Free Republic

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) reacted to the Biden administration reportedly looking to increase oil imports from Venezuela by stating that there is no need to go to the Maduro regime in Venezuela that President Biden declared a national security threat five days ago for more oil when there are other nations the U.S. can get oil from and domestic production that is already licensed.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Monday slammed the Biden administration’s secret oil meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a “huge PR boost” for the socialist regime. “Biden Admin secret meeting with #Maduro was a huge PR boost for #MaduroRegime,” Rubio tweeted after Biden reportedly sought an oil deal with the socialist nation.

Rather than making America energy independent, Biden wants to buy oil from Maduro — yet another murderous thug. Troubling pattern from this administration as they continue to embolden our enemies. https://t.co/dEfp4PqGSr— Jeanette Nuñez (@LtGovNunez) March 6, 2022

The Biden administration is seeking to ease oil sanctions on Venezuela as part of a broader U.S. strategy to temper oil prices that have skyrocketed because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter. U.S. officials began rare face-to-face meetings with Venezuelan officials in Caracas over the weekend, with a view to allowing Venezuelan crude oil back on to the open international market, these people said.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro yesterday expressed his firm support for Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, according to the Kremlin. “Nicolás Maduro expressed his strong support for Russia’s decisive actions and condemned the destabilising activities of the United States and NATO,” the official statement said. The Venezuelan president also emphasized “the importance of countering the campaign of lies and disinformation launched by Western countries.” During the conversation, which took place at the initiative of the Venezuelan side, Putin shared with Maduro his vision of the development of events around Ukraine...

Last week, Florida Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Fried compared incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to Adolf Hitler during an interview with Florida public radio. Fried received backlash for the remarks. However, her Democrat opponent, Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), is not renouncing Fried for those remarks.

While the attention of much of America has been focused on Afghanistan, it’s worth noting a development closer to home: Negotiations between Venezuela’s Maduro regime and the democratic opposition forces led by Juan Guaido officially commenced on Friday in Mexico City. The two teams met for the official launch of negotiations, though behind the scenes talks have been under way for weeks — and real negotiations will not actually start until September. The negotiations have an unusual structure: Each side has named one “second” (to borrow from the terminology of duels) and several other facilitators who will play a smaller...

So much for their being just "Danish-style" social democrats. Venezuela's "democratically elected" Marxist dictator Nicolás Maduro is a well known global pariah. He's driven his country's once vibrant oil industry into the ground, creating an ecological disaster to go with it. His socialist expropriations have made the country an economic hellhole, with six million Venezuelans driven out as refugees. On the political front, he's rigged elections, beaten and jailed dissidents, destroyed all independent branches of government such as the judiciary, and engaged in the sort of election fraud Democrats can only dream of. As for the starving remainders still in...

Representatives from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) met Friday with Venezuela’s contested President Nicolás Maduro. Participants in the meeting, which took place in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, included the chairperson of the DSA’s National Political Committee, members of the International Committee, and members of the organization’s Political Formation, Foreign Policy and Bilateral Relations sections, local news outlet Telesur reported. Venezuela has experienced widespread protests against the Maduro regime and nearly five million Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country under his rule due to food and medical shortages. A fact-finding mission appointed by the United Nations Human Rights...

The Venezuelan Navy illegally entered the waters of Guyana this weekend and forced a ship contracted by Exxon Mobil to conduct oil research in the area to vacate, The incident, which Guyanese authorities angrily denounced and vowed to bring to the attention of the United Nations, reignites a feud Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro began with the neighboring country in 2015, claiming as much as two-thirds of Guyana itself belonged to Venezuela. Guyana has repeatedly noted that Venezuela signed an agreement in 1899 on the territory in question and no disputes remain as to who owns that land. Exxon Mobil...

Abdala Rada Ramel has close ties to Salman Raouf Salman, who has been also accused of an important role in the AMIA bombing attack The "clans" consist of groups of Lebanese origin who exert control over given territories in South America - and enable Hezbollah All three clans are strategically positioned close to the most important ports of Venezuela, from which they doubtless oversee the trade and handling of goods that in turn allows Hezbollah to profit Assad Ahmad Barakat is accused of having been involved in the AMIA bomb attack and operating call centers and shell companies on behalf...

