Maduro does it again!

To distract the Venezuelan people from the depressed economy where they are living, and from the illegal activities of the drug cartels within their borders, Nicolas Maduro used an oppressive and rather Nazi like tactic against the poor Colombians who live in the Venezuelan border towns.  

The tactics that the army used were very similar to Hitler’s 1938 Nazi Germany after they declared  “Cristal Night”,  a night where Jewish houses were marked and destroyed  and people were beaten and many killed by the Nazis.  Similarly, The Venezuelan Guards marked these poor houses with an R for revised or D for destruction and proceeded, with out conscience, to physically force  over a 1,000 men, women, and children back to Colombia after destroying their houses. The sad part is that these people came many years ago to Venezuela, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. 

Maduro who has shown to be a master of creating distraction, because he is incapable to solving his country’s basic economic problems has opted for extreme measures, ordering this disgraceful move, accusing these poor people to be paramilitaries under the direction of former Colombian president Alberto Uribe.  It took a long time for the complacent Colombian President Manuel Santos to come out and react against Nicolas Maduro’s abuse of Colombian citizens. Yet, when President Obama declared Venezuela a Threat to the United States, it didn’t take long for Santos to react, requesting the immediate repeal of the US sanctions against Venezuela. In the recent two-day Summit of the Americas, Santos argued that that the Summit was a great opportunity for the U.S. and Venezuela to clear the air and build a “constructive dialogue to make decisions on the growing deterioration of Venezuela’s political, social and economic situation.”

I wonder how constructive the dialogue between Santos and Maduro will be now that Maduro has shut down the borders and deported the many Colombian living in those vicinities

Meanwhile, the office of Tarek William Saab, head of the Organization for People’s Defense, released a statement denying that children were involved in the deportation, another lie from a Government that only lies and deceives the Venezuelan people.  The truth of the matter is that these people were horribly humiliated and the human rights of these people were violated. We hope that some Latin American leaders who had been silent  about the Venezuelan dictator have the decency to complain about this massive abuse against these poor people of Colombia.

Delia Fiallo's -Fair well to Cuba-

It filled me with pain and sadness to read Delia Fiallo's article "Farewell to Cuba". Cuban Americans, and Cubans on the Island, been betrayed, in my view, by the lifting of the embargo by Obama without the demand for respect for human rights and ending the imprisonment of dissidents.  Delia, a script and writer of love novels, escaped Cuba and, like many Cubans, first stopped in Venezuela where she lived for a short while until moving to the United States.  Like Delia we are all in awe by the visits of many political leaders to Fidel Castro, one of the Latin American most despicable dictators, as though he has done a Super Human task for Cuba, when we all know that he has terrorized its people and destroyed the nation.  The Castro brother's destruction has not been contained to Cuba. Their poison tentacles have spread all over Latin America under the cover up known as " Socialism".  Venezuela is the most recent example of Castro's damage.  We Venezuelan's realized too late that Fidel's hateful agenda against Venezuela became materialized with the "election" of megalomaniac Hugo Chavez. Chavez gave away Oil to Cuba in exchange for ego lifting by Fidel. This evil man convinced Chavez that  he was the Simon Bolivar of the 21st Century. My recent documentary work, Celebrating Life in Union, included interviewing former Cuban political prisoners. I heard nightmarish stories, horrible, inhumane stories of torture and killing, where people lost their families and everything that was important to them. Cubans like Dalia are angry and heart broken because there is now no accountability for the atrocities committed by the Castro regime against the Cuban people. There aren't words to console Delia and the thousands of Cubans that lost their families and everything they owned.  I feel that the last Cuban chapter has not been written yet. That story will remember the Castro brothers as murderers. There remain those who are riding the wave of Hypocrisy and ignoring the pain and suffering that the Cuban people have and continue to endure - they must understand that there is a price to pay for covering up for Dictators and human right Violators. History tends to repeats itself.

Where Did Maria Gabriela Chavez get her Billions?

There is no reliable economic data provided by the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  Economic

predictions from companies like JPMorgan and other independent sources are very bleak for the coming months. Sixteen years of a failing Socialist Bolivarian Revolution and massive corruption

has ruined the country’s economy,  and the crumbling social infrastructure is enough indication of 

the direction in which the country is headed.  The inept policies of both Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have devastated Venezuela.

