#Nicolás Maduro is a murderer

[nathavali]

I come from Venezuela, a country that is stuck in the corruption of a government that has kept the people oppressed for more than 25 years. I was born in a dictatorship and I don't know more than that, even so I dream of a normal and peaceful life for everyone, but I intensely fear that that will not be possible and the sacrifices, deaths and sorrows of my country will be forgotten.

The deaths cannot be forgotten. Crimes committed against innocent people should not be forgiven. If so, how could I live knowing that so many people have died for less than nothing? That is already a national feeling.

The crimes against humanity are evident, the electoral fraud has been seen and the mask of the Venezuelan government has fallen in front of everyone.

People are dying when exercising their right to peaceful protests and free expression. People are dying for their right and commitment to choose democracy. People are dying to defend their will and the votes that the government want to steal us. But I should correct, because people are not dying, they are being killed.

The government wants to silence us, but they can't. We will fight for all those who have left, for which they have been killed, for those who have been kidnapped, for which they are still here and for those who will come. They cannot stop the truth.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Biden’s final days: Escalating aggression against Venezuela

By Lallan Schoenstein

After imposing genocidal policies that cost his party the U.S. election, President Joe Biden is filling out his final days of office with a slash-and-burn agenda that is even worse than the one he instigated before the elections.

In an outrageous attack on a sovereign country, the U.S. government is attempting to deny the Venezuelan people the leadership of their freely elected president, Nicolás Maduro. The Biden administration declared its belated recognition of Edmundo Gonzalez, the U.S.-funded candidate and big-time loser, in the July elections four months ago.

Biden waited until after the U.S. elections on Nov. 5 to more fully exercise his powers of “regime change” — a bid to overthrow a democratic election in Venezuela. Gonzalez is an old hand, a mercenary for the U.S. During the 1980s Contra war in Central America, Gonzales, operating from then-President C. A. Pérez’s Venezuelan embassy in El Salvador, was instrumental in running the covert U.S. counter-revolutionary campaign responsible for murdering thousands of Salvadorans.

[billspotts]

State of Terror: Life After Venezuela’s Electoral Uprising

In a voice message to the ruling party leadership, Maduro summoned PSUV militants and his remaining supporters to defend his rule: “Coordinate with National Police (PNB) and Guard (GNB) to restore order,” he commanded. “We have to grab this by the head. Act immediately. Every little fire that starts must be extinguished.”

On the morning of July 29th, while the Comando por Venezuela celebrated a de facto triumph of more than 30 points over Maduro—after processing 73% of the voting tallies—demonstrators returned home under the watchful eyes and cannons of colectivos and security forces.

On July 28, Venezuela’s government—perhaps dazzled by its own misreading of the situation—became exposed to electoral reality. The barrio, emerging as a new agent of change, slapped chavismo in the face, forcing it to embrace the only version of sovereignty Maduro understands: the power to dictate who lives, who dies, and who goes to jail, echoing the words of Cameroonian social theorist Achille Mbembe.

In a context where hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to defeat Maduro at the polls and then protect the evidence of their collective will, the brute force unleashed since July 29 seeks to destroy the spirit and hunger for change that Machado’s campaign activated.

As Chávez statues were toppled and Maduro posters torn down, the government, from its trenches in Miraflores and Fuerte Tiuna, tried to convince international mediators that Amoroso’s announced result wasn’t up for discussion. At the same time, it turned on all engines of its war machine, including an overblown rhetoric that doesn’t even pretend to be logical. Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and Jorge Rodríguez have labeled those who oppose them—from local politicians to foreign governments, even on the left—as Nazis or fascists, describing demonstrators as drugged criminals from the U.S. and cells from the international criminal organization Tren de Aragua.

A week after the election, human rights NGO Foro Penal confirmed 1,102 arrests, with 170 of them in Caracas. Monitor de Víctimas reported 23 murders so far, with colectivos responsible for at least 9, operating in total sync with State security officers.

Like paramilitary forces fighting a hybrid war, colectivos work as PSUV’s fist in the areas where the chavista State holds more economic and social power over a population now turning its back on them. Their priority is to defend their government sponsors at gunpoint.

The offensive reached the doors of those who took to the streets the Monday after the presidential election. A video from that day shows a man on a bike recording himself while chasing demonstrators, saying to the camera: “Here we are, prepared to defend peace and our principles. We want peace, but we are prepared for war. In Venezuela, it was our president Nicolás Maduro who won. Guarimberos (a slur for protesters) ran to hide in their homes. From now on, we take over the streets that have always belonged to us, not to oligarchs!”

Communal councils and what’s left of the Hugo Chávez Battle Units—PSUV grassroots structures forming a sort of parallel chavista State—have been ordered to identify, locate, and point out anyone who called out the election fraud in different communities.

Under this war logic, anyone who poses a threat to those in power becomes a target for colectivos and security forces: demonstrators hiding in safe houses, people who showed their voting tallies or denounced the fraud on social media, and community leaders and members of comanditos who promoted participation and defended votes for Edmundo González.

On Tuesday the 30th, in the densely populated (and formerly very chavista) 23 de Enero area, PNB detained four boys—three of them teenagers—who were banging pots on the eighth floor of a building. Caracas Chronicles obtained voice notes sent by leaders in communal councils in Distrito Capital. In one of them, a woman hoped that someone would “shoot escuálidos (classic chavista hate speech for opposition folk)” to get them in line “while Maduro decides to call the army. At least I saw colectivos giving them hell. If they catch anyone, they will make a pulp out of him… and they are hiding between our buildings.”

A WhatsApp chain message shared with neighbors in San José, in downtown Caracas, read: “We call on mothers, families: advise your kids and don’t help the Right. After all this, the opposition leaders wash their hands and continue their trips and lavish lifestyles while our young people fall under the weight of law and order. We can’t cry after that happens. Women, defend your households and protect them from destabilizing plans.”

Caracas Chronicles reached out to one activist who organized volunteers in Western Caracas on July 28, who has since gone into hiding along with about eleven colleagues. Colectivos started hunting for her the minute after the opposition rejected Amoroso’s results. From her hiding place, the woman sent videos showing how CICPC and DAET patrols have assisted colectivos in taking over the barrios.

DAET, which replaced the infamous FAES death squads, highlights the scope of Maduro’s policy against the poor, which has progressively mutilated human rights and living conditions for those with the least. Meanwhile, the regime sustains an oppressive minority of party militants, colectivos, CLAP clerks, police officers, and intelligence personnel with privileged access to institutional networks and State resources.

According to psychologist Andrés Antillano, these inequalities within low-income groups generate fear, distrust, and resentment in the barrio—where chavista groups impose the status quo by marking enemies and controlling those who criticize the government.

