Foreign Digest: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ukraine, Estonia and Syria

Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela: The Freedom House issued a report last week on how authoritarian regimes around the world restrict the freedom of movement of their own citizens as a form of repression of dissent: No Way In or Out: Authoritarian Controls on the Freedom of Movement | Freedom House The report highlights particularly such repression by Communist Cuba, Marxist Nicaragua and Socialist Venezuela, which try to prevent dissidents from leaving their countries and punishing exiles. Meanwhile, the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights condemned the closure of many more non-governmental organizations in Nicaragua. Thousands of civil, business, education, charity and religious NGOs have been closed, as I have posted. Now the long-time Sandinista Nicaraguan tyrant is taxing donations to church and religious organizations. He has particularly repressed the Catholic Church. The United States and several Latin American States across the political spectrum rejected last week’s ruling by Venezuela’s Supreme Court certifying the presidential election results late last month for another six-year term in favor of the Socialist dictator as lacking impartiality and credibility and shall not recognize his victory, but instead that of the united opposition candidate, the center-right former diplomatic, Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia. The Organization of American States, several European States and the European Union expressed similar opinions. The United Nations also rejected the ruling. Spain and Mexico are calling for the full reporting of the results, which the Socialist regime claimed was prevented by a cyberattack, an argument relied upon by the dictatorship-supporting Venezuelan high court. The Carter Center, which said there was no evidence of any cyberattack, and the U.N. were the only international observers allowed for the elections. Both found the elections beneath the standard for being free and fair and the U.N. has stated that the Venezuelan Supreme Court is not independent and impartial. Gonzalez has called for an international audit of the results. The number of political prisoners in the South American State has increased many-fold. There have been thousands of arrests and dozens of deaths as the Socialist dictatorship does not tolerate freedom of peaceful assembly. It was announced yesterday that the rector of the regime-loyal Venezuelan electoral council, which had certified the election results in favor of the dictator without publicizing the totals from each precinct, had defected beforehand. He had criticized the unilateral decisions of its leader and the arrests of opposition leaders. The opposition had obtained the documentation from most precincts that clearly showed an overwhelming opposition victory. Ukraine and Estonia: The Ukrainian parliament has banned the Ukrainian Russian Orthodox Church because its ties to the pro-Kremlin Moscow Patriarchate are a portal for Russian Federation influence. The Russian Federation has engaged in aggression against the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine, as Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence agent, is attempting to restore the Soviet Empire, which he has done with the enthusiastic support of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch. As I had posted, the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church had become autocephalic like most other national churches, with the support of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, a move opposed which Russia, which is trying to deny Ukrainian cultural identity. Similarly, the Estonian Russian Orthodox Church is now separating itself from the Russian Patriarchate to form the self-governing Estonian Orthodox Church, in communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate. Meanwhile, Ukraine observed its independence day yesterday, while it has resisted Russian aggression for a decade and a full-scale invasion for over two and a half years, with support from the United States and many allies in Europe and around the world. Syria: The United States killed a leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, in a victory in the ongoing War on Terrorism. The U.S. has continued to target Islamist terrorists in Syria, such as al-Qaeda and its offshoot, the Islamic State. The former committed the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed nearly 3,000 people, which is the most in world history.

The Philippines Has Agreed to Host a United States Visa Processing Center for Afghan Allies; Update Re: Afghanistan

