Trump: Russian Military Must ‘Get Out’ of Venezuela

U.S. President Donald Trump says Russia “has to get out” of Venezuela, following the recent arrival of Russian military personnel in that country. “All options are open,” Trump repeated several times in response to a reporter’s question Wednesday about whether the United States is willing to put “boots on the ground” to remove the Russians. Trump added that Moscow is well aware of the U.S. stance. Trump spoke to reporters at the White House alongside Fabiana Rosales, the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-declared interim President Juan Guaido. She went into the Oval Office following a meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. “The United States views Russia’s arrival of military planes this weekend as an unwelcome provocation,” Pence said alongside Rosales in the Roosevelt Room. “We call on Russia today to cease all support of the Maduro regime and stand with Juan Guaido, stand with nations across this hemisphere and across the world until freedom is restored.” “Today, in Venezuela, it is freedom or dictatorship. It is life or it is death,” Rosales said. “And those who are paying the price of this hate are the children.” She added that children are dying in hospitals which are without…

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OPEC Scraps April Meeting but Keeps Oil Cuts in Place

Reuters   Oil producer group OPEC on Monday scrapped its planned meeting in April and will decide instead whether to extend output cuts in June, once the market has assessed the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran and the crisis in Venezuela. A ministerial panel of OPEC and its allies recommended that they cancel the extraordinary meeting scheduled for April 17-18 and hold the next regular talks on June 25-26. The energy minister of OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, said the market was looking oversupplied until the end of the year but that April would be too early for any decision on output policy. “The consensus we heard… is that April will be premature to make any production decision for the second half,” the Saudi minister, Khalid al-Falih, said. “As long as the levels of inventories are rising and we are far from normal levels, we will stay the course, guiding the market towards balance,” he added. The United States has been increasing its own oil exports in recent months while imposing sanctions on OPEC members Venezuela and Iran in an effort to reduce those two countries’ shipments to global markets. Washington’s policies have introduced a new level of…

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Mass Looting Plagues Venezuela Amid Power Crisis

by Tim Pearce   Looters have all but emptied stores and warehouses across western Venezuela as large parts of the country remain without power more than a week after a mass blackout. The mobs overwhelmed Venezuela’s security forces and broke into buildings. People stole cars, trucks and equipment. Hundreds of businesses in the Venezuelan oil capital of Maracaibo were emptied and left in shambles. VENEZUELA: Reports of looting in some cities as nationwide blackout, now in its 100th hour, continues pic.twitter.com/wLWp3BkSBL — BNO News (@BNONews) March 12, 2019 Looters broke through the cinder-block walls of a Pepsi plant and took thousands of cases of beer and soda and 160 pallets of food. They destroyed or stole 22 trucks and five forklifts, Bloomberg reported Friday. “If people made enough to make ends meet, we wouldn’t be trying to get by like this,” Enrique Gonzalez, an 18-year-old bus conductor, told Bloomberg. “This country has gone to hell.” Police and other emergency officials have stayed away from the carnage and refused to help businesses and property owners protect their property and assets. “It’s hard to swallow,” Bernardo Morillo, a 60-year-old mall manager, told Bloomberg. “The national guard stood by as this vandalism happened…

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US to Remove All Diplomatic Personnel from Venezuela

The United States says it is removing all remaining personnel from its embassy in Venezuela. In a statement issued late Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the personnel will be pulled out of Caracas this week. Secretary Pompeo said the decision to shut down the embassy “reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela” as well as the conclusion that the presence of the diplomatic staff “has become a constraint on U.S. policy.” The State Department ordered all non-emergency personnel to leave Venezuela back in January, days after President Nicolas Maduro ended diplomatic relations with Washington and ordered U.S. diplomats to leave after President Donald Trump officially recognized Juan Guaido as interim president. Guaido had declared himself president after claiming Maduro’s re-election was illegitimate. The U.S. announcement that it was closing its embassy comes as Venezuela enters the sixth day of a nationwide power outage Tuesday. Desperate residents are fetching water from a polluted river and drainage pipes, with schools and businesses closed and stores unable to keep cold and fresh whatever food is on hand. Some hospitals have generators and doctors are hoping to be able to transfer patients who need operations to save their lives to those…

