It was February 7, 1956 when the Vera Cruz Vessel sailed from the port of Vigo in northern Spain. Among its 800 passengers was my grandfather, Vicente Novo. Like everyone on that ship, he left everything behind in his homeland to pursue his dreams in a more prosperous country. In this land of opportunity, he and the other passengers found jobs, started businesses and raised families – all while sending money back to their hungry families in Europe.
But this newfound land of opportunity wasn’t the United States of America. It was my home country: Venezuela. 
It’s hard to believe now, but in 1950, Venezuela was the<a href="https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita-in-1950"> fourth-richest</a> country on earth. Tragically, over the course of the next six decades, Venezuela was transformed from a prosperous nation of immigrants to a devastated and poor land full of people in need of refuge. 
Vicente hadn’t even finished elementary school when he immigrated to Venezuela. Yet, in that thriving nation, he found a job in a car garage that allowed him to save and send money back to his five siblings in Spain. And after years of diligently saving, he opened his own small parking garage, where he washed and parked cars.
My grandfather and the other voyagers on the Vera Cruz were <a href="https://eprints.ucm.es/2342/1/AH0012101.pdf">not alone</a>. From the 1940s through the 1970s, Venezuela was the destination of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Venezuela/Immigration-and-ethnic-composition">millions</a> of immigrants from <a href="https://eprints.ucm.es/2342/">Spain</a>, <a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/06/10/the-portuguese-community-gives-up-on-the-venezuelan-dream/">Portugal</a>,<a href="http://wlcui.com/es/2013/12/10/llegada-de-los-libaneses-a-venezuela-prof-daniel-lahoud-uclv/"> Lebanon</a>,<a href="https://www.aljadid.com/content/arabs-making-their-mark-latin-america-generations-immigrants-colombia-venezuela-and-mexico"> Syria</a>, and a host of other nations. Just like America, Venezuela became a thriving melting pot, and middle-class status was achievable for those who worked hard for it – even if they had no education.
This prosperity was possible thanks to free markets. Venezuela protected private property, had low taxation, and little regulation. Venezuela’s borders were open for immigrants who came to work, and foreign investment was welcomed, leading to a booming economy. All of this happened under an otherwise authoritarian dictator, Marcos Pérez Jiménez.
However, after Venezuela became democratic in 1958, the people elected leaders who put the country on the path of socialism.
In 1976, then-President Carlos Andres Perez nationalized the oil industry, and Venezuela’s oil production plummeted by more than<a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/crude-oil-production"> 40%</a> over the next decade. Oil nationalization led to the expansion of welfare programs funded by the new volatile oil revenue. Despite this additional government revenue, the government kept getting in debt and started printing more money to pay for more welfare. This led to inflation and the establishment of price and currency controls, as well as the nationalization of key industries. That, in turn, led to joblessness and misery. Venezuela’s real wages declined and <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c554/bf92c278562e46e52c0550d492089200a727.pdf">GDP per capita</a>, which had been soaring since the 1950s, plateaued in the 1980s and 1990s.
My grandfather was a victim of these policies. His parking garage wasn’t profitable anymore because the government capped parking prices. Thankfully, though, he had been saving. With that money, he built a small four-apartment building where he lived and rented the other three units. But the government had to ruin this for him, too. It used eminent domain to expropriate his building under the excuse that it needed to build a hospital. Not only did the government give my grandfather a below-market rate, it never even built the hospital.
In the late 1990s, politicians were <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/14/01/49/pr9638">forced</a> to apply free-market policies by the International Monetary Fund. They welcomed private investment in the oil industry, re-privatized some industries they’d taken away, demolished price and currency controls, and even <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/government-budget">balanced</a> the budget. As a result, the economy improved, unemployment <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/VEN/venezuela/unemployment-rate">stabilized</a>, inflation <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/inflation-cpi">slowed rapidly,</a> and oil production <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/venezuela/crude-oil-production">surged</a>. But this proved to be too little too late. 
By the time election season rolled around, two years after these reforms, jobs were still scarce – and the Venezuelan people were outraged at the <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.551.6879&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">rampant corruption</a> among establishment politicians. So, in 1998, Venezuelans elected Hugo Chávez, a radical socialist candidate who promised to crush the wealthy and redistribute oil and wealth to the poor by giving “free” housing, healthcare, education, and food.
My grandfather remembers folks saying that “Venezuela isn’t Cuba,” as they dismissed warnings from wise citizens who said that Chavez’s socialist policies would usher in destruction.
Indeed, Chavez <a href="https://economics21.org/how-socialism-destroyed-venezuela">doubled down</a> on crushing business through regulation, price and currency controls, and nationalizing companies. His policies, and those of the current dictator Nicolas Maduro, have caused the greatest <a href="https://time.com/5789570/venezuelans-struggling-hunger-un/">humanitarian crisis</a> in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Nearly <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7604881/Venezuela-exodus-set-5-million-long-term-needs-grow-officials-say.html">5 million</a> Venezuelans have fled the country already, including my family.
There’s a saying in Venezuela that before socialism took hold of our country, “We were rich but we didn’t know it.” Many Venezuelans who initially supported socialism and those who didn’t vote at all have now recognized that truth the hard way.
My family’s story, and that of millions of other Venezuelans, should serve as a warning to all those who believe America is too prosperous and powerful to fail. Socialism can and will destroy this country – unless voters curb the recent wave of popularity it’s gained in the United States and prevent radical leaders from getting elected. 
The next time someone tells you that “America isn’t Venezuela,” remind them that we Venezuelans once said something all-too similar.
Daniel Di Martino<a href="http://www.twitter.com/danieldimartino"> (@DanielDiMartino</a>) is a research associate at the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at the University of Kentucky, a Young Voices contributor, and a Dissident contributor.

The Sabana Grande

DIMARTINO: How Venezuela Went From A Rich Nation Of Immigrants, To A Hungry Nation Of Refugees

Hugo Chavez

Nicolas Maduro

Socialism

Venezuela

Unlike his constant critic, the socialist candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, President Trump has firmly taken a stance supporting Juan Guaido, the president of the opposition-held National Assembly and opponent to the Venezuelan dictatorial president Nicholas Maduro, who has presided over the utter devastation of his country. On Wednesday, Trump warmly welcomed Guaido, whom the Trump administration regards as the legitimate president of Venezuela, to the White House.
On January 10, 2019, Maduro was elected to a second six-year term after elections in May 2019 that were boycotted by the opposition and rejected by 12 Latin American nations. Guaido declared himself interim president on Jan. 23.
The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-visit-interim-president-juan-guaido-bolivarian-republic-venezuela/">released a statement</a> regarding Guaido’s visit reading:
<blockquote>Today, President Donald J. Trump will welcome Interim President Juan Guaido of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the White House.  The visit is an opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to the people of Venezuela and to discuss how we can work with President Guaido to expedite a democratic transition in Venezuela that will end the ongoing crisis.  We will continue to work with our partners in the region to confront the illegitimate dictatorship in Venezuela, and we will stand alongside the Venezuelan people to ensure a future that is democratic and prosperous.</blockquote>
On Tuesday night, Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/state-of-union-transcript.html">spoke of Guaido</a> in his State of the Union Address, saying:
<blockquote>We are supporting the hopes of Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to restore democracy. The United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people. But Maduro’s grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken.
Here this evening is a very brave man who carries with him the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of all Venezuelans. Joining us in the gallery is the true and legitimate president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. Mr. President, please take this message back to your homeland. Thank you, Mr. President. Great honor. Thank you very much. Please take this message back that all Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom.</blockquote>
In February 2019, Florida Democrats ripped Bernie Sanders after he refused to call Maduro a dictator, as <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/21/bernie-sanders-venezuela-maduro-1179636">Politico</a> reported. Rep. Donna Shalala, who represented Venezuelan exiles, stated of Sanders, “He is not going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party. He has demonstrated again that he does not understand this situation. I absolutely disagree with his imprecision in not saying Maduro must go.”
Sanders also said he would not recognize Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela when Univision’s Jorge Ramos asked him if he would, answering, “No.”
Sanders was asked by the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/presidential-candidates-venezuela">Council on Foreign Relations</a>, “What, if any, additional steps should the United States take to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela?” He replied:
<blockquote>My administration would support the negotiations between the Maduro government and the opposition, and work with other countries in our region, and the international community, to support the Venezuelan people’s right to build their own future. The United States should support the rule of law, fair elections and self-determination in Venezuela, as we should elsewhere. We would condemn the use of violence against unarmed protesters and the suppression of dissent.
We would also listen to the voices of Venezuelan activists themselves who warn against broad sanctions, such as the Trump administration’s oil sanctions, that mainly punish the people, not the government. My administration would not be in the business of regime change. The United States has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries; we must not go down that road again.</blockquote>

