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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Venezuela: Ortega flees following constituent assembly power grab

Former attorney general Luisa Ortega fled with her husband, congressman Germán Ferrer, to neighboring Colombia via Aruba on Friday:

Venezuela’s Former Attorney General Flees to Colombia.

Her flight comes after the constituent assembly, an entity created by Nicolás Maduro, seized legislative powers from Congress

Ms. Ortega was fired earlier this month by the constituent assembly, an all-powerful government entity created by President Maduro’s supporters through a vote widely condemned as fraudulent. The same 545-member assembly on Friday voted unanimously to take over legislative powers from the opposition-controlled congress in the latest sign of what critics say is the country’s fall into totalitarian rule.

Circling the drain some more,

Meanwhile, Carlos Ponce, Freedom House‘s director for Latin America and the Caribbean, asserts that Venezuelan Bankers, Opposition Figures Have Stalled Sanctions against Maduro Regime.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Venezuela: Lopez and Ledezma re-arrested

Two Venezuelan opposition leaders, Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, have been re-arrested, relatives of the pair say.

As for civil war, only one side is armed. What’s Next For Venezuela?

Nobody knows for sure what the end game is

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Venezuela: NYT’s dead-wrong headline

At the NYT: “As Venezuela Prepares to Vote, Some Fear an End to Democracy”

Democracy is dead in Venezuela, and has been for a while.

Where was the NYT ten years ago when Chávez shut down radio and TV stations?

————————————–

At WoW! Magazine,

Watcher of Weasels

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Venezuela: Cuba and Iran in the picture

Yesterday’s referendum results will remain symbolic, by design:

“In reality, it is the Venezuelan regime that has already brought foreign intervention into Venezuela by calling on Cuba, Iran, and Russia to circumvent its sovereignty and provide lethal aid to its violent suppression and intimidation of the Venezuelan people.”

Cuba:
How Cuba Runs Venezuela. Havana’s security apparatus is deeply embedded in the armed forces.

To keep its hold on Venezuela, Cuba has embedded a Soviet-style security apparatus. In a July 13 column, titled “Cubazuela” for the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba website, Roberto Álvarez Quiñones reported that in Venezuela today there are almost 50 high-ranking Cuban military officers, 4,500 Cuban soldiers in nine battalions, and “34,000 doctors and health professionals with orders to defend the tyranny with arms.” Cuba’s interior ministry provides Mr. Maduro’s personal security. “Thousands of other Cubans hold key positions of the State, Government, military and repressive Venezuelan forces, in particular intelligence and counterintelligence services.”

Every Venezuelan armed-forces commander has at least one Cuban minder, if not more, a source close to the military told me. Soldiers complain that if they so much as mention regime shortcomings over a beer at a bar, their superiors know about it the next day. On July 6 Reuters reported that since the beginning of April “nearly 30 members of the military have been detained for deserting or abandoning their post and almost 40 for rebellion, treason, or insubordination.”

The idea of using civilian thugs to beat up Venezuelan protesters comes from Havana, as Cuban-born author Carlos Alberto Montanerexplained in a recent El Nuevo Herald column, “Venezuela at the Edge of the Abyss.”

Iran:
Venezuela is Syria in the New World
Podcast:

Read more (emphasis added)
[Read more…]

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Venezuela: Leopoldo Lopez released from jail, now under house arrest

Spain’s El País reports that opposition leader Leopoldo López has been released from jail and is now under house arrest:

Leopoldo López sale de la cárcel

El preso político venezolano Leopoldo López, de 46 años, ha salido de la cárcel de Ramo Verde. López, detenido desde febrero de 2014, ha pasado a arresto domiciliario y se encuentra en su casa desde la madrugada de este sábado, según ha confirmado a EL PAÍS el español Javier Cremades, uno de sus abogados. El opositor venezolano ha vuelto a su domicilio sin aceptar ninguna condición para su regreso, informa Cremades. La nueva medida —que en Venezuela se conoce como “casa por cárcel”— coincide con tres meses de intensísimas protestas contra el régimen de Nicolás Maduro en las que han muerto 89 personas.

My translation:

Venezuelan political prisoner Leopoldo López, age 46, has come out of Ramo Verde prison . López, jailed since February 2014, is now under house arrest at his home, where he arrived at dawn on Saturday, as his Spanish lawyer Javier Cremades confirmed to EL PAÍS. The Venezuelan opposition leader returned home without having accepted any conditions for his release, according to Cremades. This new measure – known in Venezuela as “house for jail” – coincides with three months of very intense protests against Nicolás Maduro’s regime which left 89 dead.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court confirmed granting the house arrest in this tweet,

Human rights advocate Thor Halvorssen posted on Facebook,

After more than 1235 days in solitary confinement in a military prison LEOPOLDO LOPEZ IS RELEASED AND IS NOW UNDER HOUSE ARREST. A heartfelt thank you to those who have cared, and who have kept the pressure on the Venezuelan dictatorship. This is a good day, a very good day.

