Worldcrunch
The United States has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, attacking the country’s main source of income in an escalation of pressure aimed at bringing down the Maduro regime. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, supports the U.S.’s pressure tactics. But our Americans ready to revive imperialism?
Donald Trump and Nicolas Maduro spoke on the phone, but the U.S. president gave him an ultimatum to resign and leave the country. The alternative is likely to involve military action, which would disregard international law.
On five separate occasions, the U.S. Navy has sunk ships in the Caribbean accused of drug trafficking — yet no evidence has been presented. Acting without the approval of Congress or the backing of the international community, Donald Trump is pushing ahead. This return to power politics is causing alarm across Latin America.
👋 নমস্কাৰ* Welcome to Friday, where Israel’s plans to take control of Gaza City spark widespread condemnation, historic wildfires rage on in France and California, and today’s quiz question comes courtesy of a motorist in Germany. Meanwhile, Kyrgyz investigative outlet Kloop uncovers potential wavering support from Central Asia’s traditionally Kremlin-aligned nations. The Worldcrunch Today crew […]
Getting El Salvador’s compliant parliament to legislate and scrap presidential term limits is the latest and sure-fire sign that President Nayib Bukele has no intention of ending his no-nonsense rule any time soon.
In its first decade, Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution was radical yet legitimate, and enjoyed the people’s electoral support under leader Hugo Chávez. This changed when his successor, Nicolás Maduro, took over after Chávez’s death, and decided he wasn’t going to let votes thwart his insatiable love of power and money.
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro plans to declare himself president on January 10, as he becomes the likely winner of the 2024 elections. Will there be a showdown or a revolt, or will a tired nation give in to tyranny?
Looking back, 2024 was a year of momentous elections around the world. The results, from country to country, show overall that the global health of democracy remains precarious when some of those who win elections do not seem to believe in the political system which brought them to power.
Edmundo Gonzales, the opposition candidate who should have been declared the winner of the July election in Venezuela, has gone into exile in Spain. For the time being, President Maduro has won the day, even if he is denounced by the Latin American democratic left, notably Lula in Brazil.
Venezuela’s elections this year took a very different course than Nicaragua’s in 2021. In both Latin American countries, an authoritarian leader wanted to stay in power and committed electoral fraud to do so. But in Venezuela, the opposition was able to create resistance to Nicolás Maduro.
The leaders of three big Latin American powers, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, have shown they believe keeping a fellow socialist in power is more important than respecting the votes of millions of ordinary Venezuelans who chose freedom over socialism.
Foreign condemnations and sanctions will not force Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to abandon power after losing the recent presidential elections. The army could, but with a security system designed by Cuban advisers, it is firmly under regime control.
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro joins a long line of dictators whose fall from grace is marked by a period of incessant corruption, isolation, and a disconnection from reality.
Venezuela and its neighbors are nervously waiting to see if President Maduro and his clique will soon hold a fair election, or cling onto power, fueling more despair and unleashing yet another migratory wave over the region.
In keeping with the pseudo-democratic style of certain autocracies of our time, Venezuela’s leftist ruler is not averse to holding a general election, to be held when he says and once he has the results readied in advance.
With a sham court ruling, Venezuela’s President Maduro has paved the way for his unchallenged reelection as president this year, regardless of U.S. sanctions. This is happening as Latin America’s leftist governments, notably Brazil, watch in silence.
Is Venezuela’s President Maduro renewing the country’s long-standing claim to a big part of neighboring Guyana to distract from his unpopularity at home, to postpone next year’s general elections, or to nab some of Guyana’s rocketing oil wealth?
With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life.
Venezuela’s first lady, Cilia Flores, is one of the country’s chief power brokers and a consummate wheeler-dealer who, with the help of relatives, runs a voracious enterprise dubbed the Flower Shop.
Venezuela is to create free economic zones to attract foreign capital into the Venezuelan economy, but who would take “clean” money to a lawless land run by rapacious revolutionaries?
More than two years after the opposition leader proclaimed himself the country’s ‘legitimate’ leader, the man he was hoping to oust — President Nicolas Maduro — is still very much in charge.
Politics in the region have become even more complex since the Cold War era of revolutions and military juntas.
The opposition has so far failed to provoke a military uprising against President Nicolás Maduro, and for now, can only count on an angry but tired population.
The economic and political tragedy unfolding in Venezuela should be a call to action for the rest of the region’s countries, especially with the early presidential election (April 22) looming.
Mugabe and Maduro share much in common, starting with the rare ability to gut the resources of a promising national economy and disregard the will of the people. But there is an important difference that may explain who survives another day.
Did adverse conditions force such Latin American strongmen Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro to clamp down, or did they hide their authoritarian designs from the start?
Just hours before outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama’s emotional farewell address in Chicago, another head of state was taking center stage down in steamy Central America to let just the opposite be known: He’s still very much here, with no plans to leave power anytime soon. Daniel Ortega, the long-serving leader of Nicaragua, first came […]
SPOTLIGHT: EXPLOSIONS IN THAILAND, QUESTIONS OF LABEL Thailand was hit by a series of coordinated blasts across the country last night and early this morning, leaving four people dead and 34 injured. The Bangkok Post reports that the heaviest damage was in the resort town of Hua Hin, where explosions killed two and injured dozens, […]
El Nacional, June 9, 2016 Venezuelan daily El Nacional on Thursday features front-page clashes linked to the country’s ongoing food shortages. “Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) will control 70% of food staples,” reads the lead headline of the Caracas daily that is close to the opposition. The headline refers to the policy touted by […]
SPOTLIGHT: SPRINGTIME ANGST IN PARIS It’s spring in Paris: the trees are bursting with foliage, café terraces look inviting, the French Open is about to kick off. Shall we indulge in that apéro? Mais, non! The mood in the City of Light feels anything but spring-like right now. There is the fate of EgyptAir Flight […]
Venezuelan public workers woke up Wednesday to newspaper headlines that told them to stay home. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced in a televised address Tuesday that the government is slashing additional working hours for the country’s 2.8 million public workers in a bid to save energy, reducing the working week from four to two days. […]
President Barack Obama is restoring United States influence on the American continent, a reminder of the importance of neighbors.
Venezuela, facing economic turmoil and the challenge of upcoming legislative elections, is inflaming a centuries-old border dispute with Guyana.
Hampered by plummeting oil prices and fading public support, President Nicolas Maduro and his crafty sidekick, Assembly leader Diosdado Cabello, are trying to provoke an opposition outburst. Last week’s arrest of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma was a c
CARACAS — Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital Thursday night, after the city’s Mayor Antonio Ledezma was hauled away by camouflaged police, who also smashed into opposition leader’s office. A CCTV image of the police entering the office made El Nacional“s front page Friday. Opposition supporters began making as much noise across the city as […]
Governments in Latin America and Africa are scrambling to build so-called “stategic trading partnerships” with China. But is it really a win-win situaiton?
Political repression is one thing, but if store shelves are empty, the so-called “revolution” is destined to crumble.
The Castro regime’s about-face to restore ties with the U.S. signals the communist economic system’s shameful failure. But politics is another matter.
-Analysis- BOGOTA — Venezuela is in crisis — a tremendous one. Food and basic drugs are in short supply. The annual murder rate has reached 79 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world and a cold figure that covers a multitude of personal tragedies. Inflation is expected to reach a rate of […]
A year after the death of President Hugo Chávez, food and consumer shortages are spreading through Caracas along with protests. Blame over-regulation or capitalistic hoarding?