A noticeable pattern in this repressive wave has been the indiscriminate attacks on teens and young people who have known no other president than Maduro.

Last week, late at night, the DGCIM posted a reel on their Instagram account announcing their new “campaign” and security operation, “Operación Tun Tun,” with the hashtag #sinllorader (#nowhining). In the background, a song played: “Children take care! Please be aware. All that you’ve done will come to bear!”

“Operación Tun Tun,” which translates to Operation Knock-Knock, isn’t new. Diosdado Cabello first announced it on his TV show “El Mazo Dando” in 2017, during three months of Venezuelan protests, to target people he considered “terrorists.” This time, the DGCIM, along with other police forces like the CICPC, led by Douglas Rico, not only released this video with its intimidating song but also shared images with WhatsApp and Signal phone numbers, urging people to report anyone allegedly involved in a ���physical or virtual hate campaign through social media.”

This operation targets everyone who worked on election day as witnesses or as part of a “comandito” (the opposition grassroots group involved in collecting voting records), those who protested, and even people posting on social media in support of González Urrutia, Machado, or anyone expressing disagreement with chavismo.

On Saturday night, Cabello showcased various Venezuelans detained under “Operación Tun Tun” across the country on his TV show, using the hashtag #PeaceHasArrived.

Other security forces, like the Táchira Police, published “wanted” notices with pictures of young men, labeling them “leader guarimberos.” Even before the elections, Nicolás Maduro had warned that there would be a “bloodbath and fratricidal civil war caused by the fascists” if he didn’t win on July 28.

In addition to raiding homes, various security forces, including DAET, PNB, GNB, and local police, have set up checkpoints in different Venezuelan cities to seize and inspect mobile phones.

The surveillance, targeting, and persecution of citizens extend to other social media platforms like Telegram. Public figures and activists have reported the existence of various Telegram channels created to post pictures of people involved in election day activities or peaceful demonstrations. Some of these channels, like “Caza Guarimbas” or “Controla las Guarimbas,” were shut down by the platform after being reported for promoting violence.

In these channels, users could see messages like “Edmundo is a killer” or pictures of young individuals accused of being responsible for hate crimes (as defined in Maduro’s Hate Law).

This manhunt has created a new environment in the country. People are deleting WhatsApp chats, activating disappearing messages, and sending important information to relatives abroad so they can spread the word about what’s happening inside the country. Some have had to leave their homes and find places to hide.

The situation has also changed how people gather in the streets. For example, during María Corina Machado’s demonstration last Saturday, journalists refrained from recording participants’ faces. Even Machado, who had recently expressed fear for her life in The Wall Street Journal, appeared in public covered with a hood before climbing onto a bus.

Understanding that loneliness and despair are fertile ground for totalitarianism, Maduro and his elite are trying to break the connections people have built, isolating citizens once again from the democratic cause—even more so those who directly promoted and defended the vote in the presidential election.

How can we fight this? If terror seeks to deny what happened at polling stations on July 28th and the intrinsic political condition of voters, the first step is to raise the voice of truth, convinced that, no matter the violence that followed, on that day, Venezuelans spoke with resounding clarity.

Secondly, being strong and resilient doesn’t only mean protesting in the streets. To remain active in defending the true results, we must protect ourselves, stay alert, and manage our energies carefully.

For those who risked their lives in the last several weeks and months of campaigning, protection from state terror means moving between hiding places and waiting for an embassy in Caracas to process dozens of refugee requests.

For others, staying in the streets protesting to the very end is just impossible. “Now, the end of this is in God’s hands,” said Richard, who volunteered on the 28th and went out to demonstrate in Catia the next day. “I’ve been running around on my bike and saw things are getting quiet again. We already took a huge step.”

[xdistorted-realityx]

Please, help Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro's regime is murdering Venezuelans through paramilitary groups called collectives. The national police are kidnapping and disappearing people who were table witnesses in the presidential elections of July 28, because they do not want to accept their defeat. Since July 29, spontaneous protests have emerged throughout the country, and Maduro responds with bullets. In less than 72 hours, state security forces and government paramilitary groups have murdered dozens of young people, including minors, and injured hundreds of people. Please, we beg for international help. They are murdering us. This is no longer about left vs. right. This is freedom vs. tyranny. Democracy vs. dictatorship.

[fantasma-de-la-cueva]

Arion Sherwind apoya las protestas contra Nicolás Maduro, el retorno de la democracia a Venezuela y la destrucción total del chavismo. Dedicado a los venezolanos del fandom de inazuma eleven y para recordar a los torturados, secuestrados y caídos por la injusticia y opresión, gloria al bravo pueblo.

Eng: Matsukaze Tenma supports the protests against Nicolás Maduro, the return of democracy to Venezuela and the complete destruction of the chavism system/ideology. Dedicated to the venezolaneans inside the inazuma eleven fandom and to remember those tortured, kidnapped and murdered by injustice and opression, glory to the brave folks

[mariacallous]

Next month, Russian President Vladimir Putin will stage a carefully managed, entirely undemocratic presidential election. The recent death of Russia’s best-known opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, in a penal colony is not the first time that a public figure opposed to Putin has died. Indeed, every prominent opposition figure—including Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and so many others—has been imprisoned, poisoned, murdered, or forced into exile abroad, and the election’s outcome is already assured.

Russian autocracy has crossed a point of no return. What began as a flawed but aspiring democracy in the early 1990s has morphed into a vicious regime that attacks its neighbors, stifles expression at home, silences opposition voices, and imprisons or assassinates those who dare to speak up.

It is high time for governments, parliaments, and nongovernmental organizations around the world to unequivocally declare Russia’s upcoming election unlawful and its preordained victor an illegitimate president.

In 2020, the Russian Duma decided to amend the country’s constitution without a single no vote, extending term limits to allow Putin to stay in power until 2036. The European Parliament, while falling short of declaring Putin illegitimate, resolved in 2021 that “the EU should condemn any attempt by President Putin to remain in office beyond the end of his current and final presidential mandate on 7 May 2024.” The 2020 constitutional change had been “illegally enacted,” the EU parliamentarians found.

But the paramount reason for not recognizing the results of the March elections is the fact that the vote will be held in the occupied Ukrainian territories that have been unlawfully annexed by Russia. Recognizing the legitimacy of elections held in occupied Ukraine—where Putin’s troops appear to have committed the most horrid war crimes in 21st-century Europe—would contribute to the creeping international recognition of Russia’s annexation of these territories.

Unfortunately, there is ample precedent for the world doing the wrong thing. There was little international response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent Russian presidential elections held in occupied Ukraine in 2018, with the exception of a few symbolic Western sanctions in 2014 that were little more than a slap on Putin’s wrist. The lack of a robust reaction in the past helped pave the way for the full-scale invasion in 2022 by showing Putin that he had little to fear from the West. Further acquiescence now will set a dangerous precedent, emboldening autocrats everywhere.