President Trump Welcomes Venezuelan Opposition Leader Juan Guaido To White House

Trump’s No Bernie Sanders: Welcomes Venezuelan Opposition Leader To White House

Donald Trump

At one time, Maracaibo had a population of more than 2,000,000 people, and was considered one of the most prosperous cities in Venezuela, formerly the richest country in South America. But after years of socialist rule at the hands of dictator Nicholas Maduro, many residents can’t even afford to give their deceased family members a proper burial. 
According to <a href="https://apnews.com/16cb4162663152bc9dd669cb3474bb42">The Associated Press</a>, residents of Maracaibo who don’t have enough money to purchase a funeral casket, which can cost as much as $300, have begun resorting to a range of morbid alternatives, including burying relatives in pieces of wooden furniture or renting caskets from funeral homes. 
Since renting a casket can cost as little as $50, many residents find this method of honoring the dead more financially feasible, reports the news agency. During the rental process, the family doesn’t actually bury the body, but instead returns the casket to the funeral home, where it can be rented again, and then sends the body out to be cremated. 
While some families do manage to scrape together enough money for a more traditional funeral, they sometimes cannot afford to purchase a headstone in addition to a casket — so they’re unable to find the burial site if they return to visit, according to the news agency. 
In September, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-venezuelas-oil-capital-life-is-a-struggle-so-is-death/2019/09/19/169bccc2-c83d-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html">The Washington Post</a> also reported on some of the ways Maracaibo residents must deal with funeral arrangements, and included the story of a “destitute family” that, because they could not “immediately pay for a funeral,” had their relative tossed into a basement morgue that lacked air conditioning. 
<blockquote>As temperatures in this tropical city soared above 90, Vargas’s corpse spent three days on the morgue floor, while his wife, Rossangelys, borrowed money to cover a makeshift coffin and transportation to their home. In the family’s living room, in a lawless part of town pocked with abandoned homes, the family held a grim wake. The narrow, black casket lay across two metal stands. Mourners averted eyes from the deceased’s infested face. Rossangelys tried, and failed, to control the smell by filling gaps in the coffin’s wood with caulking.
They could afford no burial plot. So they dug up the bones of Vargas’s long-dead brother in a local cemetery strewn with broken caskets desecrated by grave robbers.
[The wife] wept by her husband’s resting place. The expelled coffin of her husband’s brother lay in ruins nearby.</blockquote>
The Venezuelan government is currently in turmoil, with National Assembly President Juan Guaido openly challenging the reign of Nicholas Maduro by creating a “parallel government,” according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/venezuela-currency-paper-crafts">Fox News</a>. In an effort to support Guaido, President Donald Trump has recognized him as interim president and imposed sanctions on Venezuela to weaken Maduro’s hold on the country, reports <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-support-factbox/guaido-vs-maduro-who-is-backing-whom-in-venezuela-idUSKCN1S62DY">Reuters</a>. 
Earlier this year, President Trump met with Fabiana Rosales de Guaido, the wife of President Guaido, to deliver a blunt message about the state of affairs in Venezuela.  
“Venezuela was a country with tremendous potential and is still a country with tremendous potential, but people are starving, they’re being killed, they’re being beaten,” said Trump, according to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-0bupUndn0">Global News</a>. “It is unfathomable to everybody that sees, and everybody that gets reports. We’re getting reports that are horrible.”

VENEZUELA-CRISIS-HEALTH-CHILD-FUNERAL

Venezuelans Resort To Renting Funeral Caskets, Report Says

On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on ABC’s &#8220;The View&#8221; in order to promote his new book, &#8220;The Case Against Socialism.&#8221;
While two of the regular hosts were absent (Meghan McCain and Joy Behar), political strategist and commentator Ana Navarro filled in. Following an initial sparring match among the hosts and Sen. Paul over military intervention and the ongoing crisis in Turkey, the conversation turned to socialism.
<blockquote>NAVARRO: Let me ask you this because I live in Miami, there’s tens of thousands of Venezuelan exiles living there. You talk a lot about Venezuela in your new book. I get a lot of political ads from the Republican Party – Donald Trump has tweeted this, many have tweeted this – &#8220;If you vote for Democrats, they will turn the United States into Venezuela.&#8221; Do you think that&#8217;s a fair statement to make?
PAUL: Well, if you vote for a socialist, you might get socialism.
NAVARRO: Come on. Don’t do that. Maduro is not a socialist; he&#8217;s a corrupt, murderous thug who is starving his people.
PAUL: That’s not true.
NAVARRO: That’s not true? Maduro’s not a thug and a murderer who’s starving his people?
PAUL: Let’s have a conversation here. Chavez was a socialist, and socialism was the economic system Venezuela –
NAVARRO: And they stole. [It’s a] kleptocracy. It’s not socialism.
PAUL: But here’s the question &#8230; they voted for socialism.</blockquote>
At this point in the exchange, Navarro gave Paul an incredulous look, prompting him to say, &#8220;Let me finish,&#8221; to which Navarro replied: &#8220;No, I can&#8217;t let you finish. If you are going to say Maduro is not a murderous thug, I’m not letting you finish because that&#8217;s a damn lie! And I’ve got a bunch of neighbors and friends who know this.&#8221;
Paul then waved his hands in Navarro’s direction, and Navarro stated: &#8220;Don’t do this to me. Don’t mansplain. I’m a 47-year-old grown woman!&#8221;
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GWGNrAmNsTw?start=103" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
For comment, The Daily Wire reached out to Daniel Di Martino, a Venezuelan expatriate who fled to the United States in 2016.
Di Martino, who is set to graduate in December with a degree in economics from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, stated:
<blockquote>Ana Navarro is wrong to say Maduro isn&#8217;t socialist. Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, nationalized thousands of companies and greatly expanded welfare programs and government employment. It was as a result of these socialist policies that our economy was destroyed and that today 9 out of every 10 Venezuelans live in poverty and more than four million Venezuelans like myself have been forced to leave our homeland. Corrupt and evil people govern many countries around the world, but these countries don&#8217;t see the terrible humanitarian crises that socialist countries like Venezuela and Cuba experience.
It is insulting that media personalities continue to try to defend the socialist system that has killed so many people throughout history just to protect the radical Democrats that promote those same policies in America.</blockquote>
During a previous Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/interview-part-ii-venezuelan-expat-how-socialism-frank-camp">interview</a> with Di Martino, he elaborated on the idea posed by individuals like Navarro that &#8220;corruption&#8221; and thuggery are to blame for Venezuela’s problems, not socialism:
<blockquote>There are many other corrupt countries that are not going through starvation. In fact, most Latin American countries are very corrupt. Mexico is very corrupt. Colombia is very corrupt. Brazil, Peru, Guatemala. Those countries are not seeing the kind of economic crisis that Venezuela is seeing, where we have lost two thirds of our economy in just the last three years because of the socialist policies.
In Venezuela, they implemented policies such as price controls, such as excessive government deficits because they spent so much on welfare that they had to print money. That’s what destroyed our country. Huge minimum wage hikes that people don’t talk about at all in Venezuela. We had countless minimum wage hikes to the point that the person who cleans the school earns the same as the principal of the school, and the person who was a doctor in the hospital made the same as somebody who was a construction worker or a teacher.
Everybody started earning pretty much the same, so people just stopped working. We had a huge brain drain of skilled workers leaving our country. That’s a real consequence of drastic increases in the minimum wage.</blockquote>
Sen. Paul’s book, &#8220;The Case Against Socialism,&#8221; will be available to purchase on October 15.

Ana Navarro.

WATCH: Ana Navarro Claims Venezuela’s Maduro Is ‘Not A Socialist’

Ana Navarro

Bernie Sanders

Rand Paul

Former Republican New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday for promoting policies that are so far to the left that they resemble those of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.
“It sounds like Bernie Sanders is having his policies and statements written by the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro,” Sununu told Fox News host Sandra Smith when asked about the presidential candidate’s new proposal to cancel $81 billion of medical debt. “I mean, this is socialism to the extreme.”
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
“I think it indicates that Bernie has decided that it is down to a two-person race with Elizabeth Warren and what he has to do in order to win is to out-pander her,” he continued. “And so you’re going to see a continuing series of all of these.”
Accordingly, the Vermont senator previewed an upcoming plan that would wipe away individuals’ past-due medical bills without impacting their credit scores. The $81 billion price tag is exclusive of his Medicare-for-All plan — a keystone of his presidential campaign — which estimates indicate could cost as much as $40 trillion.
In June, Sanders unveiled a separate proposal to eliminate the student loan debt of every American — approximately 45 million people. That sweeping plan would cost upwards of $1.5 trillion.
“But the other thing that comes out of this statement — and Republicans ought to take advantage of it — is that Bernie Sanders is doing an extremely good job of telling us what a disaster Obamacare is and that Obamacare really has to be replaced,” Sununu said.
The New Hampshire governor also noted that as Sanders and fellow progressive challenger Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) battle for the far-left lane of the current Democratic presidential primary, both candidates will likely try to outdo each other on the “everything for everybody” front.
“[Health insurance] is becoming a big test and they’re all pounding Obamacare and in ways that Republicans weren’t as effective as these Democrats seem to be,” Sununu said. “The only one defending Obamacare — and it’s beginning to slip even there — is [former Vice President] Joe Biden.”
Biden, who is largely running on former President Barack Obama’s legacy, is one of the only leading Democratic contenders not to advocate for a Medicare-for-All system that would overhaul the entire health insurance market. Rather, he has vowed to reinstate Obamacare&#8217;s individual mandate to attempt to ensure all Americans obtain sufficient health insurance.
The mandate was initially part of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as Obamacare. As a way to bypass the unconstitutional requirement to force Americans to purchase insurance, the individual mandate was upheld in 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court as an income-based tax levy.
The individual mandate was repealed after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.
“For everyone but Biden this has become an effort to be attractive to the millennials who have absolutely no idea what things cost and who have absolutely no idea that eventually — as Margaret Thatcher said — in socialism, you begin to run out of other people’s money,” Sununu added.