While the vast majority of people are having difficulty coping with day-to-day living, finding food, surviving the high crime and unemployment, Maria Gabriela Chavez, the daughter of the late Hugo Chavez, is considered one of the richest women in Venezuela. She is having a time of her life working as a Venezuelan Diplomat for the United Nation.  Her net worth is in the billions of dollars, not to mention the "honor" of being the darling daughter of the most corrupted man in the history of

Venezuela.

Maria Gabriela Chavez who has been living la vida loca in “el imperio” (as Nicolas Maduro calls the United States) has been spotted in New York City withdrawing money from the Venezuelan Petroleum Company's bank accounts - PDVSA - as though it was her own account. 

Hugo Chavez, who was born  in the poor Venezuelan town of Sabaneta,  committed the most fraudulent acts that ended up bankrupting the entire country. In 2012, Transparency International named Venezuela the most corrupt nation in the hemisphere.

Billions of dollars flowed into the country during the Oil Bonanza, but those dollars quickly left as they landed in the Bank Accounts of Hugo Chavez, his family, his confidants: Hugo Carvajal - in Charge of Military Intelligence (DIM). General Henry Rangel Silva - Director of National Security and Prevention (DISIP). Captain Ramón Rodríguez Chacín -former minister of Internal Justice. 

 Also the Chavez elites, including Jose Vicente Rangel, Chávez - Minister of Foreign Affairs. Diosdado Cabello - current  President of the Venezuelan National Assembly. And last but

 not least, Rafael Ramirez - Nicolas Maduro’s Oil Minister.  The list of thieves is very long and wide and this brief blog will not be able to give justice to the magnitude of the abuse of power and corruption in both the Chavez and the Maduro regimes.

Going back to the darling Maria Gabriela Chavez. Where did she get  this colossal fortune of 4.2 billion dollars? Was this an inheritance , and what type of experience or qualification does she possess to be entitled to a Diplomatic post at the United Nations? 

We wonder if this position is a just a way to exempt her from persecution while scrutinizing in the United States, and to legitimize her theft of money from Venezuela with impunity.

My good friend Jerry Brewer wrote a very interested and well documented article The Death of a Chilean Spy Chief, Operation Condor and the CIA.   The article delves into the destructive work of  General Manuel Contreras who worked as spy for the CIA.  He  was the founder of one of the most violent and  criminal operations in Chile known as (DINA), under the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and with the approval of the CIA.  

There aren't any differences when it comes to dictators either from the right or from the left. They are both criminal and brutal against it's citizens. 

Starving the country: A Maduro Strategy?

 It is difficult to understand if the Maduro Regime’s strategy is to starve the Venezuelan people and keep them in a state of desperation or is the Regime’s ignorance causing the chaotic lack of food and consumer products?

The inept regime persists in ignoring the drama that Venezuelans are living. This is causing waves of violence from people waiting in long lines for hours to purchase chicken and other basic products?

In July, there were more than a dozen cases of looting trucks that were transporting milk, chicken, and other products. The Government has created a state of instability and desperation that people have taken it upon themselves to steal what ever they can without regards to reprisals.

The use of starvation has been the tactic of other dictators throughout history. The most recent case is the Bashar Al-Assad in Syria. He controls the distribution of food and other necessities and has created chaos, causing a Civil War that  claimed more than 200,000 lives.

In North Korea dictator Kim Jong II kept the country poor and desperately hungry for two decades. u The tragedy continued after his death with his son Kim in the 90’s, killing millions, and continues today under the ruthless and inexperienced Kim Jung-un.

In the Soviet Union Joseph Stating used similar tactics in the Ukraine, creating famine to destroy an estimated 7,000,000 people.

Nicolas Maduro is going that same route in Venezuela today.  People are desperate and the government insists on blaming the Opposition and everyone else except themselves. It makes you wonder if this chaos is not orchestrated by the regime to keep people so preoccupied with finding food while the regime perpetuates it’s grip on the country.

P