Venezuela

The U.S. has a way to further impair the Maduro regime.

Colombia is a functioning republic with a bright future. Venezuela, its neighbor, is a nightmare. What accounts for the difference?

Senate committee approves amendment requiring the reporting in annual defense authorization bill.

It wasn’t a real election. But for the Chavistas, there was definitely a point.

The American government has already sanctioned Nicolas Maduro. But as Russia eyes the socialist dictator’s nearly certain reelection, the U.S. must pursue a further, multilateral response.

Stein’s Law—named for the late economist Herbert Stein, who was chair of Richard Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers—goes something like this: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” (His son Ben Stein’s law, by contrast, is probably this.) It’s one of the few pithy economic phrases…

In this week’s magazine’s editorial, “Night Falls on Venezuela,” we took 1,200 words or so to describe the desperate state into which the country has fallen. To sum up: The people of Venezuela are starving to death. Bands of hungry looters roam the streets of its cities, the currency is worthless,…

The once-great nation of Venezuela hardly looks like a state anymore, far less a great one. This week government forces finally caught up with Oscar Pérez—the former action-movie star and police officer who led a ragtag band of pro-democracy protesters. He and six of his confederates were killed in…

Santiago, Chile

Neil Young dings Apple, releases high quality archive for free. Neil Young is not happy with Apple, whom he accuses of watering down the quality of digital music. Fortunately, he has made his archive available, offering high quality master copies of his work via streaming:…

United Nations Watch—President Trump’s first address to the United Nations General Assembly was a bit of a hodge-podge. At times, it sounded as if it were a message to Americans that Trump would be defending them and their interests even if (and especially when) those interests contradicted the…

The only thing likely protecting Steve Bannon’s job is the fact that everyone in Washington expects he’s about to lose it. Administration officials inside the West Wing are already acting as if Bannon is halfway out the door. On Meet the Press Sunday, National security adviser H.R. McMaster refused…

In Caracas on Sunday Venezuelan “Assassin in Chief” Nicolas Maduro abandoned his last pretense of legitimacy and commenced open warfare on democracy. Ignoring the heavy losses of his legislative allies in the December 2015 legislative elections (which transpired despite corrupt rulings by the…

Rocked by massive protests and violent skirmishes, Venezuela is on the brink of civil war and has been for some time now. It should come as no surprise, then, that the socialist regime of Nicolás Maduro is shoring up support with the country’s military in every way it can. This includes rewarding…

Donald Trump met with Russian president Vladimir Putin a second time at this month’s G20 summit in Hamburg. Following the two leaders’ bilateral meeting on July 7, Trump and Putin spoke privately after a dinner hosted by German chancellor Angela Merkel.

In a move that apparently surprised everyone, including his family and colleagues, Venezuelan authorities released political prisoner Leopoldo Lopez in the middle of the night on July 8. Lopez, a prominent democracy activist who has long challenged the authoritarian socialism of Hugo Chávez and his…

How did Venezuela go from Latin America's richest economy to an impoverished basket case where food is so hard to come by that the average citizen has lost some 20 pounds? The answer would seem to be obvious—so obvious that it could be captured in a single word. But The Scrapbook gets ahead of…

How did Venezuela go from Latin America's richest economy to an impoverished basket case where food is so hard to come by that the average citizen has lost some 20 pounds? The answer would seem to be obvious—so obvious that it could be captured in a single word. But The Scrapbook gets ahead of…

As long-suffering Venezuelans take to the streets and the government itself executes its most audacious seizure of a private business, a General Motors plant, it's worth looking at precisely how we got here.

The multiple tragedies roiling Venezuela—widespread hunger, political repression, catastrophic inflation—continue apace. The Miami Herald reports:

It's an elastic stretch to compare Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro to Donald Trump, as pundits and critics of the Hugo Chavez successor have done for the last year and a half. Maduro's opinion of immigration from Colombia into his country—"Who comes over from Colombia? It's people practically…

'Tis the season to be jolly. And for governments to show their concern for the governed, not all of whom have granted their consent to be governed by the in-crowd.

Back when I was 8 years old, my days would usually begin with my mom telling me to go stand in line at the small neighborhood shop. The line would have been there since before dawn, long before the shop would open, if it opened at all, because they had so little to sell. This was Chile in the early…

Latin American politics has a tendency to resemble the magical realism made famous by the "boom" generation of southern-hemisphere writers a few decades ago; just when you think you've reached solid, stable ground, everything shifts and you find yourself more disoriented than when you started. It…

On November 18, the Supreme Court of Chile issued a protective order on behalf of Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos, two opposition mayors imprisoned without just cause in Venezuela.  These brave individuals had the temerity to oppose the regime of Nicolas Maduro, and earlier this year they went…

In the words of Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, Nicolas Maduro's government is increasingly a “dictatorship whose economic policies and generalized corruption have terribly impoverished” Venezuela. A founding member of OPEC with extensive petroleum reserves, the once prosperous nation is plagued…

Churchill presents a wonderful metaphor, inspired by Edmund Burke, of the importance of consistency in leadership. He describes the ship of state, buffeted by winds, tacking left and right, from policy to policy, but always heading toward a main point in the distance. Lesson: circumstances call for…

What would the shade of El Libertador think today surveying his beloved Venezuela? He would certainly be shocked at the dubious honor his country has been granted for claiming the number one spot on the world Misery Index for 2015. He would also surely wonder how the land of the intellectual font…

Santiago, Chile

Late Thursday afternoon, guards at Venezuela’s infamous Ramo Verde military prison attempted to abduct opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez from the cramped dungeon cell in which he has been held incommunicado. Lopez refused to leave unless he was in the presence of his lawyers and a representative of…

