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.

Can there be free and fair elections in Venezuela?

History has shown that elections in Venezuela for the past 16 years Venezuela have been tainted. Although some may say that there is a democracy because there are elections, most of them have not been fair.

On December 6, 2015, Venezuela will embark on the journey of trying once again to have transparent Parliamentary elections. The inability of the Maduro regime to conduct honest and transparent elections started in 2014 when Maduro “won” the presidential election against Henrique Capriles.  Ignoring the request of the opposition to recount the votes, Maduro “won” by a very narrow margin. Although Maduro agreed to re-count the votes, that never happened and Capriles lost the election

Prior to the 2014 Presidential elections, a survey conducted by the Venezuelan Institute for Data Analysis indicated that 45% all Venezuelans (including Chavistas) would have voted for Henrique Capriles. 39 % said they would have voted for Nicolas Maduro and 16 % were undecided.  We all know the outcome.

Since then, the Maduro regime with President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, have repeatedly made undemocratic moves by paralyzing members of the Parliament. That is the case of Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado who had been fired from her Legislature post by Diosdado Cabello even though the people of Venezuela elected her. Other opposition leaders banned from running are Daniel Ceballo, former Mayor of San Cristobal Municipality, in Tachira State, and Vicencio “Enzo” Scarano, former mayor of the municipality of San Diego in Carabobo State.

The electoral corruption and violation of democratic principals didn’t start with Nicolas Maduro. According to Forensic Analysis of Venezuelan Elections, during Chávez there were a number of elections with questionable outcomes. A case in point is the 2004 Presidential Recall Referendum. According to Forensic Analysis, the reliability of the voters registered was questionable, and there were unusual “variations in the electoral roll which were decisive in winning the 50% majority in the 2004 Referendum.”

Going back to the new December 2015 Parliamentary elections, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has rejected the OAS proposal to take part in the election as an observer. In a country where there is no transparency and the institutions of government are sequestered, can we honestly believe that Venezuela will have fair and transparent elections?

Has Maduro created the next president of Venezuela in Leopoldo Lopez?

Last week Political prisoner Leopoldo Lopez  incarcerated for over 13 years by a court set up by Nicolas Maduro’s regimen to appear Democratic in front of the world.  Susana Barreiros, the judge assigned to the case, has been rewarded for convicting Leopoldo Lopez with an Embassador post abroad.  With Leopoldo restrained behind bars, the Maduro/Diosdado regime feels safe for now, but we all know that Venezuela is a soon to explode time bomb. 

The sentencing has caused outrage in Venezuela and internationally, including the opinion from the US State Department, the United Nations, Amnesty International and many others that condemned the sentencing of Leopoldo and are requesting his immediate release.  Meanwhile,  the opinion of Venezuelans across the nation and around the world  are in support of Leopoldo.

In a letter written to the Venezuelan people and read by his wife Lilian Tintori on Friday, Leopoldo told the Venezuelans that: "For Venezuela to move forward, we must change the system we must remove from power the corrupt elite that governs us."  Regarding the upcoming election, Leopold Lopez said: “December 6 is an excellent opportunity to move in this direction. Let us that day, defend each and every one of the polling stations, with irreverence, with democratic twist, with all our might, the vote and the desire for change that the overwhelmingly vast majority of Venezuelans are going to express at the ballot box."

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.