Tag Archive for: Nicolas Maduro

Venezuela: Amid socialist humanitarian crisis, no improvement in human rights

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The human rights situation in Venezuela has been dire for many years, with little indication of improvement. Since 2014, there have been 15,800 politically motivated arrests, and over 270 political prisoners continue to languish in Venezuelan jails.

The misguided economic policies implemented by successive socialist governments have led to 19 million people facing malnutrition and a severe lack of healthcare. Consequently, a staggering 7.7 million individuals, out of a population of just over 29 million, have fled the country since 2014.

The government has even taken the drastic step of closing the UN Human Rights Office, purportedly due to its alleged involvement in anti-government activities. Furthermore, new legislation threatens to criminalise and impede the work of civil society within the country.

Once considered one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America, Venezuela has descended into a socialist dystopia marred by authoritarianism, a dearth of human rights, insufficient government investment, hyperinflation, rampant corruption, economic mismanagement, the collapse of public services, economic hardship, shortages, and widespread hunger. Currently, fifty percent of the population lives in poverty.

Popular tyrant

Socialism was introduced in Venezuela by Hugo Chávez, a populist who held the presidency from 1999 until his death in 2013. Chávez implemented the nationalisation of industries and directed public funds towards social programs. As a result, schools saw improvement, the unemployment rate halved, and per capita incomes more than doubled. Moreover, both the poverty rate and infant mortality rates decreased by 50 percent.

Chávez was widely praised domestically for his stance against the United States, famously referring to President George W. Bush as “the devil”. Following Chávez’s death from cancer, Nicolás Maduro succeeded him as president.

While Chavez was a charismatic populist, one of the most notable distinctions lies in his ability to forge a coalition comprising leftists, military personnel, and the poor. Furthermore, Chavez was lucky. He capitalised on a surge in oil prices during his presidency. As a prime example of a petrostate, Venezuela’s fortunes are directly tied to the rise and fall of global oil prices. Chavez successfully directed a portion of the $1 trillion windfall in oil revenue towards appeasing the public and solidifying his grip on power.

Despite his widespread popularity, Chavez operated as a dictator and tyrant. He expanded state control over oil companies and suppressed journalists and critics, essentially outlawing government criticism. Consolidating nearly all power into his own hands, he eradicated checks and balances.

Nonetheless, he maintained the façade of democracy by holding elections. Winning 13 out of 14 elections lent an aura of legitimacy to his regime. He utilised state funds for his campaigns and exerted influence over journalists to portray him favourably, although he refrained from outright election fraud. Moreover, he survived a coup attempt, bolstering his image and authority.

Economic woes

Maduro lacks the charisma of Chavez. While Chavez had a military background, Maduro’s career path was rooted in communism. He pursued studies in Cuba, was affiliated with the Socialist League — an extreme left-wing organisation — and prior to entering government, he worked as a union negotiator.

He lost much of Chavez’s support base, securing election with a mere 50.6 percent of the vote. Consequently, he has governed the country as an autocrat. Besides lacking Chavez’s charisma and broad consensus, Maduro hasn’t enjoyed his predecessor’s luck: oil prices plummeted in 2014, leading to the complete collapse of the Venezuelan economy.

At times, annual inflation has soared to as high as 700 percent, reaching about 300 percent in 2022. Between 2015 and 2016, an estimated seventy-five percent of the country’s population experienced an average weight loss of 19 pounds. Diseases such as malaria have ravaged the nation due to the inability of people to afford imported medicines.

While Chavez allocated funds to improve citizens’ lives, he failed to diversify the economy away from oil dependency. Maduro has perpetuated this legacy by neglecting structural economic reforms and instead imposing stricter government controls. He restricted currency exchange systems, leaving ordinary citizens unable to afford medicine, basic household goods, and imported foods that must be purchased with dollars.

In the socialist utopia of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, everyone is purportedly equal, except for those with connections to the Maduro government. They have access to discounted dollars and can afford imported goods, which now encompass almost all but the most essential food items for survival. Necessities like toilet paper must be imported and purchased with dollars. Despite being a major oil producer, the country even grapples with fuel shortages.

Even individuals fortunate enough to possess dollars or receive remittances from friends and family abroad are not immune to the effects of inflation.

For instance, a woman who sells cigarettes and small items on the street disclosed that she earns approximately $20 a week. However, due to the relentless surge in prices, this income barely covers 15 eggs, 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of corn flour, and a small portion of grain and cheese.

