Venezuela's Quake Rescues: "It's all Improvisation"

"There is no planning, it's all improvisation."

"This is a state that is lacking in security services to deal with this type of emergency."

"Our firefighters and first responders don't have the proper equipment." 

Vicente Villarroel, a former federal lawmaker from the city of La Guaira 

 

"With everything that has happened to Venezuela in the past few years, we thought that nothing worse could happen."

"But what has happened is a real catastrophe, a tragedy."

Javier, Barquisimeto 

 

"What motivates me to become part of this movement is the empathy I feel for all Venezuelans who have lost their homes, their families, their will to live because they have been left with nothing."

"I think, as Venezuelans, more than ever, we are united for different reasons."

"Many of us have families in the impacted zones, others do it from a desire to help, but in the end it's all the same objective."

Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique, president, student centre, University of Los Andes, San Cristobal  

Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique, president of the student centre at the University of Los Andes in San Cristobal, packs donated supplies on Friday. (Submitted by Raquel Mercedes Contreras Manrique)

 

 A day ago, shortly after Venezuela was hit with two, back-to-back earthquakes President Delcy Rodriguez announced that at least 164 deaths and 971 injured had resulted at that point of reckoning. The U.S. Geological Survey which had pegged the temblors at 7.2-magnitude and 7.5 magnitude following, warned that "high casualties and damage are probable". The death count from the earthquakes has risen a day later, to 1,400 -- and counting. Two aftershocks were recorded; one of 4.5- and the other 4.4-magnitude, close to Caracas, the country's capital.

 

On the Richter scale, a 7.5-magnitude quake is almost twice as powerful as one at 7.2 magnitude. When they struck, one after the other, it took altogether 30 seconds that the ground wobbled after 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Glass from nearby windows fell to shatter on streets below. Los Palos Grandes, a seismic area of eastern Caracas was hit directly. Three buildings on one block, one of 13-storeys in height, collapsed. A state of emergency was declared. 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote: "I have instructed all agencies of our government to get ready to move quickly. We will be there for our new and great friends. Early reports are not good." Emergency rescue teams have arrived from Venezuela's regional neighbours, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil and Chile, and other seasoned teams, including one from Israel and the much-storied and well-experienced White Helmets from Syria were also dispatched to do what they know best; rescuing those still alive in hazardous life conditions. 

 

Venezuelans have rallied to support their fellow citizens, some travelling hundreds of kilometres to join relief efforts. (Susy Peña/CBC)

 

The boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates is where the sequence occurred when two giant sections of the Earth's crust slid sideways past each other along a fault. That action released the massive energy that caused the quakes. A figure of 4,300 injured people was released, but is certain to rise as rescue operations continue. The number of those missing is also growing, while first responders and volunteers desperately search for survivors. Over 200 people are still trapped in the rubble with Venezuelans in a "race against time" to rescue them, amidst ongoing aftershocks.

 

The number of buildings that collapsed: 250 in all. Dozens of apartment buildings in La Guaira were shaken to the  ground. In many areas of the state heavy machinery is scarce; volunteers were forced to make use of whatever tools they could locate in hopes of carving through the collapsed concrete rubble. It was almost a full day that passed before government responders arrived to help dig through debris.

 

The main health facility, Jose Maria Vargas Hospital, saw injured people lying on thin mattresses outside on the ground of the hospital premises. Its emergency department was swamped with people presenting with all manner of injuries. Some of the patients held their IV drips aloft on their own. Across the country Venezuelans crowdsourced websites and social media in search of missing family members. Over 42,000 names with photos and descriptions were listed on one website alone. 

 

While first responders and volunteers worked amidst the collapsed buildings interspersed with rubble, family members waited in high suspense, for outcomes. The Altamira neighborhood of Caracas was one such venue. A rescue team searched the rubble, unable to use the equipment at hand because the electric generator wasn't responding. For that team even basic tools like hammers were not available. The government, in economic crisis, lacks the capacity to respond to such disasters.

 

A building rocked by two earthquakes is seen Friday in the beachfront neighbourhood Playa Grande in Catia la Mar, a city in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira. (Susy Peña/CBC)

 

 

Brokering Democratic Freedom From Corruption

"I acknowledge that we are dealing with, I told you, with individuals that have been involved in things that in our system would not be acceptable."

"By no means is our policy to leave in place permanently something that [is] as corrupt as you've described."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, testifies before the Senate foreign relations committee on 28 January 2026. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

 

Standing before a hearing, Mr. Rubio was responding to a question from U.S. lawmakers wanting to know why it is that their Republican-led Trump government had decided to cooperate with and permit the ascension of Venezuela's vice-President to act as president in the absence of Nicolas Maduro, removed by U.S. Special Forces in early January through a lightning raid against the Venezuelan regime. He hastened to assure his interlocutors that it is not the Trump administration's intention to leave acting President Delcy Rodriguez permanently in place. 