WATCH: New Hampshire Governor: Bernie Sanders Policies Sound Like They’re Written By Nicolas Maduro

Barack Obama

Democratic Socialism

Economy

Health Care

Joe Biden

Leftism

New Hampshire

Obamacare

Major League Baseball announced this week that it has taken action to comply with President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-government-venezuela/">executive order</a> imposing an embargo against socialist Nicolas Maduro-controlled Venezuela. In an attempt to adhere to the order, the league is barring all players from participating in the Venezuela Winter League.
&#8220;MLB has been in contact with the relevant government agencies regarding the Executive Order issued by President Trump on Venezuela,&#8221; the league said in a statement reported by <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27442220/mlb-bans-playing-venezuela-amid-trump-order">ESPN</a> Thursday. &#8220;MLB will fully adhere to the policies implemented by our government. With respect to the Venezuela Winter League, MLB will suspend its involvement in that league until it receives direction from the relevant agencies that participation by affiliated players is consistent with the Executive Order.&#8221;
According to ESPN&#8217;s sources, the &#8220;murkiness&#8221; of the relationship between the Liga Venezolana de Beísbol Profesional (LVBP) and a government-run business prompted MLB to look into the move, which could impact dozens of major and minor league players who frequently participate in the league.
ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan reports that sources say the MLB feared &#8220;that players agreeing to deals with a government-affiliated entity — or agents consummating the deals — would run afoul of the Aug. 5 executive order, which banned any such transactions.&#8221;
Sources also told ESPN that they fear the ban could have larger and lasting repercussions, creating a situation similar to the complicated relationship between the league and Cuba, particularly by prompting Maduro to retaliate by barring amateur players from being able to sign with the MLB.
Passan notes that the Justice Department is currently conducting an extensive investigation into the league&#8217;s Latin American business, including inquiries into the Braves, the Padres, and the Dodgers. In spring, the administration shut down a deal between MLB and the Cuban government &#8220;that would have allowed Cuban players to sign directly with the league instead of taking the circuitous and dangerous paths offered by traffickers.&#8221;
Trump issued the order in response to the increasingly tyrannical actions of Maduro, whose failing socialist government has helped drive the once-thriving nation into economic collapse. The U.S. has formally declared Maduro an illegitimate political leader, throwing its support behind the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó.
In his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-government-venezuela/">executive order on Venezuela</a>, which imposes a full embargo on Venezuela, Trump condemns Maduro and his government officials for &#8220;the continued usurpation of power&#8221; and &#8220;human rights abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful arrest and detention of Venezuelan citizens, interference with freedom of expression, including for members of the media, and ongoing attempts to undermine Interim President Juan Guaido and the Venezuelan National Assembly&#8217;s exercise of legitimate authority in Venezuela.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50791/chicago-teachers-crowdfund-trip-venezuela-come-ashe-schow">Chicago Teachers Crowdfund Trip To Venezuela, Come Back Praising Socialism</a>

Boston Red Sox v Detroit Tigers

MLB Bans Playing In Venezuela To Comply With Trump Order

Sports

Trump Administration

Three Chicago teachers and a union organizer used a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a trip to Venezuela. The teachers, all members of the Chicago Teachers Union, wrote public blogs and social media posts casting the socialist government of the country in a favorable light.
The Chicago Tribune <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-teachers-union-venezuela-trip-20190819-tbpa3lhjifduxgupdxfs3mosr4-story.html">reported</a> Monday that the educators have been criticized for their trip and praise of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. The Chicago Teachers Union also distanced itself from those who went on the trip, putting out a statement that it was not an official union trip and was not funded by the union.
“Members go all kinds of places in the summer. This was neither an official trip nor something that was funded by the union,” CTU president Jesse Sharkey told WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.” “This is a group of people who are members of the CTU who decided to go to Venezuela.”
Another union member, Karen Moody, told the Tribune that she was “appalled” by the delegation.
“I am appalled a delegation representing themselves as CTU went to Venezuela, not to support striking teachers, not to object to human rights violations, but to go on what appears to be a state-chaperoned propaganda tour,” she told the outlet.
The CTU retweeted some of the group’s tweets regarding their trip, including one from teacher Sarah Chambers who praised the lack of homeless people she saw while traveling in the struggling country.
“While staying in #Venezuela, we didn’t see a single homeless person. USA is the richest country in the world; yet, there are homeless people everywhere. Over 17k CPS students are homeless &#8230; This is why @CTULocal1 is fighting for fair housing #CTUAgainstVezIntervention.&#8221;
Though the CTU distanced itself from the travelers, they clearly used the CTU to solicit donations. Their GoFundMe campaign was called “Sent CTU Strikers to Venezuela,” and they wore CTU hats in the photo they used to accompany the fundraiser.
In one blog post, the group also called itself the “CTU Delegation to Venezuela” and described the blog as representing “the members delegation of the Chicago Teacher’s Union that are currently in Venezuela to learn from educators and activists on the ground.” The blog also explained: “We are three rank and file charter school teachers and one CTU organizer. We organized this delegation ourselves and fundraised for the trip independent of the CTU.”
Chambers also compared Maduro to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The comparison was meant as a compliment.
“Through major economic hardships, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro never closed a single public school or a single health clinic. This stands in stark contrast to our experience in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools and several mental health clinics in a single year,&#8221; Chambers told <a href="http://www.fightbacknews.org/2019/7/23/chicago-teachers-show-solidarity-venezuela">Fight Back! News</a>.
The Tribune described some of the group’s trip:
<blockquote>In the latest post, one member of the group wrote that she’d wanted to observe a method for teaching reading that combines numeracy and literacy skills. She was also curious about if and how educators incorporated the country’s social movements into their curriculum, she wrote.
They visited a commune and talked to educators involved with Misión Robinson, a social welfare program to improve literacy started under former President Hugo Chavez.</blockquote>
The group’s blog was named “Radical Educator Collective.”

