Foreign Digest: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Argentina and Italy

Cuba: The United Nations agency for ongoing forms of slavery has issued a report that Communist Cuba engages in forced labor, even for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Nicaragua: The Marxist Sandinista dictator of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has banned more non-governmental organizations. The latest bans of charities, evangelical Christian churches brings the total to over 5,600, including civil, religious and business organizations. Nicaragua seizes the organizations’ assets. Venezuela: Venezuelans took to the streets last week to mark one month since the presidential election for a six-year term in which the results obtained by the center-right candidate of the united opposition easily won, but which the Socialist-regime declared its leader reelected, without publicizing the precinct tabulations. There is growing international pressure against the Socialist dictator to release the results or to step aside and allow a transition to representative government. The United States recognizes the opposition candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, as the president-elect, as do many Latin American and European States. The Socialists came to power 25 years ago and became increasingly authoritarian to remain in power. The U.S. mediated a deal between the opposition and the regime to allow free and fair elections, in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions, but the Socialists violated it and failed to follow the standards for a free and fair election, according to the few international observers allowed in the South American State. Venezuela is an ally of Communist Cuba, imperialist Russia and Islamist Iran. Meanwhile, the U.S. has restarted its humanitarian program for refugees who had already arrived from Communist Cuba, Marxist Nicaragua, Socialist Venezuela, and crime-ridden Haiti with greater screening measures implemented against fraudulent claims of asylum. Argentina and Italy: Argentina has arrested and will extradite to Italy a Red Brigades fugitive who has been wanted since 1980 after being sentenced to 27 years in prison for a kidnapping three years before. Argentina revoked the amnesty granted the Marxist militant in 2004. The Red Brigades were the main contributor to Italy’s “Years of Lead” from the 1970s to the 1980s of militant violence. Militants from the extreme left and right were given safe harbor by various leftist-led States in Europe and Latin America. Italy has been actively seeking their arrest and extradition, with some success in recent years.