 

Soon afterward at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Venezuela in response to a query over how long Delcy Rodriguez would be left to retain power as a continuation of the Maduro regime, Mr. Rubio's response was "No one here is telling you that this is what we want to see in the long term". The Venezuela raid to remove Mr. Maduro and bring him to the United States to stand trial on drug and gun trafficking charges appeared to mask President Trump's eagerness to control Venezuela's oil deposits.

 

Barely 48 hours after US forces took Nicolás Maduro and his wife from a compound in Caracas, the Venezuelan leader stood in a New York court and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges brought by the US government.  Reuters

 

Perhaps a more fitting question to be put to the Secretary of State might be the logic inherent in allowing the Maduro regime to carry on under its former vice-president, when the whole rationale of the invasion was to effect regime change. In which case it should have been the opposition, ready and willing to take charge of the Venezuelan government that should have been installed with U.S. cooperation. That might have happened, perhaps, if the Nobel Committee had decided to honour Mr. Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize, rather than their selection of Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader in exile.

 

Ms. Machado's effort to 'make amends' in the hope of forestalling just such a snub by offering her Prize to Trump aside. Its soothing effect as a placating gift of appreciation from this courageous woman to honour a man that she recognized as having involved his country and his prestige to rescue Venezuela from the grip of its socialist corruption appears to have had a best-before date. Rather than leave the government rudderless and usher Ms. Machado into the governing post she deserved with the legitimacy of the last election having been won by her stand-in Edmundo Gonzalez in 2024, he waved her off.

 

 

 

In her place, in his great wisdom, President Trump announced his intention to permit the handover of government to Delcy Rodriguez. Mr. Rubio testified that the Trump government's intention is to see Venezuela return in good time to a democratically elected government. The raid removing Maduro, he asserted was a "law enforcement" operation targeting an indicted drug trafficker, despite the complicating issue that targeting "the  de facto head of a regime is not as simple as going after some fugitive hiding in the closet". 

 

Indicted in very point of fact, by the U.S. Justice Department for charges of narcoterrorism to which Mr. Maduro pleaded not guilty. Acting President Rodriguez, wrote Mr. Rubio, has committed to opening Venezuela's energy sector to American companies, with preferential access to oil production. Three U.S. oil companies that had invested in Venezuela, lost their investment with the nationalization of its oil industry by two of Mr. Maduro's predecessors, including Hugo Chavez, his mentor.

 

Now, given the current situation with the U.S. standing over Venezuela with the cudgel of guidance toward democracy and a turn away from the massive neglect and corruption that enriched the government cabal, leaving Venezuelans in a dictatorship of enforcement in a steadily declining freedom index and economic failure, the U.S. has extracted several conditions from the country. 

 

The provision of preferential access to oil production for U.S. companies. Profit from oil sales must be used to purchase goods from the United States. And a pledge agreed to evidently by the acting president to no longer support Cuba through oil exports. Perhaps the sole worthwhile goal for Venezuela and its population; a promise to pursue "national reconciliation with Venezuelans at home and abroad". 

 

"I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize [as] a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom."

"[The -- 1825 gift of a likeness of George Washington given by the Marquis de Lafayette to Simon Bolivar, one of the founding fathers of modern Venezuela -- was] a sign of the brotherhood [between her country and the U.S.] in their fight for freedom against tyranny."

"And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal -- in this case a medal of the Nobel Peace Prize -- as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom."

Nobel Laureate Maria Corina Machado 

 

  

"An Era of Barbarism"

"Humanity is experiencing something very complex, and [the U.S.] is governed by a president who considers himself an emperor."

"We must show him that ideas are worth more than weapons."

"This march is a message of our unity. Independence is sacred, and we will defend it tooth and nail, if necessary."

Rene Gonzalez, 64, Cuban protester, Havana demonstration

 

"The current U.S. administration has opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism."

"No one here surrenders."

"The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven't stopped threatening me."

"Cuba does not have to make any political concessions, and that will never be on the table for negotiations aimed at reaching an understanding between Cuba and the United States."

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel 

Members of the Cuban military honour guard carry urns containing the remains of soldiers killed in the U.S. strike and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas on January 3, during the funeral for Cuban soldiers at Colon Cemetery in Havana, Cuba, January 16, 2026. Adalberto Roque/Pool via REUTERS 

 

On Friday, tens of thousands of Cuban citizens demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana, furious over the death of 32 Cuban officers, killed during the U.S. military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro two weeks before. The open-air Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist plaza across from the embassy was crowded in the rally the Cuban government organized during high tensions between Cuba and the United States, following the attack on Venezuela of January 3.

