By Isayen Herrera, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Tibisay Romero and Sheyla Urdaneta
The host of a popular radio show (click here), “The People’s Combat,” had always diligently praised Venezuela’s governing Socialist Party, even as millions sank into penury under its rule. But when acute gasoline shortages paralyzed his remote fishing town this summer, he strayed from the party line.
On his show, the host, lifelong Socialist José Carmelo Bislick, accused local party chiefs of siphoning fuel, leaving most people queuing for days outside empty gasoline stations.
Just weeks later, on Aug. 17, four masked, armed men burst into Mr. Bislick’s house and told him he had “run the red light,” before beating him in front of his family and hauling him away into the night. He was found dead with gunshot wounds hours later, dressed in his favorite Che Guevara T-shirt.
Those responsible for Mr. Bislick’s death remain at large in the town of 30,000, where everyone knew of him, and of his lifelong dedication to Venezuela’s Socialist revolution. The Socialist mayor never spoke of the crime or visited the family, who said the killing had been politically motivated....
Brazil has given up its sovereign borders to Maduro. Why does this sound like Putin's advice to the countries in South America. "Just pick him up and get on with it."
A country with a strong constitution and obeys the rule of law would have to hold extradition hearings before anyone can be brought across a border.
By Antonio Maria Delgado
...In accordance (click here) with the agreement between Russia and Venezuela dated December 8, 2011, the loan amounts up to US$ 4 billion. The Venezuelan government will pay a loan interest rate of 7.4% per annum.
Undercover agents of the Nicolás Maduro regime (click here) kidnapped an exiled Venezuelan businessman on Saturday in the Brazilian border town of Pacaraima, shooting him in a leg and then forcing him into an SUV to cross clandestinely into Venezuelan territory, in an operation that failed in the end when the truck got stuck in the mud, area residents and the local press reported.
People close to businessman Andrés Antonio Fernández, owner of a Brazilian radio station that is critical of Maduro, said they fear that the frustrated attempt is only the first in a series of similar actions to be perpetrated against people perceived as enemies of the regime on the other side of the border.
“They have orders to take dead or alive people that have been taking actions against that government,” a person close to Fernández told el Nuevo Herald on condition of anonymity. In this case, “they were unable to take him away because the community of Santa Elena de Uairén,” on the Venezuelan side of the border, “came out to save him when the truck got stuck.”...
