Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference on the crisis in Venezuela, and introduces Elliot Abrams as the primary U.S. liaison and point-of-contact for the Venezuela Democracy Initiative.
The U.S. Embassy is remaining open and staffed; however, the State Department has requested all non-emergency U.S. government employees to leave Venezuela. Additionally, the U.S. embassy in Caracus is warning all American citizens to “strongly consider” departing the country while commercial flights are still available.
The security concerns surround a possibility an increasingly isolated dictator Nicolas Maduro may retaliate against Americans in Venezuela. National Security Adviser John Bolton discusses the current status.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered some U.S. government workers to leave Venezuela and said U.S. citizens should consider leaving the country, a day after Washington recognized an opposition politician as Venezuela’s president.
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The diplomatic activity that took place in the lead-up to the events yesterday must have been exceptionally coordinated. Literally within minutes of Venezuela’s legislature decreeing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president dozens of countries aligned with support and affirmation.
Earlier today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered remarks about the U.S. support for Guaido and the people of Venezuela during a speech at the OAS:
The Precursor – Yesterday there was a meeting at the White House between FL Senator Rick Scott, FL Governor Ron DeSantis, FL Senator Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump. Florida is home to most of the Venezuela political exiles and opposition groups who oppose Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Today, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president while surrounded by thousands of supporters. At a rally that brought hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans into the east of Caracas, Guaido said Maduro had usurped power and promised to create a transitional government that would help the country escape its hyperinflationary economic collapse.
“I swear to assume all the powers of the presidency to secure an end to the usurpation,” 35-year old Guaido, the head of the opposition-run congress, told an exuberant crowd.
Minutes later, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Guaido as the legitimate interim president.
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker issued a new asylum rule today as officials at the U.S. southern border and U.S. military prepare to confront an approaching horde of approximately 20,000 Central American migrant/invaders.
[U.S. Department of Justice] Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen today announced an Interim Final Rule declaring that those aliens who contravene a presidential suspension or limitation on entry into the United States through the southern border with Mexico issued under section 212(f) or 215(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) will be rendered ineligible for asylum.
The Acting Attorney General and the Secretary issued the following joint statement:
“Consistent with our immigration laws, the President has the broad authority to suspend or restrict the entry of aliens into the United States if he determines it to be in the national interest to do so. Today’s rule applies this important principle to aliens who violate such a suspension or restriction regarding the southern border imposed by the President by invoking an express authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum. Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it. Today, we are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a Presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility.”
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Buried underneath mountains of domestic distractions this week is the story of Brazilian populist Jair Bolsonaro winning the presidential election. Brazil has been heavily corrupted by communist ideologues for decades; Bolsonaro’s victory is a rebuke to government constraints over liberty, and an actual thunder-shock to the political system.
The current Brazilian Ambassador to the United States, Sergio Amaral, discusses his perspectives on what President-elect Jair Bolsonaro means to the future of the region.
Thankfully, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow knows the dance with the dragon is well beyond his advanced skill-set. Kudlow is too earnest to enter the cunning matrix of deception as it pertains to Beijing’s geopolitical strategies, Chairman Xi Jinping and President Trump.
As such Kudlow speaks in distant terms while allowing the ‘killers’, specifically U.S.T.R. Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and President Trump, to engage as planned.
Some have called him the Brazilian Trump, a populist candidate for the presidency. His mantra: “Brazil Above Everything, God Above Everyone”. The professional political elites who rule within international circles have been throwing every attack possible at candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
Two-months-ago his left-wing political opposition stabbed him in the liver in an attempted assassination. Bolsonaro believes in open market free-trade; Brazil-first nationalism, and protecting the integrity of the Brazillian national identity.
Today he wins the presidency. The global progressive movement is going bananas…
(Via Associated Press) 7:50pm – Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro the next president of Latin America’s biggest country.
With 96 percent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro has 55.5 percent of the votes. Leftist Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party has 44.5 percent.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appears on Fox Sunday Gaslighting to discuss current headline security issues. When the topic turns to immigration and the approaching migrant caravan Swamp-gatekeeper Chris Wallace goes all-in with the vulnerable toddlers angle… central American babies crawling on their hands and knees over thousands of miles to reach the United States. Ridiculous.
The Central American migration force is gaining additional followers as they continue their march toward the southern U.S. border. In an effort to stop a political and diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Mexico, outgoing Mexican President Pena Nieto offered assistance and asylum for the migrants to remain in Mexico. The growing swarm declined the offer… the looming crisis grows. [PBS Video Report Here]
ARRIAGA, Mexico (AP) — Several thousand Central American migrants turned down a Mexican offer of benefits if they applied for refugee status and stayed in the country’s two southernmost states, vowing to set out before dawn Saturday to continue their long trek toward the U.S. border.