 

Cuban officers, part of President Maduro's security detail, were killed when the raid on his Caracas residence took place. The show of popular strength was Cuba's answer to U.S. President Trump's demand that Cuba 'make a deal' with him before it is "too late". Cuba, Trump crowed, could no longer depend on Venezuela's oil and money to buoy its fractured economy.  The 1960s-forward U.S. sanctions imposed on Cuba as punishment for its communist government has strained the island mercilessly.

 

The crowd of protesters transitioned their demonstration into a "combatant march" parade, a custom hearking back to the late Fidel Castro, where a line of people led the crowd, holding up photographs of the 32 officers that were killed in Venezuela. "Down with imperialism! Cuba with prevail!", shouted the crowd. 

 

A glimpse of a coffee being made by candlelight during a power outage in Havana in March. The disruptions are often blamed on Cuba's aging power generation system, which has been stressed by fuel shortages, natural disasters and economic crisis. (Norlys Perez/Reuters)

 

Cubans have faced shortages of the basic needs of daily life. The economy is now in worse shape than it has ever been. Up to the present the government had supplied the population with a monthly allotment of rice, beans and other staples through distributed ration cards. Although the rations lasted a mere ten days, now, because of food scarcity, government ration stores can barely stock the essentials, rendering the ration cards fairly worthless.

 

There is an app available where people must sign up for an appointment to buy gas, three weeks in advance of prospective purchase. Latterly the waiting queue has been three months. With scant fuel available for municipal purposes, trucks have been unable to collect trash. Pickups of domestic garbage have been faulted, and the result is outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and chikungunya. Treatment drugs are no longer locally available.

 

Venezuela once provided 90,000 barrels of oil daily to Cuba although the last quarter of  2025 saw oil deliveries dwindle to 35,000 barrels. Now, with the U.S. in control, there will be none. Private enterprises were legalized in 2021 where private stores stock consumer goods comparable to those of U.S. supermarkets, but demand exorbitant prices. In Cuba a typical monthly pension is less than $7; a carton of 30 eggs is priced at $8.

 

"The domestic economy is in a free fall", said Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist, now a fellow at American University in Washington. People now do their cooking over firewood. Cuba now produces 25 percent less power than in 2018.  

 

Cuban military personnel carry portraits of soldiers killed in the U.S. strike on Venezuela and the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a march outside the U.S. Embassy to protest against what they denounce as U.S. aggression in the region, in Havana, Cuba, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Norlys Perez (Norlys Perez)

 

 

"I, who was born there, I, who lives there, and I'll tell you."

"It's never been as bad as it is now, because many factors have come together."

"It's dark [severe lack of energy], people are sick and they don't have medicine [adequate food and medical drugs in acutely short supply]."

"There is food, and plenty of it [at MiPyMEs private enterprises] but the prices are incredible."

"Nobody with a salary, not even a doctor can hardly buy in those stores."

Omar Everleny Perez, economist, Havana resident 

Venezuela on Notice

"[Cartels] have engaged in historic violence and terror throughout our hemisphere -- and around the globe -- that has destabilized economies and internal security of countries but also flooded the United Sates with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs." 

"[The Defense Department would] undoubtedly play an important role toward meeting the president's objective to eliminate the ability of these cartels to threaten the territory, safety and security of the United States and its people." 

Sean Parnell, chief spokesman, U.S. Defense Department

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has defended the strikes   Getty Images

 

"[While not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the American military's legal advisers have nonetheless stated that the U.S. should] act in a manner consistent with its provisions." 

"[Countries, under the convention are not to interfere with vessels in international waters, with limited exceptions, where a state is permitted to seize a ship ['hot pursuit'] chasing a vessel from a country's waters into the high seas]."

"Force can be used to stop a boat but generally this should be non-lethal measures. [The use of aggressive tactics must be] reasonable and necessary in self-defence where there is immediate threat of serious injury or loss of life of enforcement officials. [The U.S. moves were indubitably] unlawful  under the law of the sea."

Prof Luke Moffett, Queens University Belfast  

 

"The fact that U.S. officials describe the individuals killed by the US strike as narco-terrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets. The U.S. is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organization."

"Not only does the strike appear to have violated the prohibition on the use of force, it also runs afoul of the right to life under international human rights law."

"[The use of force in this case could amount to an] extrajudicial arbitrary killing [and] a fundamental violation of human rights."

"Labelling everyone a terrorist does not make them a lawful target and enable states to side-step international law." 

