Tag: Venezuela

Regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua Among the Most Undemocratic in the World, According to The Economist

ADN America
Cuban Flag on Pole

The British magazine The Economist released the  2022 Democracy Index on Thursday, in which Cuba appears in 139th place, among 165 independent states. Once again the government of the country was described as an “authoritarian regime” and in this edition it scored zero in the indicator of electoral processes and pluralism.

The Havana regime also appears among the worst in the categories civil liberties (2.94 out of 10), political participation (3.33), government functioning (3.21) and political culture (3.75).

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Biden Administration Playing ‘Shell Game’ to Mask Illegal Immigration, Former CBP Chief Alleges

Just the News

Even as the illegal immigration crisis along America’s southern border continues to worsen, Biden administration officials are resorting to sleight of hand to downplay the number of migrants crossing into the U.S., alleges former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan.

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Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina Have the Highest Inflation in Latin America

ADN America

Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina registered the highest inflation in 2022 compared to other Latin American countries, according to figures from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and BCC reports .

The report covers the period between October 2021 and October 2022, where the highest growth of the index is led by the Caribbean country, which accumulates an increase in inflation of 146%, exceeding that of Argentina by more than 50 percentage points (87 8%), the second on the list, and Cuba, which ranked third with 34.2%.

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Biden Admin to Give Chevron Oil Pumping License in Venezuela: Report

Ohio Star Staff

The Biden administration is set to give Chevron Corp. a license to pump oil in Venezuela, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As part of the deal, Chevron would retain partial control of both production and maintenance for a select set of run-down oil fields it previously had stakes in with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, a state-run oil company in Venezuela, according to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal, which is contingent on certain debts being repaid, would also mean President Joe Biden is continuing to move away from sanctioning the socialist regime.

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Commentary: Karl Marx’s Gravest Miscalculation

Ohio Star Staff

I recently had occasion to re-read Karl Marx’s seminal Communist Manifesto. It had been nearly twenty years since my first reading of the text in graduate school and I remembered little beyond class antagonisms, Marx’s materialism, and the exploitation of the proletariat. But the ongoing crisis in Venezuela led me to once again reflect on the Socialist and Communist Philosophy underneath the unfolding crisis.

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Biden Admin to Expel Illegal Migrants from Venezuela, Provide Thousands of Others a Legal Pathway

Ohio Star Staff

The Biden administration will begin expelling some illegal migrants from Venezuela to Mexico, while giving 24,000 others a legal pathway to enter the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday.

U.S. border authorities will return Venezuelan migrants who cross illegally to Mexico; however, if they cross the border at a U.S. port of entry and meet certain requirements, including having a U.S. sponsor, they will be allowed to enter and apply for work authorization, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

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Biden Turns to Communist Dictatorship for Oil After OPEC Slashes Production

Admin

The Biden administration proposed a deal that will ease sanctions on Venezuela, allowing Chevron to pump oil in the country after the consortium agreed to its largest production cut since the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The U.S. will unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars of Venezuelan state funds held up in American banks and in exchange, the country will allow Chevron to produce oil on its lands, according to the WSJ, which cited sources familiar with the deal. The proposal comes after OPEC agreed earlier on Wednesday to cut oil production by two million barrels a day, a decision the White House called “shortsighted,” according to a statement.

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Biden Once Again Turns to Venezuela for Oil After Shutting Down U.S. Leases

Ohio Star Staff

The Biden Administration is reportedly set to announce that it will lift several sanctions and other restrictions on Venezuela, allowing for the purchase of oil from the socialist dictatorship.

As reported by The Daily Caller, two anonymous administration officials said that the federal government will soon ease up some of the energy sanctions against the Latin American country, and will allow the American oil company Chevron to enter into negotiations to purchase oil from the state-owned firm PDVSA. In return for the lifting of sanctions, dictator Nicolas Maduro has tentatively agreed to talks with opposition leader Juan Guadio, who has claimed that Maduro’s rule is illegitimate and that he is the rightful president of Venezuela.