Beyond being an authoritarian dictator with a mandate based on illegitimate elections, Putin stands accused of war crimes. In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant based on the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. An alleged war criminal should not be considered legitimate by Western democracies.

For all these reasons, Putin should take his rightful place alongside authoritarian strongmen such as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

After the latter was declared illegitimate by many Western countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, his country was placed under new diplomatic and economic sanctions. Washington imposed an embargo on Venezuelan oil exports, froze state-owned assets, and pressured non-U.S. firms to suspend transactions with Venezuela. In part due to these sanctions—and in part due to its own economic mismanagement—the country experienced the largest economic contraction in modern Latin American history and the sixth-largest contraction ever recorded globally.

After being declared an illegitimate dictator by the United States and other countries in 2008, Mugabe also faced increased condemnation for human rights abuses and election fraud. The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on Mugabe and his close associates. This significantly affected Zimbabwe’s economy and international relations, contributing to the its prolonged economic crisis.

Syria’s Assad has been considered illegitimate by many Western countries, particularly after the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian civil war. The regime has been subject to numerous sanctions by the United States and the European Union, significantly impacting its economic and diplomatic ties. And in Egypt, the regime of then-President Hosni Mubarak was ultimately deemed illegitimate by much of the international community, including many Western countries, following his suppression of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. This led to his resignation and a period of significant political upheaval in Egypt.

Russia has, of course, been placed under significant Western sanctions since 2022, but these are far from perfect. On the contrary, the Kremlin has been highly successful in circumventing Western sanctions on its petroleum exports; it has also been successful at evading Western export controls and continues to use Western components to build the missiles and drones that rain death on Ukrainian cities. Officially recognizing Putin as an illegitimate leader based on an illegal election could be the catalyst for the world to get serious about tightening these sanctions.

The Council of Europe has shown the way by taking the first step. In October 2023, the council’s Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution that calls on member states to “recognise Vladimir Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term and to cease all contact with him, exception for humanitarian contact and in the pursuit of peace.”

In the event of his reelection, the resolution says, Putin should be denied recognition as president, and contact with his apparatus should be refused—except for negotiations aimed at achieving peace. Western democratic governments and international institutions should follow the assembly’s step.

History shows that declaring a despotic leader illegitimate is more than a symbolic act; it can trigger real change. It is time for Western democracies to call the Russian regime out for what it is.

[gryficowa]

Information:

Hamas was founded in the 1980s, crimes in Gaza have been taking place since the 1940s

Israel killed its people using its policies, and then will convince the public that it was Hamas

Israelis mostly support their government (They proved it with their telegram posts)

Israel has used racial segregation for years

Israel uses mirror propaganda and homonationalism

Being pro-Palestine is not anti-Semitic, you know what is? Attacking Jews supporting Palestine for being strong and brave enough to say that Israel is the bad guy

Hamas did not have hospital tunnels, but the IDF had headquarters in hospitals that they bombed

The IDF kills Palestinian Jews because they are Palestinian

Israelis spit on the Christian minority in Palestine

Palestine, Iran, Yemen and Lebanon have the right to self-defense when Israel attacks them

Everything Israel has said about Hamas is a lie

Hamas did not behead 40 children, but Israel did it on Palestinian children, Hamas did not commit mass rapes, but the IDF military rapes Palestinian prisoners (Including children)

Israel burns Palestinians alive (This has already happened at humanitarian tents)

Saying Palestine and Israel are equally bad is like saying Nazis and Jews were equally bad (In short, that's a fucked up line of thinking)

No, many fundraisers are not scams, and are created by people abroad (Relatives, friends or random people), because many sites are not available in Gaza (Same in Sudan, Yemen…)

People from the IDF army dress up as Palestinian women they murdered in the houses they bombed and create tik toks out of this shit

No, Putin does not support Gaza, Putin pretends to support Gaza so that his propaganda that every Ukrainian is a Zionist is proof of why "Ukraine deserves what is happening"

Just like Putin, he is with Kim Jong Un and Nicolás Maduro, they also do not really support Gaza, but they do it in order to appear "good" in the eyes of people

Israel provided spy equipment to Bangladesh government (Yes, let's not forget that)

The attack on the WCK vehicle was not an accident, it was a special action to prevent aid from reaching Gaza (Israelis also blocked and attacked humanitarian aid, destroying food for the people of Gaza, in order to starve people to death so they could steal their Land and because they are disgusting Nazis)

UNRWA is not a fucking terrorist organization you zionist genocidal bitch

Israel has a history of stealing the children of Yemeni Jews and treating them as "Inferior"…

Zionists collaborated with the Nazis (Years before the Third Reich attacked Poland)

There's probably more to add, but still… I see that people still believe in propaganda that was debunked a long time ago and it sucks…

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events 29aug24

Have a little respect

A 22-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder told investigators he shot a man who threatened to puke on a grave at Crown Hill Cemetery during a memorial service for his friend. Ryan Trujillo-Falcon, 22, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of first-degree murder, second-degree assault and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, according to an arrest affidavit released by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Trujillo-Falcon allegedly shot 20-year-old Geano Chavez and hit a woman in the head with the gun, according to the affidavit. Paramedics transported both victims to the hospital where Chavez later died from his injuries, police said. The woman was treated and released.*** Trujillo-Falcon told investigators that he arrived at Crown Hill Cemetary — located at 7777 West 29th Ave. — around 8 p.m.  Sunday and that he was there with family members and friends to pay respects to a friend who was fatally shot two years ago, the affidavit stated. While the group was standing around the grave, Chavez was starting to feel sick and told Trujillo-Falcon he needed to vomit, according to the affidavit. “[Trujillo-Falcon] told him to go to the street if he was going to get sick, but [Chavez] declined to do so and was going to vomit on the grave next to him,” the affidavit stated.***

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This is why our constitution makes judicial appointments lifetime

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s Supreme Court has backed President Nicolás Maduro’s claims that he won last month’s presidential election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were forged. The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term. The high court is packed with Maduro loyalists and has almost never ruled against the government.*** Thanks to a superb ground game on election day, opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide and which show opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The official tally sheets printed by each voting machine carry a QR code that makes it easy for anyone to verify the results and are almost impossible to replicate. “An attempt to judicialize the results doesn’t change the truth: we won overwhelmingly and we have the voting records to prove it,” González, standing before a Venezuelan flag, said in a video posted on social media.***

***

Hm, maybe there is a crime problem

Suspect in stolen truck injures Golden officer, escapes into Denver A Golden police officer while trying to stop the driver of a stolen truck, who rammed multiple police vehicles and eventually escaped into Denver. Read more → Denver closes two public parks citing drugs sales, violence and vandalism Closing parks to clamp down on potentially dangerous and damaging behaviors is not a new approach for the city.