In Venezuela, the average monthly salary in the private sector stands at $139, while it’s a mere $14 in the public sector. Nevertheless, the grocery expenses for an average family amount to about $370 per month.

Deteriorating

Maduro has faced widespread protests and blocked a referendum because he understood that he wouldn’t secure victory, given his approval rating, which frequently dips to as low as 20 percent. Subsequently, he directed the Supreme Court to dissolve a portion of the legislature that opposed him. The state of democracy in Venezuela is deteriorating rapidly.

Recently, a new National Electoral Council (CNE) was formed, and several presidential candidates were disqualified. Additionally, opposition party members were detained prior to elections, indicating that the electoral process is likely to be more of a spectacle than a meaningful exercise in democracy.

Last year, a new National Electoral Council (CNE) was formed, and several presidential candidates were disqualified. Moreover, opposition party members were detained prior to elections, indicating that the electoral process is likely to be more of a spectacle than a substantive exercise in democracy.

Union workers, journalists, and human rights defenders have faced increasing restrictions on their access to civic spaces. Additionally, they’ve endured harassment and persecution orchestrated by the authorities. The rights of indigenous people, as well as those of LGBT individuals and women, have been egregiously disregarded. Notably, a YouTuber was recently charged with terrorism merely for challenging government policies.

The crackdown on dissenters has escalated, with critics subjected to surveillance, harassment, and criminalisation. In the most severe instances, they’ve become victims of torture and murder. In 2017, he secured victory in a rigged election. During this election cycle, he successfully postponed elections for an entire year, but they are anticipated to resume in October 2024. If these elections were fair and transparent, his defeat would be inevitable.

In what appears to be an effort to bolster the country’s revenues and alleviate the people’s suffering ahead of the next election, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro enacted a law annexing the oil-rich region of Essequibo in neighbouring Guyana. A consultative referendum was conducted on this decision last December, garnering a staggering 96 percent approval from the populace.

As per a statement from the presidential palace, Guayana Esequiba will now be recognised as the 24th federal state of Venezuela. Moreover, the inhabitants of the newly annexed territory will be represented in the upcoming parliamentary session in 2025. However, Guyana has sought a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), although Venezuelan law asserts that the ICJ holds no jurisdiction within the country.

Change in Venezuela appears elusive until Maduro is ousted from power. However, considering his influence over the upcoming elections, it seems unlikely that he will relinquish control voluntarily. The prospect of international military intervention in Venezuela is highly improbable, given the likelihood of opposition from Security Council members China and Russia. As for the alternatives of assassination or coup, history has demonstrated that such actions typically do not lead to positive outcomes, often resulting in the replacement of one authoritarian leader with another.

Can Venezuela’s parlous condition be reversed? Sound off in the comments section below.

AUTHOR

Antonio Graceffo, PhD, China-MBA MBA, is a China economic analyst teaching economics at the American University in Mongolia. He has spent 20 years in Asia and is the author of six books about China. His writing has appeared in The Diplomat, South China Morning Post, Jamestown Foundation China Brief, Penthouse, Shanghai Institute of American Studies, Epoch Times, War on the Rocks, Just the News, and Black Belt Magazine.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Biden Targets and Deports Legitimate Asylum Seekers to Venezuelan Jails

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The installed Marxist dictatorship operating in the White House ran by the corrupt Joe Biden and his evil entourage continue to work closely with the criminal Narco Communist (indicted by the former Trump Administration) the installed President of Communist Venezuela Nicolas Maduro.

Former President Trump’s State Department offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of this Narco drug trafficking Communist installed President of Venezuela.

Under the current Biden Administration, whether it’s buying Communist controlled oil from Caracas or deporting Venezuelans with legitimate asylum cases (who fear for their lives) back to Venezuela, Joe Biden is the epitome of pure Marxist tyranny undermining everything Trump put in place to help defeat this horrible Communist regime.

In order to help dismantle and block the flow of hard currency like U.S. dollars into Venezuela (which went directly to the Communist government), former President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 13884 on August 5th 2019 preventing American citizens from engaging in pretty much all financial transactions with the Venezuelan government. Biden is an American citizen right?

The corrupt Marxist Joe Biden has since been aiding the Marxist Maduro government obtain US dollars by lifting sanctions and purchasing Venezuelan oil which has injected millions and millions of dollars into Maduro’s Marxist regime.

This has significantly helped fund the Venezuelan military and expand the reach of Communist Venezuela enabling Maduro to threaten Venezuela’s local neighbors like the free country of Guyana.