Filipino-American Agreement for a U.S. Visa Processing Center for Afghan Allies: The Philippines has agreed to host a visa-processing center for a few hundred Afghan refugees who had worked for the United States while the U.S. and its allies had backed the Afghan Government against the Islamist Taliban regime that had harbored the al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists. Al-Qaeda was responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on American that killed nearly 3,000 people, which was the deadliest act of terrorism in world history. The U.S. led an international coalition, together with Afghan allies, to overthrow the Taliban and attack al-Qaeda, and then supported Afghanistan’s government against the Islamists, but after the disastrous Trump-Biden premature withdrawal from Afghanistan that I have posted about, the Taliban returned to power and many Afghans became refugees. Thousands of Afghans who worked for the American have been scattered around the world wherever they could find asylum with their Afghan-issued passports. The Afghans who will undergo visa processing in the Philippines have already passed security and medical checks. After they receive their visas in a few months, they will be resettled in America, where they will join 161,000 other Afghans the U.S. was able to rescue before the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, and then resettled them in America. The Taliban targets Afghans who worked for the U.S. for persecution and murder. Instead of protecting the Afghan allies of the U.S., Trump undermined American security by implementing duplicate processes in the security checks and then cutting the budget and staff to process the visa requests. The Philippines, which was granted independence by the U.S. in 1945 after it had been liberated from Spain during the Spanish-American War and again from the Japanese Empire during the Second World War, had taken in refugees from Communist Vietnam and Jews from the Holocaust. Filipino-American relations have improved since populist President Rodrigo Duterte “the Filipino Trump” left office and amidst growing assertiveness by Communist China of territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea. Update on Afghanistan: Meanwhile, Afghan National Resistance Front (NRF), which is the successor to the U.S.-backed Afghan allies committed to liberty, representative government and respect for all ethnicities, is sending a petition signed by more than a quarter million Afghans to the U.S. Congress, urging it to pause humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to ensure none of it falls into the hands of the Taliban, as over 10% of the $2.8 billion in American aid has. The NRF is also asking that their leader testify before Congress about the increased presence in Afghanistan of al-Qaeda, which is intertwined with the Taliban.

Islamist Iranian Attempted Interference in American Elections Is Reminiscent of Russia’s Successful Interference for Donald Trump

The Islamic Republic of Iran hacked into the presidential campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump and stole information and leaked it to major American professional media outlets, which have not published the information, and attempted to hack the campaigns of Democratic President Joseph Biden and Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamla Harris, according to United States intelligence agencies. The agencies last week reported that Iran, like the Russian Federation, attempts to divide Americans and influence elections. The Trump campaign complained of the Iranian cyberattacks and stated that Americans, not foreigners, should be deciding the outcome of U.S. elections, which is right, but inconsistent with their acceptance of Russian interference on behalf of Trump, both during the Republican nomination in 2016 and the 2016 and 2020 general elections, which I have posted about. In 2016, Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee, stole information and publicized it through its cut-out, Wikileaks, during the general election campaign, which was then widely reported by the professional media, with the Trump campaign, of which it had received advanced notice, coordinating its messaging with Wikileaks’ serial publications. Trump then openly invited Russia to search for information on the Democratic presidential nominee, which it started to do within minutes. A Republican special counsel and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee both confirmed the Trump campaign’s acceptance of Russian interference that had been determined by the U.S. intelligence agencies, in addition to the overt and covert Russian interference in American politics, including election interference on Trump’s behalf in both the primary and general elections in 2016. Trump then denied Russian interference in the election on his behalf and his supporters minimized it, hiding behind the special counsel’s rejection of the use of the word collusion because it is not a criminal term and thus not relevant to his criminal investigation, despite the Trump campaign’s welcoming of Russian interference and its more than one hundred unreported contacts with Russians during the campaign and that the special counsel found there was obstruction of his criminal probe, including by Trump, for which he recommended Congress impeach him. Trump had deceived the voters by fraudulently claiming he was not trying to engage in business with Russia during the campaign. Americans should reject foreign interference in their politics, especially covert election interference by hostile, authoritarian regimes like Islamist Iran and imperialist Russia, and stand for their independence.

Follow-up Thoughts on Donald Trump’s Weakening of the Republican Platform on the Right to Life

I had posted last month about how Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had weakened the GOP’s Platform on the right to life, which no longer includes a call for a constitutional amendment to defend this most basic human right, among other changes: Donald Trump Dilutes the Republican Platform's Pro-Life Language, https://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2024/07/donald-trump-dilutes-republican.html. But I wanted to place the dilution of the platform language within the larger context of Trump’s inconsistency, in which he sometimes opposes protecting — or is even hostile to — innocent human life. When he held the presidency, Trump’s nativist policies prevented refugees fleeing for their lives or liberty from seeking asylum in America or sent refugees who had made it to United States soil legally to their deaths through deportation. Trump pardoned a war criminal who had been convicted in a military court for murdering innocent civilians. He praised the policy of the populist President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, “the Filipino Trump,” of calling for citizens to kill other citizens whom they suspected of being drug dealers, which, in practice, led to the murder of innocent people. And those are only the examples of Trump’s hostility to innocent human life that he was able to implement, unlike, for example, his campaign statement that the family members of terrorists be murdered, or any of the other illegal and immoral proposals his former staff say he routinely would make, but which they were able to avoid having to carry out. There are additional examples of his inhumanity or callous disregard for life. The demagogic Trump deported migrants who had been judged to be in America illegally, but who were not a threat, even when their deportation would lead to their certain deaths, instead of making a reasonable exception to protect human lives, but he granted asylum to a family from Germany, which is a free country. Another example is Trump’s ban on travel from predominately Muslim States barred entry even to organ donors. While the liberal Democratic Party is pro-abortion, the Republican Party, though at least somewhat anti-abortion, is failing to contrast itself with a consistently pro-human life platform or presidential and vice presidential ticket. As I have posted before, the association of the pro-life movement with the misogynistic authoritarian Trump undermines the pro-life message of respect for life for love of all human beings and for liberty.

