Latino

Draped in the flag of their country – once the richest and most prosperous in Venezuela – thousands of Venezuelans poured into the streets on Wednesday and Thursday, vigorously calling for reigning President Nicolas Maduro to be removed from office.

US Vice President Mike Pence has issued a message to Venezuelans, condemning their “dictator” leader Nicolas Maduro and declaring official U.S support for the opposition leader, Juan Guaido.

It’s a relationship that has a history of coziness, but as the regimes of Iran and Venezuela become increasingly isolated and sanctioned by the U.S and much of the international community – the two governments, with the help of Tehran’s proxy Hezbollah, are believed to be tightening the bond.

A Venezuelan Supreme Court justice, who was considered to be a longtime Maduro government loyalist, defected to the United States with his family over the weekend, claiming to object to the President’s forthcoming second term.

With a potent push of instability from neighboring Venezuela and its own internal struggles, Colombia’s Nobel-winning peace process with is on increasingly feeble ground.

The depth of the Venezuelan catastrophe threatens to unravel the stability and wreak financial havoc beyond just Latin America, with little end in sight.

Though Latino voters are a key part of the Democratic coalition, there is a larger bloc of reliable Republican Latinos than many think. And the GOP's position among Latinos has not weakened during the Trump administration, despite the president's rhetoric against immigrants and the party's shift to the right on immigration.

They come from a country that now resembles a war zone –their lives have been ripped apart by displacement, starvation, disease, desperation, torment and fear life – and while that war zone sentiment too has permeated the Colombian side of the border, there is at least a sense that survival is possible.

While the Venezuelan government continues downplay the horrific humanitarian and economic crisis,a floating US Navy hospital, USNS Comfort, is attempting to alleviate some of the burden.

As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning – and resentment –regarding the country’s earlier gun control bill that saw citizens stripped of their weapons-owning rights.