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Blame the underlings and protect the headquarters

The U.S. Secret Service has placed at least five agents on leave, including the head of the Pittsburgh field office, as a result of its investigation into last month's assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.  One agent on Trump's detail and three others in the Pittsburgh office were among those placed on leave, according to two federal law enforcement sources. It's unclear if all of these actions are disciplinary, since agents are routinely placed on leave during the course of investigations for various reasons, including mental health relief. ***

***

Union boss embezzling? Say it aint so.

A federal grand jury in Kansas returned an indictment [21aug24] charging seven defendants, including five current and former high-level officers of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmith, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers Union) for their alleged roles in a 15-year, $20 million embezzlement scheme. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as other charges including embezzlement, health care fraud, wire fraud, and theft in connection with health care and retirement plans.*** The indictment also charges Newton Jones and Creeden with wire fraud relating to their alleged demand and acceptance of no-show employment with the Bank of Labor for which they were paid more than $3.4 million each in salary, benefit contributions, and other paid benefits. The indictment additionally seeks forfeiture of $20 million.***

***

What was your first clue, Sherlock?

Man shot to death in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, police investigating as homicide A man was killed in a Friday night shooting just south of MSU Denver in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and police are investigating it as a homicide. Read more →

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don't know who created -

***

***

Tues

Crush him

An Army soldier stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, was arrested last week on criminal charges related to his alleged transportation, receipt and possession of files depicting child sexual abuse, and use of AI to generate sexually explicit images of children.*** “As alleged, Seth Herrera possessed thousands of images depicting the violent sexual abuse of children, including infants.  He also allegedly used AI to create images depicting the sexual exploitation of children he knew,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s announcement should serve as yet another warning that the Criminal Division will aggressively pursue those who possess or produce child sexual abuse material, including where the images were generated through AI.” According to court documents, Seth Herrera, 34, allegedly transported, received and possessed files depicting child sexual abuse. Herrera also allegedly used online AI chatbots to generate realistic child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) depicting minors known to him.*** He will make his initial court appearance on Aug. 27 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle F. Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.***

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The good news is that he didn't steal or create any corpses and set them on fire

A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 81 months in jail after hacking governments systems to fake his own death to dodge paying child support. Yes, you read that right. The press release by the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, paints a detailed picture of what went down. In January of 2023, Jesse Kipf used several stolen identities to create a case for his own death, one of which was a doctor living in another state. He used the stolen username and password of this doctor to log in to the Hawaii Death Registry System and certify his own death, using the digital signature of the doctor. Kipf admitted that one of the reasons he did this was to avoid having to pay child support. Reportedly, Kipf got a divorce in 2008 in California and owed more than $116,000 in child support obligations to his daughter and her mother, according to court documents. This was not the only time that Kipf infiltrated other states’ death registry systems, private business networks, and governmental and corporate networks. Each time by using stolen credentials. The access he gained to the systems and networks was subsequently sold on dark web forums.***

***

That's going to be ugly

Littleton police are investigating assault allegations among the Littleton High School football team, school officials announced in a letter to parents and staff Friday. School leaders learned of the allegations through an anonymous tip Thursday and began investigating, Principal Thomas Velazquez wrote in a letter to football families that was shared with the wider school community. The team’s Friday practice and dinner and Saturday scrimmage were canceled as a result, Velazquez wrote. School officials are fully cooperating with the police investigation.***

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It's not a military operations order

For the second time, a Court of Appeals panel has ruled an Upper Peninsula city does not have the authority to withhold part of its police department's use-of-force policy, after an individual requested an unredacted copy in the wake of protests against police brutality and racial injustice during the summer of 2020. And for a second time, Sault Ste. Marie officials are weighing their legal options as they review the panel's ruling, although the Michigan Supreme Court previously declined to hear an appeal when the city asked them to weigh in last year. In Hjerstedt v. Sault Ste. Marie, a two-judge Court of Appeals panel ruled Thursday a Chippewa County judge must order the city to issue an unredacted copy of its police department's use-of-force policy, writing that the policy is not exempt from certain disclosure provisions in Michigan's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Along with the unredacted policy, Court of Appeals Judges Sima Patel and Stephen Borrello also ordered the city to cover the plaintiff's attorney fees and said the lower court must determine whether damages are appropriate.*** In Aug. 2020, Sault Ste. Marie city commissioners voted to issue a redacted copy of the department’s use-of-force policy to Hjerstedt, The Sault News reported. At the time, city and police officials argued that potential assailants knowing how an officer would react in a certain situation would pose a safety risk if the full policy was disclosed.***

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What's the worst that could happen?

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A body camera captured every word and bark uttered as police Sgt. Matt Gilmore and his K-9 dog, Gunner, searched for a group of suspects for nearly an hour. Normally, the Oklahoma City police sergeant would grab his laptop and spend another 30 to 45 minutes writing up a report about the search. But this time he had artificial intelligence write the first draft. Pulling from all the sounds and radio chatter picked up by the microphone attached to Gilmore's body camera, the AI tool churned out a report in eight seconds. “It was a better report than I could have ever written, and it was 100% accurate. It flowed better,” Gilmore said. It even documented a fact he didn't remember hearing — another officer's mention of the color of the car the suspects ran from. Oklahoma City's police department is one of a handful to experiment with AI chatbots to produce the first drafts of incident reports. Police officers who've tried it are enthused about the time-saving technology, while some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned.***

You sign that report, you're married to it for better and for worse....

[newstfionline]

Monday, August 19, 2024

Deploying on U.S. Soil: How Trump Would Use Soldiers Against Riots, Crime and Migrants (NYT) During the turbulent summer of 2020, President Donald J. Trump raged at his military and legal advisers, calling them “losers” for objecting to his idea of using federal troops to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd. It wasn’t the only time Mr. Trump was talked out of using the military for domestic law enforcement—a practice that would carry profound implications for civil liberties and for the traditional constraints on federal power. He repeatedly raised the idea of using troops to secure border states, and even proposed shooting both violent protesters and undocumented migrants in the legs, former aides have said. In his first term in office, Mr. Trump never realized his expansive vision of using troops to enforce the law on U.S. soil. But as he has sought a return to power, he has made clear that he intends to use the military for a range of domestic law enforcement purposes, including patrolling the border, suppressing protests that he deems to have turned into riots and even fighting crime in big cities run by Democrats.