Foreign Digest: Belarus and Venezuela

Belarus: The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada issued a joint statement last week calling for Belarus to release over 1,400 political prisoners, criticizing its dictatorship for corruption and disrespect for representative government, and expressing solidarity with the Belarusian people in advocating for liberty The statement was issued on the fourth anniversary of the fraudulent 2020 elections, in which the Belarusian dictator claimed victory for another five-year term. The statement also threatened more sanctions both for suppressing freedom and representative government and for Belarusian military support for the Russian Federation’s aggression against neighboring Ukraine. Russian troops invaded Ukraine from Belarus, which, like Ukraine is a former Soviet Republic. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union. The U.S. announced targeted sanctions on certain Belarusians for military support of Russian aggression. Venezuela: United Nations observers late last week condemned Venezuela’s presidential elections for a five-year term earlier this month as not meeting the standard for being free and fair to represent the will of the voters. Along with the Carter Foundation, who I had posted also found the elections not to be free and fair, they were the only international observers allowed in the South American State. Also late last week, the Organization of American States overwhelmingly approved a resolution on the Venezuelan elections sponsored by the United States and several allies calling for respect for human rights and the popular will and the impartial verification of the electoral results that guarantees transparency, credibility and legitimacy in the electoral process. As I have posted, the Socialists have ruled Venezuela for 25 years after being elected and then becoming increasingly authoritarian. The united opposition, led by center-right candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a former diplomat, had obtained documentary proof from 80% of polling places of a landslide victory, but the regime claimed a narrow win without providing the tabulations of each polling place, which has led to international doubts of the Socialists’ claim of victory or even recognition of the opposition leader as the President-elect. The Socialist dictatorship, which had already held many political prisoners, during the campaign barred from office and arrested opposition leaders, prosecuted vendors that served the opposition campaign, and did not allow equal access to state-controlled media, as well as vandalizing local opposition offices, among other intimidation and harassment, thereby violating a U.S.-brokered agreement to allow presidential elections in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. The opposition staged mass protests this weekend in 380 cities across Venezuela, Latin America and five continents, including in America as international pressure. Anti-American Socialist Venezuela is an ally of Communist Cuba, imperialist Russia and Islamist terrorist Iran.

Update: Pro-Impeachment Conservative Republican U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse Will Advance to the General Election Versus a Trumpist

United States Representative Dan Newhouse, a Republican of Washington, received one of the two nominations in the non-partisan primary for re-election, along with a Trumpist Republican who was one of two Republican candidates in the primary endorsed by Donald Trump. The longtime conservative Congressman is one of two remaining GOP House members out of 10 who voted to impeach Trump for leading an insurrection against Congress, which was certifying the votes of the Electoral College, based on his lies that his Electors had won the 2020 presidential election. It was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in American history, as was the votes of the Senate for conviction by 7 Republican Senators, although the result was short of the required two-thirds majority. Several of the pro-impeachment GOP members of both chambers had opted not to seek re-election, but while several of the Republican Senators who voted to convict Trump are still serving their six-year terms, the only other pro-impeachment Representative beside Newhouse is David Valadao of California, who was not challenged in the GOP primary. In Washington’s “jungle” primary, in which candidates of any party compete, the two candidates who receive the most votes will be on the ballot for the General Election in November. Because the district has many more Republicans, the result was not surprising. Newhouse will rely on Democrats, independents and third-party members, including many moderates or conservatives who fled the party because of Trump and Trumpism, to win re-election.

