U.S. imposes sanctions against Venezuela

Venezuela is in the news again. They have a President that is ignoring the Democratic voting process they have in place. Nicolas Maduro is in charge and is a self proclaimed Communist.

Juan Guaido is the opposition leader and is loved by the people. The problem is that most of the oppositioin support has fled the country to Columbia and Brazil. The citizens that left fear that the Nicolas Maduro led military wil harm them if they protest.

This has not gone unoticed by the U.S, goverment. Answering the Venezuelan citizens cry for help, the U.S. hit Venuela with sanctions against their oil exports. One of the main companies in the crossfire is Citgo.

The U.S. has frozen Citgo assets and proceeds in the U.S. They are defering any money going to this company to a seperate account controled by the State Department. This is to ensure that Nicolas Maduro does not fund a war against the opposition leader and his supportors.

Even though the strangle hold is in place it hasn't stopped him from trying to intimidate Juan Guaido. Maduro sent his Secret Police to the opposition leaders home in an attempt to scare his wife and children while he was away. Several South American countries have voiced their protest regarding this illegal use of their police force.

The U.S,. has a stake in this other than humanitarian obligations. About a month ago Russia sent two of their new state-of-the-art long range bombers to support Maduro's communist party. The stories were all over the news and put the military bases on red alert in the U.S.

It is in the U.S. best interest to have a freindly, democratic government in place. ...Someone who will not entertain Russia's war vehicles, weather they by ships, submarines, or bombers. I'm sure you have heard some of this before.

Some feel as though the U.S. should have invaded Cuba a long time ago and turned it into a State like Puerto Rico, or Hawaii. Why they didn't, is a contraversial subject still till this day. Instead they pulled the punch and never went through with the Bay of Pigs invasion fully.

This left rebel forces on the island in a compromising position. Those that the U.S. would have helped were rounded up and incarcerated as political prisoners. Right now Cuba is still controlled by a Communist government.

Who is to actually say why the U.S. stopped short of helping to put a democratic government in place there? There are so many theories out there it would make your head spin. Some say the U.S. Presedent at the time was had freinds and reletives that were financially involved in Cuba.

Some people say that the U.S. feard the other communist countries in South America would unit and fight. If this was the actual reason it's definately different now. With so many refugee's fleeing Venezuela a great deal of South American countries are against the Maduro and his communist party.