Professor Michael Becker, Trinity College Dublin   

Donald Trump posted a video on social media which he said showed the moment of the strike           Donald Trump/Truth Social

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that American forces under his command carried out a strike that destroyed a vessel which he claimed had sailed from Venezuela on an illicit mission. The boat operated by the Tren de Aragia cartel, he contended, was carrying a shipment of drugs...destination United States. This, in relation to a strike that occurred by American forces on a boat sailing in the Caribbean Sea. That strike, according to the White House, killed 11 drug  traffickers whose deaths may have violated international human rights.

No details were available from U.S. defence officials respecting the strike. Footage of the strike was shared by Mr. Trump on Truth Social; legal authority relied upon to justify the strike was included in Trump's footage. "What we have seen so far suggests that the U.S. armed forces did something that it has never done, to our knowledge, in more than 35 years of military involvement in drug interdiction in the Caribbean Sea: an instant escalation to disproportionate lethal force against a civilian vessel without any apparent self-defence justification", stated the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental organization.

 

The U.S. action "violates the letter and spirit of more than a century of international standards and the United States's own regulations for maritime operations against civilian vessels in international waters", WOLA claimed. That was a kind of prelude, a warning shot across the bow of Venezuala's government led by Nicolas Madura. It has become clear of late that the Trump administration has been aggressive in raising tensions between Washington and the Venezuelan president. Grooming a situation that holds promise of developing into a direct kinetic confrontation.

 

American naval forces have been building a presence outside Venezuelan waters, while the administration increases its belligerent rhetoric on fighting drug cartels. Mr. Trump spoke of Maduro as a leader of a terrorist cartel, leading some to suspect whether the end goal is really to counter drug-smuggling at sea, or is equally ambitious on helping to stage a regime change conflict. 

 

Sr. Garcia  El Pais International

 

A still-secret directive was signed by Mr. Trump in July with instructions to the U.S. Defense Department to make use of military force against some Latin American drug cartels  his administration has labelled 'terrorist' organizations. Simultaneously the administration declared a Venezuelan criminal gang to be a terrorist organization, and that the Venezuelan president is its leader, as an illegitimate government led by a terrorist-drug-running enabler. 

 

In response to the U.S. Defense Department moving Navy assets, including warships into the southern Caribbean Sea, Mr. Maduro announced he was deploying 4.5 million militiamen around his country, vowing to "defend our seas, our skies and our lands" from American incursions. 

 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has regularly clashed with the Trump administration   Getty

 

Three guided-missile destroyers are being deployed to the region. The warships have been tasked, according to U.S. officials, to target  boats operated by drug cartels transporting fentanyl to the United States. Additionally the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group that includes the U.S.S. San Antonio, the U.S.S. Iwo Jima and the U.S.S. Fort Lauderdale, carrying 4,500 sailors along with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, itself with 2,200 Marines are being deployed, according to Defense Department officials. Additionally several P-8 surveillance planes and a submarine are deploying to the region.

 

The warships are guided-missile destroyers, Arleigh Burke-class, equipped with over 90 missiles including surface-to-air missiles which can conduct anti-aircraft and anti-submarine warfare, and shoot down ballistic missiles. All this might and power to counter the drug-running boats of drug cartels.  

A few days back it was revealed by a CBS news report and confirmed by the Defense Department that two Venezuelan aircraft "flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters." The Defense Department issued a statement to the effect that..."This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the US military."

The US has moved additional warships into the Caribbean   Getty Images

Nicolas Maduro: "I Come From The People"

"[Venezuela sets a] dangerous precedent [for democracies in the hemisphere]."

"[Showing that] in the 21st century, an important country in Latin America can disregard the will and sovereignty of the people and remain in a de facto government."

Carolina Jimenez Sandoval, president, Washington Office on Latin America 

"Maduro has violated the Constitution, and the sovereign will of Venezuelans expressed on July 28." "He carried out a coup d’état and crowned himself a dictator."

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, in exile in Spain

"[With his inauguration] they decided to cross the red line [and] they stomp on our constitution."

"Today, Maduro did not put the presidential band on his chest, he put it on his ankle like a shackle that would tighten more every day."

Fellow opposition leader Maria Corina Machado

Nicolas Maduro on the day of his inauguration for a third six-year term at a military academy in Caracas, Venezuela on January 10.   Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

The 'man of the people' who claims he represents the will of the ordinary Venezuelan in reclaiming the presidency of the country for a third six-year term Friday, is prepared to continue the authoritarian rule that he and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, imposed upon Venezuela, ruining its democratic nature, its economy, devastating its society, all the while claiming that their version of governance is what the people of Venezuela demanded of them, and continue to. Venezuelans who are so happy with their lot under this government that they've departed in massive numbers to find refuge elsewhere from the ruinous governance that has devastated their country.