Former President Trump also signed an Executive Order limiting the communist government of Maduro from liquidating assets after the sham/fraud election in Venezuela in 2018. We too experienced a sham fraud election in the USA in 2020.

An estimated 4 – 6 million Venezuelans have fled this Communist dictatorship over the years to countries like the United States, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Central America.

Including my fiancée living here in Bogotá Colombia who was granted a protective status order by the conservative Colombian congress giving her legal residency here in Colombia for ten years.

The economic destruction of Venezuela by the Communist dictatorship has led to 14,000 percent inflation decimating the minimum wage to a value of less than $2 a month.

The United States is on the same inflationary path as Venezuela as evident by the insane tax and spend and printing of dollars to fund more government socialist crap being intentionally inflicted on our republic by the Biden Administrations reign of terror.

Very important. Former President Trump gave Venezuelans in exile in the United States protection from deportation.

Before leaving office Trump used the Deferred Enforced Departure Program or DED giving temporary legal status to Venezuelans who escaped from the humanitarian crisis created by Maduro’s Communist dictatorship.

Trump put his strong Presidential arm of protection around these good people providing Venezuelans and Cubans an opportunity to get work permits in the USA.

All this while the fake news media in the USA controlled by the Communist Democrats called Trump a racist who hates Latinos and Latina’s all because he wants a secure border.

Only the President has this authority using the DED process overriding the Department of Homeland Security. Now Comrade Biden does the opposite.

Biden, the corrupt Marxist in the White House understands these good people from Venezuela and Cuba given asylum by former President Trump are possibly future Republicans and or political conservative independent voters like myself.

Thus Biden has been coordinating with the Marxist Maduro in Venezuela and the Cuban government in Havana by deporting these courageous Venezuelans and Cubans granted asylum by Trump.

They are continually being rounded up from cities like Miami and deported to Caracas and Havana many of whom are now in Venezuelan and Cuban jails as political prisoners.

As an example, former Venezuelan helicopter pilot lieutenant Pedro Naranjo and his father a retired General in the Venezuelan army plotted against the Venezuelan dictator Maduro to free their country from his tyrannical fist of oppression.

They both finally fled to the USA together out of fear of their lives.

Trump offered them sanctuary but the Biden Administration ordered the deportation of this brave helicopter pilot back to Venezuela.

Lieutenant Pedro Naranjo formerly free in the USA with an extensive knowledge of the Venezuelan flight school operations critical to help US military intelligence now sits in a Venezuelan military prison as a political prisoner of Maduro thanks to Joe Biden.

Lieutenant Naranjo’s father is still in political limbo in the USA separated from his son with threat of a Venezuelan prison after he’s deported much like many of the J6 protesters who are now political prisoners of the corrupt Biden installed government.

In November 2024 we MUST re-elect President Trump and we the people must remove this illegitimate President Joe Biden from office via the electoral process and ensure the integrity of our elections by banning mail in ballots.

Not only for the sake of our Republic but for global peace and security and freedom for the good citizens of Venezuela, Cuba and all of Central and South America.

©2023. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

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Here’s How Biden Could Embroil America In Yet Another Foreign War

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  • The Biden administration could put U.S. troops on the ground in Guyana to defend the threatened democracy against a Venezuelan invasion, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • Although an invasion is unlikely, recent U.S. actions send a signal to Venezuela that America is prepared to intervene if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro acts on his pledge.
  • “The U.S. should work to create strong disincentives for Venezuela to carry out any aggression, including helping to establish stronger military deterrence. It remains to be seen how compelling these disincentives will be and how Maduro will respond to them,” Daniel Batlle, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former State Department official, told the DCNF.

The Biden administration could be compelled to put U.S. military boots on the ground to defend Guyana, a democratic South American country with a history of cooperation with the U.S., from a potential Venezuelan invasion, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to annex by force large swaths of oil-rich territory in neighboring Guyana following a manufactured referendum as troops mass on both sides of the border in a bid to consolidate support for the country’s 2024 elections. A full-scale invasion resembling Russia’s attempt to conquer Ukraine is unlikely, but possible, placing pressure on the U.S., and international partners, to respond in defense of a democratic country, the experts told the DCNF.

The Biden administration would want to intervene to show it will “credibly defend its friends against external aggression,” just as it has done with Israel and Ukraine, Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, told the DCNF. “Once we make that commitment, it sends a very strong signal that we can’t just walk away from.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged “unwavering support” for Guyana’s sovereignty.

