In Venezuela, recrudescence of 'a brutal group of leftist thugs'



At the moment I was writing about the mounting pressure on Venezuela's failed socialist regime yesterday, Cuban goons working at Venezuela's SEBIN secret police were at work.

The Miami Herald has the video.


The New York Times has a good report. (Just its photo is worth the click):
CARACAS, Venezuela – The president of Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly was briefly arrested on Sunday, two days after declaring that he was prepared to take over temporarily as the country's leader in a renewed push to oust President Nicolás Maduro from power.
The opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, was captured when a van he was traveling in was stopped on a highway on Sunday morning.
A video recorded by a driver on the highway appeared to show masked, heavily armed agents from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service pulling Mr. Guaidó from his vehicle and pushing him into a white van before driving away.
The message?  We can come after you, any time, and take you away.  We did it to your political mentor, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.  We'll do it to you.  You will be kept in a dark cell for years and years without trial, you will get thin from lack of food, your hair will grow long, and maybe we do some torture.  You will be in our dungeon, and no one will know if you are dead or alive.  All the complaining from the international community to follow won't stop us.  It won't even scare us, because we will get away with it.  We did with López.  We always do.


The New York Times reports that from the bowels of socialist regime, sounding like a cackling coven, the regime says this:
Iris Varela, the minister who oversees the prison service, posted a threat to the opposition leader on Twitter: "I have your cell ready, with your uniform.  I hope you name your cabinet quickly so we know who is going with you."
Can you see how foul this story is getting?


Guaidó's "crime" was to say he would be willing to lead the country if Maduro is pushed out.  The latter ought to be pushed out, because he's in office based on a completely fraudulent election and an illegally executed inauguration in front of his handpicked judges instead of the legally mandated national legislature.  

The international community, starting with bigfoot Brazil, is recognizing Guaidó as president.  The U.S. is coming close to saying the same and says it wants a new government.  Other countries, such as Paraguay, have cut off diplomatic ties.  The Latin multinational bodies are blasting the detested Cuban-run regime.


The Times reports that the Maduro regime now seems to be running scared.


Jorge Rodríguez, the Venezuelan communications minister, called Mr. Guaidó's arrest "arbitrary" and said it had not been ordered by the government.
"We have learned that there has been an irregular situation where a group of officials, acting unilaterally, initiated an irregular procedure against congressman Juan Guaidó," Mr. Rodríguez said, adding that the matter had been "solved."
"Those officials who volunteered to install this 'show' are being dismissed and subjected to the most stringent disciplinary procedures," Mr. Rodríguez said.