Venezuelans in Caracas and across the world demonstrate to defend opposition’s victory claim (AP) Venezuelans across the world—some with flags and other patriotic paraphernalia—responded to a call from their country’s political opposition Saturday and took to the streets to defend the faction’s claim to victory over President Nicolás Maduro in last month’s disputed presidential election. The demonstrations in Tokyo, Sydney, Mexico City and several other cities were an effort by the main opposition coalition to make visible what they insist is the real outcome of the election. They also called on governments to throw their support behind candidate Edmundo González and express support to Venezuelans who are fearful in their home country of speaking against Maduro and his allies during a brutal repression campaign.

Austria battles flooding after record downpours (Reuters) Heavy rains lashed Alpine regions of Austria and left parts of Vienna under water at the weekend, causing severe damage in parts of the country and disrupting road and rail transport, authorities and local media said. Fast-moving torrents of muddy water swept cars through the ski resort of St. Anton, in western Austria, on Friday, footage posted on social media showed. Meanwhile record rainfall hit parts of Vienna in the east of the country on Saturday, state broadcaster ORF said. A large proportion of Vienna's average summer rainfall hit on Saturday in just one hour, according to weather data firm UBIMET.

Polish leader urges Nord Stream patrons to ‘keep quiet’ as pipeline mystery returns to spotlight (AP) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday reacted to reports that revived questions about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, saying the initiators of the gas pipeline project should “apologize and keep quiet.” That comment came after one of his deputies denied a claim that Warsaw was partly responsible for its damage. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Ukrainian authorities were responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022, a dramatic act of sabotage that cut Germany off from a key source of energy and worsened an energy crisis in Europe. Germany was a partner with Russia in the pipeline project. Poland has long said its own security interests have been harmed by Nord Stream. “To all the initiators and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today about it is apologise and keep quiet,” Tusk wrote on the social media portal X Saturday. Tusk appeared to be reacting specifically to a claim by a former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, BND, August Hanning, who told the German daily Die Welt that the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines must have had Poland’s support. Hanning said Germany should consider seeking compensation from Poland and Ukraine.

Russia readies for “decades” under Western sanctions (Reuters) Economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia will remain in place for decades, even if there is a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, a senior Russian foreign ministry official said on Friday. Russia became the most sanctioned country by the West after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, surpassing Iran and North Korea. Despite the pressure, Russia’s economy grew by 4.7% in the first half of this year. A Russian official said sanctions had some benefits, forcing Russia to restructure its economy and produce more value-added goods that were previously imported from Western countries.

India’s doctors strike in protest at rape and murder of colleague (Reuters) Hospitals and clinics across India turned away patients except for emergency cases on Saturday as medical professionals staged a 24-hour shutdown in protest over the rape and murder of a doctor this month in the eastern city of Kolkata. More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralysing medical services across the world’s most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases. The walk-out was the latest action in response to the killing of a 31-year old trainee doctor last week inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked. The crime has triggered nationwide protests among medical workers and a public outpouring of anger over violence against women reminiscent of what followed the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Inflation has come for one of Japan’s most beloved cheap eats: Ramen (Washington Post) Ramen is an affordable comfort dish in Japan, where a bowl of warm noodles in hearty broth rarely costs more than 1,000 yen, or about $6.80. It’s a quick and reliable meal during a work lunch break, for teenagers hungry after school and salarymen taking a late train home. But as Japan experiences inflation after decades of falling or stagnant prices, one of the country’s favorite cheap meals is taking a hit. Ramen shops are closing at a record pace this year, as owners face the dilemma of raising their prices beyond the “1,000-yen wall” to cope with rising costs or shutting down. As of July, 49 ramen shops filed for bankruptcy, on pace to set a record for most closures in a single year, according to Teikoku Databank, a corporate research company based in Tokyo. The cost of ingredients, labor and electricity making ramen has increased by 10 percent over three years, the company found.

Doubting America’s ‘Nuclear Umbrella,’ Some South Koreans Want Their Own (NYT) Ever since the Korean War was halted in an uneasy truce in 1953, South Koreans have lived under an American promise to defend their country, if necessary, with nuclear weapons. President Biden emphatically reiterated that commitment last year, vowing that any nuclear attack by North Korea would lead to the destruction of its government. But decades of American assurances have failed to deter North Korea from building a nuclear arsenal and then expanding it. Led by Kim Jong-un, North Korea has also become more provocative, testing missiles powerful enough to reach the United States. And it has rattled South Korea by reviving a Cold War-era defense agreement with Russia, another nuclear-armed state. The South has long considered it a taboo to pursue atomic weapons in defiance of Washington’s nonproliferation policy. But jitters about security here have been intensified by the possible re-election of former President Donald J. Trump, whose commitment to the alliance between Washington and Seoul appears to be shaky at best. Now, a growing majority of South Koreans say their country needs its own nuclear weapons instead of relying on the United States for protection.

Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon kill at least 25, officials say (Washington Post) Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon killed at least 25 civilians Saturday, according to Lebanese and Palestinian health authorities, as the United States and allies were racing to conclude delicate cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Gaza strike early Saturday in the town of Zuweida killed at least 15 members of the Al-Ajlah family, according to a relative of the family. A spokesman for the Gaza civil defense said at least 17 members of the family had been killed. In southern Lebanon, a strike on what local officials said was a metal warehouse killed 10 people, including a Syrian woman and her two children, the health ministry said.

‘There Is No Childhood in Gaza’ (NYT) The war in Gaza had barely begun when 9-year-old Khaled Joudeh suffered an unimaginable loss. His mother, father, older brother and baby sister, along with dozens of other relatives, were all killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home. In the months that followed, Khaled tried to be brave, his uncle, Mohammad Faris, recalled. He would comfort his younger brother Tamer, who, like Khaled, had survived the Oct. 22 strike that killed their family. But Tamer, 7, was left badly injured with a broken back and a broken leg, and was in constant pain. “He would always quiet his brother when he cried,” Mr. Faris told The New York Times in a recent phone interview. “He would tell him: ‘Mama and Baba are in heaven. Mama and Baba would be sad if they knew we were crying because of them.’” At night, when the unrelenting Israeli airstrikes on Gaza would start up again, Khaled would wake up shaking and screaming himself, sometimes running to his uncle to seek comfort. It was a short and terrifying existence for the young brothers that ended when another airstrike hit the family home where they were sheltering on Jan. 9, killing Khaled, Tamer, their 2-year-old cousin, Nada, and three other relatives, according to two family members. “There is no childhood in Gaza,” Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, UNRWA, wrote on social media last month.

The trash in Mali’s capital is piling up. Donkey carts are coming to help (AP) When handling the garbage of a city of over 3 million people and equipped with little more than a face mask and gloves, it helps to have a sense of humor. Yacouba Diallo decided to name the two donkeys that pull his cart after his cousins, Keita and Kanté. Hauling garbage in Mali’s capital, Bamako, can be otherwise grim. The city more than doubled its population in recent years and struggles to manage its waste. Piles of garbage dominate some streets. Residents are turning to donkey carts like Diallo’s for trash pickup. The carts can weave in and out of vehicle traffic and reach more places than trucks can, especially on bad roads. Diallo said he can make up to $166 a month. That kind of money is attractive to youth who come from Mali’s rural areas seeking employment in the West African nation with high unemployment.

