venezuela

With customary fanfare Donald Trump announced an oil deal that is meant to give control to the U.S. government of vast reserves of Venezuelan crude. If the Venezuelan and Iranian fiascos wouldn't be so alarmingly clear, some level of credence could be given. But as with every Trump-related claim, this site is calling absolute BS on the whole thing. Firstly, Venezuela does not have the oil reserves that the Donald think it has. The much touted about figure is a complete fabrication of Hugo Chavez that has never been independently verified.

2026 has been an eventful year for Venezuela. Jan. 3rd brought a U.S. military operation that removed Nicolas Maduro, but left chavismo's criminal structure intact. Since then the Trump administration has oxigenated and empowered Maduro's associates, to the point of saying chavismo is in fact the better option. The absurdity of this cannot be overstated. It's like arresting, extraditing and throwing El Chapo in jail and in the same breath becoming partners with his son and lieutenants and carrying on with business.

We thank our readers for messages received, asking how we are, how our families, relatives and friends in Caracas are doing. We were going to write about it, but someone else has done it with such clarity that it’s worth reprinting in full without any further comment.

Delcy Rodríguez, the "acting" president of Venezuela has declared a state of emergency.

What you are watching from Venezuela is more than a natural disaster story. It is a governance autopsy.

Competing articles in the WaPo and WSJ paint a grim, if all-so-familiar picture of how Donald Trump’s “regime change” project in Venezuela is evolving.

Venezuelan historian Manuel Caballero maintained that it was a mistake to try and pigeonhole Hugo Chavez within the traditional and descriptive ideological limits of socialism, conservatism, capitalism, communism, etc., claiming “Hugo Chávez no es comunista, ni socialista, ni musulmán, como dijo él alguna vez. Pero es todo eso a la vez si le garantizan que puede quedarse toda la vida en el poder. Chávez es chavista y lo que él adora de Fidel Castro no son las cosas que Fidel hizo o dejó de hacer en Cuba, sino su casi medio siglo en el poder.”

A little over a month after the U.S government executed Operation Southern Spear, snatching Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores and forcing the remaining chavista criminal bosses to obey and follow further instructions from Washington, Venezuela's democratic future remains uncertain. The question of elections has been met with evasive answers from nearly all U.S. officials involved. It is useful however to keep tabs on what has happened in some fronts since January 3rd, a flurry of activity in criminal investigations involving chavismo facilitators being one of the most important.

It is a fact of life that Stalin, Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and Salazar have plenty of nostalgics across the world. Roosevelt and Churchill not so much, despite their actions impeding the little moustachioed man from annexing  continental Europe to South Bavaria. Most people commenting on Venezuela these days must have forgotten their own history and have taken leave of their senses. Instead, in this moment of cautious optimism after enduring 26 years of chavista rule, Venezuelans the world over have had to put up with pedantic callousness from people that have no skin in the game.

Start by reading this: "UPDATED - Nervis Villlalobos & Rafael Ramirez' web of corruption exposed". Seriously, go and read first the investigation and evidence procured by this site to law enforcement in Switzerland, the U.S. and Spain that underpinned criminal prosecutions in those jurisdictions against those exposed.

Picture this: "Nicolas Maduro didn't recognise yesterday's electoral results" is no longer part of the conversation. Imagine "With 87% of votes counted, Maria Corina Machado won a landslide in Venezuela." This is today the new reality, a reality that took the U.S. military might to be established. This morning, every last crime boss within Chavismo knows U.S. forces can come at any point, land anywhere in the country however guarded, snatch you in the dead of night, and ship you to America looking all dishevelled and frightened.

UPDATED - News from Caracas early this morning woke up a lot of people. The exiled Venezuelans among those people are finding difficult to believe that Maduro and partner in crime Cilia have been captured and flown out of the country. Delcy Rodriguez has said that the U.S. has violated international law with the action, adding that Venezuela will never be under anyone's tutelage… This is where everyone can see just how completely deranged chavistas truly are, considering what they’ve been doing since 1999.