The United States, along with a number of other countries, rejected the claim that the latest election was handily won by the sitting president, recognizing opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the true president-elect of Venezuela. Without so much as providing evidence of having won this latest sham of an election, Maduro claimed electoral victory. This election was a replay of previously fraudulent elections in the country. But for the first time the opposition was able to provide evidence of its own claim to victory.

Opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez was forced by Maduro to go into exile. Currently, there is no indication that it would be safe for him to return to Venezuela, much less take up his duly elected position as the country's new president. Maduro's government has threatened, should he return, to detain him, having issued a $200,000 reward for his arrest. During the months leading up to the election the military aided Maduro's campaign of fear and repression. Over 1,700 political figures were arrested and remain prisoners.

Maria Corina Machado, just prior to Maduro's inauguration to a new six-year term, revealed that she had been detained briefly by "the repressive forces of the regime", upon leaving an opposition rally in Caracas. Observers spoke of the election as representing the largest electoral fraud in recent Latin American history where voting centre receipts collected by the opposition and verified by the Washington Post along with independent election observers indicate clearly that Gonzalez likely beat Maduro in a landslide.

Gonzalez vows he will return to Venezuela. The Biden administration announced it plans to continue to place pressure on the Maduro government with new sanctions and other allied measures. The bounty offered for information leading to Maduro's arrest and conviction for U.S. indictments on conspiracy and narcotics charges increased from its current $15 million to $25 million. 

 

"I come from the people. The power I represent belongs to the people and I owe it to the people", Maduro said during his third-term inauguration.

Anti-government demonstrators shout slogans as supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ride past on motorcycles during an opposition protest on the eve of Maduro's inauguration, in Caracas on Thursday.   Pedro Mattey/AFP/Getty Images

Onward, Migrant Horde!

"We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else."

"Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams

 

"A lot of the Americans used drugs there. I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America."

"It is very difficult to get papers in America. I need to work, so I am going to Canada."

Migrant Manuel Rodon, 26, Venezuelan

 

"The military gave me and my family free bus tickets"

" I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family."

Migrant Raymond Pena, Venezuelan

 

"Word has spread among the migrant community [that Canada - where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the country's] proud and longstanding tradition of welcoming people seeking safety [is the place to go]."

“Mayor Eric Adams’s administration pays various companies that run programs for migrants that include ‘re-ticketing’ so they can travel to other cities, a City Hall source said."

New York Post

Recent immigrants to the United States talk to city officials in front of the Watson Hotel in New York, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. The immigrants, mostly from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, had been living in the hotel until recently, when they were told to leave the temporary shelter. Photo by Seth Wenig /AP

 U.S. States adjacent the border with Mexico developed a strategy whereby they bus illegal migrants that enter their states, deep into the heart of the United States, to Democratic states that have been sanctimoniously condemnatory of their Republican brother-states unwilling to absorb the ongoing presence of increasing numbers of seemingly unstoppable illegal entrants to the United States. To solve their own problems partially and to stamp 'pay-back', bus loads of migrants have been arriving in New York City which now claims it has no space left to house and care for the migrants.

And while New York City is understandably enraged over the perfidy of Texas sending illegal migrants onward to become their problem, the city has discovered a nifty new way of alleviating their own problem. By doing precisely what Texas has been engaged in. Only they're not sending the migrants back to Texas, they're floating the benefits of entering Canada to claim asylum there where they can find a new prosperous and secure life in a country built on immigration.

Immigration, that is, not illegal entry of unauthorized migrants. The way to enter any country as a desired destination is and always has been legally. Applying for visas, applying to become an immigrant. Canada invests millions in accepting immigrants from all over the world. It has an economy dependent on a labour force, but an aging population, one that is not replacing itself by natural means, with a steadily falling birthrate. Immigration to Canada has been averaging a third of a million people annually. 

Asylum seekers talk to a police officer as they cross into Canada from the U.S. border near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Quebec, April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

 Canada has its own problems in absorption of such huge numbers. Settling them in is extremely costly on the social welfare system, the universal medicare system, and the fact that there is insufficient public housing for people as things stand now, and housing is scarce and prohibitively expensive. The health care system has taken a beating since the pandemic and is having problems catching up to the level of service considered minimal. Adding tens of thousands of unwanted people entering illegally to declare the need for haven comes at a rather awkward time, to say the least.

But those buses from New York taking passengers representing illegal migrants to the border with Canada keep coming. And only now is it being revealed that delivering passengers by cab companies who take over as the buses debus the passengers, to enable them to access illegal entry border areas, bypassing official entry points continues. To the sum of an average of 39,000 annual illegal entries to Quebec alone, in the past several years.

