by SAM FADDIS
Not so very long ago Venezuela was a wealthy liberal democracy and an example for all of South America to follow. No longer. It is a Communist hell hole.
We may be following the same path. Yesterday, Donald Trump revealed that he has been notified that he is a target in the Grand Jury investigation into the January protests and will likely be indicted and arrested.
In 2014, Leopoldo Lopez was a Venezuelan opposition leader organizing protests against the increasingly authoritarian government of Nicolas Maduro, the Marxist President of Venezuela. Lopez was unfairly accused of encouraging violence in those protests. In what can only be described as a show trial, Lopez was convicted and sentenced to fourteen years in prison to silence him.
Only one of the 60 defense witnesses Lopez wished to call was allowed to speak. Thirty exhibits the defense attempted to introduce were rejected by the obviously partisan judge.
López repeatedly denied calling for violence. He attempted to show the court a video in which he is seen instructing protesters to remain peaceful. The video was not allowed into evidence.
López was jailed. He was barred from running for office. Other members of his political party were similarly barred from running for the legislature.
After three years in prison, Lopez was allowed to move to his home in Venezuela where he remained under house arrest. Eventually, he escaped from his home and sought asylum at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas. After over a year there he engineered a daring escape and fled Venezuela. He now lives in exile in Spain and continues the fight to return Venezuela to democracy.
In 202,1 CNN, of all networks, published a lengthy statement by Lopez which every American should read in full. Here are some excerpts.
“For many people, freedom is an abstract concept. It’s like breathing; you don’t think about it until you are gasping for air.”
“The same thing happens with democracy. Too many voters take it for granted, until the moment they realize it’s entirely possible to have an election without democracy – just like in Cuba, Russia, Iran, and my home country of Venezuela.”
“In February 2014, Maduro ordered my arrest and that of other Voluntad Popular members. Despite international criticism that I was arbitrarily detained, I was prosecuted and sentenced to nearly 14 years after a trial controlled by the dictatorship – proceedings the UN criticized for lack of transparency and violation of due process. I spent more than three years in a military prison, where I endured physical and psychological torture. When my wife and other supporters shared what was happening to me, Maduro’s government denied the abuse.”
“Many ask why Maduro is still in power, despite massive and ongoing protests. The truth is that he’s in power because he’s a dictator, and his regime’s response has been the same as others: repression and incarceration, the dictator’s recipe to hold on to power.”
Leopoldo Lopez via cnn.com
“For many people, freedom is an abstract concept. It’s like breathing; you don’t think about it until you are gasping for air.” Lopez’s words could not be more prophetic or more profound for us today. Take a moment if you will and watch the video clip below. These are the actual comments made by Donald Trump on January 6th as protesters were inside the Capitol building.
Video is also available via C-Span.
That’s not a video prepared by the Trump campaign. That is what C-Span recorded as Trump spoke. That is fact.
You may love Trump. You may hate Trump. You may agree wholeheartedly with his comments. You may find his accusations of electoral fraud unfounded and baseless.
What all rational people can agree upon, however, is that these are not the words of a man encouraging or condoning violence. These are the words of a man clearly and unambiguously telling people to obey the law and go home.
It does not matter. Trump is on the verge of being indicted, arrested, and perhaps imprisoned, not because he broke the law or incited violence, but because he poses a mortal threat to the people who are busy taking over this country and destroying the republic. He must be crushed, not because he is a criminal but because he might be the one guy who can bring to justice the criminals seizing control of our nation.
Trump’s impending arrest will not occur in isolation. All across the country, a coordinated effort is underway to silence any opposition to the Marxist takeover of the nation.
In the wake of the 2020 election amidst the confusion about what had just happened alternate slates of Trump electors were prepared. These were not individuals subverting the legal process. These were individuals who put their names on a list saying that if the courts determined there had been electoral fraud and awarded a particular state’s electors to Trump instead of Biden, they would serve as those electors.
The ones who belong in prison doing life terms are Clinton(Bill)Obama, Gates, Soros, Bragg and the UN.CFR