[en24news]

Guaido denounces attempted murder; blames Nicolas Maduro

Guaido denounces attempted murder; blames Nicolas Maduro

[ad_1]

The opposition leader Juan Guaido He said Saturday that an armed group tried to assassinate him this morning when he participated in an anti-government demonstration in the state of Lara (west) and blamed the Venezuelan president for it, Nicolas Maduro.

“The cowardly dictatorship tried to assassinate me. Our vehicle has more than nine bullet impacts,” Guaido said during a speech he…

[sharedarticlesworld-blog]

Carol Prunhuber: "Venezuela is a war between the state and the population."

In Venezuela, the rule of law died. This is as strong a truth as the death of 157 people in the 2017 protests -according to unofficial figures-, whose cases today rumble and go unpunished, while the regime hides them under the carpet of a badly called consecrated revolution for 20 years. The same happens in countries with warlike conflicts.

"Venezuela is the Syria of Latin America," says Carol Prunhuber.

The specialized journalist relates a history of crimes, murders, torture, military trials of civilians, arbitrary arrests and acts of corruption, which was triggered by the protests of 2014, and which weighs on the shoulders of Nicolás Maduro and his military and paramilitary forces.

Over time, the number of victims has increased. Prunhuber, a journalist and expert in the conflicts in Kurdistan, compiled the testimonies of the victims in Sangre y asfalto, a kind of atrocious newspaper that vindicates the struggle against authoritarianism in Venezuela.

Comparisons with countries like Syria or Iraq sound terrifying, but the sound is revealed in the 23,047 violent deaths with which 2018 closed, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. Syria, for its part, ended that period with a total of 19,799 deaths.

"Venezuela lives a war every day, the war of the State against the population," Prunhuber said in an interview with El Estímulo.

The journalist, who during the 1980s dedicated herself to denouncing the international silence surrounding the genocide of the Kurdish people - which culminated in the publication of the book The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd - cannot fail to recall the testimonies of these protests in Iran and compare them with the current situation in the country of the Bolivarian revolution.

"It's different because the Kurds are armed. They have been fighting their leaders for years. The similarity is that they are people who are oppressed by the regimes. Where their wars are, they are considered a second-class population, while the first-class are with the government and the second-class have no access to anything.

This second-class citizenship also includes the families and close friends of the victims, whose voices Prunhuber picks up. Also, in the book, he used testimonies published in social networks and the press, plus interviews with two journalists.

His first meeting with the parents of those murdered by the repressive forces of the State was during the presentation of Sangre y asfalto in Madrid on April 4, two years after the demonstrations.

"We're never going to get the brush of justice because the government continues to dance on the blood of the boys," said Israel Cañizales, whose son, Armando, was shot in the trachea when he protested in Las Mercedes, Caracas, in 2017.

The man denounced that the regime has turned a blind eye to the crimes. In 100 percent of the cases, the culprits have not been identified, the hearings have been postponed on multiple occasions, and the culprits have not been tried.

"These people have become spokespersons for the suffering of an entire nation, there you have the real testimony of what is happening in the country," says the writer.

"It is for them that she wanted to safeguard the memory, to gather the cries and tears in a document so that they would not disappear, so that the executioners would not change history," she said.

The text also includes nearly 200 color photographs provided by photojournalists.

Prunhuber accuses a blind left that prefers not to read and not to be informed so as not to know, of the text "Verdades alternativas de Almudena Grandes" (Alternative Truths of Almudena Grandes), written lightly on March 31 in his El País column. "It is necessary to speak to them".

The former journalist of El Nacional and the French agency Gamma TV, followed closely the events of 2014 in Florida, United States.

Realizing the repetition of the events three years later, he decided to collect the testimonies and archive them for later use. "I was indignant, I was shocked by the chronicles of ordinary people suffering, I who had been with the Kurdish guerrillas in Kurdistan could not believe that something similar was happening in my country.

After two years of research and compilation of material, the journalist assures that the book comes at a time when the Venezuelan opposition has taken a turn in the fight against the Maduro regime, with interim president Juan Guaidó at the head of the leadership. Although Prunhuber doesn't believe in coincidences, he says the book was supposed to come out in September 2018, but it was delayed.

Is his book a vindication of the youth movement and even of student leaders? It is a tribute to the whole country, but without a doubt also to the youth who are the engine of dissidence.

Guaidó is the result of that youth, leader of the student movement of 2007 and his book comes out at the moment when it has become the head of the opposition. Yes. Guaidó is part of that generation that are effectively the leaders of the movement. That generation that has never left the street, in which many were born and grew up with chavismo and died in it, too. Now a large mass of people from popular sectors that are the majority of the country has been added to that protest, which makes it more important. Guaidó what he doesn't have is baggage, but he does have courage, expertise, charisma, intelligence and a back full of pellets from that era. It was always said that this generation was the one that was going to change the country and it is doing it.

Is this shift what has changed the international community's view of Venezuela?

He (Guaidó) and Almagro's work have helped a lot internationally. It has been very hard because Chavismo has been in charge of keeping alive in the region the myth of the left over U.S. imperialism; the U.S. boot and the interventions. But what is affecting change is the danger of immigration to the rest of Latin America and Europe.

We are the Syria of Latin America. Suddenly, Venezuela becomes an exporter of an immense mass of people and that affects the bordering countries and affects the balance of Latin America. Disaster is spreading. The same thing is happening as it did decades ago with drug trafficking. Also the political change in Latin American governments, which became right-wing or conservative, has allowed us to gain international support. And, of course, Trump. I don't support him, but he has tightened the screws that Barack Obama could not.

Is there a war in Venezuela?

In Venezuela there is a war, a war of the State against the population. But in this case, the Venezuelan is an unarmed people and has not taken up arms to overthrow any regime. What we have are sticks of cardboard and stones, a situation of unusual helplessness, and we follow the Constitution to the letter. The Kurds, on the other hand, which are 40 million people who do not have a state, are armed. But who is going to arm themselves in Venezuela if they are all malnourished?

Is the country suffering the consequences of the regime's links with extremist leaders in the Middle East?

In 2008, when I published the story of Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the Kurdish leader assassinated in Vienna, Maduro was on his honeymoon with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that is why I speak of Iran in the book. I was then surprised by Iran's presence in Venezuela. I knew that Hugo Chavez was going further. That's when the fear of Hezbollah's presence in the country began. The expansion that Iran established or even the direct links that Tareck El Aissami has both in Syria and Lebanon with Islamic terrorists, who were given Venezuelan passports. There is an intriguing Middle East much deeper than we see. With Chavez and 21st century socialism the door was opened to Islamic terrorism in Latin America, which has ramifications we don't understand.

