Venezuela's socialists move closer to fascism as socialist Supreme Court shuts down Congress

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Venezuela court effectively shuts down congress as opposition cries ‘coup’

CUENCA, ECUADOR - In a move rejected throughout the region and decried as a “coup” by the opposition, Venezuela’s Supreme Court effectively shut down congress, saying it would assume all legislative functions amid its contention that legislators are operating outside of the law.

The decision will undoubtedly increase tensions in the South American nation where the opposition-controlled congress was seen as a last bastion of dissent. The move is also a slap at the international community, which just this week was pressing the socialist administration to respect the role of the legislature and to hold new elections.

As news spread about the ruling, condemnation was swift. Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro said it was tantamount to a “self-inflicted coup” and called for an emergency meeting of the permanent council. Peru broke off diplomatic relations, and the United States, Mexico and Colombia condemned the move.

In a ruling published late Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that because the National Assembly continued to defy previous court rulings, all of the assembly’s actions were deemed “invalid” and that “the activities of the parliament would be exercised directly by [this court].”

The ruling essentially dissolves congress at a time when it was trying to push back against President Nicolás Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV, which control virtually all the levers of power.

The opposition Voluntad Popular party called the move a “clear coup against our constitution and the National Assembly, which was elected by more than 15 million Venezuelans.”

The power grab goes back to January 2016, when the National Assembly swore in three opposition representatives from the Amazon state even though the court had decided to investigate their election on suspicion of voter fraud. That investigation continues, and the opposition has said the court is simply trying to rob it of its super majority.

Previously, the court had declared the National Assembly in “contempt” for ignoring earlier court decisions, but this ruling went further: The court granted itself the legislative powers that had been held by the congress...



Let there be no doubt that socialism and communism inevitably leads to fascism. This is exactly the kind of move national socialist, Hitler, would pull.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

The democrat template.

 

[Political Junky]

Wow, Venezuela is going Right Wing?

 

[Blackrook]

Democrats are trying to do the same thing here.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Venezuela used to have a stable democratic Republic until Chavez came along and made himself a virtual dictator. And now his successors are running the country into the ground with this crazy shit.

Oh, yes, did I forget to mention that the Obama left is an admirer of Hugo Chavez?
EDITORIAL: Admiring Hugo Chavez
Michael Moore Mourns Hugo Chavez, Posts Snapshot With Late Venezuelan President (Photo)

And of course he admired Obama too.
Hugo Chavez: "If I Were American, I'd Vote For Obama"

These pigs and their coup leader in hiding, Obama, are doing the same to our government now that Hugo Chavez's Marxists did and are doing today in Venezuela.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

The end result of socialism.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Venezuela seeks to cool outrage over court power grab

Venezuela seeks to cool outrage over court power grab

Venezuela's pro-government Supreme Court revoked its takeover of the opposition-led Congress on Saturday after it drew international condemnation and protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

"This controversy is over," Maduro said just after midnight at a specially convened state security committee.

The committee ordered the top court to reconsider Wednesday's court ruling, which effectively nullified the legislature and brought accusations the ruling Socialist Party was creating a dictatorship.

The tribunal duly erased two controversial judgments and its president, Maikel Moreno, met with both foreign envoys and journalists to explain the decision, insisting there had never been any intention to strip the National Assembly of its powers.

Maduro, 54, who had faced dissent even within government ranks over the Supreme Court's move, sought to cast developments as the achievement of a statesman resolving a power conflict beneath him. But foes said it was a hypocritical row-back by an unpopular government that overplayed its hand in a power grab.

"You can't pretend to just normalize the nation after carrying out a 'coup,'" said Julio Borges, leader of the legislature...

Socialists and communists are on the wrong side of history. It's good to see the international community actually speak out against leftist fascists.

 

[Preacher]

National Socialism got shit done!

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Socialim isn't getting shit done:

Venezuelans pour into Caracas streets in anti-Maduro protest

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's government fired tear gas and rubber bullets at some of the thousands of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro who poured into the streets of Caracas Saturday amid a weeklong protest movement that shows little sign of losing steam.