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Commentary: The Totalitarian Impulse of the Democrats’ ‘New’ Socialism Is Showing in Venezuela

by Anna Paulina   The “new” socialism that is rapidly gaining adherents within the Democrat Party bears a striking resemblance to the totalitarian ideology that just drove oil-rich Venezuela to the point of mass starvation. They might not even realize it themselves, but beneath the facade of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “democratic socialism” and Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Bernie bros” movement lies the same authoritarian spirit that animates every socialist experiment. American socialists and their liberal supporters tend to become extremely defensive when their ideology is compared to that of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, insisting they only wish to implement the variety of socialism that prevails in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, despite those countries constantly telling Americans they are absolutely not socialist. Now that affairs in Venezuela have reached the breaking point and President Trump has put his foot down to call for the dictator Maduro’s departure, the Democrats’ socialist brigades are shifting gears and trying to downplay the brutality of that regime. Sanders, the godfather of contemporary “democratic-socialism” in the U.S., is refusing to say that the reign of Maduro and his increasingly violent band of Chavistas must end, but still ran afoul of his comrades by calling on the Venezuelan strongman to allow…

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US Imposes Sanctions on Venezuelan Officials for Blocking Aid

The United States increased its pressure on Venezuela Friday, imposing sanctions on six high-ranking security officials as well as revoking the visas of dozens of other high officials. The Trump administration said the sanctions were a response to Venezuelan military officials, who last weekend blocked an opposition-backed effort to bring food into the country. At one border point, aid trucks caught fire and several people died. “We are sanctioning members of (President Nicolas) Maduro’s security forces in response to the reprehensible violence, tragic deaths, and unconscionable torching of food and medicine destined for sick and starving Venezuelans,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Those being sanctioned include National Guard Commander Richard Lopez along with police and military officials based near the Colombian or Brazilian borders. The sanctions block any assets the officials have in the United States and bar Americans from doing business with them. The U.S. State Department also revoked the travel visas of 49 Venezuelans that it said were “individuals responsible for undermining Venezuela’s democracy.” The measures are part of an effort to pressure Maduro to step down. The United States sees his re-election last year as illegitimate and has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido…

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Vice-President Pence: US with Guiado ‘100 Percent’

Trump administration stands with the U.S.-recognized interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido “100 percent,” Vice President Mike Pence said Monday as he announced new financial assistance for the Venezuelan people. “We stand with you, and along with all the nations gathered here today, we will keep standing with you until democracy and liberty are restored,” Pence said in a speech delivered to the Lima Group, following a trilateral meeting in Bogota, Colombia with Guiado and Colombian President Ivan Duque. Pence said disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “must go.” While in Bogota, Pence and regional leaders discussed strategy to hasten the departure of Maduro and how to get humanitarian aid currently piling up on the border in Brazil and Colombia into Venezuela, where supplies of food and medicine have run low. “We’ve imposed sanctions on more than 50 top officials as well as on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, to stop Maduro’s cronies from enriching themselves at the expense of the Venezuelan people,” Pence said, noting that the U.S. plans to continue to put financial and diplomatic pressure on Maduro’s regime. He added that “it is my privilege to announce that the United States will provide an additional $56 million to…

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Aid Shipments Cross Venezuelan Border as Maduro’s Soldiers Abandon Their Posts

by Evie Fordham   The first shipment of humanitarian aid crossed the border from Brazil to Venezuela Saturday, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared, but getting aid to the people of Venezuela continues to be beyond difficult. “This is a great accomplishment, Venezuela!” Guaido wrote on Twitter Saturday. Guaido, a 35-year-old lawmaker and president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself the country’s interim leader in January as conditions deteriorated under socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. Guaido’s supporters are trying to bring aid shipments from Colombia and Brazil into Venezuela, but Maduro’s troops are blocking trucks both coming and going along parts of the border. Video footage from Friday showed Venezuelan soldiers erecting barricades and brawling with Guaido’s supporters to keep trucks from exiting the country to collect aid. Meanwhile, some soldiers posted on the Venezuelan border have defected from Maduro’s control. A social media video appears to show four soldiers denouncing Maduro and supporting Guaido, who has promised them “amnesty,” reported BBC. Guaido was in Colombia Saturday seeing off shipments of aid to Venezuela with Colombian president Ivan Duque, reported CBS News. Thousands of volunteers will help get the aid into Venezuela, he said according to BBC. U.S. President Donald Trump…