Is that interventionism?

We are an occupied territory, an occupation invited by a regime. We are occupied by Cuba, Russia, the ELN, Hezbollah and now Chinese soldiers are arriving. We will have Chinese boots too. It's been going on for years.

It is not a very hopeful panorama, do you have hopes?

We can't lose hope. The situation is difficult and very dark, but that doesn't mean that we don't have to continue. However, I don't know what the solution is. Remembering the Kurdish experience, when there was the attack with chemical bombs against the population. People, out of fear, left in a mass exodus. Bernard Kouchner, then Minister of Health and Humanitarian Aid, as well as founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, introduced the doctrine of the right to humanitarian interference into the United Nations. This consisted of authorizing the use of force when there was a people massacred by their state, when it was a question of protecting national sovereignty and when there was an attack on national peace. The doctrine can be used without a majority vote of the Security Council. In Venezuela it is a possibility because there is a danger of international peace, a problem of sovereignty because we are occupied and a population massacred by its State.

Original Source: http://elestimulo.com/blog/carol-prunhuber-venezuela-es-una-guerra-entre-el-estado-contra-la-poblacion/

[ismaeldrawsthings]

Hi, thanks for liking this drawing!! Have you ever wondered why I wrote "Maya Fey and Franziska von Karma if God hated them"?

Well, since 1998 we have been living under a dictatorship in Venezuela.

My sister was born in 1998. She's 26.

My aunt was born in 1999 under the dictatorship. She's 25.

My oldest cousin was born in 2003 under the dictatorship. She's 21.

My middle cousin was born in 2006 under the dictatorship. She's 18.

I was born in 2007 under the dictatorship. I'm 17.

My brother was born in 2008 under the dictatorship. He's 16.

My youngest cousin was born in 2013 under the dictatorship, even after Hugo Chávez Frías died. She's 11.

My youngest brother was born in 2021 in the US, his mother's land under a dictatorship. He's 3

My aunt. Dictatorship. 25

My baby brother. Dictatorship. 3.

How many years do we have to bear this?

Dictator Nicolás Maduro is starving my people.

He's killing them in the streets.

This past sunday July 28 elections happened.

Nicolás Maduro vs Edmundo Gonzáles Urrutia.

Edmundo González is in the opposition.

He won 73.20% popular vote.

Yet Maduro's government doesn't want to recognize this. He reelected himself without even exposing all the votes.

The people don't want him.

They're manifesting in the streets and they're being murdered by the military and the police.

They're killing people.

Killing children.

A 13 years old and a 15 years old have been murdered in San Francisco, Edo. Zulia. My home.

Please keep my people in your prayers. We had enough.

Maduro doesn't care for Palestine either btw. Don't let US leftist propaganda lie to you.

I want to go back to my family. I want to go back home without worrying about my safety.

Keep your eyes in Venezuela.

Abajo cadenas.

Uh oh. Maya Fey and Franziska von Karma if God hated them!!! (They're Venezuelan in 2016)

[meret118]

Contrary to what republicans say, the problem in Venezuela isn’t Socialism

Venezuela in crisis: how did it come to this?

Excerpt: As recently as 1970, Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was higher than those of Spain, Greece and Israel.

Most of Venezuela’s wealth came from its large oil reserves but in the early 1980s, concerns that the country might run out of its greatest resource led politicians to limit oil production. Around the same time, a global oil glut pushed down oil prices. The combination of lower oil production and lower oil prices sent the country’s economy into freefall. From 1980 to 1990, Venezuela's GDP per capita fell by 46%.

Then came legendary leader Hugo Chavez, who transformed Venezuela’s political and economic landscape by nationalising industries and funneling enormous amounts of government money into social programmes.

Under his rule, between 1999 and 2013, Venezuela’s “unemployment rate halved, income per capita more than doubled, the poverty rate fell by more than half, education improved, and infant mortality rates declined”, says Vox.

For the poor, “everything got better under his rule”, Caracas citizen Carmen Ruiz told The New Yorker. “Many shacks in El Calvario got new roofs. My mother, who always had the intelligence, finally learned to read, in her 70s.”

Chavez died of cancer at the age of 58 in 2013, at the very beginning of his third term in office, and his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has failed to impress.

“Chavez was an almost unclassifiable and unprecedentedly good politician,” George Ciccariello-Maher, a scholar of Venezuela at Drexel University, told Vox. “He had these incredible abilities and capacities that no one could be expected to reproduce.”

In addition to being a poor politician, Maduro “has lacked Chavez’s other exceptional asset for most of his time in office - oil money”, adds the news site. Venezuela’s reliance on its oil reserves, which account for around 95% of its export revenue, means that the fall global oil prices since 2014 has had a devastating impact on living standards.

The growing crisis in Venezuela Three million people have fled imploding Venezuela. How did it get this bad?   [That’s almost 10% of the population.]

Venezuela's economy and social order are collapsing, leaving 75 percent of the population desperately poor and without sufficient food. The physical currency, the bolivar, is all but worthless, while the petro — the new digital currency that socialist President Nicolás Maduro introduced last year, tied to the price of oil — is largely fictitious. The IMF predicts that the country's inflation could reach 10 million percent this year. Not that there's much to buy: Store shelves stand empty, and soldiers guard warehouses against looters. Most Venezuelans are now protein-deprived, and they joke grimly about the "Maduro diet" that has left adults thin and children malnourished. [More than malnourished. People are dying of starvation.] Hospitals lack medicines and basic supplies, and surgical patients are told to bring their own cleaning products and bandages. The murder rate has soared to 15 times the global average, and crime is rampant. "They rob you in the street, on the beach, in the market, at the hospital," said teacher Yamileth Marcano. "It's terrible to live like this."

. . .  First elected in 1998, Chávez redistributed the country's land and massive oil wealth to benefit the poor, paying for his programs by nationalizing the oil ­industry — which now accounts for 98 percent of export ­earnings — and the banks. But his price controls choked the country's businesses, and by the time Chávez died in 2013, inflation had soared to nearly 50 percent. Then global oil prices fell dramatically, leaving his successor, Maduro, with a recession that became a crisis. Without the flood of foreign oil dollars flowing in that could be used to buy products, imports dried up and shelves emptied of basic necessities. Meanwhile, the country became a narco-state, with many top generals and politicians — including former Vice President Tareck El ­Aissami — indicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking and money laundering. Rather than addressing these problems pragmatically, the authoritarian Maduro has devoted his energies to suppressing dissent and preventing a coup.