Charter Schools Of Chicago Teachers Hold Rally Ahead Of Proposed Strike

Chicago Teachers Crowdfund Trip To Venezuela, Come Back Praising Socialism

Chicago

Teachers Unions

In part one of my interview with 20-year-old Venezuelan expat, Daniel Di Martino, we discussed his life in Venezuela, parallels in political policy between Venezuela and the United States, and two of the Democratic presidential candidates (Sen. Bernie Sanders[D-VT] and Sen. Elizabeth Warren[D-MA]).
In part two, we talk about his life in the U.S., his parents fleeing Venezuela, how to argue against socialism, the &#8220;Nordic model,&#8221; the importance of the Second Amendment, and much more.
Before diving into part two, you should check out part one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50694/interview-venezuelan-expat-how-socialism-destroyed-frank-camp">here</a>.
<blockquote>DW: What are your plans after you graduate?
DI MARTINO: I graduate in December. This is my senior year and I graduate one semester early. Right now, I&#8217;m looking for a job for the period at least from January to July. I&#8217;m on a student visa, so I have one year for work authorization after I graduate. And I&#8217;m also applying for PhD programs to start next August here in the U.S. Ideally, in the future I would be working in public policy think tanks and things like that.
DW: What about your parents? In your op-ed, you mentioned that they left Venezuela in 2017?
DI MARTINO: Yes, I came to the U.S. in 2016 – the fall of 2016 was my first semester in college – and my parents, they stayed in Venezuela then, but I really pushed them to leave because we owned our apartment from the year that Chavez won. That&#8217;s when we had bought our apartment, before things went bad. And we owned two cars that we had bought many, many years ago. And I told them, and they agreed, that if we wait any longer, our property value is just going to keep going down, which is what had happened and keeps happening. And then we&#8217;re not going to have a dime to leave the country ever, and they&#8217;re going to be trapped there without food or anything.
So, in 2017 they made the decision to sell everything we had, which were basically two cars and our home, and they left there with my uncle and my two grandparents to Madrid, Spain. They rented a place, and set up a small coffee shop. They are living together, and that&#8217;s how it works.
DW: How do we avoid ending up like Venezuela? How can we educate voters who might not understand that a socialist system is not a good idea?
DI MARTINO: I think we have to make the arguments on the policy specifically. So we cannot just say &#8220;socialism is bad because the story of Venezuela,&#8221; even though that&#8217;s true. We have to say that price controls created shortages because businesses cannot profit, and if they can&#8217;t profit, they won&#8217;t produce. And that&#8217;s what happened to Venezuela – and that&#8217;s what would happen if we put price caps on drugs in the United States. There wouldn&#8217;t be any drug production; there wouldn&#8217;t be any innovation. Why do you think all the drugs that are created in the world, the huge majority of them, come from America? Because they don&#8217;t have price caps, right? In Europe, they do. So they don&#8217;t innovate anything.
So I think that we have to make this argument specifically, and I know it&#8217;s hard because sometimes what people like or care about or have the time to see is short clips, but if we don&#8217;t make the arguments to people, they will just think that, &#8220;Well no, socialism is in the Nordic countries,&#8221; when in reality it&#8217;s not. Many people don&#8217;t know that these Nordic countries don&#8217;t have minimum wages, or that these countries have lower corporate taxes. I think it&#8217;s fine to use them as a reference, but to just argue in favor of the parts that you like, and then even propose things that are completely different and more expensive, it&#8217;s just an unfair argument, and we have to point out those differences.
DW: There are a lot of people, especially on the Left, who used to exalt Venezuela as the pinnacle of working socialism, and then once everything started to crumble, they said, &#8220;Well, that&#8217;s not real socialism.&#8221; What would you say to someone who would try to argue that what we’re seeing in Venezuela is not real socialism; that it’s just corruption.
DI MARTINO: Sometimes people argue it&#8217;s corruption; sometimes they say it&#8217;s the sanctions; some say it&#8217;s the oil price. I think that there are very easy ways to debunk those three myths.
One, there are many other corrupt countries that are not going through starvation. In fact, most Latin American countries are very corrupt. Mexico is very corrupt. Colombia is very corrupt. Brazil, Peru, Guatemala. Those countries are not seeing the kind of economic crisis that Venezuela is seeing, where we have lost two thirds of our economy in just the last three years because of the socialist policies.
It&#8217;s not the oil price. You don&#8217;t see people starving in Saudi Arabia, which is a country whose whole economy depends on oil even more than Venezuela – and they can&#8217;t even produce food because they&#8217;re a desert. We&#8217;re a country where you can throw a seed in the ground, and whatever that seed is, it will grow into a tree because our soil is so fertile, and we&#8217;re near the equator. Despite having so many natural resources, despite having so many things in our favor – gold, aluminum, actually everything you can imagine – despite all that, they ruined it.
You could say, &#8220;Well, it was corruption,&#8221; but then why is it that other corrupt countries aren&#8217;t ruined in that way? In Venezuela, they implemented policies such as price controls, such as excessive government deficits because they spent so much on welfare that they had to print money. That&#8217;s what destroyed our country. Huge minimum wage hikes that people don&#8217;t talk about at all in Venezuela. We had countless minimum wage hikes to the point that the person who cleans the school earns the same as the principal of the school, and the person who was a doctor in the hospital made the same as somebody who was a construction worker or a teacher.
Everybody started earning pretty much the same, so people just stopped working. We had a huge brain drain of skilled workers leaving our country. That&#8217;s a real consequence of drastic increases in the minimum wage.
DW: There are those who argue that Chavez&#8217;s brand of socialism worked, and Maduro&#8217;s didn’t, which is what caused such a quick collapse. What would you say to that?
DI MARTINO: Honestly, it was the same. Some people try to forgive Chavez, saying that, &#8220;No, it&#8217;s Maduro. It&#8217;s not Chavez.&#8221; The truth is that Maduro has not changed a thing from the policies that Chavez had. It&#8217;s just the natural progression of the policies over time. The difference is that when Chavez was in power, his last year, inflation was still in double digits. Inflation in Venezuela over the last 20 years has very few times been below 30% a year – but that is more than the United States has ever had in any year in its history. 30% inflation in America, nobody in this country has ever experienced that.
People now look back at the Chavez years as if they were good, when they were actually pretty bad. He was the one that nationalized most of the businesses. And the longer the government owned these businesses, or the longer the government owned the electrical grid, the more under-investment there was, and therefore; over time, the infrastructure just diminished to collapse. It’s just the natural result. If Chavez hadn&#8217;t died, we would still be in the same place.
DW: Lastly, is there something that you would like people in the United States, or our readership specifically at The Daily Wire, to know that we didn&#8217;t already touch on in this interview?
DI MARTINO: I would say that the root of the problems of Venezuela were emotional. That initially, people liked Chavez because they were very mad at the political class because it was corrupt. Venezuela was not perfect before Chavez, of course. It was a country with problems, but we need to be grateful. We should be grateful for how great America is because, while it is not perfect, it is a country where everybody has a chance at success, and it is a country where I have been able to come as an immigrant – I&#8217;m not rich at all – and I&#8217;ve been able to get a college degree.
People here in America have even more opportunities than I have because they are citizens who have that as a birth right. And there are millions and millions of people all over the world who would love to come to America to live, yet there are millions of Americans that don&#8217;t like America – and that is scary and sad, and an insult to immigrants as well. It&#8217;s many things at the same time. We really need to be grateful, and that&#8217;s the way to build upon the good and take the bad out.
Also, it&#8217;s important to say that the Second Amendment — people usually give the argument about, &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s about self-defense.&#8221; No, no, no. It&#8217;s to protect you from tyranny. If we&#8217;d had a Second Amendment in Venezuela, we wouldn&#8217;t be where we are, where we&#8217;re just a defenseless population against an armed socialist military and drug dealers. At least we&#8217;d be able to give a fight, and now we can&#8217;t, because we don&#8217;t have any weapons.</blockquote>
I’d like to thank Daniel for taking the time to speak about his life, and discuss the important social and political issues facing the United States and the world today. For more information, follow Di Martino on <a href="https://twitter.com/danieldimartino?lang=en">Twitter</a>.

Daniel DiMartino

INTERVIEW (Part II): Venezuelan Expat On How Socialism Destroyed His Country, And How It Could Ruin The U.S.

Democratic Party

In February, 20-year-old Venezuelan expat Daniel Di Martino penned an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/02/15/donald-trump-venezuela-socialism-bernie-sanders-ilhan-omar-column/2861461002/">op-ed</a> for USA Today, titled, &#8220;Venezuela was my home, and socialism destroyed it. Slowly, it will destroy America, too.&#8221;
On Wednesday, I spoke with Daniel about his experience living in socialist Venezuela, the corruption he witnessed, and the parallels he sees between his home country and progressive political ideology in the United States.
The following is part one of our interview. Part two will be published on Saturday.
<blockquote>DW: What was life in Venezuela like prior to leaving?
DI MARTINO: You don&#8217;t see how different it is until you actually get out of the country. I couldn&#8217;t really lead what would be considered in the United States a normal life, especially because of crime and shortages. I could not, for example, walk alone in the street without fear of being kidnapped, robbed, or murdered. Caracas, where I lived, is actually the city with the highest murder rate in the world, and kidnappings were very common. My aunt had been kidnapped already – and the worst part about the crime in Venezuela is that the police are actually a number one perpetrator of it. They are criminals in the day or criminals at night, and then police the other times of the day.
My aunt had been kidnapped, and then when she was released and went to report it at the police station, one of the police officers that she saw in the station was one of the kidnappers. So, she actually didn&#8217;t go ahead and report it. She just left. That was a huge shock for us. So, that&#8217;s one thing.
Then, shortages were really pervasive. For example, when I was a child, milk was very hard to find, so we had to sometimes buy a lot of milk cans and save them. Sometimes the same thing would happen with meat, like beef or chicken. At the beginning, it was sporadic, though. I&#8217;m talking mid-2000s, almost 2010, 2011. But then, as the government put more price controls on more products, the shortages became worse and worse.
The best example I can think of right now is about eggs. So, a carton, 12 eggs, were priced, I don&#8217;t know, 100 bolivares, which is our currency. And the government just halved the price. So instead of being 100, it&#8217;s 50. And since that happened, you couldn&#8217;t buy anymore eggs in the supermarkets because no supermarket could make a profit. Then you could only buy them on the black market, in shops that were hidden, and they were actually being sold for like 200 instead of 100, like before.
So, the price controls created shortages in the supermarkets, and at the same time increased the price on the black market. Life was really hard because you had to go to many different places to buy what you needed, and you spent a lot of time just finding food.
DW: Did you come to the United States in order to escape that?
DI MARTINO: Yes. I did not want to live in a country where my best case scenario was being in a top school in Venezuela, graduating, getting a good job, and only being able to afford to eat. That would have been the best case scenario for me graduating college in Venezuela and living there. So I worked very hard, even from when I was in middle school, studying English, studying for the SAT. I got involved in Model United Nations. I actually became president of the Model United Nations club in my school; we competed around the city. And with that, I applied to colleges in the U.S., and I was blessed by God that I was able to find this university that gave me a huge scholarship, and I was able to come here.
DW: And you are studying economics?
DI MARTINO: That&#8217;s right. Yeah. That&#8217;s the craziest thing. Venezuela is what pushed me to study economics. Seeing hyperinflation – not everybody in the world gets to see hyperinflation, and that&#8217;s really an intriguing, although terrible, phenomenon that pushed me to want to learn more about why this happens, and how we can prevent this from happening.
DW: Do you see things in the United States politically that you witnessed in Venezuela?
DI MARTINO: Yes. I mean this really from the bottom of my heart, I especially see it in Bernie Sanders, and I see it in Elizabeth Warren, and I see it in many, many Democrats increasingly that use a &#8220;class war&#8221; argument. For them, it&#8217;s not about lifting up the poor. For them, it&#8217;s about taking away from the rich because they despise success, economic success. And I think it&#8217;s an argument that comes from jealousy, that comes from resentment, and it&#8217;s very dangerous because our society cannot prosper if we punish success. We need to allow our economy to reward success. We do need to help the poor, but not by punishing success. That also punishes the poor who will become successful.
That’s what really scares me here, that we&#8217;re seeing not only that rhetoric against success, and against economic empowerment and prosperity, but also proposals that the country just cannot afford. The country is already on a fiscally unsustainable path, and all these proposals would create a huge economic crisis.
DW: What would you tell someone who favors a politician like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or some of the other Democratic candidates running for president in 2020?
DI MARTINO: What I would tell them is that I also want to lift up the poor, but I think that to do it, we don&#8217;t have to punish success. I think the current welfare system, and the economic system, with the government subsidies and regulations, really rigs the economic system in favor of big corporations. I want to eliminate those regulations and those subsidies that benefit those institutions so that everybody gets a shot at success. But the solution is not to implement new taxes or give away everything for free. The solution is to allow people to get jobs that empower them to prosper by themselves.
So, I think about solutions such as deregulating the housing market, and solutions such as eliminating the welfare cliff by simplifying all these programs. There&#8217;s a new study that came out very recently and there was an op-ed today about how the Medicaid expansion created these huge fraud problem where so much money is being wasted. I think there are many common sense solutions that, if you explain them to people, they will agree with you no matter whether they are Left or Right, and we can and should focus on those kinds of solutions.</blockquote>
Stay tuned for part two of this interview, which will be published on Saturday, in which Di Martino and I further discuss the impact of socialism in the United States, how to best educate American voters about the perils of bad policy, how the &#8220;Nordic model&#8221; spoken about by progressives is misleading, and the incorrect notion that what’s occurring in Venezuela is not &#8220;true&#8221; socialism.

