-SPAN tonight at 8 PM Eastern. Choice pull quote: Bush called a human rights report 'absurd' for criticizing the United States' detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the allegations were made by 'people who hate America.' People he met with in the Oval Office: Dr. Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States; crewmembers from the International Space Station Expeditions 7, 8, 9 and 10; and Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush met a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the White House on Tuesday in a show of support that could anger the firebrand leader of a major U.S. oil supplier. Maria Corina Machado, a founder of Sumate, a citizens rights organization, helped promote an August referendum against Chavez and still faces a possible jail term of up to 16 years along with her colleague Alejandro Plaz. Called a "traitor" by Chavez, she was accused by a Venezuelan state prosecutor last year of conspiracy after her organization received a grant from the U.S. Congress-funded...