The demonstrations in the capital and several other cities came a day after Maduro's government barred top opposition leader Henrique Capriles from running for office for 15 years.


The ban capped a tumultuous 10 day-crackdown that saw pro-government groups rough up several opposition leaders and another seek refuge in a foreign embassy to escape arrest.


The protests were triggered by the Supreme Court's decision to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power, a move that was later reversed amid widespread international condemnation and even dissent within Maduro's normally disciplined socialist leadership.


"Nobody can disqualify the Venezuelan people," an emotional Capriles said from a stage Saturday as he called on protesters to march to the ombudsman's office downtown.


As the sea of protesters approached the headquarters of state-run PDVSA oil company, they were met by rubber bullets and a curtain of eye-scorching tear gas, some of it a never-before-seen red color. Mayhem ensued, with riot police racing down windy streets, dodging objects thrown from tall apartment buildings as they deployed to squash the unrest.


Later, a small group of youths unsuccessfully tried to set fire to a Supreme Court office building.


The violence was condemned by the opposition leadership, who nonetheless blame Maduro's obstinacy for fueling the unrest...

 

[EverCurious]

Didn't this asshat just tell his popular opposition that the guy couldn't run?

Sucks for them.

 

[JimBowie1958]

This is the future of American politics if the Obamites get their way.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Send that jackass Sean Penn down to talk some sense into them.

The left used to screech and talk up Venzuela..all the sudden they've went silent.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Venezuela protests spread to poor areas, two more deaths amid unrest

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans in poor areas blocked streets and lit fires during scattered protests across the country on Tuesday night, and two people were killed during the growing unrest in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.

In a worrying sign for leftist President Nicolas Maduro, groups in Caracas' traditionally pro-government hillside slums and low-income neighborhoods took to the streets, witnesses and opposition lawmakers reported.

Maduro foes were galvanized by footage of a crowd in the south-eastern Bolivar state heckling and throwing objects at the closely-protected leader during a rally on Tuesday, before state television cut off the broadcast.

In the western Lara state, two people, aged 14 and 36, were killed during unrest on Tuesday, according to opposition governor Henri Falcon, who said that after an energy blackout armed "infiltrators" and "delinquents" on motorcycles roamed the city.

"They go by neighborhoods and shoot people who are protesting," said Falcon, a former member of the ruling party, urging a negotiation to end Venezuela's political crisis.

The opposition says Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader who took office four years ago, has morphed into a dictator after a Supreme Court decision in late March to assume the functions of the opposition-led congress.

The court quickly overturned the most controversial part of its decision, but the move breathed new life into the fractured opposition movement.

Two young men had already been killed in protests during the last week, according to authorities. Many are bracing for further violence in a country that is racked by crime and has one of the world's highest murder rates.

Witnesses said residents of a number of working-class Caracas neighborhoods blocked streets with trash or burning debris on Tuesday night, describing confused street melees and clashes with security forces. The capital appeared calm on Wednesday morning, although some roads were charred and littered with broken glass.

Government officials did not provide an official account of the events, and the Information Ministry did not respond to an email seeking comment...

Even the poor are turning on socialists.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Boy, 17, killed in Venezuela mass protests

Caracas (AFP) - A 17-year-old boy died after being shot Wednesday during massive protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the sixth person killed this month in a mounting political crisis.

As the latest clashes broke out in the capital with riot police firing tear gas to push back stone-throwing demonstrators, an unidentified man on a motorcycle shot the boy in the head, witnesses said.

Violence erupted when thousands of opposition protesters tried to march on central Caracas, a pro-government bastion where red-clad Maduro supporters were massing for a counter-demonstration.

The marchers were forced back by lines of soldiers and police deployed to contain what the opposition vowed would be the "mother of all protests."

The 17-year-old was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen who also threw tear gas canisters into a crowd of protesters, Amadeo Leiva, head of the Clinicas Caracas Hospital which treated him, told AFP.

Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.

The opposition has repeatedly accused the government of sending groups of armed thugs to attack protesters. The security forces do nothing to stop them and themselves repress peaceful protesters, opponents say.

Authorities had already reported five other people killed, including a boy of 13, in protests around the country earlier this month.

- Turning point? -

This is the largest day of demonstrations in more than two weeks of violent protests that have seen more than 200 arrested.

Moves by Maduro to tighten his grip on power have escalated the country's political and economic crisis.

Pressure on the leftist leader has been mounting since 2014, as falling prices for Venezuela's crucial oil exports have aggravated an economic crisis, creating severe shortages of food and medicine in the state-led economy....

Tick tock, socialists.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Venezuela formally notifies OAS it will leave amid protests

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela formally notified the Organization of American States on Friday of its intention to leave the regional body amid sometimes violent protests at home and international calls for its embattled government to hold delayed elections and release prisoners.

Venezuelan interim ambassador Carmen Velasquez submitted a letter announcing the move in Washington to OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, a strong critic of socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The notice begins a two-year exit process from the Western Hemisphere's largest diplomatic body, which had become a forum for its neighbors to exert pressure on Venezuela.

"This is a historic moment that marks a new independence for Venezuela and the region," said Velasquez, adding that Venezuela would be the first country to leave the Washington-based bloc this way. "We are not going to be participating in any OAS activities."

The decision to leave the OAS comes amid almost daily clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters that have left at least 28 people dead and hundreds injured.

On Friday, hundreds marched to a military prison outside Caracas to demand the release of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and other jailed activists they consider political prisoners.

The march was part of an intensifying campaign by the opposition to force Maduro from office. More than 1,300 people have been arrested in almost four weeks of street clashes.

Marchers wound through side streets on the way to the prison, shouting "Maduro out!" and waving Venezuelan flags. Light armored vehicles and national guardsmen blocked access to the Ramo Verde military prison where Lopez is serving a nearly 14-year sentence for inciting violence during a previous round of anti-government unrest in 2014. With access blocked, the march ended 2.5 miles from the prison.

Protesters also marched to prisons in other cities where they say 178 people are being held on political charges.

Many foreign governments and human rights groups have condemned Lopez's conviction as politically motivated. One of the prosecutors in the case, who has since sought asylum in the U.S., even said he was under orders from the government to arrest Lopez despite a lack of evidence.

Lopez's wife Lilian Tintori was at the front of a group of lawmakers and opposition activists carrying a large Venezuelan flag making their way to the prison.

"For Maduro, not being on his side is a crime, thinking differently is a crime," she said. "They forgot what democracy is."...

Leftism is Naziism.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Hunger eats away at Venezuela’s soul as its people struggle to survive

Hunger is gnawing at Venezuela, where a government that claims to rule for the poorest has left most of its 31 million people short of food, many desperately so. As night falls over Caracas, and most of the city’s residents lock their doors against its ever more violent streets, Adriana Velásquez gets ready for work, heading out into an uncertain darkness as she has done since hunger forced her into the only job she could find at 14.

She was introduced to her brothel madam by a friend more than two years ago after her mother, a single parent, was fired and the two ran out of food. “It was really hard, but we were going to bed without eating,” said the teenager, whose name has been changed to protect her.

Since then Venezuela’s crisis has deepened, the number of women working at the brothel has doubled, and their ages have dropped. “I was the youngest when I started. Now there are girls who are 12 or 13. Almost all of us are there because of the crisis, because of hunger.”

She earns 400,000 bolivares a month, around four times the minimum wage, but at a time of hyperinflation that is now worth about $30, barely enough to feed herself, her mother and a new baby brother. She has signed up to evening classes that run before her nightly shift, and hopes to one day escape from a job where “everything is ugly”.

Velásquez grew up in one of Caracas’s poorest and most violent districts, but Venezuela’s food crisis respects neither class nor geography. The pangs of hunger are felt through the corridors of its major businesses, behind the microphone on radio shows, in hospitals where malnutrition is climbing sharply and already claiming lives, and at schools where children faint and teachers skip classes to queue for food.