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State Department to Waive Fees for Immigrants Denied Visas During Travel Ban to Reapply

Ohio Star Staff

The State Department will waive fees for immigrants seeking visas to come to the U.S. if they were previously denied one because of the Trump administration’s travel ban, according to a Wednesday announcement.

“An IV applicant who is the beneficiary of a valid immigration petition may submit another visa application after being refused and in most circumstances they are required to pay again the relevant application fees,” according to a Federal Register rule published Wednesday. “The Department exempts from such fees only those IV applicants who are applying again after being refused” a visa under the travel ban.

The ban prevented immigration from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. President Joe Biden issued an executive order repealing the ban on his first day in office in January 2021.

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Amid U.S. Nuclear Talks, Iran Provokes by Firing Missiles, Inviting Venezuelan Leader for Visit

Ohio Star Staff
missile firing into the sky

Iran fired missiles in a provocation toward Israel and invited Venezuela’s socialist leader for a visit as it continued to antagonize the West in the midst of slow-moving negotiations to stop Tehran’s nuclear program.

The official IRNA news agency reported the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired 16 surface-to-surface missiles Friday at the end of five days of military drills in the desert, airing footage of the missile launches and suggesting it was a warning to Israel.

“These exercises were designed to respond to threats made in recent days by the Zionist regime,” Major General Mohammad Bagheri told the state television network.

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Venezuela Judge Convicts Six American Oil Execs, Orders Prison

The Associated Press

Six American oil executives held for three years in Venezuela were found guilty of corruption charges by a judge Thursday and immediately sentenced to prison, dashing hopes of a quick release that would send them home to their families in the United States.

Some relatives had been bracing for the disheartening outcome, which came on the evening of Thanksgiving Day.

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Sidney Powell ‘Releases the Kraken’ in Georgia Lawsuit

Corinne Murdock

Attorney Sidney Powell filed her “Biblical” lawsuit on Wednesday in Georgia, making good on her promise to “release the Kraken.” The defendants were named as Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and State Election Board members David Worley, Rebecca Sullivan, Matthew Mashburn, and Anh Le. The lawsuit called into question around 146,600 votes at minimum.

The 104-page lawsuit claimed that Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) engaged in virtual ballot-stuffing through its electronic voting software. It bolstered its claim by alleging that the software design was created to manipulate the Venezuelan elections of Hugo Chavez, and was designed in a way to hide vote manipulations from any audits.

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Smartmatic Voting Technology Firm Linked to Alleged Fraud in Elections in Philippines, Venezuela

Jason M. Reynolds

Smartmatic, a voting technology company that Trump’s lawyers have called out from the Nov. 3 election, has been linked to allegedly fraudulent elections in the Philippines and socialist Venezuela, foreign outlets have previously reported.

Sidney Powell, President Donald Trump’s election lawyer, spoke to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday on the many legal challenges that are active in several states and concerns about Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, The Tennessee Star reported.

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US Tries to Seize Iranian Gas Heading Toward Venezuela

The Associated Press

U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to seize four tankers sailing toward Venezuela with gasoline supplied by Iran, the latest attempt to disrupt ever-closer trade ties between the two heavily sanctioned anti-American allies.

The civil-forfeiture complaint filed late Wednesday in the District of Columbia federal court alleges that the sale was arranged by a businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

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Trump: ‘I Just Want to Get a Vaccine That Works,’ Touts Vaccine by End of Year; Trump Moves Signal Maduro Regime Now on the Clock

Neil W. McCabe

  Trump at the Lincoln Memorial President Donald Trump told Fox News anchor Brett Baier and Martha McCollum he expects a COVID-19 vaccine before the end of the year at Sunday night’s virtual town hall held at the Lincoln Memorial. “Look, a vaccine has never gone like it’s gone now,”…

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Commentary: The Big Red Fake News Machine

Ohio Star Staff

In the late 1990s, Latin America underwent a seismic shift away from its northern neighbor as a result of the domineering and interventionist policies of successive U.S. administrations dating back to the 19th century. This led to the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez Frias as president of Venezuela, and a chain reaction of similar governments of varying leftist ideological stringency coming to power in nations such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, and Ecuador. 

