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That Venezuela smell was back in U.S. election news when the press reported that a voting machine 'glitch' flipped some 6,000 votes cast for President Trump to Joe Biden in Michigan. Hadn't we heard that story before? Flipped votes in computer systems? The last time we heard about that was in Venezuela's 2004 fraud-plagued recall referendum on then-President Hugo Chavez. Millions and millions of Venezuelans marched in the streets against him , and then when the recall referendum was held, it failed hugely, something that seemed very strange given the size of the crowds. That was the fiasco that official...

Venezuelans struggling through an economic crisis got a rare bit of good news Thursday when the country’s largest brewery announced it had obtained a loan to resume production. Polar breweries, maker of the country’s best-known beer brands, shut down production at its four plants in April, blaming a barley shortage. It said it was unable to import the key ingredient because it could not access dollars under socialist President Nicolás Maduro’s tight currency controls. But with bars and liquor stores running dry, Polar said it had reached a deal for a $35-million loan from Spanish bank BBVA, putting up its...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Soldiers rolled out shoulder-fired missiles, fighter planes and armored trucks Saturday for the first of 10 days of military exercises that the president of socialist-governed Venezuela says are needed to protect against a looming threat from the U.S.

My children of light you have arrived for you abide in My presence in Zion yet many remain earthbound in distractions. Therefore throw off these hindrances "yeah" fast the earth for though I am coming I have already arrived in "you" My Zion on earth. You see as you strip your wellspring of earthly desires Heaven arises in you in all the fullness of The Godhead and it is then My will "is" done. Let there be freedom for My Spirit to "speak" to you of new things and allow Me to bless you through your obedience to My Voice...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wiped tears from his face as he pleaded for life in his fight against an undisclosed cancer at a Catholic mass in his home state of Barinas.... "If this was necessary, may it be welcome," Chavez said, who wore a white T-shirt under a blue and white track suit. "But I ask God to give me life, however painful. I can carry 100 crosses, your crown of thorns, but don't take me yet. I still have things to do."

In a move likely to further strain relations between the United States and Venezuela, the State Department on Sunday said that it had ordered a Venezuelan diplomat based in Miami to leave the country.

It’s billed as a “Birther Conference.” Republican presidential hopeful Andy Martin will convene the “Third National Conference on President Barack Obama’s Missing Birth Certificate and College Records” this weekend at the Capital Hilton, just blocks from the White House. Naturally, Mr. Martin has asked Donald Trump — some call him a “birther,” some a “proofer” — to speak at the conference, which begins Friday.

Ronald Reagan helped to usher in a hopeful wave of democratization in Latin America. In one country after another, multi-party elections ended decades of single-party rule and military dictatorship. But today, that legacy is under threat — and so is our own homeland. The southern front in the War on Terror, which runs through Latin America’s institutions of state, is cracking under a combined assault of political revolution, Islamist terrorism, and the world’s most heavily armed drug cartels. On Colombia’s frontiers, the radical “Bolivarian” governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia have embraced Iran, and are in league both with revolutionary...

…”Opposition politicians elected as mayors and state governors last November have found it hard to exercise power. In Caracas the new mayor, Antonio Ledezma, has suffered an occupation of the city hall and other buildings by armed chavistas. The government has refused to intervene, saying that the occupations are a response to Mr Ledezma’s refusal to renew the contracts of thousands of workers hired by his chavista predecessor. Elsewhere, incoming opposition administrations have also found equipment and offices purloined”…

On February 22, 2008, Ben Smith of Politico reported a story that ran under the headline, “Obama once visited ‘60s radicals.” It concerned how, “In 1995, [Illinois] State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to few of the district’s influencial liberal at the home of two will known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” Dr. Quentin Young, described as “a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payers health care,” [1] was quoted as saying “I can remember being one of small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that...