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Trump Speech to Warn of ‘Dangers of Socialism’

by Katherine Gypson, Margaret Besheer, and Steve Herman   White House officials say U.S. President Donald Trump will warn of “the dangers of socialism” in a speech Monday in support of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the United States as the South American nation’s interim president. Trump will make remarks at Florida International University, as his administration continues to speak out against Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.The school is in a Miami neighborhood that has the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S. While Trump has refused to rule out a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Congressman Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said during a congressional hearing Wednesday that lawmakers would not support such a move. “I do worry about the president’s saber-rattling, his hints that U.S. military intervention remains an option,” Engel said. “I want to make it clear to our witnesses and to anyone else watching: U.S. military intervention is not an option.” Trump was among the first of 51 world leaders to recognize the head of the nation’s national assembly, Guaido, as the interim president. Guaido declared himself the country’s leader following mass protests against Maduro. Venezuela suffers…

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Commentary: Imagine America Without Freedom

by Rick Manning   Everyone is talking about the Green New Deal, and how it would end domestic airline travel, the internal combustion engine, fossil fuel usage, most electricity generation and even ban cow flatulence. You have groups guessing what the cost of the Green New Deal would be in terms of dollars on an annual basis coming up with figures in the trillions of dollars. To everyone seeking to normalize this Green New Deal, please just shut up. The Green New Deal is the baring of teeth by the new American communist. A new breed unleashed that we have seen to the streets attacking people attending Trump rallies, screaming at teenagers wearing Make America Great Again hats, shouting down and rioting against conservative speakers on college campuses. Here is the truth. Socialism and communism are evil. Putting a shroud of legitimacy and normalcy to the destruction of the American ideal is being a Menshevik in a Bolshevik Revolution, you cannot moderate the blood lust of those who seek to enslave you by trying to come up with common ground or discuss alternatives to meet their needs. The revolution demands immediate payment. So, let’s stop talking about the symptoms which…

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Top EPA Official Leaves Government To Help Trump Fight ‘Venezuela-Style Socialism’

by Michael Bastasch   Mandy Gunasekara served two years as a top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adviser, but now is leaving the government to be an advocate for President Donald Trump’s agenda. “There is a void out there of folks who can understand and have the pertinent experience to talk about the energy, environment and economic successes of the Trump administration,” Gunasekara told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “I was in the room when we were making these decisions and I know the why,” she added. Indeed, as the principal deputy assistant administrator to EPA’s air office, Gunasekara was “in the room” when the agency issued major rollbacks of Obama administration regulations, including the Clean Power Plan and fuel economy mandates. Gunasekara also worked with former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to convince Trump to stick to his campaign promise and withdraw from the Paris climate accord. She was one of the few political appointees in place at EPA in the early days of the administration, so she spent many nights putting together the legal and policy rationale for withdrawal. Trump announced withdrawal in June 2017. “It was just helping him make it happen as the president,” Gunasekara…

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Venezuela Barricades Key Border Crossing to Block Humanitarian Aid

Venezuelan soldiers have blocked a key border crossing to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid from the United States and other foreign nations. A giant orange tanker and two large blue shipping containers were moved into the middle of a bridge connecting Venezuela to Colombia Wednesday, with armed guards patrolling the area to turn back any attempt to cross the border. The U.S. has pledged $20 million in aid to Venezuela, including desperately needed food and medicine, but President Nicolas Maduro has rejected the aid, arguing that Venezuela is not a nation of “beggars” and would pave the way towards a U.S. military invasion. Venezuela’s oil-backed economy is in tatters due to a collapse of world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies. Food, fuel, and many basic goods are in severely short supply and inflation is out of control, forcing millions of Venezuelans to flee to neighboring Colombia. The blocked humanitarian aid marks another chapter in the standoff between Maduro and Juan Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who has declared himself the country’s interim president. More than 40 nations, including the U.S., Canada and many members of the European Union, have backed Guaido’s claim that he…

