Venezuela Plunges Into Darkness - Nationwide Power Outage ~ No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro. Venezuela Plunges Into Darkness Pompeo said blame for the blackout rested squarely on the socialist regime’s inefficiency: “Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness. No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.” “There’s no electricity, no water and I won’t even talk to you about the food.” “The consequences of something like this are grave,” he said. “Collective transportation doesn’t work, water stops pumping and the little perishable food people have at home must be thrown away. The economic losses for businesses and industries are huge for a country in an already poor situation.” “Maduro’s administration murders citizens by action and by omission. Fifty percent of hospitals don’t have electric generators, or they don’t work." Indeed, video posted on social media showed doctors in a maternity ward delivering a baby by the light of mobile phones.  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-07/major-power-failure-shuts-down-caracas-and-most-of-venezuela Rubio: Starving Venezuelans about to suffer in ‘a way we have not seen’ “All of the leaders of Venezuela are overweight, and yet the people, on average, are losing 24 pounds in a year," Rubio added. "I assure you, none of the Maduro regime cronies are going to go hungry, but millions of Venezuelans are going to continue to go hungry and [it will be] exacerbated in a way we have not seen.” Food shortages have helped spur a mass exodus of Venezuelans to neighboring countries, a refugee crisis that led regional powers such as Colombia and Brazil to join the United States in a high-profile effort to oust the socialist leadership in Caracas. Rubio said **food supplies are “distributed to those who are compliant or loyal to the regime,” arguing that Maduro accepted Russian aid but blocked Western aid in order to preserve that leverage over Venezuelan society. ** “If you go to a Maduro rally, you get food,” he said. “If you vote for Maduro — and they know how you voted — you get food. If you don’t vote or don’t vote for him, you don’t get food. They have used it as a weapon. This is why he objects to the humanitarian aid.”  Russian diplomats claim sanctions levied by President Trump and former president Barack Obama are to blame for the collapse of the oil-rich economy. Rubio countered that until recently U.S. sanctions only targeted individual members of the regime. “This has been going on for years because they've stolen the money — they steal all of the money,” he said. “As of today, Venezuela has about six, seven days left of fuel supplies. **This in the most oil-rich country in the world, and this is because they have destroyed the domestic production capacity.” ** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/rubio-starving-venezuelans-about-to-suffer-in-a-way-we-have-not-seen Venezuela: Maduro Enforces Social Media Blackout During Opposition Rallies Socialist authorities in Venezuela began cutting off citizens’ access to social media this week in what is likely an attempt to stop any groundswell of support for the country’s legitimate President Juan Guaidó. Guaidó himself has already amassed over a million Twitter followers since he was appointed the country’s interim president this month, while all of his speeches and press conferences are viewed widely on Facebook, Periscope, and YouTube as they are unavailable on state-run radio and television. https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/01/30/venezuela-maduro-social-media-blackout-rallies/