American and Western Hostages and Russian Dissidents Were Freed in a Multi-State Prisoner Exchange for Admitted Russian Criminal Agents

A multi-State prisoner exchange last week involving 24 people, including Americans and citizens of 6 foreign States, freed multiple American and Western hostages in exchange for Russian criminals. The exchange involved the United States, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway on the one side and Russia and Belarus on the other. It was the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two American citizens, including a reporter for a conservative newspaper and a former U.S. Marine, who had been falsely accused of espionage and one Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the U.S. international news services were released, as were several Russian political prisoners. Two of the dissidents I had posted about, namely opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Russian-Briton who is a U.S. resident who had twice been poisoned by Russia, and Oleg Orlov, the founder of a Nobel Prize-winning human rights organization were freed, as were several associates of the late opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison earlier this year where he had been maltreated before the exchange could be made. Several of the dissidents and the Russian-American journalist had been persecuted for opposing the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Exchanged for the hostages and dissidents were Russian cyber attackers, spies, and a murderer convicted in Germany in 2021 for killing a Chechen-Russian exile on the orders of the Russian government. After having denied it, Russia admitted the criminals were its intelligence agents. The deal mediated by Turkey a member of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Such prisoner exchanges with despotic regimes are common, in which a dictatorship takes foreigners hostage and falsely accuses them of crimes and exchanges them for its agents who were duly convicted of crimes in free States, but not usually on such a scale or ever with this many States involved. These exchanges, which sometimes are not of equal numbers, often encourage dictators to kidnap more hostages to protect their spies and criminal agents. But this exchange was different, not only because Russia had to admit its agents commit cyberattacks and attack and kill people on foreign soil, but because several prominent Russian dissidents had to be released along with the foreign hostages, which spared them from the same fate as Navalny. Although they are no longer in Russia, they can continue to raise international awareness about Russian tyranny and corruption from abroad and try to unite the fragmented Russian opposition to ex-Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin, the tyrant who was elected to office and then took away Russians liberty and who does not permit free and fair elections, or they could even secretly return to Russia to continue their work for freedom for Russia at the risk of imprisonment and death, like Navalny did.

The Congressional Budget Office: Immigration Will Add Trillions of Dollars in Economic Growth

Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of the United States Congress, issued a study in which it calculated that immigration will add $8.9 trillion to the American gross domestic product (the total value of goods and services produced) in the next decade. The economic growth generates tax revenue that, in turn, boosts the federal budget. I had posted last month that the bipartisan Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S. led by a Trump appointee, had issued a report finding that immigration was boosting the American economy without adding to inflation. Study after study from different ideological perspectives have demonstrated both that immigration is an economic and fiscal benefit and that migrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans. But ignorant and bigoted nativists, fomented by the demagoguery of Donald Trump, continue to make false claims otherwise to scare fellow Americans to oppose immigration. Regardless of the financial aspect, the Founders believed that America should be a refuge for those seeking liberty. Republicans and conservatives like President Ronald Reagan have long believed in the benefit of immigrants and especially refugees seeking asylum from persecution, to American because of their greater appreciation of liberty and were proud that people risk their lives to come to America, in contrast to having to risk their lives to flee tyrannies.

Venezuelan Presidential Election Update: More International Calls for Transparency and Recognition of the Election of the Center-Right Candidate