Other experts questioned the administration’s commitment to defending democratic partners in light of sweeping sanctions relief Biden offered Venezuela in the fall of 2023 in exchange for yet-unfulfilled promises to conduct legitimate elections and free political prisoners — which could further embolden Maduro.

“It is unclear what precisely is motivating the current administration in its policy toward Venezuela, but it is clearly not democracy, human rights, or electoral freedom. I do not see how anyone, including the Maduro regime, will take American threats seriously when they offer sanctions relief under such insane conditions,” former Deputy Special Representative for Venezuela Carrie Filipetti told the DCNF.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has made conspicuous shows of force as Maduro carried out a national referendum on the annexation question. Such displays are “firm, clear signals” from the U.S. that if Venezuela takes action, “it will not be unopposed,” Ellis told the DCNF.

SOUTHCOM and the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) conducted flight operations in country on Dec. 7, according to the U.S. Embassy in Guyana.

“This exercise builds upon routine engagement and operations to enhance security partnership between the United States and Guyana, and to strengthen regional cooperation,” the embassy said in the statement.

In an unusual step, U.S. Air Force special operations later showed several videos of an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship, equipped with precision-guided missiles and cannons capable of “measured, but ruinous fire” that can rip people and armored vehicles to shreds, training against targets.

Guyanese President Irfaan Ali and Maduro met Thursday to hash out an agreement on where the border line should be drawn, and both sides agreed not to use force, the Associated Press reported. But they did resolve the issue.

“I have made it very clear that on the issue of the border controversy, Guyana’s position is non-negotiable,” Ali said in a national broadcast, indicating that any negotiations over the territory are likely to be fraught.

Maduro claimed sovereignty over the territory encompassing two-thirds of Guyana, which also includes the coastline near two massive offshore oil deposits, according to The New York Times. The claim depends on a referendum held to shore up his control over domestic politics and built on an internationally-unrecognized pretext of historical control over Essequibo.

On Dec. 5, Maduro ordered state-owned oil companies to begin granting licenses and doing exploration in Essequibo, the Financial Times reported.

He likely won’t order an invasion, experts told the DCNF. The Venezuelan military is afraid of revealing systemic deficiencies, but more importantly, Maduro could put his regime at risk by becoming embroiled in protracted fighting through inhospitable jungles against guerilla forces.

And, there’s the possibility of U.S. involvement, most likely alongside other countries.

“Maduro could essentially stumble into hostilities, whether it’s sending troops to the border or something that sparks military action, and that’s always a risk,” Ellis told the DCNF.

“The U.S. has to be careful of portraying the image that it is acting unilaterally in South America, especially in a militarized manner,” Aileen Teague, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies U.S. history and relations with Latin America, told the DCNF. “Working through diplomatic channels is the United States’ best option for success. ”

Any American-led intervention would not take place without extensive coordination with regional and global partners, including Brazil, which has massed troops on the border to ward off Venezuelan aggression, the experts said.

The GDF comprises of just 3,000 troops compared to Venezuela’s estimated 130,000 active duty and 1.6 million paramilitary troops.

But the U.S. can “wreak havoc on those Venezuelan forces within that jungle environment by  taking advantage of the ability to control the air and do select targeting,” Ellis explained, to “essentially make the few roads that are there impassable” for the Venezuelan military and supply lines.

“You basically turn an occupying force very quickly into a lot of Venezuelans trapped in a jungle,” he said.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter, defense.

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Marxists Are Killing Each Other to Control America’s Cocaine Market

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The deadliest Marxist guerrilla force is fighting the biggest socialist regime.

“Socialism, this is the path to save the planet, I don’t have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell,” Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez told the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference.

Rhetoric like that won the socialist dictator the admiration of socialists from Barack Obama to Noam Chomsky. But the dirty little secret of the socialist revolution in Venezuela was that it was a front for a massive drug smuggling operation. Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, gutted Venezuela’s rich oil resources and turned the country into a socialist drug cartel.

“Venezuela and its revolution will endure under the proven leadership of vice president Maduro,” Sean Penn promised. The population has fled or is starving, but the revolution endures.

In 2020, Maduro and top officials of his regime were indicted in the United States as leaders of the Cartel de los Soles for conspiring with FARC to smuggle tons of cocaine to the United States. Venezuela’s biggest asset was its border with Colombia. Cuba, which had backed FARC and other narcoterrorists in Colombia, scored a big win with the socialist takeover in Venezuela.