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Dems Panicked Trump’s Venezuela Policy Will Be Popular with Their Voters

by Tim Pearce   Florida Democrats are praising President Donald Trump’s strong stance against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro while growing increasingly uneasy about Trump’s growing appeal with their base, Politico reports. Trump recognized Venezuelan opposition party leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s rightful president after Maduro declared victory in an election seen as illegitimate by many foreign leaders. The Trump administration is taking steps to weaken the Maduro regime, including slapping sanctions on Venezuelan oil Monday, a blow to the government’s main source of revenue. Trump followed up with a Wednesday phone call with Guaidó, reiterating his support for the opposition leader. Guaidó is under intense pressure by Maduro’s regime and the Venezuelan Supreme Court. He has been barred from leaving his country and is under a possible criminal investigation for anti-government activities. U.S. support for Guaidó is playing well with Florida’s significant Hispanic population, many of which are from or have connections in Latin American countries. “It’s been very frustrating,” Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo (pictured above) of Miami told Politico. “Trump is doing the right thing, and I’m not going to criticize Trump for doing the right thing because you lose credibility.” Taddeo immigrated from Colombia and represents…

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Trump, Guaido to Collaborate on Efforts to Restore Democracy to Venezuela

The White House says President Donald Trump reinforced his “strong support” for efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela during a conversation Wednesday with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has proclaimed himself as the country’s president. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido also committed to maintaining “regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship” between the two countries. Trump said earlier Wednesday that embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is willing to negotiate with representatives of Guaido’s opposition movement to solve the political crisis in the South American nation, but warned Americans not to travel to Venezuela “until further notice.” Trump’s early morning tweet referred to Maduro’s offer to hold talks with the country’s opposition forces and hold early legislative elections. He added the threat of U.S. sanctions, including cutting off Venezuelan oil revenues, contributed to the apparent softening of Maduro’s stance. Maduro made the offer earlier Wednesday during an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency, saying he is willing to sit down at the negotiating table “for the good of Venezuela.” But he said there will not be a new presidential election until 2025, rejecting a demand by Guaido, president…

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Commentary: Today’s Venezuela Is Where Socialism Meets Authoritarianism

by Anthony B. Kim and Ana Quintana   Many on the left have for years cheered Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, as heroes of “21st-century socialism.” Ironically, however, the undeniable downward spiral of Venezuela’s economic freedom and the far-reaching suffering of its people have put the true meaning to those “hero” claims: Socialism and corruption have destroyed Venezuela. In a Jan. 22 Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Venezuela, America Stands With You,” Vice President Mike Pence noted: As I have heard many times from Venezuelans over the past [two] years, Mr. Maduro has exacerbated the country’s corruption and socialist policies, accelerating its descent from one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere to one of the poorest and most despotic,” Pence wrote. “He promised prosperity, but his actions have caused Venezuela’s economy to shrink by nearly 50 [percent]. The vice president added, “For the sake of our vital interests, and for the sake of the Venezuelan people, the U.S. will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles.” Indeed, Venezuela’s decline over the past 25 years, exacerbated by the combined ills of socialism and authoritarianism, is well-documented in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, a data-driven benchmark study…

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Pompeo Urges International Support for Venezuelan Opposition Leader

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro. “Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side,” Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. “No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.” Several European governments, including Britain, Spain, Germany and France, said Saturday they would recognize the 35-year-old Guaido as president if no election is called within eight days. The United States requested the Security Council meeting. Pompeo was accompanied by his newly appointed special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams. Pompeo called the Maduro regime an “illegitimate mafia state” and criticized countries including Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for supporting him. Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia shot back that regime change is “a favorite geopolitical game of the United States,” and he asked Secretary Pompeo directly whether the Trump administration plans to militarily intervene in Venezuela. “Does that mean that the United States is ready to use military force against a sovereign…

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Venezuelan Migrant Crisis Reaching Syria Levels

by Joe Simonson   The massive exodus of Venezuelans to neighboring countries could soon eclipse the number of refugees flowing from Syria at the height of the country’s civil war. More than three million Venezuelans have fled the country and now live in countries like Argentina or even the U.S., according to a review of figures provided by the International Migration Organization and the United Nations Agency for Refugees. More than 330,000 Venezuelans have declared asylum in countries throughout the Americas. Colombia has absorbed the largest amount of migrants, with 1,200,000 Venezuelans currently living there. At the beginning of January 2018, there was an increase of 20,500 percent in asylum seeking applications from Venezuelans compared to one year prior. The United Nations says that from 2012 to November 2018, asylum applications from Venezuelans increased 74,191 percent. For comparison, U.N. figures put the total amount of Syrian asylum seekers during 2015 refugee crisis in Europe at over 450,000. By December 2017, one million Syrians applied for asylum throughout the continent. Globally, roughly five million Syrians are displaced outside of their home country. Nearly three million Syrians currently reside in Turkey. The Caracas Chronicles, a news organization dedicated to covering Venezuela’s economic…