Taxi drivers wait for migrants at the Plattsburgh terminus with signs indicating they will drive to Roxham Road. (Romain Schué/Radio-Canada)

Reports have emerged that migrants resort to tearing up their American immigration documents as they travel from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Canadian border. Christine Frechette, Quebec's immigration minister, "surprised" to discover the plan hatched by New York City, turns to the federal government to reach a solution to the problem at Roxham Road, used as an unofficial border crossing south of Montreal, enabling tens of thousands to cross into Canada to claim asylum. These asylum-seekers are not turned away; by Canadian law they complete documents that will be assessed and either accepted or rejected. In the meanwhile, they are able to live in Canada, assisted by social services.

In cities like Toronto, temporary housing for the homeless is being compromised as are other levels of social services by illegal migrants requiring similar assistance. If New York City finds itself overwhelmed by the burden of caring for tens of thousands of migrants whose human needs cannot be ignored, it must realize that cities like Montreal and Toronto face the same dilemma; disingenuously Mayor Adams claims to be just 'helping' the migrants get on in life . The idea being, to pass on the problems rather than face them and strategize a solution.

 

Luggage from migrants fills a pathway at an illegal crossing point from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que.. Quebec's immigration minister says she's surprised by reports that the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Charles Krupa

 

 

The Impudence of Downgrading Venezuela's Foreign Reserve Accounts

"Do you think they're [capitalists and foreigners; enemies of the Venezuelan republic] going to stop us with a financial blockade?"
"No, gentlemen. No one stops Venezuela."
"All the ministries, all the ministers, all the state institutions are at the service and in absolute subordination [to supplying the population with a new, steady food supply, through requisitioning and reapportioning]."
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro

A woman runs from police officers during clashes with protesters trying to reach the headquarters of the country’s electoral body to demand a referendum to recall the president. (Alejandro Cegarra for The Washington Post)

Venezuela, with its massive reserves of fossil fuels, has become, under the 17-year socialist Bolivarian revolution, a basket case of dysfunction. Where initially promises by Hugo Chavez, the hero of the revolution and socialist compatriot of Cuba's Fidel Castro, were to lift the country's indigent population out of poverty and into middle-class comfort, even extending into lavishing aid and oil riches to neighbouring countries in generous fits of good nature, while failing to invest in its own infrastructure and notably updating oil refinery capabilities, the cornucopia has crashed.

Now, in a country where basic food must be imported to ensure that Venezuelans can access the most fundamental elements of products enabling civil life for a population, and sufficient food to stave off hunger, but cannot muster sufficient financial resources to pay for those exports from abroad, the military has been dispatched to control the country's ports. Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino is now in charge of food deliveries and food delivery trucks are guarded by armed troops.

Neighbourhoods are rent asunder by ongoing food riots and looting of stores and supermarkets. Even trucks delivering food have not been immune from being stopped and looted by desperate citizens. The "Great Sovereign and Secure Supply Mission" under which the army has been dispatched to protect the country from itself allows Minister Padrino the status of a dictator whose purpose has become the transportation and distribution of basic food supplies and the control of pricing, along with the use of coercive intimidation to stimulate domestic production.

Venezuela has fallen into its own delusional trap, where the fallacy that a socialist doctrine of equality providing plenty for all in equal measure; taking from the wealthy to distribute to the poor, has proven a disastrous undertaking, a collapse of reason to the surrender of ideological faith. One that failed Russia catastrophically through collectivization, and more latterly Zimbabwe which overturned its rich agricultural heritage into a nation begging for relief and rather than the exporting what it was once famed for, a mass importer of food.

Like Zimbabwe, Venezuela is staggering under economic collapse, with sky-high inflation and scarce market supplies. After ordering the border with Colombia to be closed to stop endemic food smuggling, Venezuela's president was forced to re-open it again briefly, resulting in tens of thousands of Venezuelans dashing across into Columbia in search of rice, oil, flour, sugar and medications. And the country's black market continues to thrive for those who still have the means to pay.

A man waits outside a government supermarket to buy food. (Alejandro Cegarra for The Washington Post)

None of which has put an end to the soaring, violent crime rate, the attacks, the looting and food riots taking place throughout this country teetering on the edge of total collapse. But it still has its vast oil resources which the foreign-based global energy industry remains interested in exploiting but which continues to stand back in view of the country's corruption, along with its unreliable power supplies and the flawed need to deal with the government of President Maduro.

The result is the floundering economy, the plight of the people, and the situation of a nation sitting on a golden egg, unable to use it to further its best interests because its national leaders have contaminated and compromised its major industry, leading to a lack of international investment, and a staggering commitment to the status quo.