Temporary Protected Status designation offers work permits, deportation relief for at least 18 months The Biden administration said it would grant temporary legal authorization to Venezuelans in the U.S. without permission, allowing potentially hundreds of thousands of people to remain in the country. The Temporary Protected Status designation, which lasts for 18 months and can be renewed, offers Venezuelans in the U.S. work permits and temporary protection against deportation. Venezuelans who enter the U.S. after March 8 can’t qualify for the program, a senior administration official said. As many as 320,000 people could be eligible for the program, the person...

The very day in January 2017 that then-FBI Director James Comey signed a FISA surveillance warrant application declaring content from Christopher Steele's dossier had been "verified," he wrote President Obama's outgoing intelligence community chief with a very different assessment of the British spy's intelligence on Russia collusion, a newly released memo shows. "We are not able to sufficiently corroborate the reporting," Comey wrote in a Jan. 12, 2017 email to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that was declassified and made public through an open records lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation. The memo recounts an internal debate inside the...

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro took to national television in his native country to celebrate the departure of former President Donald Trump. "Donald Trump has left, we beat him, Venezuela's victory," Maduro told his countrymen on Wednesday, per Breitbart. "The culture, identity, and rebelliousness of Venezuela has triumphed. Trump leaves but the Empire remains.” During his four years in office, Trump publicly opposed socialism and repeatedly referred to Maduro as a ruthless dictator. In his televised appearance, Maduro also mentioned President Joe Biden, who as vice president met the Venezuelan. "A man who is willing to fix the problems of his...

US Bishops Disagree with Designation of Cuba as Terrorism SponsorIn announcing the designation of Cuba Jan. 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has provided “support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.”WASHINGTON — The US bishops’ chair for international justice and peace has expressed his disagreement with the State Department’s return of Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.The decision was based in part on Cuba’s provision of haven to Colombian rebel leaders and fugitives from US justice, as well as Cuba’s support of Nicolas Maduro, the disputed president of...

CARACAS -- The Maduro-controlled National Assembly will legislate to expropriate houses and farms from Venezuelans that have emigrated as well as to incarcerate opposition lawmakers, the Assembly’s Vice President, Iris Valera, reiterated Wednesday. Venezuela sat two National Assemblies January 5th, one answering to Maduro and backed by the military but rejected by the international community, and another led by Juan Guaido and elected in 2015, but which functions clandestinely, with an expired mandate and that can’t meet in public, even if it controls vast assets outside the country. Valera has been talking up the measures even as Maduro’s Assembly President,...

SAN JOSE DE GUANIPA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Francisco Belisario, a Venezuelan mayor, retired general and member of the ruling Socialist party, had enough. His loudest local critic had accused him of bungling the response to the coronavirus outbreak and other big problems. In August, he wrote a state prosecutor and requested an “exhaustive investigation” of his nemesis, Giovanni Urbaneja, a former lawmaker who had become a gadfly to the mayor and other Socialist officeholders. Urbaneja, Belisario wrote in a letter reviewed by Reuters, was conducting a “ferocious smear campaign” on Facebook and elsewhere. Urbaneja not only defamed him and President...

Kraken-releasing attorney Sidney Powell is still in the process of unveiling the damning evidence that she claims indicates the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump. She appeared on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on Thursday to give additional details about Dominion and Smartmatic voting software, which is now being referred to as a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.”“They designed and developed the Smartmatic and Dominion programs and machines that include a controller module that allows people to log in and manipulate the vote even as its happening,” Powell said. “We are finding more and more evidence of this.”

Venezuela’s congressional election on Sunday will almost certainly give President Nicolás Maduro control over the country’s last major independent institution, but will do little to improve his image at home and abroad. Maduro, who already has the loyalty of the courts, the military, prosecutors and other institutions, seeks to load the National Assembly with members of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Critics say he’s guaranteed that by rigging the system to smother the last remnants of democracy in Venezuela. An opposition coalition led by U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó is boycotting the vote. The European Union, the U.S. and several...

Allies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won a majority of votes in a parliamentary election that saw scant participation due to a boycott by the opposition, which said Sunday’s event was a farce meant to consolidate a dictatorship. The elections council said that 67.6% of the 5.2 million votes cast in Sunday’s election went to an alliance of parties called the Great Patriotic Pole that backs Maduro – but that only 31% of eligible voters participated. Voting centers were left barren in an embarrassment to the ruling Socialist Party, but the results nonetheless return congress to Maduro’s control despite an...