Here’s Halvorssen’s Human Rights Foundation press release.

UPDATE
OAS head Luis Almagro demands the release of all Venezuelan political prisoners,

“@leopoldolopez‘s house arrest is only a first step. We demand the release of all political prisoners!!”

9:50 AM:

WaPo now has the story.

Don’t miss Affinity Magazine’s post.

You can watch La Patilla’s live feed on YouTube; they are at López’s house. [watch below the fold]

[Read more…]

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Venezuela 350: Police helicopter attacks Supreme Court and Interior Ministry UPDATED

Grenades at the Supreme Court, bullets at the Interior Ministry:

A Venezuelan police helicopter strafed the Supreme Court and a government ministry on Tuesday, escalating the OPEC nation’s political crisis in what President Nicolas Maduro called an attack by “terrorists” seeking a coup.

The aircraft fired 15 shots at the Interior Ministry, where scores of people were at a social event, and dropped four grenades on the court, where judges were meeting, officials said.

However, there were no reports of injuries.

Who did it?

Venezuela’s government said in a communique the helicopter was stolen by investigative police pilot Oscar Perez, who declared himself in rebellion against Maduro.

Images shared on social and local media appear to show Perez waving a banner from the helicopter reading “Liberty”, and the number “350” in large letters.

The number refers to the constitutional article allowing people the right to oppose an undemocratic government.

The hashtag’s #350Libertad

Pérez described that he is part of a non-partisan coalition of members of the security forces whose mission is “to serve our people” against tyranny,

According to his Instagram profile, Perez is a crime units investigator, a pilot and a K9 instructor.

[information minister Ernesto] Villegas said security forces were being deployed to apprehend Pérez, who the government accused – without giving evidence – of working under the instructions of the CIA and the US embassy in Caracas, as well as to recover the helicopter.

And yet this is where the comparisons emerge with the “failed Turkish coup” to “remove” Erdogan last summer, which most admit was a staged attempt meant to further entrench the despotic president.

Francisco Toro wonders, false flag, or random lunatic?, while Daniel ponders the country chavismo wants.

UPDATE:
I’m not the only skeptic: From the WSJ comments, “This is what happens when you farm out your Reichstag fire to the lowest bidder.”

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Venezuela: Leopoldo Lopez cries out to wife he was being tortured

Leopoldo López has been held in solitary confinement for 71 days, and has not been allowed to speak to his lawyers for 81 days.

Yesterday his wife tweeted this,
“Leopoldo himself cried out from his cell that he’s being tortured. I demand to see him and know he’s well!”

She was not allowed to see him.

In Venezuela, prisoners say abuse is so bad they are forced to eat pasta mixed with excrement

Earlier this month, the judge who upheld López’s jail sentence was shot dead during a robbery.

Daniel blogs From official terror to article 350 – 1) life in Caracas, the least of which being,

If you are living in opposition areas your Internet and light and water services have noticeably decreased in “quality”, as if they ever had any in the first place.

From official terror to article 350 – 2) state terrorism reflects chavismo division

Apparently Maduro Is Rapidly Running Out Of Friends; the question is, who comes after him?

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

UPDATE
Trending at Bad Blue.

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Cuba: Pres. Trump expected to clamp down on Cuba UPDATED WITH SPEECH

Pres. Trump is on his way to Miami, where he will deliver a speech reversing Obama’s policy of embracing and backing Cuba’s murderous and repressive apartheid dictatorship.

The administration says its goal is to put an end to business transactions that financially benefit the Castro regime while the Cuban people get little in return.

Tourist travel and transactions with Cuban military will be curbed, but many normalization steps will be maintained

While the individual cultural travel rule will be terminated, many of the regulations to relax trade and travel will remain, along with some of the measures that allowed increased telecommunications services. The countries’ embassies will remain open and the “wet foot, dry foot” policy won’t be reinstated. And U.S. travelers who still head to Cuba will continue to be able to bring back as many cigars and as much rum as they want.

Individual travel will remain legal through more than 10 categories, including research and humanitarian work, and family visits.

UPDATE
Full speech

Earlier,
News live stream below the fold:
[Read more…]

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