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Eight Industries Venezuela Nationalized (Besides Oil)

Ohio Star Staff
Caracas, Venezuela

Venezuela has experienced one of the sharpest economic declines in modern history—rampant inflation, near-famine, and an exodus of millions of asylum seekers. Yet there remains disagreement over what caused it.

Many refuse to blame socialism, instead citing the collapse of oil prices, corruption, its abandonment of democracy, and other factors. If socialism did play a role, it was a small one, says Venezuelan writer Francisco Toro in the Washington Post, citing “a unique mix of circumstances, in which socialism is just one ingredient.”

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‘Cowardice’: Nikki Haley Takes Aim At Ocasio-Cortez, Omar And Sanders Over Venezuela

Ohio Star Staff

by Peter Hasson   Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sharply criticized three prominent Democrats — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — for going soft on Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship. “On the fringes of the left, celebrity politicians…

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Commentary: The ‘Linda Problem’ and Why Democratic Socialists Flunk Logic 101

Ohio Star Staff

by Barry Brownstein   Consider the following facts: Venezuela is a country with vast natural resources. Once it was one of the wealthiest countries in South America. Venezuela nationalized many vital industries such as oil. Price controls were instituted, and hyperinflation destroyed savings. Supermarket shelves emptied, and some even killed zoo…

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Oil Markets Shrug Off Venezuela’s Political Unrest Thanks to U.S. Energy Boom

Ohio Star Staff

by Michael Bastach   When Juan Guaido launched his coup attempt, oil markets didn’t do what they typically do in the face of supply threats. Instead, markets largely shrugged off Venezuelan unrest instead of sending prices soaring. That’s because of two factors: mismanagement by Venezuela’s socialist government and the U.S. energy boom.…

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Ilhan Omar Blames America for Venezuela Chaos and ‘Devastation’

Ohio Star Staff

by Molly Prince   Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar stated Wednesday American policies were the catalyst for the armed conflict that tore through the Venezuelan capital of Caracas a day earlier, rather than blaming socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. “You know, I mean, a lot of the policies that we have…

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Pompeo: US Prepared for Military Intervention in Venezuela

Ohio Star Staff

  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States is prepared to intervene militarily to stem the ongoing unrest in Venezuela. “Military action is possible,” the top U.S. diplomat told the Fox Business Network. “If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do.” However, he…

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Mike Pence Urges UN to Recognize Venezuela’s Guaido

Ohio Star Staff

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called on the United Nations on Wednesday to “stand up for democracy” and recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as that country’s legitimate leader. “While other international bodies have acted, the United Nations and this Security Council have refused to act,” Pence told a meeting…

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Pence Announces More Sanctions on Venezuela as Chaos Continues Under Socialist Dictator

Ohio Star Staff

by Evie Fordham   The U.S. will impose even more sanctions on Venezuela after recognizing the rival of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro as the country’s leader in January, Vice President Mike Pence announced Friday at Rice University in Houston. The U.S. is targeting 34 vessels owned or operated by the…

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US Poised to Pump Dollars Into Venezuela After Maduro

Ohio Star Staff

The United States is prepared to pump U.S. dollars into Venezuela to fortify the economy if President Nicolas Maduro leaves, the top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Wednesday. Kudlow told reporters that Washington is already working with banks and the International Monetary Fund on a rebuilding plan to…

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Trump: Russian Military Must ‘Get Out’ of Venezuela

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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The Battleground State Report Talks ‘Rise of the Socialist Dictator’ and How Florida Could Move to the Red Column

Julie Carr

On Friday’s Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy and Dough Kellett – a one hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication rollout discussed the recent rise in socialist dictatorship in Venezuela which evidence has produced an obvious escalation…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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US Imposes Sanctions on Venezuelan Officials for Blocking Aid

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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Trump Speech to Warn of ‘Dangers of Socialism’

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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Venezuela Barricades Key Border Crossing to Block Humanitarian Aid

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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Commentary: Today’s Venezuela Is Where Socialism Meets Authoritarianism

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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Pompeo Urges International Support for Venezuelan Opposition Leader

Ohio Star Staff

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.…

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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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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

Ohio Star Staff

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…

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

Admin
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,…

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