The shock from left-leaning establishment reporters came loudly on Wednesday: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – the “charismatic,” “widely popular,” “iconic,” “commanding” Lula – would finally have to face justice for one of the most expansive corruption schemes in Latin American history.
Multiple Brazilian newspapers are reporting that the socialist Workers’ Party (PT) has no “plan B” on who to run for president during the 2018 election after the conviction of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wednesday on corruption charges.
Surrounded by supporters chanting “Lula, presidente!”, former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva officially announced his candidacy in the 2018 presidential race, his first public statement since being convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 9.5 years in prison.
Venezuelans have congregated in a Caracas neighborhood to protest the death of a boy with Down syndrome, who reports claim police shot to death after he reflexively fled the scene of law enforcement activity.
The Episcopal Conference of Venezuela (CEV) has published a letter sent to dictator Nicolás Maduro demanding he cancel a plan to draft a new socialist constitution, following remarks by Monsignor Diego Padrón referring to Maduro’s government as a “dictatorship.”
On Sunday, Venezuela’s opposition marked one hundred days since a series of daily protests against the socialist government, triggered by the Supreme Court’s aborted attempt to replace the National Assembly and install itself as the national legislative body.
The Supreme Court of Venezuela granted opposition leader Leopoldo López house arrest – freeing him from the notorious Ramo Verde military prison – this weekend on medical grounds. Following his release, wife Lilian Tintori accused prison officials of torturing López and denying him medical care.
More than three months into a wave of daily anti-socialist protests, Reuters reports that the government of Venezuela has arrested at least 123 armed forces servicemen for a variety of crimes, including traditional crime like larceny and political crimes like “treason.”
Socialist chavista gangs known as “colectivos” stormed Venezuela’s National Assembly Wednesday – the nation’s Independence Day – and kept hundreds of legislators and journalists hostage for eight hours, according to people who were later released.
The communist regime of Cuba has committed a documented 2,559 politically motivated arrests in the first half of 2017, according to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), an NGO that tracks and documents repressive police action on the island
Brazil’s government announced a sudden halt in printing passports last week following the evaporation of public funds for such use. This week, Brazil’s Congress attempted to pass legislation reappropriating funds for education to the passport program, although it appears the latest plan in motion will take money out of the nation’s U.N. funding for this purpose.
The head of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), one of the island’s largest pro-democracy groups, accused the government of attempting to taint the food at the group’s headquarters with a “noxious substance,” the latest in a string of similar claims by dissidents both in and out of prison.
Nearly a year after Brazil impeached its most-recent president, Dilma Rousseff, prosecutors have charged her successor, Michel Temer, with taking a $152,000 bribe as part of a larger corruption scandal involving a large meatpacking corporation.
June is the season for roses–resplendent in gardens and ever-present at weddings throughout the United States. But then that is fitting, for the rose is, after all, the National Floral Emblem of the United States, declared so by Presidential Proclamation, signed by President Reagan on November 20, 1986:
At a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) this week, international diplomats had the chance to send a clear message to Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro that his authoritarian rule must end.
Countries attending the Organization of American States summit in Cancun on Monday failed to reach an agreement on asking Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to scrap his plans to rewrite the country’s constitution.
The Cuban propaganda newspaper Granma – the official state newspaper – has published a scathing condemnation of President Trump’s upcoming announcement of a new, pro-human rights policy towards the island’s communist dictatorship.
In Miami, the heart of America’s Cuban exile community, President Donald Trump sounded the death knell of predecessor Barack Obama’s “normalization” policy towards Cuba, vowing,” we will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer.” Opening with
The government of Cuba has banned one of the country’s most high-profile anti-communist dissidents, Ladies in White coordinator Berta Soler, from traveling to Florida to attend President Donald Trump’s national address on America’s policy toward the island prison.
Cuban dissident leaders who protested President Barack Obama’s “normalization” concessions to the Castro regime are eagerly awaiting President Donald Trump’s anticipated rollback of these reforms, expecting Trump to be “fair to dissidents and the exile community.”