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Commentary: Bernie Sanders Should Be Thrown Out of Politics for Supporting Venezuela’s Oppressors

by Barry Brownstein   Would you use a doctor or dentist who didn’t believe in germ theory and used the same instruments all day without sterilizing them? What would you say if, when their patients developed infections, the doctor or dentist insisted he meant well and argued that capitalism, not germs, causes infections? Allowing such a practitioner to keep their license would be madness. Yet we elect and support politicians who believe something other than socialism causes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. In his Wall Street Journal report Venezuela is Starving, Juan Forero reports on the worsening tragedy: Jean Pierre Planchart, a year old, has the drawn face of an old man and a cry that is little more than a whimper. His ribs show through his skin. He weighs just 11 pounds. His mother, Maria Planchart, tried to feed him what she could find combing through the trash—scraps of chicken or potato. She finally took him to a hospital in Caracas, where she prays a rice-milk concoction keeps her son alive. “I watched him sleep and sleep, getting weaker, all the time losing weight,” said Ms. Planchart, 34 years old. “I never thought I’d see Venezuela like this.”…

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UN Seeks $738 Million To Help Venezuela’s Neighbors Handle Migrant Flood

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking $738 million in 2019 to help neighboring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have “no prospect for return in the short to medium term”. It was the first time that the crisis was included in the U.N. annual global humanitarian appeal which is $21.9 billion for 2019 without Syria. Three million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic crisis in the Andean country, most since 2015, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. “There is one crisis for which we for the first time have a response plan, which is to help the countries neighboring Venezuela deal with the consequences of large numbers of Venezuelans leaving the country,” U.N. emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock told a Geneva news briefing. In Caracas, Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The majority of Venezuelans who have left have gone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, led by Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. “In 2019, an estimated 3.6 million people will be in need of assistance and protection, with no prospects for return in the short to medium term,” the…

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Greta Van Susteren Interviews Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Discuss, China in Panama, Maduro’s Future in Venezuela, and The Caravan

by Greta Van Susteren   VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviewed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday in Mexico City, where Pompeo is traveling. Greta Van Susteren: “Mr. Secretary, nice to see you sir.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “Greta, it’s great to be with you.” Q: “This is your second trip to Mexico but why are you here now in Mexico?” Pompeo: “So as the new government makes this transition, beginning on December 1st, we’re working diligent to make sure we have a solid foreign policy relationship with them so we’re certainly are working with the existing government, I’ll see President (Enrique) Peña Nieto in just a few minutes — was with Foreign Secretary (Luis) Videgaray (Caso) this morning. But also working with my new counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, to make sure that the united states and Mexico coordinated across a broader aware of issues, security, trade and of course migration as well.” Q: “The United States just negotiated a new deal with Mexico and Canada. Let me turn to the issue of the migration, that caravan that is coming up from Guatemala heading to Mexico and then presumably, maybe some place else, maybe the United States. What’s Mexico…

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Venezuela’s New Currency Does Little So Far To Stabilize Economy

Nicolas Maduro

by Hanna Bogorowski   Venezuela introduced a new currency on Aug. 20 as a hopeful solution to the country’s rapidly devaluing currency and skyrocketing inflation rates, but after just a few weeks, Venezuela is already seeing 100 percent inflation. The Venezuelan government issued the new currency, called the “sovereign” bolivar, to replace the “strong” bolivar, NPR reported on the day of the rollout. The new bolivar is worth about 100,000 of the old bolivars, and is pegged to the government’s cryptocurrency, the petro. The Bloomberg Cafe Con Leche Index revealed Thursday that the price of a cup of coffee has risen to 50 bolivars. For comparison, 50 of the new bolivars is 5 million of the old ones, after President Nicolas Maduro removed five zeros on July 25 in an effort to stabilize the economy and simplify transactions. The annual inflation rate is now hitting over 100,000 percent. Venezuela is currently suffering through a five-year crisis that is leaving it with a collapsed economy, hyperinflation and a complete breakdown of public goods and services, including deteriorating roads, food shortages, disturbing water cleanliness, failed electricity, high crime and a lack of adequate medicine for the sick. The conditions in Venezuela are causing mass migration flows out of the…