Latin America's answer to Africa's Comrade Bob Mugabe and Asia's Dear Leader Kim, Venezuala's T'Hugo has decided to copy another piece of the successful Zimbabwean economic program. The BBC reports that Chavez threatens to seize farms and goes on to explain the background: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to nationalise farms, in an effort to tackle food shortages. Government controls keep food prices low in shops to help even the poorest Venezuelans feed themselves. But some farmers prefer to sell their produce in neighbouring countries where prices are higher, leading to shortages of bread, milk, eggs and meat. In...

SANTIAGO, Chile - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist." Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."...

Well, he's done it. Hugo Chavez was already systematically silencing criticism of his autocratic rule through threats and intimidation. Journalists have been threatened, beaten, and even killed. Now he's shut down the last opposition television networks in Venezuela and arrested nearly 200 protesters — mostly students. It’s a monumental tragedy and the Venezuelan people will pay the price for decades to come. Americans are also at risk as he funds anti-American candidates and radicals all over Latin America. It’s equally tragic that the U.S. is in no position to provide the victims of this emerging dictator with the truth. There...

Venezuela says may not compensate in oil takeovers Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:57PM EDT By Enrique Andres Pretel PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela threatened on Tuesday not to compensate some foreign oil companies in its planned takeover of their multibillion dollar projects in the OPEC nation's vast Orinoco reserve. The warning from the oil minister intensified the pressure the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez has exerted on some of the world's largest companies as they negotiate before a June deadline over the nationalizations. "We are all talking. There are permanent conversations with all the partners," the minister, Rafael Ramirez,...

DORAL, Fla. — They call it "Plan B." As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez further tightens control of the South American country's economy, wealthy Venezuelans who once thought they could live with his socialist edicts are turning to their backup plan — flight to the United States, particularly Florida. Venezuelans have long gobbled up condos and pre-construction deals in Florida as investments, but the latest buyers want homes where they can live and business properties that will help them earn a green card. "First the people who come are the businessmen in the highest circles, then the losing politicians, then the...

Hypocrisy, thy name is Europe. Criticizing the United States is perfectly acceptable — in fact, Americans have raised political self-criticism to the level of an institutional art form. For goodness sake, the dictator of Venezuela — which won its independence from a European colonial power — went before the United Nations to commend a book by an American academic condemning Yankee imperialist domination. If you're going to condemn the United States for all its failings, then, please, offer some meaningful alternative, some heightened vision, afforded by your long acquaintance with war, bigotry and its victims, along with your censure. The...

150 Voting Tables containing 334 Voting Machines Tested. Tally deemed 99.98% Accurate Caracas, August 21, 2004.- The Carter Center today announced the final certification of the results of Venezuela's Presidential Recall Referendum. A technical audit of 150 voting tables (containing 334 voting machines), conducted by international observers from the Carter Center and Organization of American States, showed that Smartmatic's tally of the referendum results was 99.98% accurate. In a press conference, Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Jennifer McCoy, Director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center, asserted that the completion of the...

I find it interesting that some normally vicious people, Rangle, Pelosi and I am sure others, would now rush to the defense of a man they have said as much or worse about. President Bush has been accused by these folks of treason over the war. They have LIED about his character and intentions and about facts themselves. That a 3 rate loser-piece-of-trash like Chavez said it does not matter to me...Pelosi and company have demonstrated that its do as I say not as I do in all of their politics and now will have to do something against their...

On the Venezuelan side of the Guajira Peninsula, a territory shared with Colombia, the members of the tribe of the Wayuu walk across political boundaries without restrain. They were there before Venezuela and Colombia existed and they think of themselves as a nation. Recently a disturbing group has appeared, as alien visitors, in their desert landscape: Hezbollah. The Islamic fanatics of Hezbollah are rapidly infiltrating the tribe of the Wayuu. They are indoctrinating the members of this tribe, to convert them into Islamic fanatics in charge of disseminating the terrorist message that has already created chaos, death and misery in...