In an interview with the Cuban-American news outlet Martí this week, Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) said President Donald Trump’s soon-to-be-unveiled Cuba policy will center around promoting “the freedom of the Cuban people” and treating the Castro regime as the “narco-terrorist tyranny” that it is.
As Venezuela enters year eighteen of the Bolivarian Socialist Revolution, the international community is finally paying attention, as Venezuelans struggle to find food, medicine, and an outlet for their frustration that will not trigger rampant state violence.
As the one-year anniversary of his arrest on charges largely considered falsified approaches, American Joshua Holt continues to languish in a Venezuelan prison. His family, the Miami Herald reports this week, says he has grown “depressed and angry,” losing weight as his health deteriorates in prison.
The small city of Cuenca, Ecuador is struggling to address a growing wave of American “Baby Boomers” who have decided to retire there to take advantage of a socialist welfare state designed for its locals.
Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council demanded the United States step down from the organization Tuesday and apologize for “atrocities committed throughout history” after a scathing condemnation from his American counterpart Nikki Haley.
Venezuelan student groups and opposition leaders who assembled before the doors of Venezuela’s state television network VTV Friday afternoon were met with armored tanks, dozens of soldiers, and snipers awaiting them on the network building’s rooftop.
A sergeant in the Venezuelan Armed Forces has released a video calling for his fellow soldiers to rise up against dictator Nicolás Maduro and reject orders to attack unarmed civilians, the latest indication that Maduro is losing the support of the military amid a wave of violent crackdowns on dissidents.
An NGO operating in Venezuela revealed this week that the government has committed a known 2,977 arrests since anti-socialist protests erupted in April and is currently keeping 1,351 citizens behind bars for protesting.
New Year’s Eve personality Kathy Griffin has a message for Donald Trump: she wants to hold his bloody severed head in her hands.
Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz has broken ranks with the nation’s socialist government, condemning the armed forces for using excessive violence against unarmed protesters and triggering most of the 71 deaths occurring since the current wave of unrest began in March.
At least 55 Venezuelans have died during protests against Nicolás Maduro’s socialist dictatorship since April 5, according to official tallies. Venezuelan media claim the number is much higher, however, tallying up 71 dead, among them over one dozen teens as young as 14.
The Venezuelan Penal Forum (FPV), an NGO active in the South American country, reports that the military has arrested between 50 and 60 Venezuelan soldiers and changed them with insufficient loyalty to dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Support for Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro is dwindling as a pro-government rally failed to fill the stands outside the Miraflores presidential palace, El Nacional reports.
Anti-socialist protesters in Venezuela’s Barinas state burned down the childhood home of late dictator Hugo Chávez on Monday, as well as the old home of his grandmother, and attacked a number of government buildings with Molotov cocktails.
For months the protests in Venezuela have been escalating and, last week, The Miami Herald revealed an audio recording suggesting that military snipers could be used against the Venezuelan protesters.
After months of attempting to ingratiate himself with President Donald Trump, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has changed his tune, accusing him of a “conspiracy” to overthrow his regime and demanding Trump “get your dirty hands out of” Venezuela.
Brazil’s Supreme Court released testimony by corporate leaders accused of corruption Friday that accuses President Michel Temer of taking nearly $5 million in bribes from the world’s largest meat processor.
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has triggered international outrage yet again with remarks comparing the nation’s anti-socialist opposition to Nazis and branding his oppressive socialist regime “the new Jews of the 21st century that Hitler persecuted.”
A Venezuelan NGO, in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, has accused the government of Venezuela of beating and torturing peaceful protesters arrested and thrown into military prisons. Among the most gruesome tortures that multiple survivors of the prisons recalled was being forced to eat “pasta with feces.”
Venezuela is in turmoil. Political confrontations continue on the streets of Caracas and other cities, with over 40 people killed in clashes with riot police in just the last few weeks.
