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.

Pope Francis Smells Sulfur with Maduro's Presence

Nine years ago, Hugo Chavez stood at the UN General Assembly and made his famous statement against then president George Bush saying that "The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of."

This very disrespectful comment from the Venezuelan President  was considered a daring act by many. Chavez repeatedly accused Bush of orchestrating a cup d’état against him in 2002.
Last Friday Pope Francis addressed the United Nation with his passion about “enviromental justice.” After the Pope's remarkable speech, and as he was leaving , Maduro attempted to move closer, to be acknowledged.  His attempt was in vain and instead it raised eyebrows at his desperation. 

It is difficult to understand why  the Pope is okay with shaking the bloody hands  of Fidel Castro, last week. Thousand have been killed under his watch and many others are still victims of his brother Raul's regime. What is even more baffling from this otherwise remarkable Pope is his indifference with the Cuban dissidents. Last week while in Cuba, he  ignored the Opposition leaders who wanted to meet with him.  This seems to be a contradiction.

But going back to Maduro, It is very possible that the Pope finally smelled Maduro's Sulfur from his human right violations, and the conviction of Leopoldo Lopez. 

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.

Venezuelans Need a Visa to Visit Cuba

 On July 24, 2015 Conviasa, one of the airlines that provides service from Venezuela to Cuba, announced that Venezuelans will be required to obtain a visa to travel to Island. What has changed?  Did the love affair created by Hugo Chavez with the dictatorial Castro regime ended with the United States decision to lift the Cuban embargo?

Ever since Hugo Chavez started his relations with Cuba, Venezuelans enjoyed visiting the poor, oppressed and dilapidated country of Cuba without the inconvenience of getting a visa.  The new relation between the United States or the “Imperio” as the late Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro calls it, has awaken Cuba to a new reality. Venezuela is a broken country, with no money, damage infrastructure and an out of control delinquency.

 The biggest danger to the rest of the free world is terrorism. Venezuela has opened its door to Hamas, Hezbollah and it is currently the biggest bridge for drug trafficking coming from Colombia to Europe and the United States.

Cuba was removed from the list of countries that sponsored terrorism by the Obama administration, even though many in Congress disagreed with this move. Cuba was placed on this list in 1982, a year after Ronald Reagan was elected president and the discussion over the El Salvador’s civil was on the table. President Reagan’s decision was to stop the Soviet Union from influencing Latin America with the help of  Fidel Castro.

On August 2014 The Congressional Research Service release a study done by Mark P Sullivan Specialist in Latin American Affairs and June S. Beittel, Analyst in Latin American Affairs about "the United States concerns on Venezuela’s lack of cooperation on antiterrorism efforts, its relations with Iran, and the involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in supporting the drug and weapons trafficking activities of the FARC.”


Cuba is now under the watch of the United States and the Castro dictators know well that there is a big discontent among Cuban Americans with the Obama’s decision. The “Imperio” is watching them, and any terroristic activity is bound to jeopardize their future economic success. 

Pope Francis and Raul Castro

I was disturbed by the welcoming treatment from Pope Francis to Raul Castro.  The Cuban regime has been in power for more than half century and has killed and jailed thousands, and is still in control of Cuba.  Opening the doors to a murder is insulting to the Cuban people that has suffered and continue suffering the brutality of this dictatorship.

The world is trying to forget that the Cuban regime under Fidel Castro and now under his brother has caused a lot of damages not only to Cuba but their neighboring countries as well.

I had the opportunity to meet a group of Cuban former political prisoners from the 60's, for my recent documentary entitled Celebrating Life in Union.  Their stories of abuses tortures, imprisonment, and death are heartbreaking. Somebody like the Pope should be more sensitive toward the Cuban people. They are the real heroes of this tragic Cuban story.

Latin America POV: Latin American Leaders Socialist Rhetoric

Latin American leaders at the Seventh Summit of the Americas repeatedly, and with obstinacy, talked about the United States being imperialist and portrayed Latin American countries as victims of the US empire. A wrong  term to describe the United States, which has never been an empire. President Obama rejected the Latin American leaders notion that the U.S is to blame for all their problems.

 The real victims have been the Latin American people from corrupt power-hungry leaders like Nicolas Maduro, Cristina Kirchner, Rafael Correa, Fidel and Raul Castro, Evo Morales and others.  These so-called socialists leaders have brought more poverty and economic hardship to their countries than the so-called "imperialist” American government. The most interesting part is that none of these leaders has taken responsibility for the corruption, human rights violations, and abuses that happen in their nations on their watch.

Nicolas Maduro’s regime has stolen billions of dollars from the Venezuelan Petroleum Company, PDVSA and has committed the worse human right abuses in the history of Venezuela against its citizens. But Nicolas Maduro continues accusing the United States of waging an economic war against the country.

