In a short obit for Prince, rather than mentioning his impact on funk and pop, TeleSur focuses on how he opposed the Iraq war. The implication: Prince may have been a Bolivarian! But wasn’t it the Raspberry Beret that gave it away all along?
The new majority in the National Assembly has failed in offering economic alternatives and in confronting Venezuela’s political crisis. Despite being a lousy opposition, though, they are still important.
While Cuba’s foreign minister of trade travels to the U.S. to enhance commercial relations, Venezuela’s economy falls deeper into a crisis that seems to have no end.
In 16 years Venezuela has fallen from being a model for the anti-globalization movement to an example for doomsday planners, video gamers and screenwriters of post-apocalyptic chaos.
The problem isn’t that domestic investors are treated any differently in Venezuela than foreign investors. All investors are subjected to the same arbitrary set of rules and regulations. Restoring the country’s productivity requires re-establishing predictability and respect for private property.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro finally joined Facebook. It didn’t go so well.
Según Consejal Jesus Armas, “Ya no es una lucha entre gobierno y oposición, sino que, se ha convertido en una lucha entre el pueblo y un gobierno que nos ha empobrecido.”
At what point is a country considered in crisis? Is it when basic goods aren’t available? Is it when citizens must choose between “having a life” or waiting endless hours in “colas” (lines) to go shopping for the little that’s left?
The December 6, 2015 elections brought positive change for Venezuela, but this is only the beginning in a long process that is likely to be complicated and in which a positive outcome is far from guaranteed.
One of the legacies President Barack Obama will leave to his successor is increased foreign policy leverage in Latin America. Nowhere is this more evident than in U.S. policy toward Cuba and Venezuela—and because of those two countries with the rest of the hemisphere.
