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  2006: The Bush Administration Blocked Venezuela’s Purchase of Military Cargo Planes from Spain Venezuela had acquired eight military cargo planes in 1985. Due to high maintenance costs, only one remained in service in 2005.In November2005, Spanish and Venezuelan Defense Ministers signed an agreement for the sale of ten unarmed Spanish Military transport planes to Venezuela [1]. The $600 million deal was seen as important to Spain’s economy. Because the planes contained some U.S parts, the U.S. could veto the sale of the aircraft under the 1976 Arms Export Control Act. That 1976 Law subjected US-made technologies designated as “military” to export control. This meant that customers required approval from the US State Department any time they wanted to transfer those technologies to another country either as a direct sale or as a component in a larger item. The Bush Administration denied Spain’s request in January 2006, saying that the sale would strengthen the government of H...
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  2002-2020: Ivan Simonovis, Police Captain, Imprisoned for 15 years, Guest of President Trump Ivan Simonovis began his career as a policeman in 1981. In 2000, Simonovis was appointed Secretary of Security for the Caracas mayor’s office. The mayor was Alfredo Pena, a staunch critic of President Hugo Chavez. On April 11, 2002, over 100,000 anti-Chavez protesters began an authorized march in Caracas. The marchers changed direction and began an unauthorized march toward the Presidential Palace, Miraflores to demand Chavez resign. Their route would have taken them under the Llaguno Bridge Overpass where hundreds of Chavez supporters had gathered. A shootout took place between the Chavez supporters on the Bridge and police sharpshooters on the street below. The police claimed that the Chavez supporters had been shooting at the anti-Chavez marchers and that the police shooters were protecting the protesters. Video footage showed that the street below was empty with no protestors pres...
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  2010: The President of Globovision fled to the United States to Avoid Arrest Guillermo Zuloaga, a millionaire businessman, was the majority stockholder and President of Globovision, a 24-hour TV news station. Zuloaga was one of the highest profile critics of Hugo Chavez’s government. [1] Zuloaga also operated two Toyota car dealerships in Caracas. Due to an immense shortage of new vehicles for sale, it is against the Law in Venezuela to hoard vehicles and then sell them for a higher price. Following a phoned-in tip, on May 21, 2009, police raided Zuloaga’s residence in eastern Caracas and confiscated 24 new vehicles. On June 5, 2009 the public prosecutor charged Zuloaga with fraud. The government accused Zuloaga’s car companies of selling cars to each other, paying each other and raising the price of the vehicles with each sale to ultimately offer it to a buyer for a price much higher than the vehicle’s original cost.[2] Zuloaga denied the charges. He faced one to five years ...
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  2007: Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin Became Allies Due to a Shared World View In a speech at the UN on September 20,2006, Hugo Chavez said: ·        “Yesterday, the President of the United States, ‘the Devil’, spoke here talking as if he owned the world. The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that.” In a speech in Munich on February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin said: ·        “The world is now unipolar. One single center of power. One single center of force. One single center of decision making. This is a world of one master, one sovereign.” ·        Putin criticized the United States’ monopolistic dominance in global relations and its “almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations.” •         “In the case of Hugo Chavez, [Putin’s Munich speech] was a confirm...
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  2013: US Citizen Tim Tracy was Imprisoned for 42 Days Tim Tracy was an independent American filmmaker who was in Venezuela as an accredited observer of the April 14 Presidential election.[2] Tracy was filming a documentary on political divisions in Venezuela. He interviewed government supporters and members of the opposition. On April 24, Tracy was arrested at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas as he was about to board a plane to Miami. He was charged with funneling funds to members of the far right to cause violent actions on the street and create a climate of chaos following the defeat of Henrique Capriles in the Presidential election.[1]Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said that Tracy had become close to a group of students involved in protests of the election results and that he had received money from nongovernmental groups and passed it on to them.[3]   His arrest was ordered directly by President Maduro who appeared on Venezuelan TV and said that he ordered Tracy’...
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  2008/2013/2018 Russian Bombers Landed in Venezuela On September 10,2008, two Russian Tu-160 bombers arrived in Venezuela to carry out training exercises over the Caribbean and Atlantic. [1] The bombers returned to Russia on October 15. US Press Secretary Sean McCormick stated that the US government would “watch very closely the activities of Russia in Venezuela.” [1] President Chavez said that there would be no Russian bases in Venezuela because the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution prohibits foreign military bases in Venezuela. On October 28, 2013, two Tu-160 Russian bombers flew from Russia and landed in Venezuela [2]. The bombers flew to Nicaragua on October 31. Two NATO F-16 jets were scrambled from Bodo Air Base in Norway to monitor their flight. The Russian Defense Ministry said the mission was carried out for “combat training.” [2] In 2015, President Obama declared Venezuela represented an “extraordinary threat” to the National Security of the US.   In 2017, Presiden...
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  2005: 126,000 Barrio Families Received Land Titles for their Homes The booming oil industry in the early 1900s created a disincentive to maintaining agricultural production. Farmworkers who once worked in the countryside moved to the cities. There was a shortage of housing in the cities and shanties were built on vacant land on the hillsides. The open land on the hillsides was a mixture of privately-owned and public parcels. The new residents did not pay for the land nor did they pay rent. Structures became permanent, built with wood and concrete. The government provided some basic services (roads, electricity, bus transportation, schools). By 2002, it was estimated that up to 60% of Venezuela’s population of 26 million people lived in these barrios. Some people had occupied the same house for decades.[1] The Urban Land Committees (CTU-Comites de Tierras Urbanas) were initiated with Hugo Chavez’s presidential decree 1,666 on February 4, 2002. The decree specified that Venez...
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