Nearly three-quarters of Venezuelans have lost weight over the past year, and the average loss was a huge 9kg, or nearly a stone and a half, according to a survey by the country’s top universities. For many that is simply because food is too expensive. Nine out of 10 homes can’t cover the cost of what they should eat.

And 10 million people skip at least one meal a day, often to help feed their children.

David González, not his real name, had a college degree, a career and modest middle-class dreams of owning a car and a house before Venezuela slipped towards its current crisis, and spiralling inflation made the food he needed to stay alive unaffordable. In a cafe in downtown Caracas, he explains how his dreams shrank with his wasting body, now so emaciated that ribs and collarbones poke through a once-chubby chest.

“It’s sad because you stop thinking of what your professional goals and challenges are and instead just focus on what you can eat,” said the 29-year-old activist and journalist. Like many of Venezuela’s hungry middle classes he was ashamed of his situation.

“I had seen people suffering, I saw people queueing for bread, but it had not reached me, I didn’t expect it would,” he said. “Never in my life had I spent a night worrying about what I would eat tomorrow.”

This year he has done little else. He stands 5ft 7in tall, and has lost more than a quarter of his body mass, shrinking to little over 50kg (7st 12lb) since the start of the year. During a checkup for a new job, doctors diagnosed a heart murmur caused by stress and hunger. He gets up at 5am to queue for food, but sometimes it isn’t there.

“Its like an obstacle course. You have to find money to buy food, a place to buy it and then get there in time,” he said, with a wry grin that has survived better than his health, before adding: “One of the good things about Venezuelans is they laugh about it all – food, and security and health.”

This summer he swallowed his pride and signed up for a monthly box of subsidised food sold by the government for about $1. “I didn’t want to be part of that scheme. But I had to change my decision, to literally not die of hunger.”...

...critics and economists say the crisis is both real and self-inflicted, the result of a government using a raft of imports as a shortcut to meet promises of development and food security during the heady years of an oil price boom. Venezuela used to produce more than two-thirds of its food, and import the rest, but those proportions are now reversed, with imports making up around 70% of what the country eats.

When crude prices began sliding in 2014, bringing down oil earnings, it left the country short of dollars, and the government decided to focus its income on servicing the national debt rather than importing food.

“This administration decided people have to eat less for them to balance their accounts,” said Efraín Velásquez, president of the semi-official National Economic Council. “That implies poverty, social deterioration, that people are worse off.”

Supplies dried up and inflation sliced through savings and earnings, slashing the value of the currency by more than 99% since Maduro’s 2013 election. Bolivares bought with $1,000 then would be worth little over a dollar at today’s black market rate.

There has been no official inflation data from the government since 2015, but the opposition puts the figure at 250% in the first seven months of the year. In a tacit recognition of the scale of the problem, the president himself boosted the minimum wage nearly 500% last year, to “offset inflation”.

“We are the only country in the world where people dread a wage hike, because they know the price of food will follow [up],” said Ingrid Soto de Sanabria, head of nutrition at Venezuela’s top children’s hospital, who has been raising the alarm about the steep rise in cases of malnutrition.

The number of children with severe malnutrition who were admitted to the hospital rose from 30 in 2015 to 110 last year, and looks set to climb further this year based on figures from the first half of the year, she said. There has been a subtle shifting in the nature of the problems parents face. Formula for babies who can’t be breastfed was hard to track down anywhere last year, with shortages so severe they claimed the lives of newborns.

Since the government unofficially relaxed price controls there are more supplies, but parents struggle to pay for what they need, she said. “Last year there were terrible shortages, this year there are less shortages, but the prices are through the roof.

“We don’t have formula, and what little we do is thanks....

Never forget that this is what Antifa and BLM want for America.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

 

[Conservative65]

Wow, Venezuela is going Right Wing?

Just proof that socialists can be fascists when it furthers their agenda.