I mean whether or Maduro is good or bad is irrelevant. US-backed coups have routinely blown up in our faces.

Juan Guaidó is problematic in his own respects. The entire reason why the US backed his coup was because he (falsely) claimed he had the broad support of the military, only to later admit that he didn't have enough support. There's a very real chance the US may have committed itself to another war based on lies.

Foreign politicians feeding our national security complex false information is a bigger threat to our national security than Maduro. Think about the damage Rocco Martino and Naji Sabri did. Guaidó's only difference in so much as he was unsuccessful (so far).

Heh:

>” the internationally recognized government of Venezuela’s democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro...”

Once you find yourself having to start asserting things like that you know there is propaganda going on. Declare your opposition ineligible to run, intimidate anyone who disagrees with you, bribe voters and then call it democratic. Well, by this count Saddam was democratically elected in Iraq.

Since it happened in the US, it should be immaterial in the eyes of the law if the author appeared to support the Maduro regime.

The public can levy consequence on a private citizen for what they say, fire them or kick them out of a rental, whatever, but the law is not “supposed to” be used that way.

Authoritarianism is enabled by public apathy to engage the political discourse honestly & blind faith everyone else agrees with their version of the rules.

I think people underestimate the popular support that Maduro enjoys.

It's what happens in a democracy with a dominate population of poor underclass with a departing middle-class and a cleptocratic elite. The situation is surprisingly stable.

I see no humane resolution to this problem.

Is support of the Maduro regime a crime? I know that being a journalist isn't and if the charge is "simple assault" then it sounds like there police went so far beyond what is reasonable in this case I have to wonder if some sort of gov't surveillance prompted it. We know, thanks to the Snowden revelations, that the gov't pays particular attention to journalists and this seems to be proof of it.

You can be against both you know. I don't see anything in this article saying the journalist is pro Maduro, it only shows that he is anti-opposition.

I am not sure if this comment is being serious or not, but I will take it at face value.

And I am saying this as a person who enforces sanctions on a day to day basis, why is it cool to, apparently, intimidate the 'wrong' side for reporting things on the ground?

I don't claim to know everything that's going on in Venezuela, but this video presents some good information that you don't get from mainstream media.

What you're not being told about Venezuela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeli0BA3UA