INTERVIEW (Part I): Venezuelan Expat On How Socialism Destroyed His Country, And How It Could Ruin The U.S.

After a deadly weekend of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, which killed 29 people, two South American countries have issued travel warnings to their residents about the U.S.
Uruguay’s Office of Foreign Ministry <a href="https://www.gub.uy/ministerio-relaciones-exteriores/comunicacion/noticias/9219-alerta-ciudadanos-uruguayos-viajen-estados-unidos">issued its warning</a> on Monday, asking citizens to “take precautions against growing indiscriminate violence, mostly for hate crimes, including racism and discrimination, which cost the lives of more than 250 people in the first seven months of this year.”
The warning also knocks the U.S. government for its inability “to prevent these situations.” The Foreign Ministry blamed “the indiscriminate possession of firearms” for at least part of the problem and warned travelers to avoid places where lots of people gather, such as theme parks, food festivals, malls, and sporting events.
The warning did not specifically mention Dayton or El Paso, but did suggest citizens avoid U.S. cities that are among the <a href="https://ceoworld.biz/2019/08/01/the-worlds-safest-cities-ranking-2019/">20 most dangerous</a> in the world: Detroit, Michigan; Baltimore, Maryland; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry office issued a similar warning on Monday, which also included a statement that Americans’ “inexcusable indiscriminate possession of fire arms by the population, encouraged by the federal government” was mostly to blame.
“These increasing acts of violence have found an echo and support in the conversations and actions impregnated by racial discrimination and hatred against migrant populations, pronounced and executed by the supremacist elite who holds political power in Washington,&#8221; the statement said, <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/06/americas/venezuela-uruguay-travel-warnings-us/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
The outlet also reported that the U.S. previously has issued its own travel warnings for both Uruguay and Venezuela. The former is listed under a “<a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/uruguay-travel-advisory.html">Level 2</a>” advisory, meaning those traveling to the country should “exercise increased caution” due to increased crime. The advisory suggests travelers avoid displaying “signs of wealth” and leaving “valuable objects in parked vehicles or in plain sight when driving.”
“Criminals commonly travel in pairs on motorcycles to approach unsuspecting victims with a weapon and demand personal belongings,” the U.S. warns. “Armed criminals also target grocery stores, restaurants, financial centers, and small businesses, in which innocent bystanders are often victimized.”
As for Venezuela, the country is experiencing severe problems due to its socialist government and policies. The U.S. lists the troubled country under a “<a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/venezuela-travel-advisory.html">Level 4</a>” advisory, meaning people shouldn’t travel to Venezuela at all.
“Do not travel to Venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, kidnapping, and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens,” the U.S. warns.
The advisory adds that the country is experiencing “shortages of food, electricity, water, medicine, and medical supplies.”
The same website Uruguay used to find three dangerous cities in the U.S. ranks Venezuela as the <a href="https://ceoworld.biz/2019/01/31/safest-countries-2019/">11th most dangerous country</a> in the world, and its capital city, Caracas, is ranked as the most dangerous city in the world.
The mass shootings in the U.S. over the weekend appeared to show the span of extremist ideology. The El Paso shooter was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50246/watch-trump-urges-nation-condemn-white-supremacy-molly-prince">allegedly a white supremacist</a> while the Dayton shooter was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50292/dayton-attacker-was-hardcore-leftist-pro-warren-ryan-saavedra">allegedly a radical leftist</a> and supporter of Antifa.

Political crisis in Venezuela

Venezuela, Uruguay Issue Travel Warnings To Residents About U.S. Following Mass Shootings

Shooting

A report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights in Venezuela between January 2018 and May 2019 states that thousands of Venezuelans have been murdered by forces loyal to the government of President Nicholas Maduro and quite often the forces would manipulate the evidence to make it look as though the victims were resisting authority.
As <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article232304637.html">The Miami Herald</a> reported:
<blockquote>Special Action Forces described by witnesses as “death squads” killed 5,287 people in 2018 and another 1,569 by mid-May of this year, in what are officially termed by the Venezuelan government “Operations for the Liberation of the People,” U.N. investigators reported. Laying out a detailed description of a lawless system of oppression, the report says the actual number of deaths could be much higher. It cites accounts by independent groups who report more than 9,000 killings for “resistance to authority” over the same period.</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true">U.N. report</a> stated:
<blockquote>OHCHR (0ffice of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) documented cases of extrajudicial executions by security forces in the context of security operations conducted in poor neighbourhoods. Since early 2018, security operations by FAES, created to combat drug trafficking and criminal organizations, replaced the security operations known as “Operations for the Liberation of the People” implemented from 2015 to 2017. Interviewees consistently referred to FAES as a “death squad” or “extermination group.” NGOs have reported that the FAES is responsible for hundreds of killings …
Families of the victims described FAES breaking into their houses, taking their belongings, and exercising gender-based violence against women and girls, including forced nudity. They would separate young men from other family members before shooting them. According to their relatives, almost all of the victims had one or more shots in the chest. In every case, witnesses reported how FAES manipulated the crime scene and evidence. They would plant arms and drugs and fire their weapons against the walls or in the air to suggest a confrontation and to show the victim had “resisted authority.”
In many cases, FAES brought the victims to hospital even though they were already dead, apparently with the intention of manipulating the bodies and modifying the crime scene. In some cases, the authorities declared that the victims were criminals before the conclusion of a formal investigation. The authorities classify the killings resulting from security operations as “resistance to authority”. The number of these deaths is unusually high. In 2018, the Government registered 5,287 such killings, while the NGO “Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia” (OVV) reported at least 7,523 killings under this category. Between 1 January and 19 May 2019, the Government reported 1,569 killings for “resistance to authority.” The OVV reported at least 2,124 of such killings between January and May 2019. Information analysed by OHCHR suggests many of these killings may constitute extrajudicial executions.</blockquote>
The report added, “Thousands of people, mainly young men, have been killed in alleged confrontations with state forces during the past years. There are reasonable grounds to believe that many of these killings constitute extrajudicial executions committed by the security forces, particularly FAES. OHCHR is concerned that the authorities may be using FAES, and possibly other security forces, as part of a policy of social control. These killings warrant immediate investigation to ensure accountability of perpetrators and guarantees of non-recurrence.”

U.N. Report: Venezuelan Special Forces Murdered Thousands, Altered Evidence So Victims Looked Like Resisters