 Vladimir Lenin used the term  imperialism as "the Highest Stage of Capitalism in which imperialism was a product of monopoly capitalism." For many, Lenin governed the early Soviet Union in the name of socialism as a dictator that carried out mass human rights abuses. Lenin was the creator of the Red Terror, an organized program of arrests, imprisonments, and killings. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000."

Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor in the Soviet Union,  caused a famine in the Ukraine that resulted in an estimated 7 million people dead. Stalin stole the food that the farmers  had cultivated with their hands.

This Leninist ideology can be traced in Central America through the turbulent modern political history of Mexico, and the total dominance of a single political party,  PRI (National Revolutionary Independent Party) for 70 years.  From 1929 to early 1990's PRI pilfered the money that could have been used to improve the quality of life for average Mexicans and converted the PRI into a nest of corruption and nepotism.

In El Salvador, in addition to poverty and a lack of the essential needs, the cruel civil  took 80,000 lives and destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure. It was a war between the leftist groups of the Frente Farabundo Marti and the Salvadorian military. Both sides committed great atrocities. Massacres of hundreds of innocent civilians took place.

Similarly, Fidel Castro’s socialist tyranny in Cuba killed thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands during more than half a century of oppression.

The birth and rise of the main Colombian terrorist group Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionaries de Colombia, or FARC, offers a terrifying example of the destructive powers of extremist political ideology.  Since 1948, the conflict between  FARC  and the government has claimed more than 300,000 lives in Colombia.

In Peru, the leftist group  Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian Army became  engaged in a cruel struggle that took 50,000 lives and has driven thousands of Peruvians away from the country. The list of conflicts between leftists guerrilla groups and the governments in Latin America is long.  Latin American leaders  should stop the blaming game and also take responsibility for the economic and social problems that their nations are facing today.

The United States economy, often referred as a free market economy, allows  consumers, producers, and the government to make decisions on a daily basis, mainly through the price system. Although not perfect, a free market economy is the engine that makes this country very successful.

Celebrating Life in Union: A Cuban Story

Celebrating Life in Union is a story of human resilience, community, and brotherhood.  It follows a group of former Cuban political prisoners through their memory of imprisonment and their half century fight with the aging Castro regime.  Having developed a strong community for themselves that now crosses three generations in Union City, NJ they struggle with the realization that their own mortality may come before they can return to their homeland.  The movie is currently under distribution.

View the Trailer:

Purchase it here.

The Tragedy of DIctators and Revolutions in Latin America

Reynaldo Bignone is  convicted in Argentina again, but this time for 26 years in prison for “stealing children” and murdering their young parents that opposed the regime. Reynaldo Bignone was part of the military junta under the dictator Jorge Videla, sentenced to prison for 50 years in an early trial. Videla is accused as the master minded of the “dirty war” that killed 30,000 people from 1970 to 1982 and, devastated families, separated children, and terrorized an entire generation.

Around the same time, Chile suffered a similar tragedy under the dictatorship of General August Pinochet which lasted 18 years. Some 3,000 people killed, and about 30,000 in prison or tortured under the dictator.

Populists and revolutions have also claimed the life of thousands in countries like Cuba and Venezuela.  During the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro fought the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and took control of Cuba. Fidel then killed and tortured thousands who opposed him, and forced 1.5 million people to flee the country, establishing his dictatorship for over  half a century.

Venezuela is another tragic example. In 2014, 26,000 people were killed in violent crimes under the indifferent eyes of the Maduro regime.  According to an NBC report; a person is murdered in Venezuela every 21 minutes.  

Like Hugo Chavez did, Nicolas Maduro blames others for the devastated economy and the insecurity problem that the country faces today. Yet, Maduro offers no solution to these problems. My only guess is that Maduro feels it is easy to control people who are distracted by fearing for their lives.

Response: "With Cuba, Nothing Can Be Simple"

I recently read an article called "With Cuba nothing can be simple" http://time.com/3646803/cuba-decision/ written by Jean-Paul Renaud  which I found fascinating, even though his personal journey is very different from that of many of my other Cuban friends'. These men and women fought the Castro regime, and paid with their freedom.  For them, the U.S. negotiations with a brutal dictator is  not an option. 

There is a dilemma on both sides of the embargo lift - each completely justified.  For those who oppose lifting the embargo their argument is: How can you move forward without forgetting the pain and anguish, the humiliation, the torture and death that the Cubans have gone through, and are still going through under the Castro regime? 

For those who support lifting the embargo: Why not to move forward and put and end to this nightmare created by the Castro regime?  As the author said, "with Cuba nothing can be simple”  is very true, but I think that the duty of the Cuban people is to make sure that the Cuban Holocaust is NEVER forgotten.