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Complaint: Too Many White Republicans Accompanied Steve Cohen to South America

Now we know why U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9) traveled to South America at taxpayer expense. As reported, Cohen and eight other congressmen undertook a super-secret mission to meet with Guyanese leaders last week. But many locals reportedly resented the visit. There were just too many white Republican men, according to published reports. Cohen, of course, is a Democrat. The only other Democrat was Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.-52). The remainder of the group were all GOP. According to the Caribbean News Now, the trip was a “fact-finding mission to continue stronger engagement between the two countries.” “During the meeting, discussion centered on Guyana’s political stability, security, border issues with Suriname and Venezuela; Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector and environmental issues,” the website reported. Geologists estimate 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas exist in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, the website reported. Exxon officials have already signed an oil deal with Guyanese-leaders. The Guyanese media portrays the Exxon agreement as “another form of economic-colonization.” Guyana borders Venezuela. According to the BBC, Venezuela’s economy is in freefall due to hyperinflation, power cuts, and food and medicine shortages. A recent New York Post article blames socialism. As…

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In An Effort to Stem Out-of-Control Hyperinflation, Venezuela Cuts ‘Five Zeros’

Nicolas Maduro

Reuters   Venezuela on Monday slashed five zeros from prices as part of a broad economic plan that President Nicolas Maduro says will tame hyperinflation but critics call another raft of failed socialist policies that will push the chaotic country deeper into crisis. Streets were quiet and shops were closed due to a national holiday that Maduro decreed for the first day of the new pricing plan for the stricken economy, which the International Monetary Fund has estimated will have 1 million percent inflation by year end. The price change comes with a 3,000 percent minimum wage hike, tax increases meant to shore up state coffers and a plan to peg salaries, prices and the country’s exchange rate to the petro, an elusive state-backed cryptocurrency. Economists say the plan, which was announced last Friday, is likely to escalate the crisis facing the once-prosperous nation that is now suffering from Soviet-style product shortages and a mass exodus of citizens fleeing for other South American countries. Venezuelans were skeptical the plan will turn the economy around. “I can’t find a cash machine because all the banks are closed today,” said Jose Moreno, 71, a retired engineer in the central city of Valencia,…

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Trump Tax Cuts At Risk: Democrats Conspire to Repeal While Record Low Unemployment Surges

Steve Gill

Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill discussed on Monday’s edition of The Gill Report – broadcast on Knoxville’s 92.3 FM WETR – how Democrats are conspiring to repeal the Trump tax cuts while record low unemployment among Hispanic and African-Americans surge and the federal government rakes in a record amount of individual tax revenue for 2018. “You know we’ve been hearing from the left ever since the Trump tax cuts were passed by the Republican House and Senate with no help at all from the Democrats,” Gill began.  “Democrats – including Democrats like Phil Bredesen who is running for the US Senate – declaring that they were mere crumbs; that they would only help the wealthy and that most Americans wouldn’t see the benefits.” He added: Now keep in mind that the tax cuts for most Americans haven’t gone into effect yet. They haven’t even gone into effect, because they will go fully into effect next year. The tax cuts have been cut for the income earned this year but the benefits the tax payers will see is when they file their tax returns next April 15th. And yet your already seeing companies give bigger bonuses your seeing pay raises you’re…

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Mexico Begins Its Own Road to Perdition with the Election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador

ALMO

by Victor Mata   All Latin-Americans at some point ask themselves: Why is no Latin American country as well-developed as the United States? The answer is probably not related to our weather or a lesser disposition to work, as many have tried to claim. The answer is probably simpler: A socialist culture and a strong attachment to the left. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina are all countries that suffered or are suffering devastating economic, political, and social crises. They are all examples of countries that built their own road to the hell through socialism. This past Sunday was a chance for Mexico to change that trend. Mexico is a country where many people don’t have access to school, where the public health system is extremely deficient, and where it is not safe to walk in the street after 10 p.m. because drug cartels have taken control of some cities. It seems that their citizens took the worst option available to change that reality; they decided to have as a president for the next six years a socialist with damaging populist appeal. His name is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and is known as AMLO. He is usually described as a nationalist and revolutionary linked with the Party…

