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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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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: 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: 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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Venezuela: Lopez is alive and tweeting

Ending the abundant rumors from last week, Lilian Tintori, Leopoldo López’s wife, says he is well,

Jailed opposition Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez is well and is urging street demonstrators to keep up massive anti-government protests, his wife said on Sunday after her first visit with the former presidential hopeful in over a month, putting to rest rumors of his ill health.

“Let’s go. We can’t stop until we achieve our freedom. I’m on the streets with you, in mind and spirit, and if I were there, I’d go first.”

López also urges the military to “disobey illegal and unjust orders,”

The regime should, but won’t, allow López to be seen by the general public.

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Venezuela: Leopoldo Lopez, whereabouts unknown UPDATED

UPDATE, Sun. May 7:
El Nuevo Herald reports that Lilian Tintori, López’s wife, was allowed entrance at Ramo Verde prison.

She had tweeted,

“Today #7M we’re at Ramo Verde’s gate waiting to be allowed to see Leopoldo. It is our right!”

Follow-up post here.

May 6th post:

Rumors persist on López’s condition.

I posted on Thursday

Following rumours that jailed Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez had been moved from his cell to a military hospital, a government lawmaker showed a “proof of life” video of him in his cell. He had been reported dead earlier.

I posted the video of a very buff young man,

which López’s family has denounced as fake,

On Wednesday night, news spread on social media that López’s condition at the prison had deteriorated so much that he had been transferred to a military hospital. Shortly after those rumors began, National Assembly minority leader and suspected drug kingpin Diosdado Cabello, who was hosting a live state television program at the time, announced that López – who he referred to as “the Ramo Verde monster” – was healthy and published a bizarre video of a man claiming to be López confirming his good health.

The man in the video appeared significantly muscular and wore a belt around his waist, which some on social media noted would violate the rules of Ramo Verde. He also appeared to be in daylight, while claiming the time of the video to be 9:00PM local. Tintori denounced the video as “false” on Twitter and wrote, “The only proof of life we accept is to see Leopoldo.”

The regime has refused to allow López any visitors at all for the last thirty days (link in Spanish). His wife and supporters have held vigils outside Ramo Verde prison where he is supposedly held,

“Nicolas Maduro, Minister Padrino López and Ramo Verde director Captain Boston are responsible for our not knowing anything about Leopoldo.”

As of the writing of this post, rumors persist (link in Spanish) that López died of abdominal trauma and hemorrhaging on April 30th following a beating by two National Guard members for refusing to publicly demand that the opposition end all street demonstrations. The author of that article alleges that López body was cremated, and that prison officials will claim he escaped.

If López is alive, the Caracas dictatorship should produce him.

Lopez was last seen in public on February 18, 2014.

UPDATE
Listed as a Power Line pick. Thank you!

Linked to by Doug Ross. Thank you!

Linked to by Hot Air. Thank you!

[text edited for clarity]

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Venezuela: Armored car runs over demonstrators

Armored Car Hits Crowd as Venezuela Riots Leave 300 Injured

The newspaper El Nacional published videos Wednesday showing the vehicle backing up as a gasoline bomb burst on its windshield. Crowds raced toward the vehicle and then suddenly fled as it advanced, and masked soldiers battled protesters in a chaotic melee. Rocks, bottles, shots and tear gas filled the air. One person was confirmed dead in Caracas.

Following rumours that jailed Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez had been moved from his cell to a military hospital, a government lawmaker showed a “proof of life” video of him in his cell. He had been reported dead earlier.

“Here is Mr. Leopoldo López, he had just finished dinner and was about to go to sleep, but the show from the Right woke him up.”

Foreign minister Delcy Rodríguez blames foreign governments and biased media coverage for the country’s unrest, and said the OAS is “fanning international hysteria.” At least she didn’t blame the Russians, considering she was on RT.

It’s 2017, But Venezuela Looks Set To Be Choosing Communism. As long-time readers of this blog know, they chose communism in 2009 when Hugo Chávez was kept in office after declaring himself a Marxist.

Steve Hanke and María Belén Wu have a Survey of Venezuelan Public Opinion on the Replacement of Either the Bolivar with the U.S.Dollar or the Central Bank of Venezuela with a Currency Board.

At the blogs:
Marching on May 1st, Labor Day in Venezuela

The New Normal: Days of Violence, Nights of Disinfo

UPDATE,
Via JL, El Sistema: The killing continues

A musical martyr in Venezuela’s civil war

Trending at Bad Blue.

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Venezuela: The world’s worst oil company

Steve Hanke tweeted the graph on the world’s most miserable country,

To put PDVSA’s depletion rate into perspective, let’s compare it to Exxon’s. At the end of 2015, Exxon’s depletion rate was 8.15% — which is comparable to most of the world’s major oil companies. That rate implies Exxon’s median time to extraction (and sale) for a barrel of oil is 8.2 years. That’s 190 years earlier than PDVSA would realize revenue from selling a barrel of oil. Given the rate at which Exxon is depleting its reserves, they are worth something. Indeed, if we discount at 10%, Exxon’s reserves are worth 46% of the well-head value. Not zero, as is the case for PDVSA.

So, with the way PDVSA operates, it is exploiting reserves so slowly as to render them, on average, worthless. If that’s not bad enough, PDVSA is generating negative cash flows and piling up a mountain of debt (see the chart above). The arithmetic does not look good. PDVSA faces $10 bil. in interest and principal payments this year, but reports estimate that PDVSA only has $2 bil. in cash to service its debt obligations. In principle, the government could come to the rescue. But, its stated reserves have dwindled to below $10.5 bil.

Read the full article here.

Steel production is nil: Struggling to smelt, Venezuela state-run steelmaker grows sunflowers, crops

Workers at Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor are planting sunflowers and vegetables on company premises to ease a national food deficit as steel output has almost ground to a halt nine years after the company was taken over by the government.

In other headlines:
Congratulations Bolivarian Socialists, Venezuela Caught Up With North Korea

That’s according to the recent 2017 Index of Economic Freedom ranking, which places Venezuela in 179th position — next to North Korea, which occupies the 180th.

Published by the Heritage Foundation, the Economic Freedom report measures such things as trade freedom, business freedom, investment freedom, and the degree of property rights protection in 180 countries actually ranked.

Venezuela is also catching up with North Korea in corruption, while it is well ahead in inflation, which runs at 800%.

Lilian Tintori, Wife of Venezuelan jailed leader describes 3 years of torture

Peru’s president recalls envoy over attacks by Venezuela, after Nicolás Maduro referred to Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski as a ‘coward’ and a ‘dog’ subservient to US, following PPK’s White House visit – the first by a Latin American president.

At the blogs:
How long is it going to take to crawl out of this hole?



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Venezuela: Trump’s best tweet

The WSJ editorial board Trump’s Best Tweet. He speaks up for freedom in Venezuela, unlike his predecessor.

Taking no chances of anyone noticing, the Maduro government on Wednesday shut down CNN En Español, the nation’s last remaining source of independent news.

But President Trump noticed. That tweet demanding the release of Leopoldo López belies Mr. Trump’s reputation for being soft on authoritarian leaders. On Monday the Trump Treasury Department put Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami on its sanctions list for allegedly aiding drug traffickers.

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