Venezuela, a Country on Life-Support

"There are people dying for lack of medicine, children dying of malnutrition and others dying because there are no medical personnel."
Dr. Yamila Battaglini, surgeon, J.M. de los Rios Children's Hospital, Caracas, Venezuela

"I had a patient just now who needed artificial respiration, and I had none available. A baby. What can we do?"
"What can we do here? Every day I pass an incubator that doesn't heat up, that is cold, that is broken."
Dr. Amalia Rodriguez Luis Razetti Hospital, Barcelona, Venezuela

No beds: Nicolas Espinoza's daughter sleeps in the children's cancer ward at Luis Razetti Hospital

This is the Bolivarian revolution in living colour in Venezuela, the brave new world of socialism, for the people by the people, of the people. A Venezuela that Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator who used the natural resources of his country to buy the friendship of Cuba and Venezuela's neighbours but neglected to bank any of the financial windfall resulting in the country's vast wealth of oil. And nor did he invest in upgrading infrastructure, let alone in building the means by which his country could refine its own oil.

But he did ensure that when he died long before he was willing to give up the ghost, that his replacement would be, like him, a man of the people, a bus driver who so excelled at his job he knew how to pick people up and drop them off at the junction of their choice, for a fee. And now Nicolas Maduro is president of all he surveys and in his wisdom has refused to accept international aid for his faltering nation.

Food is scarce, and so is gasoline and energy, so government departments operate only two days a week. People spend all their time waiting in long lineups for pedestrian products that should be available readily and affordably. Availability and affordability are now foreign concepts in Venezuela. And the health care system has collapsed under the weight of unavailable funding, drug shortage, and equipment failure.

"Some come here healthy and they leave dead", explained Dr. Leandro Perez at Luis Razetti Hospital. With the largest oil reserves in the world there was no vision of the potential for hard times to arrive at some point, no thought that the price per barrel of oil would plunge to unsustainable depths. Looting has become commonplace, and the bolivar is close to worthless. Crime has soared.

"This is criminal that we can sit in a country with this much oil, and people are dying for lack of antibiotics", lawmaker Oneida Guaipe observed with despair for his country. Political opponents of the president have declared a humanitarian crisis and were prepared to allow Venezuela to accept international aid, but that humiliation was vetoed by President Maduro.

Pumps supplying water to the University of the Andres exploded, and it took months for repairs to be undertaken. In the absence of water, gloves, soap and antibiotics, surgeons undertook surgery in operating rooms covered in blood from previous surgeries. Two of nine operating rooms only remain functional at the J.M. de los Rios Children's Hospital in Caracas.

Lack of supplies: Jugs and soda bottles that doctors at Luis Razetti Hospital rigged to treat patients with broken legs in Puerto la Cruz

A month ago Aquiles Martinez, director of Barcelona's Luis Razetti Hospital was arrested, accused of stealing hospital equipment; machines to treat respiratory illnesses, intravenous solutions and 127 containers of medicine. The shelves in the hospital's pharmacy are partially bare reflecting a shortage of imports the government can no longer afford. When treatment is needed, doctors inform patients' families, handing them lists of medicines. Then they are sought on the black market.

Energy blackouts shut down maternity ward respirators leaving doctors to keep infants alive pumping air into their lungs for hours by hand. Newborn babies requiring ongoing respiratory treatment die. "The death of a baby is our daily bread", said Dr. Osleidy Camejo a Caracas surgeon, deploring the collapsing of Venezuela's hospitals and the anguish of doctors.

Shortages everywhere in society are so acute that hospitals see their supplies of gloves and soap evaporate, and medications for cancer can be found only through black market acquisition. Not enough water is available at the University of the Andes Hospital in the city of Merida to wash blood from operating tables and surgeons prep their hands for surgery with bottles of seltzer water.

"It is like something from the 19th Century", despairingly stated Dr. Christian Pino as the death rate of babies under a month has increased over a hundredfold in public hospitals. New mothers are dying in those hospitals by almost five times in the period between 2012 and 2015, according to a government report.

Patients rest where they can in little comfort in the hallways at the overcrowded public hospital in Merida, Venezuela, in January

Senseless Violence

"We must unite against violence and insecurity. This situation calls for us to take a long look at ourselves as a country."
Henrique Capriles, Venezuela political opposition leader

"Sadness, anger, indignation, impotence, shame and pain, pain, pain, dammit!!! Monica and Thomas are the face of thousands of men and women whose chilodren have been left without parents because of the violence of Venezuela" Argentinian TV personality Camila Canabal

Thomas Berry and Monica Spear Mootz on their wedding day in June 2008. They were murdered by gunmen in front of their daughter

They mourn the senseless, brutal death of an Argentinian celebrity, a former Miss Venezuela, popular soaps-actress Monica Spear. She met her death on a highway, in a vehicle with her ex-husband Thomas Berry and their little girl. Venezuela is considered to be one of the most crime-ridden, violent countries in the world. Though estranged, 29-year-old Monica Spear and her 39-year-old husband took vacations together, with their child.