As more evidence emerges, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the center-right opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a former diplomat, easily won the Venezuelan presidential election last week, despite the Socialist regime’s declaration that the dictatorial President had been reelected to a third six-year term and its many violations of the electoral process, including repression of opposition leaders. The Carter Center, one of the few international observers permitted by the Socialist regime, also denounced the lack of transparency. The expert election observers reported that they could not verify the re-election of the Venezuelan dictator, observing the elections did not conform to democratic standards at any stage or even to Venezuelan law. The Venezuelan opposition to the Socialist dictatorship is confident it can prove that its candidate won more than twice as many votes as the dictator because it had access to the documented results from over 80% of the polling places. Protests have broken out across Venezuela. The Socialist regime responded with its usual deadly repression and mass arrests. The regime has even indicted the popular opposition leader, whom it had banned from holding office, and declared the opposition’s attempt to prove that it won the election a “coup” backed by foreigners. Under international pressure, the Socialist dictator agreed to ask the Venezuelan Supreme Court to audit the election results, but like the national election body, the high court is also stacked with regime loyalists. The United Nations Secretary General called for transparency in the vote-counting process in the South American State. The Organization of American States, of which the United States is one of the 35 members, declared that the results of the Venezuelan presidential elections cannot be trusted and should not be recognized without documentary support for the Socialist dictator’s victory, as declared by the national election commission. The OAS, citing repression by the Venezuelan regime, documented abuses and illegalities in this and the previous election in 2018 and observed that the electoral commission was biased toward the incumbent and at its service in denying the will of the Venezuelan people. The Group of Seven industrial powers, which includes the U.S., Canada, Japan and four Western European States, also called for transparency in the election tabulation process and for restraint in respect for elective representative government. The U.S., several Latin American States across the political spectrum, and other Western States expressed doubts about the election result, but as more evidence emerged from the polling place records, the U.S. and several Latin American States have now has expressed certainty that Gonzalez won the most votes. The U.S., which had mediated a deal in which the elections would take place, has threatened to re-impose sanctions it had temporarily lifted for the elections having been scheduled because the conduct of the elections violated the agreement for free and fair elections. Venezuela expelled all the diplomats from eight Latin American States across the political spectrum that had questioned the legitimacy of the Socialist election victory. Brazil had to take custody of some of their embassies, including Argentina’s, where some Venezuelan opposition leaders had sought asylum, for which Argentina expressed gratitude. The Socialists have ruled for 25 years since taking power through an election and then becoming increasingly authoritarian, causing many millions of Venezuelans to flee in the largest mass exodus in history, including to America, which is placing a strain on other South American States. The anti-American Socialists have encouraged socialist revolution in Latin America and have established close relations with Communist Cuba, imperialist Russia and Islamist and terrorist Iran.

Foreign Digest: Hungary, Georgia, and Lebanon

Hungary: Hungary announced last week that it is making it easier for Russians to acquire visas. The European Union expressed concern that it opens the door to espionage, especially considering the visa-free travel within the EU. Russian Federation agents have also attacked and even killed exiles in Europe and have been conducting sabotage against European States opposed to Russian aggression against Ukraine. As I have been posting, Hungary is led by a far-right anti-migrant autocratic President who is pro-Russian. Georgia: Georgia The United States suspended aid to Georgia last week over its foreign agents law that criminalizes professional media and non-governmental organizations that receive a certain percentage of funds from abroad. The unpopular law is modeled on one in Russia that has been used to repress opponents of the tyrannical Russian regime. The former Soviet Republic of Georgia was invaded by Russia in 2008 and still maintains troops there, but the current Georgian Government has been moving closer to the Russian orbit, contrary to the wishes of Georgians. Lebanon: Lebanon Israel killed the longtime military leader of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Lebanese terrorist organization in an attack in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon last week. He was the most wanted terrorist in the world and had murdered many, including Americans in Lebanon in 1983. His killing is a significant victory against terrorism and militant Islamism.

Anti-Trump Conservative Republican United States Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington Is Facing Trumpist GOP Primary Challengers

Dan Newhouse, a conservative Republican United States Representative from Washington is one of two remaining GOP members of the House who voted to impeach Donald Trump for insurrection in 2021. Ten Republican House members impeached Trump and 7 GOP Senators voted to convict him after Trump incited a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the congressional certification of the votes of the Electoral College for his opponent, based on false and disproven allegations of election fraud in the 2020 General Election for the Electors for President and Vice President. The votes were the most bipartisan in the history of presidential impeachments. The pro-life and pro-right to keep and bear arms Newhouse was the only pro-impeachment Republican House member to seek reelection and survive a Trumpist primary challenge in 2022. This year, the longtime Congressman is facing two Trumpist challengers on Tuesday August, 6 in the Republican Primary Election, including one endorsed by Trump. As I have been posting, the demagogic, disloyal and unfit Trump, who has non-conservative views and authoritarian tendencies, is a cancer on the conservative movement and a mortal threat to the Republican Party. He and his supporters must be defeated at every opportunity in GOP primary elections, as well as in general elections, and Trumpism (populist protectionism, isolationism, and nativism) must be completely vanquished for there to be any restoration of the party and advancement of true conservative principles.