Crossing Our Borders 60 minute documentary

Let's learn from Venezuela to Protect our Democracy

As a Venezuelan (and now US citizen) people keep telling me, "but we're not Venezuela" but let me remind you that we in Venezuela kept saying "but we're not Cuba." We never thought our Constitution would be changed so drastically for the worse - but it did slowly - and LEGALLY - over a period of time. It changed in favor of an ego-centric leader who became a dictator and turned our beautiful, rich, oil-producing country into a major humanitarian and economic crisis. We never thought that our flag would change! We never thought our history books could be re-written! I urge all Americans - we shouldn't worry about what our new President has done, but what he could potentially do. We need to understand, have empathy for WHY he was elected, work to fix those problems, and urge our leadership - republicans and democrats alike - to examine every proposed amendment to change the constitution very carefully through the lens of the long term impact it will have on our democracy. I may never see Venezuela recover in my lifetime, but we still have the chance to keep our great United States' democracy in tact.

Maduro Must Go!

 Venezuela is living its worst human crisis since Madure took power two years ago.
Today this Caribbean country is experiencing one of the most dramatics terroristic violence  supported by the government.  People are killed on busy streets of Caracas and other parts of the country in broad daylight.

The pressure for Maduro to resign is stronger and louder than ever. A few days ago, President Obama signed a new eExecutive Order referring to the Venezuelan situation as a "threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." Severn top Venezuelan government officials were sanctioned because of their roles ranging from human right violations to political persecutions and financial public corruption.

The sanctions are a good start, but they aren't enough. Strong pressure from the United States and other democratic nations are necessary to push Maduro out of power.  We must end this horrific blood shed at once. Maduro Must Go!

Maduro Versus Polar

The incompetent Maduro regime has elevated its attack against Lorenzo Mendoza, the

President of The Empresas Polar, one of the few food producing companies in Venezuela

today.  Since taking power in 2013, Maduro has continued the legacy of Hugo Chavez; the man who destroyed the private sector of the country and pilfered trillions of dollars to maintain a failing socialists regime.

For over 70 years The Empresas Polar has produced many consumer products from soap to beers, non-alcoholic beverage, to wines, and more importantly the company produces close to 40% of the food consumed by the nation.

For many years Venezuelans have relied on the rice, oats, pre-cooked corn flour, oil and pretty much many of the basic products such as pasta, margarines, vinegars, mayonnaise, sauces, food for animals, soaps, detergents, fabric softeners and soft drinks, etc. from this  company which has factories in Venezuela, Colombia, the USA and Europe.

Maduro issued his latest threat against the company’s President Lorenzo Mendoza accusing him of committing an economic war against the Venezuelan. Maduro is refusing to address the real issues that are affecting the country: an inflation rate that will reach 700% this year caused by the years of failing “socialist policies” such as the appropriation of producing private companies by an incompetent and corrupted regime; all these plus the high levels of corruption that has dismantled Venezuela transforming this rich country into a miserable, hungry and sick nation.

The Maduro regime should be ashamed of the fact that the Venezuelan people have to depend primarily on ONE company to supply a great portion of food to the nation because the regime managed to cripple the private sector.  The people of Venezuela should not allow more government intervention to the private sector. So far the appropriation to privately own companies have been a economically catastrophic for the nation. Polar will end up destroyed by the incompetence of the Maduro regime and the damaging effect will be long lasting for Venezuela.

Venezuela is on a brink of a complete economic collapse.

Very interesting the article about entitled: "Venezuela is on the brink of a complete anemic collapse", by Matt O'Brien, a reporter for Wonkblog, covering economic affairs in Latin America. Mr. O'Brien mentions the "Bolivarian Revolution and its programs for the poor" as some of the causes for the Venezuelan economic crisis. Matt O'Brien doesn't mention in his article that the real cause of the Venezuelan economic crisis; in addition to the incompetence of the Venezuelan regime, is the out of control corruption and the embezzlement of the Venezuelan revenues from the oil production from the past 16 years, from the members of the Venezuelan regime headed initially by Hugo Chavez and recently by Nicolas Maduro and Diodado Cabello, the former President of the National Assembly. 

The people of Venezuela must repeat the events of January 23,1958.

For Venezuela, January 23^rd, 1958, marked for Venezuela the end of the Perez Jimenez regime, and it opened the doors for a democracy that lasted for many decades.  Perez Jimenez was a ruthless military dictator, a General from the right, a logical man who had a vision for his country. He was a corrupted authoritarian but despite all, most of the infrastructure work that exists in Venezuela today, including major highways, and buildings like the Central University were part of his idea to build the country.

We can say many things about this merciless Dictator, including his intolerance and his oppression against the opponents of his regime and who were treated with brutality and/or spelled out of the country, but there is one thing that we can’t say about this man: He was NOT a traitor to his country.  A great portion of the money that entered Venezuela those days from the oil revenues was invested in the country.

Venezuela today has fallen behind in every aspect of its life, from the economy, to its infrastructure to having the highest inflation in the world, all these thanks to Hugo Chavez, whom like Perez Jimenez was a dictator but of a different kind:  Hugo Chavez was a man with an egotistic vision of his country and with great ambition for him himself.  A man who loved being glorified without creating glory. Hugo Chavez was a true traitor to his country, his people and the dignity of his nation. Hugo Chavez gave his country away to the poor Island of Cuba, which has been run by a ruthless dictator who became his mentor.  17 years later, since Hugo Chavez came to power, trillions of dollars had disappeared and Venezuela became a poor nation with sick and hungry people.

With Abuses and Insult the New National Assembly in Venezuela Opened Session.

On Tuesday, in a bizarre and unprecedented manner, the Venezuela National Assembly was installed with the 112 newly elected opposition parliamentarians from the MUD. This happened along with the abuses, insults, and all kinds of arbitrary actions by the exiting members of the government party.  Topping it all were the remarks by an intoxicated Chavista Héctor Agüero whose slater speech gave the sense of the direction that this decaying regime is heading.  These absurd behaviors by the members of the Maduro regime were done in plain view of international observers and Television cameras.

It is going to be very hard for the Parliamentarians who were elected by the majority of the Venezuelan people to execute laws under this climate of abuse and human right violations by the party that controls the Army.

The country is heading toward a civil unrest, which is exactly what the regime wants, to halt the changes that will be taking place with the new Parliament.  The other part that we can’t forget is the dire economic situation that Venezuela is living today, which is one of the reasons the regime is trying to distract the people with their loud and abusive behaviors; focusing their energy in creating chaos instead of solving the economic and social crisis the country is facing.

As I said in the past, the international community must play a more active role to force the Maduro/Diosdado Cabello regime to obey the will of the Venezuelan people for the necessary  changes to take place in Venezuela.