On Wednesday, the Transportation Department suspended all commercial flights to the South American nation of Venezuela as the country remains in turmoil. 
According to <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-suspends-commercial-flights-to-and-from-venezuela-/4919550.html">VOA News</a>, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao made the decision based on recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that there are conditions in Venezuela &#8220;that threaten the safety or security of passengers, aircraft, or crew.&#8221;
According to a DOT press <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/secretary-transportation-orders-suspension-air-service-between-us-and-venezuela">release</a>:
<blockquote>
With the approval of the Secretary of State and in close coordination with the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao has issued an order today suspending air service between the United States and Venezuela.
Federal law authorizes the Secretary of Transportation, with the approval of the Secretary of State, to take immediate action to suspend the rights of foreign and U.S. air carriers to provide service between the U.S. and foreign airports when conditions exist at those airports that threaten the safety or security of passengers, aircraft, or crew.
The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security has requested this action based on his assessment of current security conditions in Venezuela, and the Secretary of State has given his approval. Secretary Chao has agreed to the request and is exercising her statutory authority to suspend air service to Venezuela.
The Secretary&#8217;s suspension order is in addition to the FAA&#8217;s Notice to Airmen issued on May 1, which prohibits most U.S.-certified aircraft operators and pilots from flying below 26,000 feet over the territory of Venezuela, also for reasons of safety and security.
</blockquote>
DHS released its own statement, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/05/15/dhs-determines-conditions-venezuela-threaten-safety-and-security-passengers-aircraft">saying</a>, &#8220;This determination is based on the ongoing political instability and increased tensions in Venezuela and associated inadvertent risk to flight operations.&#8221; DHS added that, along with the Transportation and State Departments, they &#8220;will continue to monitor this situation. If and when the conditions in Venezuela change, and if in the public interest, the [underlying] Secretaries will revisit this determination. Until then, the flight suspension will remain in effect indefinitely.&#8221;
Many international airlines, including American Airlines, have indefinitely suspended flights to Venezuela as a result of the order. However, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-airlines/us-orders-suspension-of-flights-between-the-us-and-venezuela-idUSKCN1SL2F2">Reuters</a> reports that local airlines Avior, Laser, and Copa will continue passage to the South American nation through other international hubs including Santo Domingo and into the United States through airports in Miami and Panama City. 
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ryan Saavedra reported in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46586/watch-socialist-venezuela-rams-military-vehicle-ryan-saavedra">April</a>, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been trying to supplant socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, whose forces were ramming military vehicles into protestors.
President Trump said at the time on social media: &#8220;I am monitoring the situation in Venezuela very closely. The United States stands with the People of Venezuela and their Freedom!&#8221;
Vice President Mike Pence echoed those sentiments. &#8220;We are with you,&#8221; he said according to the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/1b271ef1f15940f394343dd2027a23e2">AP</a>. He added on social media: &#8220;[A]ll the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad_Estamos con ustedes! We are with you!&#8221;
Despite international pressure to step down and the loss of support from locals, dictator Nicolas Maduro has refused to surrender power.

Transportation Department Suspends Air Travel To Venezuela

Department of Homeland Security

Mike Pence

United Airlines

A group of around 50 leftists, organized by the far-left, pro-Communist organization, Code Pink, has taken up residence in the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C., in order to &#8220;prevent&#8221; the new Venezuelan government from taking over from Nicolas Maduro&#8217;s team of diplomats, who vacated the embassy last month.
Towards the end of last week and over the weekend, Venezuelans who support opposition leader Juan Guaido, also began protesting around the embassy in an effort to educate the mostly white, uniformly American demonstrators inside on the realities of Maduro&#8217;s dictatorship.
The Code Pink protesters were, reportedly, not amused.
The dueling protests have clashed, sometimes violently, since Thursday of last week, when the pro-opposition protesters joined together to form a human chain around the Venezuelan embassy, preventing new Code Pink and pro-Communist occupiers from entering the building, and blocking deliveries of food. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/code-pink-refusing-to-leave-venezuelas-dc-embassy-as-state-dept-slams-trespassers">Fox News reports</a> that the Code Pink-ers retaliated by playing pro-Communist anthems, screaming taunts into bullhorns, and sitting down in front of the Venezuelans.
The Code Pink group, led by longtime leftist stalwart Medea Benjamin, says they have no plans to leave until the embassy has returned to Maduro&#8217;s hands, and that they have permission from the Maduro government to remain inside. Officials tied to the Maduro government have even provided them keycards and security codes for the building.
&#8220;We feel that the elected government and the government that holds power and the government that&#8217;s recognized by the United Nations is the Maduro government, and they deserve to have their embassy here,&#8221; Benjamin told Fox News in an interview late last week. &#8220;That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve been here.&#8221;
Photos of Benjamin&#8217;s cohorts show <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/04/solidarity-with-venezuela-now-protect-the-embassy/">a mostly non-Venezuelan crew</a>, and the Venezuelan protesters have noticed, often referring to the Code Pink protesters as &#8220;occupiers,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/5/2/18526615/venezuela-guaido-maduro-embassy-protest">one reporter from Vox</a> who spent the day at the protest last week.
&#8220;We&#8217;re doing our part from wherever we are around the world to bring light into the Venezuelan plight. And there&#8217;s invaders in our embassy that are not Venezuelans,&#8221; one pro-Venezuelan protester <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/04/politics/venezuela-embassy-washington-american-activists/index.html">even told CNN</a>. &#8220;This is the Venezuelan people for Venezuelan democracy; this is not about right or left in the world. I hope and I beg that people don&#8217;t use my country and the suffering of my people for their own personal flags that have nothing to do with what&#8217;s going on.&#8221;
Occasionally, Benjamin and others, including Code Pink co-president Ariel Gold, will try to &#8220;educate&#8221; the Venezuelan ex-pats &#8212; an effort that often results in embarrassing confrontations like the one captured by Vox Media, in which an elderly, white, American protester attempts to explain Venezuela to a Venezuelan.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Indicative of the kind of discussions happening outside the Venezuelan embassy right now. <a href="https://t.co/LhNGDhkiBa">pic.twitter.com/LhNGDhkiBa</a>
&#8212; Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexWardVox/status/1123992708459180035?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other pro-Communist protesters have tried doing public relations for Maduro. Kevin Zeese, the 63-year-old career leftist in charge of the pro-Maduro group, &#8220;Popular Resistance,&#8221; explained to Vox&#8217;s reporter (while clad in a Hugo Chavez tee shirt that read, &#8220;Chauvistas&#8221;) that Maduro is not a dictator and that he had friend who had visited the country and found only limited poverty.
Over the weekend, pro-Venezuelan protesters tried fighting back against the taunts by reading aloud a list of people killed by Maduro&#8217;s regime.
The State Department called Benjamin&#8217;s crew, &#8220;trespassers,&#8221; but admitted that they can&#8217;t remove the group by force since the embassy is technically Venezuelan territory. Even the Secret Service, which is guarding the embassy and trying to diffuse tension between the two groups of protesters, can&#8217;t go inside.

Code Pink Leftists Take Over Venezuelan Embassy In Washington, D.C., Taunt Actual Venezuelans

Code Pink

Speaking with Trish Regan on Fox Business Network on Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) blistered Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for blaming the United States for the horrific state of affairs in Venezuela.
On Wednesday, PBS anchor Amy Goodman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46657/watch-ilhan-omar-blames-us-venezuela-crisis-claims-ryan-saavedra">asked Omar</a> &#8220;if you can comment on what&#8217;s taking place right now in Venezuela, the U.S. supported coup attempt against President Maduro.&#8221; Omar answered, &#8220;A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela. And we sort of set the stage for what we&#8217;re arriving today, this particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela and it certainly does not help, it&#8217;s not in the interest of the United States.&#8221;
Regan said to Rubio, &#8220;That&#8217;s Ilhan Omar, the representative from Minnesota.&#8221;
Rubio interjected, &#8220;She doesn&#8217;t know what she&#8217;s talking about.&#8221;
Regan continued, &#8220;So somehow, the problems of Venezuela are the United States, and the results of whatever the United States has done?&#8221;
Rubio stated:
<blockquote>
Yeah, I think she was just recently elected, she has no idea what she&#8217;s talking about, she&#8217;s just making it up. She doesn&#8217;t even follow this issue, most of the people in Washington aren&#8217;t following this issue. She doesn&#8217;t know what she&#8217;s talking about. I mean, the sanctions that are on Maduro have been in place for two months, before that all the sanctions were on individuals.
She won&#8217;t find a single Venezuelan other than those in the regime that would even agree with, it&#8217;s ridiculous. They&#8217;ve stolen the money; they&#8217;ve degraded the country by literally stealing, they haven&#8217;t upgraded their, for example, their electric grid in 25 years. Any money that was ever made from the oil was stolen and put into people&#8217;s pockets. So honestly, I don&#8217;t even feel like addressing the comment because it&#8217;s not an informed one, it&#8217;s not an intelligent one. It&#8217;s silly, it&#8217;s ridiculous, and it&#8217;s actually embarrassing.
</blockquote>
Rubio has been intimately involved in the situation in Venezuela; he is a fierce supporter of acting President Juan Guaido; in mid-February he <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/marco-rubio-venezuelan-soldiers-would-be-committing-crime-against-humanity">warned</a> soldiers in Venezuela if they blocked U.S. aid to the nation it would be a &#8220;crime against humanity.&#8221;
In March, Rubio<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/rubio-starving-venezuelans-about-to-suffer-in-a-way-we-have-not-seen"> stated</a>, &#8220;The suffering people of Venezuela are about to experience the most dramatic shortages they have ever faced, the implications of which we cannot fully predict. Venezuela is just a handful of days away from running out of basic staples, wheat and corn meal and cooking oil, again, because of complete and utter mismanagement. All of the leaders of Venezuela are overweight, and yet the people, on average, are losing 24 pounds in a year. I assure you, none of the Maduro regime cronies are going to go hungry, but millions of Venezuelans are going to continue to go hungry and [it will be] exacerbated in a way we have not seen.&#8221;
On April 30, Rubio attacked CNN for its coverage of Venezuela, writing, &#8220;Just saw <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN">@CNN</a> shamefully call what is happening today in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash">#Venezuela</a> a &#8216;coup attempt&#8217; <a href="https://twitter.com/jguaido">@jguaido</a> is recognized as legitimate interim President of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash">#Venezuela</a> by constitution, over 50 countries &amp; OAS. The only coup is the one carried out by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash">#Cuba</a> in support of dictator <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maduro?src=hash">#Maduro</a>.&#8221;
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Just saw <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> shamefully call what is happening today in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Venezuela</a> a &#8220;coup attempt&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/jguaido?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jguaido</a> is recognized as legitimate interim President of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Venezuela</a> by constitution,over 50 countries &amp; OAS.
The only coup is the one carried out by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cuba</a> in support of dictator <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maduro?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Maduro</a>
&#8212; Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1123226997864501248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Video below:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marcorubio</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IlhanOmar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IlhanOmar</a> blaming the DEVASTATION in Venezuela on the U.S.: &#8220;She has NO idea what she&#8217;s talking about&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrishRegan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrishRegan</a> <a href="https://t.co/JcrYo1Jy2g">pic.twitter.com/JcrYo1Jy2g</a>
&#8212; Trish Regan (@trish_regan) <a href="https://twitter.com/trish_regan/status/1124107959460610048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Rubio Trashes Ilhan Omar For Blaming U.S. For Venezuelan Problems

