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HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A tragic airline crash with far-reaching consequences, cataclysmic cyclones that may be a harbinger of the future, the death of an African icon and a new leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize. These African stories captured the world's attention in 2019, and look to influence events on the continent in 2020.

The battles against extremist violence and Ebola will also continue to be major campaigns in Africa in the coming year.

The crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa in March killed all 157 passengers and crew. The disaster, which claimed the lives of a large number of U.N. officials, involved a Boeing 737 Max jet and came just five months after a similar crash in Indonesia of the same aircraft.

Boeing was inundated with questions about the safety of its plane. After initially claiming that it was safe, the company was forced to ground the plane after many countries refused to let it fly in their airspace. In December Boeing announced that it would suspend production of the jet.

The air crash was a trial for Ethiopia's reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who later in the year won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for achieving peace with neighboring Eritrea. But Abiy is challenged by often violent ethnic rivalries in his country and elections set for May 2020 will be crucial, analysts say.

Cyclone Idai ripped into Mozambique in March, killing more than 1,300 people, making it “one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere,” according to the U.N. A month later Cyclone Kenneth roared into northern Mozambique, killing more than 50 people.

This was the first time in recorded history that Mozambique had two major cyclones, prompting some to worry that the country, with a 1,000-mile Indian Ocean coastline, may be prone to more storms as a result of climate change.

Across Mozambique more than 2.5 million people remain in urgent need of assistance, according to the U.N. Mozambique also starts 2020 troubled by ongoing attacks on vehicles in the country's central area and by Islamic extremist attacks in the country's north.

Extremist violence continues to vex Africa from the east to the west.

2019 began with extremist violence. In Kenya in January, insurgents launched an assault on a luxury hotel and shopping complex in Nairobi that killed at least 14 people.

The year came to an end with extremist attacks across the continent.

A bomb in Somalia killed 78 people, including many university students, in the capital, Mogadishu, on Dec. 28, the deadliest attack in years. Somalia's al-Shabab, allied to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

In Nigeria extremists linked to the Islamic State group circulated a video showing 11 hostages, most of them Christians, being executed. They were thought to be killed on Christmas Day. The extremist group, which calls itself the Islamic State West Africa Province, said the captives were executed as revenge for the killing of Islamic State group leaders in Iraq and Syria in October.

In northern Burkina Faso, jihadists killed 35 civilians, most of them women, and ensuing clashes with security forces left 80 jihadists dead, the West African nation's president announced Dec. 24. That attack came weeks after an attack on a convoy carrying employees of a Canadian mining company in which at least 37 civilians were killed in the country's east. Both attacks were by groups numbering close to 100, indicating the presence of relatively large, well-organized extremist groups.

“The startling deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso has been a major development in 2019,” said Alex Vines, director of the Africa program at Chatham House, the British think tank. “There's been a dramatic spike in extremist attacks.”

Frequent attacks in Burkina Faso's north and east already have displaced more than a half million people, according to the United Nations. While Burkina Faso's military has received training from both former colonizer France and the United States, it starts 2020 with little progress in halting the surge in extremist violence.

Congo starts the year waging a different kind of war, a campaign against Ebola, which has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018. The medical effort to control the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has been severely hampered since the start by the presence of several armed groups in eastern Congo, the epicenter of the epidemic. It was hoped that new vaccines would help control the outbreak more quickly, but the violence has hampered those efforts.

Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, elected in 2019, said in November that he was optimistic that the Ebola outbreak would be ended before 2020, but the epidemic continues throughout eastern Congo.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, re-elected in 2019, said in a New Year's statement that the need to boost his country's ailing economy and create jobs is his biggest challenge for 2020. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, also re-elected, has said that his government has controlled the rebellion by Boko Haram extremists, but violence continues to plague the country's northeast.

Zimbabwe's longtime ruler, Robert Mugabe, died at age 95 in September. Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who fought to end white-minority rule in Rhodesia and then ruled independent Zimbabwe from 1980 until 2017, left a mixed legacy of liberation, repression and economic ruin.

Zimbabwe begins the new year with severe economic problems including inflation estimated at more than 300% and widespread hunger. In an emergency appeal at the end of December, the U.N.'s World Food Program said that even though the southern African country had suffered a drought, Zimbabwe's food shortages are a ‘man-made” disaster, laying the blame squarely with President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.