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, have much more in common than failing economies, populist rhetoric, and a penchant for extra-judicial political maneuvers: they are both the first and second (respectively) highest recipients of Chinese…

Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, spoke Monday on the Senate floor about the reign of oppression in his parents' native Cuba and in Venezuela. Rubio gave the address after Iowa Democratic senator Tom Harkin gave a rosy evaluation of Cuba after a recent trip there. Drawing on the example of…

During the 14-year reign of Hugo Chávez, Venezuelans became drearily accustomed to hearing so-called cadenas interrupt the regular programming on their radios and television sets. These are “chained” broadcasts (the word cadena means “chain”) that all stations must carry. They originated long…

White House spokesman Jay Carney released this statement on the Venezuelan election:

On Wednesday, the body of Venezuela’s late president, Hugo Chávez, was transported through Caracas in a formal procession that drew a crowd of weeping millions, accustomed to calling him, among other epithets, "the Example of Permanent Battle," and "the Christ of Latin America's Poor." Those that…

Former President Jimmy Carter released the following statement on the passing of Hugo Chavez:

Congressman Tom Cotton of Arkansas released the following statement to mark the death of Hugo Chavez: 

The AP reports:

According to a leading Spanish newspaper, Hugo Chávez’s doctors have told his family that the cancer-stricken autocrat will not recover from his illness and will not be able to resume the Venezuelan presidency. Perhaps that’s why his return to Venezuela was a relatively subdued affair. Chávez…

Reuters reports:

During the course of his 14-year rule, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has dismantled all barriers to the absolute centralization of power around his own person. Now with Chávez in Havana recovering from his fourth surgery on his metastasized cancer—though he has refused to disclose what kind of…

At a candlelight vigil for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in Bolivia, actor Sean Penn offered great praise for the sick strongman:

When Argentine president Cristina Kirchner nationalized the Spanish-owned YPF oil company this past April, Washington Post correspondent Juan Forero proclaimed her “the standard-bearer of populist nationalism in Latin America.” At the time, her decision played well at home: One poll found that 62…

The United States and Venezuela will now serve together on the United Nations Human Rights Council, after both countries won elections today to serve together. Venezuela received 154 votes and is in the Latin American group, while the U.S. received 131 and is in the Western group.

Yesterday, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez "won" reelection. Today, the White House is congratulating Venezuela on that outcome. 

We are now less than two weeks away from an election that could either save or destroy what remains of Venezuelan democracy.

In a recent speech, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez had praise for President Barack Obama and criticism for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The Associated Press reports:

White House spokesman Jay Carney avoided talking about President Obama's comments on Hugo Chavez, saying that he hasn't "read it."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney responded to President Obama's comments on Hugo Chavez with this statement:  

Much like Fidel Castro, his ideological soulmate, Hugo Chávez is fond of denouncing his critics as “fascists” and “Nazis,” regardless of whether those critics are U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, heads of state in Europe, or opposition presidential candidates in Venezuela. Yet in his militarization…

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the group U.N. Watch reports. The independent watchdog group also says that Pakistan is additionally “slated to run unopposed for seats on the UN’s 47-nation Human Rights Council this year.”

However poor his health condition, Hugo Chávez must have enjoyed a certain measure of satisfaction earlier this month when leaders from across the Western hemisphere gathered in Caracas for the first meeting of the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a hemispheric forum…

Recent reports, no less than their accompanying photos, suggest that Hugo Chávez may be dying. But if he hangs on, he is on his way to being reelected president again in Venezuela’s December 2012 national elections. The Western hemisphere’s second-greatest political survivor (after Fidel Castro) is…

Iran has a lot riding on the survival—both literal and political—of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. If the Bolivarian revolutionary beats cancer and wins another term as president, Tehran will continue to enjoy a strategic partnership with the world’s fifth largest oil exporter. But if Chávez…

Last week, former army officer Ollanta Humala was inaugurated as president of Peru, and he vowed to maintain the successful economic policies adopted by his predecessor, Alan García. The significance of that vow should not be understated.

"Panetta: Iraq will ask for some US troops to stay"

Amid the crisis in Japan and conflict in Libya, President Obama is scheduled to take a trip to South America this weekend. The President undoubtedly has a lot on his foreign policy plate, but while he's in the region the administration ought to give pay some needed attention to what's going on…

It got lost amid the remarkable dispatches from Egypt and the broader Middle East, but last week Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela revealed some big news about Hugo Chávez and Iran. Speaking to a House subcommittee on February 15, he said the U.S. government is investigating whether…

If you’re looking for evidence that a nuclear Iran would be very difficult (if not impossible) to “contain,” visit Buenos Aires. Between 1992 and 1994, the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah launched not one but two murderous attacks in the Argentine capital, bombing both the Israeli embassy and…

Last Friday in Moscow, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev signed a formal agreement obliging his country to help Venezuela launch a nuclear energy program. Vladimir Putin first floated the idea of Russian-Venezuelan nuclear cooperation back in 2008, following the Georgian war, and he signed a…

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is visiting Tehran today, along with his sidekick, Bolivian president Evo Morales. It’s Chávez’s ninth trip in the past 18 months but this one’s special because he’s stopping over on his way back from Moscow, where he announced a nuclear deal with the Russians. The…

“Before we get off the plane, I might ask you to take my laptop and cell phone through the airport for me,” said my traveling companion. “In case I get arrested upon landing.” “Ok,” I answered hesitantly. “No problems.”