President Nicolas Maduro is outraged: "They fired with viciousness", he declared (absurdly). And he has convened a security council, promising an "iron fist" against his country's violence. Iron fists are favoured by dictators to put down insurrections. Venezuela, oil-rich, but incompetent at spreading the wealth around, has far too many impoverished people.

The government is corrupt, but has captured the vote in memory of its beloved past dictator, the grass-roots hero, Hugo Chavez -- Mr. Maduro his groomed disciple.

The young family with their five-year-old daughter was driving along a highway known for attacks, when their car broke down. An obstacle was thought to have been deliberately placed on the road to result in that breakdown. As a tow truck was hoisting the car, they realized that five armed men were fast approaching, and they locked themselves securely inside their car. Which led the gunmen to open fire.

Mr. Berry was fatally shot in the chest and his wife in the head, while the child was shot in the leg and survived. She is being cared for by her grandparents and has not yet been informed she will never see her parents alive again. Members of a known gang of notorious reputation have been arrested for questioning. Two of them were 15 and 16 years of age.

The gang of seven, according to Rafael Lacava, mayor of Puerto Cabello where the killers struck, included two women.

"Perhaps now that Venezuela sees the depths to which we have sunk, things can finally change in this country. It's a terrible tragedy to lose Tom. But perhaps some good can come from his death", remarked Thomas Berry's friend and partner, Luis Dominguez at his Caracas travel agency. If it takes the murder of two well-known people, one a celebrity figure, well and good.

What about all the thousands who have been preyed upon, who have been murdered in a violent, criminal society which keeps the aggregate of its citizenry living in fear and dread? How is it possible that no prior action was taken to address this scourge of depraved violence when it has been ordinary, non-celebrities who have lost their lives?

Venezuela 'to be tough' on beauty queen Spear's killers

BBC News online -- 8 January 2014

Catharina Moh reports on the investigation

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced he will act "with an iron fist" after former beauty queen and actress Monica Spear was murdered.

Ms Spear, 29, was shot dead along with her British-born ex-husband Thomas Berry, 39, in their car on Monday.

Their five-year-old daughter, who was shot in the leg, is reportedly in a stable condition.
The attack, thought to have been a botched robbery, has highlighted Venezuela's skyrocketing murder rate.

President Maduro said the couple had been "slain with fury".
He told a delegation of actors who had come to his office to demand those behind the crime be brought to justice that "violence is an evil we have [in Venezuela]".

He assured them the full weight of the law would be brought to bear on the perpetrators.
'Vile killing'
 
At a news conference, Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said five people had been arrested on suspicion of committing the "vile killing".

Monica Spear was a popular actress who had starred in a number of soap operas

 

Mr Rodriguez said he had called an emergency meeting of the governors of Venezuela's 23 states and of the 79 towns with the highest levels of violence in Venezuela.

"The fight against violence has to involve all the authorities so the criminals know they'll face the full rigour of the law, because we've had enough already," he said.

He promised to "use everything we have, the police, the army, against those who will not go down the path of peace,"
Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Armed robberies and kidnappings are not unusual, but the death of Ms Spear, who was a popular actress after being crowned Miss Venezuela in 2004, has had huge impact in the country.

Fans of Ms Spear, actors and other people in the entertainment business have said they will rally in Caracas on Wednesday to demand more be done to improve Venezuela's security.

The opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, posted a message on his Twitter account calling for a nationwide drive against violence.

"Nicolas Maduro, I suggest we put aside our deep differences and get together to fight the lack of security, as one bloc," he wrote.

Ms Spear, Mr Berry and their daughter were travelling at night from the city of Merida to the capital, Caracas, when they hit a sharp object "placed on the road", according to Venezuela's investigative police chief Jose Gregorio Sierralta.

Ms Spear was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2004 

 

At least two of the four tyres were punctured, he said.
According to Mr Sierralta, five people attacked the family after their car had been lifted onto a tow-truck.

The three locked themselves in their car, and according to Mr Sierralta, the attackers opened fire when they could not reach the family inside the vehicle.
He said the drivers of the tow-truck were being questioned.

Ms Spear was a popular actress who had scored a number of roles in soap operas after winning the Miss Venezuela pageant in 2004.

She starred in Flor Salvaje (Wild Flower) and Pasion Prohibida (Forbidden Passion) for the US-based Telemundo network.

Local media said that even though she had separated from Mr Berry the two still went on holidays together for the sake of their daughter.

They lived in the United States but often travelled to Venezuela, where both of them had grown up.