How has he survived? Through the raw exercise of power. The opposition won the 2015 parliamentary election and now dominates the National Assembly. But Maduro rammed through changes that eviscerated the assembly's power; he then created a new Constituent Assembly, packed with his supporters, to rewrite the constitution. Under the guise of an anti-corruption sweep, he fired the top Chávez loyalists who might have challenged him, such as former state oil chief Rafael Ramírez, and he jailed charismatic opposition leaders such as Leopoldo López. When the military began grumbling, Maduro purged it brutally. Seven generals, who collectively controlled 60 percent of the troops, were arrested last March on conspiracy charges. "Not only are intelligence agents detaining and torturing members of the military," said José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch, "in some cases they are also going after their families or other civilians."

. . . After Maduro won a new six-year term last year in a rigged election, 12 Latin American nations, including Colombia and Brazil, said they would not recognize the Maduro administration and have pledged to isolate him. But a military invasion is unlikely. Venezuela still has the backing of socialist ally Cuba, while China has given it loans and Russia has offered military aid. Change will have to come from within. The opposition-controlled National Assembly picked a new leader this year, Juan Guaidó, and he vows a new fight. "We have plans," Guaidó said, "to call the people to the streets."

The U.S. and Venezuela have deep economic and energy ties, but relations soured in 2015, when the Obama administration declared Maduro's authoritarianism a threat to U.S. national security and hit key Venezuelans with sanctions. The Trump administration went further, freezing the U.S. assets of Maduro and his top officials and their companies, as well as sanctioning Venezuela's gold exports, its cryptocurrency, and its largest media company, Globovision. Maduro has found it convenient to blame American sanctions for his country's woes, saying the U.S. is waging "economic war" against him. But even though tensions are high, the Trump administration has declined to impose sanctions on Venezuelan oil. Venezuela remains one of the U.S.'s top five suppliers of foreign oil, and refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast depend heavily on crude from the South American nation. 

WHY IT'S SO HARD TO RESTART VENEZUELA'S POWER GRID.  [70% of the country has been without electricity for almost a week.]   

VENEZUELA'S MASSIVE, NATIONWIDE power outages, which began on Thursday, have so far resulted in at least 20 deaths, looting, and loss of access to food, water, fuel, and cash for many of the country's 31 million residents. Late Monday, the United States said its diplomats would leave the US embassy in Caracas, citing deteriorating conditions. As the societal impacts intensify and Venezuela's internal power struggle continues, the country is clearly struggling to restart its grid and meaningfully restore power—a problem exacerbated by its aging infrastructure.

Reenergizing a dead grid, a process known as a black start, is challenging under any circumstances. But statements from Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, opposition leader Juan Guaido, and other officials have largely failed to explain details of what caused the country's outage or a plan for restoration. Government statements and reports indicate that the blackout stems from a problem at the enormous Guri dam hydropower plant in eastern Venezuela, which generates 80 percent of the country's electricity. And the already arduous process of restoring power seems hobbled by years of system neglect. It's also unclear whether Venezuela has the specialists, workforce, and spare equipment available on the ground to triage the situation quickly.

Venezuela’s historic blackout, in 17 photos.

US pulling last diplomats from Venezuela amid power crisis.The United States says it is pulling the remaining staff from its embassy in Venezuela, citing the deteriorating situation in the South American nation

Meet Venezuela’s kleptocratic partner in crime: the United States. If Washington wants to get serious about Venezuela's kleptocracy, it needs to end the U.S. role as a global offshore haven.

[moonweav3r]

To be honest, it's so disappointing to have supported so many democratic human rights movements and campaigns from the US only for the majority of their supporters to turn their backs on the Venezuelan people and the humanitarian crisis we've been living for 20 years, just because for them an ideology is more important than the lives of more than 60 wrongfully detained people, 285 registered injured from rubber bullets and tear/pepper gas after armed groups burned a truck full of meds and food and, on top of all, 14 people dead and counting (with the majority being from indigenous tribes) killed for trying to protect and help humanitarian aid cross the border to Venezuela.

Oh and those numbers are only from today: February 23th.

I can't even begin to imagine why anyone wouldn't want for this murdering dictatorship to end when so many Venezuelans - my friends and family, my people - are being killed every day, be it from the shot of a gun or the lack of food, meds and even potable water.

Just know that by supporting Nicolás Maduro and his illegitimate government, you're another hand inflicting cruelty and death on all Venezuelans.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Rightwing Venezuelan exiles hope Bolsonaro will help rid them of Maduro

Some believe the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s next president, makes a US-led military intervention in Venezuela more likely

Venezuelan dissident Roderick Navarro remembers shedding tears of joy when the far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro was confirmed as Brazil’s next president.

“It was the first time in so long that I felt the real possibility of going back to my home,” says the rightwing activist exiled to Brazil since fleeing his country last year

.Bolsonaro, who takes power on 1 January, is famed for his loathing for Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and the “despicable and murderous ideology” he believes Maduro represents. Last year Bolsonaro vowed to “do whatever is possible to see that government deposed” – a pledge that delighted anti-Maduro agitators such as Navarro.

Members of Brazil’s incoming administration have softened that discourse since Bolsonaro’s stunning October triumph. “It’s the Venezuelans who must solve the Venezuelans’ problems,” his vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, toldthe magazine Piauí recently.

Even so, there are those – including within Maduro’s own ranks - who believe Bolsonaro’s rise makes a US-led military intervention to dethrone Venezuela’s president more likely.

Harold Trinkunas, a Venezuela specialist at Stanford University, said that with a Bolsonaro presidency, dissidents such as Navarro “feel the regional politics are shifting in their direction”.

But Trinkunas doubted there would be a major impact on Brazil’s Venezuela policy, beyond increased diplomatic pressure and harsher sanctions.

Continue reading.

[padsmoony04]

Please, we need this to reach everyone!

Venezuela, a country in South America, has had the same party and political group under power for more than twenty years. In recent years it has encountered one of the greatest crises at an economic, political and social level, causing currently 8 million Venezuelans to have had to emigrate from their country, being one of the countries with the most migrations. Last weekend they underwent elections in which there is video evidence of how the public voted against the dictatorial regime of their current "president" Nicolás Maduro. When the count was carried out, the government in power carried out electoral fraud, causing the discontent of the people, who decided to march peacefully to defend their vote, to which the government of Nicolas Maduro chose to violently repress the Venezuelan people, innocent children, adolescents, elderly people, adults are being murdered, people kidnapped or detained. Please, we need worldwide disclosure so that this does not continue to happen, so that these injustices stop. I know that everyone is going through complicated situations and that everyone has their political beliefs, but we cannot allow injustices like these to continue happening, that innocent people continue to die for demanding their rights!

AYUDA PARA VENEZUELA. Por favor, difundir :(