Ilhan Omar

Marco Rubio

When socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was asked directly about Venezuela&#8217;s brutal disputed leader Nicolas Maduro on Thursday, she refused to condemn the dictator, just as she&#8217;s refused in the past. This time, Ocasio-Cortez &#8212; who&#8217;s fond of calling herself &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43922/aoc-declares-herself-boss-thanks-climate-change-ben-shapiro">the boss</a>&#8221; &#8212; ironically passed the buck to &#8220;caucus leadership.&#8221;
National Review&#8217;s John McCormack <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/democrats-split-in-responses-to-venezuela-crisis/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;Violence is horrible,&#8221; Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells NR when asked to comment on the situation. When pressed on whether the Maduro government is legitimate or Guaidó deserves U.S. support, she adds that she&#8217;ll &#8220;defer to caucus leadership on how we navigate this.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The New York representative similarly refused to utter any harsh language toward Maduro when pressed last month. &#8220;As a Democratic Socialist, I&#8217;m wondering what are your thoughts on the Venezuelan crisis that&#8217;s happening right now and if you would denounce the Maduro regime?&#8221; a reporter asked Ocasio-Cortez, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46606/ocasio-cortez-omar-sanders-silent-venezuela-ryan-saavedra">reported</a>.
&#8220;Yeah, so, I think that, that this is absolutely a complex issue. I think it&#8217;s important that, uh, that we approach this very carefully. One I am, um, myself just like anyone else who is absolutely concerned with the humanitarian crises that&#8217;s happening and I think it&#8217;s important that any solution that we have centers the Venezuelan people and centers the democracy of Venezuelan people first,&#8221; she responded.
Ocasio-Cortez continued: &#8220;I am very concerned about U.S. interventionism in Venezuela, and I oppose it, especially when we talk about a figure like this U.S. Special Envoy Elliott Abrams here. I think it&#8217;s, he&#8217;s pled guilty to several crimes related to Iran-contra and I don&#8217;t think that we should be, you know I am generally opposed to U.S. interventionism as a principle, but particularly under this administration and under his leadership I think it&#8217;s a profound mistake.&#8221;
The typically hyperactive Twitter account of Ocasio-Cortez has been notably silent regarding the increasingly violent <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/venezuela-protests-guaido-seeks-power">clashes</a> between protesters and the regime, although the 29-year-old has posted at least three tweets promoting a Netflix documentary about her and three other women.
As noted by McCormack, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), an open &#8220;democratic socialist&#8221; and declared 2020 presidential candidate, has not once offered &#8220;condemnation for the Venezuelan dictator nor words of support for the Venezuelan people who are risking their lives by taking to the streets.&#8221;
An extreme Democrat who has offered some insights into the severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Venezuela is Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Naturally, she sought to blame the United States for the disaster.
&#8220;A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of help lead the devastation in Venezuela and we have sort of set the stage for what we&#8217;re arriving today,&#8221; Omar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46671/nikki-haley-slams-ilhan-omar-blaming-us-venezuela-kassy-dillon">said</a> during an appearance with Democracy Now. &#8220;This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States.&#8221;

Socialist Darling AOC Asked Point-Blank About Venezuela’s Maduro. Here’s Her Weak Response.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The U.S. military is readying plans to help Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó if he succeeds in replacing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. On Wednesday, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/us-military-prepping-for-guaido-takeover-in-venezuela">The Washington Examiner</a>, Adm. Craig Faller, head of U.S. Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that it is inevitable that Guaidó will supplant Maduro, saying, &#8220;There is going to be a day when the legitimate government takes over, and it&#8217;s going to come when we least expect it. And it could be right now, so we are calling it &#8216;day now&#8217; planning.&#8221;
Faller added that in the last 12 months, the average Venezuelan has lost 20 pounds and 90% of the citizenry is malnourished. He also accused Cuba, Russia, and to a lesser degree China, of being responsible for the desperate situation in Venezuela. Faller said Russia was aiding Maduro with financial loans, technical support and rhetoric. On Tuesday, national security adviser John Bolton said up to 25,000 Cuban security forces are operating in Venezuela. Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan told members of the House, &#8220;We&#8217;ve got the Cubans there, the Russians, the Chinese. Many dimensions &#8230; this is not a timetable we control. To the degree we can respond, alter our tactics and take advantage of the situation, we will.&#8221;
Speaking on Fox Business Network on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted, &#8220;The president has been crystal clear and incredibly consistent. Military action is possible. If that&#8217;s what&#8217;s required, that&#8217;s what the United States will do.&#8221;
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href="https://www.stripes.com/as-venezuela-crisis-deepens-military-leaders-say-all-options-are-on-the-table-1.579273">stated</a>:
<blockquote>
The president has made it clear that all options are on the table. The situation is a little bit unclear today from our perspective between Maduro and Guaido &#8212; Guaido being the legitimate member of the government. We&#8217;re doing what we can now to collect intelligence to make sure we have good visibility on what&#8217;s happening down in Venezuela and be prepared to support the president should he require more from the U.S. military.
</blockquote>
After Pompeo spoke, Army Col. Amanda Azubuike, a spokesman for Faller, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-05-01/us-military-chief-pushes-back-on-pompeos-assertion-of-venezuela-intervention">stated,</a> &#8220;Our leadership has been very clear that all options are on the table, although a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela is preferred. At the same time, Adm. Faller has said on numerous occasions we remain ready &#8216;on the balls of our feet&#8217; should we get the call.&#8221;
On Tuesday President Trump tweeted, &#8220;If Cuban Troops and Militia do not immediately CEASE military and other operations for the purpose of causing death and destruction to the Constitution of Venezuela, a full and complete &#8230; embargo, together with highest-level sanctions, will be placed on the island of Cuba.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/2/5c6fb2d04/venezuelan-outflow-continues-unabated-stands-34-million.html">UN Refugee Agency reported</a> in mid-February:
<blockquote>
The number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela worldwide now stands at 3.4 million, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and IOM, the International Organization for Migration, announced today. According to data from national immigration authorities and other sources, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are hosting an estimated 2.7 million Venezuelans, while other regions account for the rest. On average, during 2018, an estimated 5,000 people left Venezuela every day in search of protection or a better life.
</blockquote>

U.S. Military Readies To Help Venezuela Once Maduro Is Gone

Military

The already ruined nation of Venezuela descended further into chaos this week. Opposition leader Juan Guidó has called on the military to overturn the leftist regime of Nicolás Maduro. The government has blocked CNN from the nation&#8217;s airwaves. Every storm cloud has a silver lining.
Doctors have treated at least 50 injured demonstrators, including one woman shot in the abdomen. A military tank crushed protesters attempting to flee. Amnesty International reports a systematic policy of repression throughout the country, including widespread extrajudicial executions.
More than one-third of Venezuelans eat just one meal per day. &#8220;We eat what people give us,&#8221; one desperate mother of three explained to the Miami Herald. &#8220;My husband works as a watchman, but his salary is not enough to buy food. We have gone up to two days without eating.&#8221; So she waits with hundreds of other hungry Venezuelans in breadlines at her local church.
Since the re-election of Nicolás Maduro in 2018, inflation in Venezuela has spiked to 2.3 million percent. Tragically, it didn&#8217;t have to be this way. For most of the 20th century, Venezuela was the richest country in South America. Today its people eat rats and dogs in the streets.
More than any other factor, socialism destroyed Venezuela. After taking power in 1999, socialist Hugo Chavez relied on the nation&#8217;s abundant oil revenues to purchase political support. He bought foreign food and sold it to the people at a discount, ultimately quadrupling Venezuela&#8217;s foreign debt. Chavez&#8217;s unsustainable spending led him gradually to seize more political power. He &#8220;nationalized&#8221;&#8212;that is, stole&#8212;hundreds of factories, farms, and companies, leading Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, among many other firms, to quit the country. He outlawed private gun ownership in 2012, leaving Venezuelans powerless to fight back against an increasingly tyrannical government.
By the time Chavez&#8217;s hand-picked successor Nicolás Maduro took over in 2013, the economic and political poison had run its course, and the bill for all that &#8220;free&#8221; stuff finally came due. A drop in oil prices meant the government could no longer maintain even the pretense of solvency. But rather than admitting the failure of socialism, Maduro doubled down and began to print more money, sparking hyperinflation. When the impoverished citizenry revolted, the regime resorted to violence.
Read the rest <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/michael-knowles-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-bernie-sanders-venezuela">here</a>.

