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.