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Commentary: Three Myths of Socialism Debunked by Venezuela’s Nightmare

Venezuela

by Barry Brownstein   History provides endless examples of vicious despots ruling under various collectivist ideologies. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and – today – Kim Jong-un and Nicolás Maduro may have had different names for their collectivist ideologies, but they have resulted in the deaths of countless millions of people and endless misery for the survivors. Alarmingly, a majority of millennials would prefer to live under socialism or communism. Economically illiterate and ahistorical, they cling to the fantasy that if the right people came to power, they would live in their imagined utopia where society would be ordered according to their whims and wishes. Reporter Anatoly Kurmanaev has lived in and covered Venezuela for the past five years. He describes his experience of the Venezuelan meltdown in a recent essay for the Wall Street Journal, “The Tragedy of Venezuela.” Kurmanaev grew up in Russia in the 1990s and witnessed “corruption, violence and degradation.” “Venezuela’s collapse has been far worse than the chaos” he experienced in Russia. In my FEE essay, “Venezuela’s Road to Literal Serfdom,” I cover delusions people have about socialism. Through the eyes of Kurmanaev’s reporting, we can further explore myths about socialism still embraced by many. Myth 1: Collectivists Care More About the Poor No…

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After Retrieving American from Venezuela Prison, Senator Bob Corker Urges Dialogue with Socialist Dictator Maduro

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is urging engagement with Venezuela’s socialist government after he traveled to the South American nation to bring home a Utah man jailed for two years without a trial. Joshua Holt is scheduled to return to Salt Lake City on Monday night after receiving medical care and visiting President Donald Trump in Washington. He was released over the weekend following secret, backchannel negotiations between members of the U.S. Congress and Venezuelan officials. Corker meets with Maduro Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee traveled to Caracas on Friday to seal the deal with President Nicolas Maduro that would bring Holt home. Corker stressed in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that “nothing was asked, and nothing was given” in exchange for Holt’s freedom. But he said the 26-year-old’s release as a goodwill gesture by Maduro shows what can be achieved through dialogue with the United States’ adversaries. “In my conversations privately, I could not be more strident in my criticisms of the way the Venezuela government has handled itself. I’ve seen in Venezuela people lined up outside grocery stores just to buy toilet paper,” Corker said. But he contrasted the hardliner approach toward…

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Bob Corker Meets with Venezuelan Dictator on Friday, American Prisoner Released on Saturday

Bob Corker Meets Venezuela Dictator

UPDATE, Saturday 10:45 a.m. President Trump tweeted early Saturday morning that American Josh Holt has been released from a Venezuelan prison: Good news about the release of the American hostage from Venezuela. Should be landing in D.C. this evening and be in the White House, with his family, at about 7:00 P.M. The great people of Utah will be very happy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018 Senator Marco Rubio (R-TN) tweeted about two hours ago that Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT) has secured the release of Utah resident Josh Holt from a Venezuelan prison. Notably, Rubio made no mention of Sen. Bob Corker’s (R-TN) meeting with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Friday.   .@senorrinhatch has worked tirelessly to bring this innocent young man & his bride home. It is unfortunate he had to go through this. Josh & Thamy Holt had nothing to do with internal politics in #Venezuela #GodisGood https://t.co/FgMUNOPcit — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 26, 2018 In his statement announcing the release, however, Hatch thanked Corker for his “pivotal” efforts: BREAKING: Senator Hatch has secured the release of Utahn Josh Holt from Venezuela. #utpol pic.twitter.com/q9bPIVHgmk — Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) May 26, 2018 Saturday,…

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White House: U.S. ‘Stands with the People of Venezuela’

President Donald Trump refused to grant Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s request for a phone call Friday and urged citizens to continue to resist the “continued oppression by the Maduro regime.” Venezuela has been the scene of many anti-government protests since February 2014 — less than a year after Maduro became president and began to undermine the…

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Trump Administration May Be Inching Toward ‘Regime Change’ in Syria, Iran and Venezuela

The Trump administration and Congress appear to be inching toward policies of regime change in at least three countries — Iran, Syria and Venezuela — in what would be a dramatic reversal of the non-interventionism that Donald Trump advocated during the campaign. In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 14, Secretary of…

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