Knowles At ‘Fox’: Bernie’s Utopia Is Venezuela

The following is satirical.
Socialist Venezuela is going up in flames, and as socialist tyrant Nicholas Maduro sends his socialist army to run socialist trucks over anti-government protesters, socialist Democrats here in America are saying that socialism has nothing to do with it.
At The New York Times, a former newspaper, socialist editor-in-chief Blithering Prevarication the Third explained Venezuela&#8217;s collapse to a gathering of socialists over champagne and caviar at the Socialist Yacht Club on Park Avenue and 46th Street, saying, &#8220;The problem is, lads, they did the wrong socialism, doncha know. They did the sad socialism with breadlines and all that nasty oppression. What you want is to do the happy socialism with rainbows that shower chocolate caramels filled with magic money that pays for your health care. Then everything&#8217;s just peachy.&#8221;
Socialist Alexandria socialist Ocasio socialist Cortez streamed a video on Instagram during which she prepared socialist carrot rosettes on a bed of socialist marzipan while swigging a socialist Rombauer Chardonnay with enticing aromas of socialist vanilla. In the video she explained, &#8220;What the Venezuelans didn&#8217;t understand is that socialism only works when you move your hands around a lot and speak very passionately to people who know absolutely nothing about economics or history. It&#8217;s only when you start actually doing it in real life that you wind up roasting cats over a trash fire.&#8221;
Socialist actor Sean Penn, who supported socialist dictator Hugo Chavez who helped send socialist Venezuela on its socialist path into socialist bankruptcy and disorder, says he actually meant to support Hugo Boss, who made the great, great suit he&#8217;s wearing. In a statement released by his sobbing agent, Penn said, &#8220;At the time I supported Chavez, I was playing that retarded guy in I Am Sam and I guess I got a little too into the part, if you know what I mean.&#8221;
Socialist Bernie Sanders said he didn&#8217;t know what everyone was so upset about. Then he and his wife flew to Caracas for their second honeymoon.

As Socialist Venezuela Burns, Socialists Say It’s Not The Socialism [Satire]

New York Times

Sean Penn

Security forces with Venezuela&#8217;s socialist government clashed with supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido on Tuesday as stunning footage showed a military vehicle plowing into a crowd of people.
&#8220;In a video broadcast live on telecasts across the world, the armored vehicle can be seen driving over the center of a road, hitting a crowd of demonstrators purportedly throwing rocks at security forces,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/venezuela-uprising-turns-violent-after-military-armored-vehicle-seen-plowing-into-crowd-of-opposition-supporters">Fox News</a> reported. &#8220;The dramatic events come after Guaido, alongside detained activist Leopoldo Lopez, called for a military uprising Tuesday morning in his boldest action to oust socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.&#8221;
WATCH:
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lo%C3%9Altimo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LoÚltimo</a> Tanquetas militares arrollan a grupo de manifestantes en Caracas, Venezuela <a href="https://t.co/yqNEZK7rZ3">https://t.co/yqNEZK7rZ3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tensi%C3%B3nEnVenezuela?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TensiónEnVenezuela</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZksuvrZHhZ">pic.twitter.com/ZksuvrZHhZ</a>
&#8212; Noticias Caracol (@NoticiasCaracol) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoticiasCaracol/status/1123252161138262017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both weighed in on the escalating situation in Venezuela.
Trump tweeted: &#8220;I am monitoring the situation in Venezuela very closely. The United States stands with the People of Venezuela and their Freedom!&#8221;
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I am monitoring the situation in Venezuela very closely. The United States stands with the People of Venezuela and their Freedom!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1123291797554454529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Pence tweeted: &#8220;To @jguaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad&#8212;Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom &amp; democracy are restored. Vayan con dios! #FreeVenezuela&#8221;
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To <a href="https://twitter.com/jguaido?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jguaido</a>, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/operacionlibertad?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#operacionlibertad</a>&#8212;Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom &amp; democracy are restored. Vayan con dios! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeVenezuela?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FreeVenezuela</a>
&#8212; Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) <a href="https://twitter.com/VP/status/1123222613273321472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Pompeo tweeted: &#8220;Today interim President Juan Guaido announced start of Operación Libertad. The U.S. Government fully supports the Venezuelan people in their quest for freedom and democracy. Democracy cannot be defeated. #EstamosUnidosVE&#8221;
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Today interim President Juan Guaido announced start of Operación Libertad. The U.S. Government fully supports the Venezuelan people in their quest for freedom and democracy. Democracy cannot be defeated. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EstamosUnidosVE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EstamosUnidosVE</a>
&#8212; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1123211995908591616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Rubio tweeted: &#8220;The entire world just watched a National Guard armored vehicle ram into a crowd of civilian protestors in #Caracas. How far will leaders of military allow this assault on their own people to go in #Venezuela?
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The entire world just watched a National Guard armored vehicle ram into a crowd of civilian protestors in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Caracas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Caracas</a>.
How far will leaders of military allow this assault on their own people to go in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Venezuela</a>?
&#8212; Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1123253983492091905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Guaido urged protesters and members of the military to join what he called the &#8216;final phase of Operation Liberty&#8217; in a video taken at La Carlota airbase in the capital Caracas while surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers,&#8221; The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6975871/Venezuelas-Juan-Guaido-calls-military-revolt-final-phase-overthrowing-President-Maduro.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The troops then set up defensive positions around the base before Maduro&#8217;s forces arrived and opened fire with teargas followed by live rounds, according to witnesses.&#8221;
&#8220;The dramatic events began early Tuesday when Guaido, flanked by a few dozen national guardsmen and some armored crowd control vehicles, released a three-minute video filmed near a Caracas air base in which he called on civilians and others in the armed forces to join a final push to topple Maduro,&#8221; The Mail added.

WATCH: Military Vehicle Rams Into Crowd Of Protesters In Socialist Venezuela, Report Says

If one needed evidence of the gross ignorance of millennials, and their teachers and college professors, it&#8217;s their solid support for socialism and socialist presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. Socialism has produced tragedy wherever it has been implemented. Last year marked the 40th anniversary of nearly 1,000 Americans perishing in a mass suicide/murder in the jungles of Guyana. Just as Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez see socialism as mankind&#8217;s salvation, so, too, did Rev. Jim Jones, who told his followers, &#8220;God is Socialism, and I am Principle Socialism, and that&#8217;s what makes me God.&#8221;
Perhaps the most disastrous failing of our educational system and the news media is that people are neither required nor encouraged to test ideas against facts. The promises of socialism sound wonderful and caring, but in reality, wherever it has been tried it has been a true disaster. Let&#8217;s examine the history of socialism.
During the first three decades of the 20th century, Argentina was one of the world&#8217;s top-10 richest nations. It was ahead of Canada and Australia in total and per capita income. After Juan Peron&#8217;s ideas, captured in his economic creed that he called &#8220;national socialism,&#8221; became a part of Argentina&#8217;s life, the country fell into economic chaos. Today, it has fallen to 25th in terms of GDP.
Nicolas Maduro, an avowed socialist, has turned oil-rich Venezuela into a place where there are shortages of everything from toilet paper to beer, where electricity keeps shutting down, and where there are long lines of people hoping to get food. Some people are eating their pets and feeding their children from garbage bins. Socialism has crippled Venezuela&#8217;s once-thriving economy. Today, Venezuela is among the world&#8217;s most tragically poor countries.
Socialism can be tested by doing a few side-by-side country comparisons. After Germany&#8217;s defeat in WWII, it was divided into socialist East Germany and capitalist West Germany. West Germans had far greater income, wealth and human rights protections. In large numbers, East Germans tried to flee to West Germany, so much so that the East German government set up deadly mines and other traps to prevent escape. Few, if any, West Germans tried to flee to East Germany, and the West German government spent no resources preventing its citizens from leaving.
Then there&#8217;s North Korea and South Korea. North Korea&#8217;s nominal per capita GDP is only 3.6 percent of South Korea&#8217;s nominal per capita GDP of $23,838. There are few human rights protections for North Koreans. North Korea, like East Germany, has set up deadly mines and other traps to prevent its citizens from escaping.
The key features of a free market system are private property rights and private ownership of the means of production. By contrast, socialist systems feature severely limited private property rights and government ownership or control of the means of production.
There has never been a purely free market economic system, just as there has never been a purely socialist/communist system. Let&#8217;s do an experiment. First, rank countries according to whether they are closer to the free market or the communist end of the economic spectrum. Then, rank countries according to per capita gross domestic product. Finally, rank countries according to Freedom House&#8217;s &#8220;Freedom in the World&#8221; report.
Here&#8217;s our finding: People who live in countries closer to the free market end of the economic spectrum not only have far greater income and wealth than people who live in countries toward the communist end; they also enjoy far greater human rights protections. Moreover, it&#8217;s the socialist nations that have murdered tens of millions of their own citizens such as the case with the former USSR and China.
Sanders and other socialists hold Denmark as their dream, but Prime Minister Lars Lekke Rasmussen said: &#8220;I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.&#8221; Scandinavian socialism is a myth.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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