Free Republic

She hasn’t ever held a public post or campaigned for office. But 80-year-old Corina Yoris, a widow and grandmother to seven children, had been plucked out of her quiet life in academia, one of scholarly tomes on philosophy and classes on Venezuela’s 1940s-era history, to challenge that country’s strongman in July’s presidential election—if she isn’t banned from participating first. Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy secure.helloalma.com/Marriage/therapy Marriage Therapy & Counseling - Alma: High Quality Teletherapy Ad “It’s totally surreal because I’ve dedicated my life to academia, to the university life,” Yoris told The Wall Street Journal. “Aspirations...

The second to worst worst thing that can happen to a civil society is civil war. The only thing worse than that is what Venezuela is living with right now, a dictatorship in which there is no hope of democratic change or equal justice. In Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela his voice is the only one that matters. It has been that way since he took over as the hand-picked successor to communist blowhard Hugo Chavez in 2013. Since then, opposition figures have tried everything to get a fair chance at defeating Maduro at the ballot box and at every turn they...

The Biden White House criticized Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday for barring the leading opposition candidate from his country’s upcoming elections — after Democrats tried to do the same to Donald Trump. Maria Corina Machado, 56, won the opposition primary in Venezuela last year and has been favored in the polls to beat Maduro in the July elections, possibly putting an end to the authoritarian rule of Hugo Chávez’s successor. But the Maduro regime blocked the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) opposition coalition from registering its candidate by midnight early Tuesday. Machado’s chosen successor, Dr. Corina Yoris, was also blocked.

Latin America: Since 9-11, the U.S. has tried to spread democracy not by buying candidates, but by encouraging civic institutions. It's in everyone's interest. One country, however, wants to throw someone in jail for it. Today an outrageous court hearing will take place in Caracas, Venezuela. Organizers of last year's recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez are facing potential charges of treason. Their crime? Taking a U.S. National Endowment for Democracy grant to advance democracy. It's not just political revenge from a victorious Chavez. It's also an attack on civic institutions and, if successful, opens the door to dictatorship and...

The threat to Latin America's fragile democratic order grows steadily more visible, from the latest round of paralyzing strikes in Bolivia, to the creeping Sandinista coup against Nicaragua's beleaguered president, to Hugo Chavez's preparations to militarize Venezuela with Cuban-style popular militias. But the greatest danger of all may be the refusal of the region's remaining democrats to acknowledge what they see. As President Bush addresses the general assembly of the Organization of American States today in Fort Lauderdale, his aides will quietly be struggling to persuade the organization's new secretary general, Jose Miguel Insulza, and the region's big governments to...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela on Wednesday condemned as "meddling" and "a provocation" President Bush's meeting at the White House with a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In a move that strained already frayed relations, Bush met on Tuesday with Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition activist who helped promote a recall referendum last year against left-winger Chavez. Chavez won and remains in office. The nationalist Venezuelan leader, a fierce critic of Bush's policies, has branded Machado a "traitor" for receiving U.S. Congress funding for her pro-referendum activities in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. "I think this...

President Bush held a news conference this AM (text found here), which will be replayed by C-SPAN tonight at 8 PM Eastern. Choice pull quote: Bush called a human rights report 'absurd' for criticizing the United States' detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the allegations were made by 'people who hate America.' People he met with in the Oval Office: Dr. Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States; crewmembers from the International Space Station Expeditions 7, 8, 9 and 10; and Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush met a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the White House on Tuesday in a show of support that could anger the firebrand leader of a major U.S. oil supplier. Maria Corina Machado, a founder of Sumate, a citizens rights organization, helped promote an August referendum against Chavez and still faces a possible jail term of up to 16 years along with her colleague Alejandro Plaz. Called a "traitor" by Chavez, she was accused by a Venezuelan state prosecutor last year of conspiracy after her organization received a grant from the U.S. Congress-funded...