FARC, a Marxist-Leninist narcoterrorist group, coordinated with Venezuela’s government to smuggle drugs to Cuba and from there to the United States. Every day planes take off from Venezuela delivering hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine each year meant for America.

Hugo Chavez once claimed that capitalism destroyed Mars. There’s no word on that, but his brand of socialism certainly destroyed Venezuela taking it from prosperity to starvation.

And it’s destroying the rest of the region.

Marxists smuggling cocaine aren’t exactly showcasing an ideal alternative socialist economic system to free enterprise. The Colombian-Venezuelan drug route is being threatened, not by Colombia which was pressured by Obama into giving in to FARC, but by two groups of Marxist-Leninist coke fiends who are fighting it out over the drug trade like filthy capitalists.

The National Liberation Army (ELN), a Marxist-Leninist terror group set up by the Cubans, has been fighting a FARC splinter group known as the 10th Front or the Eastern Bloc. Both leftist terror groups are Marxist-Leninist in orientation, although ELN has a lot more liberation theology in the mix, and both make their money from drugs and the occasional kidnapping.

ELN and the 10th Front aren’t fighting over ideological differences, but over drugs and money.

A fawning article in Jacobin magazine describes ELN as a “group of students” who were “inspired by the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara, and Liberation Theology”. The four page article never mentions cocaine even though that’s what ELN actually does. Last year, Colombia seized $300 million in cocaine from the Marxist-Leninist narcoterrorist organization.

Che would be proud.

After FARC’s implosion as a viable force, Venezuela’s government formed a drug smuggling alliance with ELN. That drew it into a conflict with the 10th Front which is now conducting a guerrilla war against Venezuela. After a long alliance, FARC and Venezuela are fighting each other with the most fearsome Marxist guerrilla force in the region fighting the leading Socialist regime. The same forces that had terrorized Colombia for so long have turned on each other.

Venezuelan soldiers are dying in border clashes, and invading Colombia to terrorize local villagers in the hopes of shutting down the ELN’s Marxist drug rivals. They’re getting blown up, ambushed, and shot up when they’re not being hit with human rights violations complaints.

It’s socialism at its finest.

The 10th Front is allied with Brazil’s Red Command which was born as a prison pact between Communists and criminals under the slogan, “Peace, Justice and Freedom”. Red Command is involved in Brazil’s drug trafficking at every level from slum dealing to club parties for the children of the elite. The Red Command helps the 10th Front remain in the field even though Cuba is on the side of Venezuela and the ELN narcoterrorists that it had originally set up.

Neither side is even bothering to pretend that this is about any kind of ideological differences.

What’s at stake here is a simple matter of market economics. Americans spend about $25 billion on coke every year. Moving drugs through Central America to the Caribbean provides a piece of not only the American, but the European cocaine market. The rival Marxist drug smugglers are competing to be the exclusive suppliers of Colombian cocaine to that huge market.

Think of it as the cola wars, but with actual cocaine. The glorious Marxist revolution is down to two groups of Marxist-Leninists killing each other to make a killing on cocaine in California.

It’s like Coke vs. Pepsi if both companies were run by Marxist druglord terrorists.

When Obama pushed Colombia to cut a peace deal with FARC and then cut off the flow of Cuban refugees, he also helped restart the flow of cocaine to America from Cuba. The subsequent collapse of Venezuela’s economy and its oil industry has left it few options. Smuggling cocaine takes a lot less skill than refining crude or running a country. And Venezuela’s military makes it the best armed drug cartel in the hemisphere, if not the planet.

Which other drug cartel in the region has its own attack helicopters to deploy in the field?

But Venezuelan soldiers are paid with food and worthless scrip. FARC and ELN recruits are often local peasants who are kidnapped and drafted into the fight. The real money goes to the elites on both sides of a drug war that is now a cocaine civil war between narcosocialists.

Karl Marx claimed that capitalism was destined to destroy itself. Instead, Marxist regimes and movements hold the world record for self-destruction. South of the border the Marxists who once won the hearts of the American Left have become drug dealers shooting it out in the jungle over who gets a cut of the cocaine that ends up in the noses of their Yankee comrades.

Marx had metaphorically called religion the opiate of the masses. Marxism has become the actual cocaine of the masses. Just ask the Marxist-Leninists kidnapping, torturing and killing each other to socialize the cocaine market.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.