Tag: Venezuela

Is The U.S. All Bad?

Of course not.

The U.S. has some positives and is still safer than many countries, with a better economy.

Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Montero, who has made his home in the Phoenix area since 2007, returned this past off-season to Venezuela, where most of his relatives still live, states USA Today.

He stayed there five days.

USA Today states that Venezuela has rampant crime and had the second-highest homicide rate in the world last year, and Montero renewed his passport in his native city of Caracas and hurried back to the USA, feeling terrible for the family members and others he left behind.

“I would go from the place where I was trying to get my passport to the house and back. That’s it,” Montero said. “You want to go to your country to relax and have a good time, not to be shut inside your house because you’re afraid to go out. … There are safety concerns anywhere in the world, but you watch the news about Venezuela and more people have been killed there than in Afghanistan.”

Montero has two kids and will request U.S. citizenship this year.

He was at the forefront of what has become a wave of Venezuelan major-league baseball players moving their families to the states, largely over safety issues.

Felix Hernandez, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Gonzalez and Victor Martinez are some of the prominent Venezuelans who have established permanent roots in the U.S., but it’s not just the star players who are coming.

San Francisco Giants teammates Gregor Blanco and Guillermo Quiroz have moved to Miami, a favorite destination among expatriates.

Venezuelan President Bans Visas for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney

According to Ring of Fire radio and RT, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also announced in a speech on Saturday that former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard “Dick” Cheney would not be allowed visas to enter Venezuela.

There will also be new mandatory visa requirements in general for all U.S. nationals travelling to Venezuela.

The new visa requirements were changed on March 3rd, according to TeleSUR.

Along with former president Bush and vice-president Cheney, Maduro also said that Congressional Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Marco Rubio (FL), and Democrat Robert Menendez (NJ), and former CIA chief George Tenet would be banned from entering Venezuela as well.

Maduro also called them “terrorists,” in an interview with teleSUR Saturday.

In the interview, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez also said that the U.S. Embassy in Caracas will be ordered to reduce its diplomatic staff.

The Venezuelan government says the embassy has over 100 workers.

Rodriguez added that current United States diplomats in Venezuela will have to re-apply for visas.

Maduro said that these new visa bans target those who “violated human rights and bombed villages in Iraq, Syria, and Vietnam,” and that from now on, US diplomats “will be required to seek approval from the Foreign Ministry for meetings they conduct in Venezuela,” according to RT.

For Americans traveling to Venezuela in general, a new tourist visa fee will be implemented at a rate equal to that which “a Venezuelan pays to travel to the US,” Maduro said.

In other news, the United States declared Venezuela a national security threat on Monday and ordered sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013, says Reuters.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed and issued an executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target Venezuela’s energy sector or broader economy.

But the move stokes tensions between Washington and Caracas just as U.S. relations with Cuba, a longtime U.S. foe in Latin America and key ally to Venezuela, are set to be normalized.

More here

(Updated post)

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro Reportedly Claims U.S. Behind Coup Attempt

The US is behind the attempted coup in Venezuela – that is the accusation President Nicolas Maduro has leveled amid widespread protests back home. And it’s none other than Vice-president Joe Biden who’s behind the entire operation, Maduro alleges.

The socialist head of state said that not only were the national and international right-wing planning actions to destabilize the government, but that Biden himself was meeting with other Latin American governments to arrange the assault.

“They have gone to talk with the governments of the continent to plan the overthrow of my government,” Maduro said Sunday during a ceremony marking the birth of Ezequiel Zamora, a key figure in Venezuela’s history.

“I accuse the vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, personally of having spoken with the presidents and prime ministers,” he added.

Maduro, whose government has faced a series of economic and violent destabilizations over the past years, which have intensified recently, went on to call for unity in the country and for strength in the armed forces against these attempts, according to Telesur.

More:

http://rt.com/news/228495-maduro-venezuela-us-coup/