The once-prosperous country staggered to 2020 with power shortages lasting up to 19 hours per day and large parts of the capital, Harare, a city of some 2 million people, going without running water. (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he looks forward to debating his eventual Democratic opponent when he runs for re-election next year, but bashed the independent commission that for decades has arranged the logistics of the debates as politically aligned against him.

"The problem is that the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates is stacked with Trump Haters &Never Trumpers," the Republican president said on Twitter. "3 years ago they were forced to publicly apologize for modulating my microphone in the first debate" against the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As President, the debates are up to me," Trump tweeted, "and there are many options, including doing them directly &avoiding the nasty politics of this very biased Commission. I will make a decision at an appropriate time but in the meantime, the Commission on Presidential Debates is not authorized to speak for me (or R's)!"

Still, Trump said he looks "very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line in the little watched Do Nothing Democrat Debates. My record is so good on the Economy and all else, including debating, that perhaps I would consider more than 3 debates."

The commission, created in 1987 by the Republican and Democratic parties to oversee the quadrennial presidential and vice presidential debates, is overseen by prominent Democrats and Republicans and other public figures. Its current three co-chairs are Frank Fahrenkopf, a former Republican national chairman; Dorothy Ridings, chief executive of the Council of Federations of charitable groups, and Kenneth Wollack, a former president of the National Democratic Institute, a non-governmental organization that promotes democracy worldwide.

The commission has already announced plans for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate next September and October in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 national election, with all of them on U.S. university campuses.

The commission acknowledged that in the first 2016 Trump-Clinton debate, "there were issues regarding Donald Trump's audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall," but not on the nationally televised broadcast, which 80 million people watched, the most ever for a presidential debate. The commission did not, as Trump said, apologize for the audio problem in the debate hall.

In response to Trump's tweets Monday, the commission said, "The televised general election debates are an important part of our democratic process. Since 1988, the Commission on Presidential Debates has conducted 30 general election presidential and vice presidential debates. Our record is one of fairness, balance and non-partisanship." (VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - The family of the late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has appointed his daughter, Bona Mugabe-Chikore, as the executor of his estate amid the conspicuous absence of the late politician’s sons during the administration of the estate at the Harare High Court on Thursday.

Unlike South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela who wrote a will in 2004 and amended it in 2008 with instructions to distribute at least US$4,1 million to his family, staff, the ruling African National Congress and former schools, the late Zimbabwean strongman, who died September 6THin Singapore after a long battle with prostate cancer, did not write a will, according to his family.

Mugabe was toppled in a defacto military coup in November 2017 having ruled the country since independence in 1980.

The Mugabe family lawyer, Terrence Hussein, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the other children are outside the country but had given written consent that Bona should be appointed executor as per Zimbabwean laws since the late leader did not leave a will.

Former first lady, Grace Mugabe, attended the meeting with the Master of the High Court Eldard Mutasa.

Hussein said, “This is a normal meeting that happens after the death of a person. It is called by the Master of the High Court, and it is called an edict meeting. In that meeting the master sets out the guidelines and parameters of how the estate will be run. He will also appoint an executor who would then do the business of stepping into the shoes of the deceased person and then apportioning how their estate would be wound up and who the beneficiaries will be and how much they will get.”

Hussein confirmed that though Bona had submitted the provisional list of some of the assets left behind by her father, it is going to be a long process.The late president is said to have left behind assets that include US$10 million in cash, 10 cars, a farm, three houses and several housing stands.

Reached by VOA Zimbabwe,Bona Chikore simply said, “No comment.” Other family sources are claiming that the money Mugabe left is only US$7 million.

Former first lady Grace Mugabe is listed as the sole surviving spouse, while Bona, Robert Junior, Bellarmine Chatunga and Russel Gorereza are listed as the surviving children. Russel is the late president’s stepson from the Mrs. Mugabe’s first marriage to Stanley Goreraza.

Where Are Mugabe's Billions?

A leaked diplomatic cable from the American embassy in Harare in 2001 published by WikiLeaks, a website that functions as a clearinghouse for classified or state secrets, said unverified assets linkedto Mugabe amounted to more than US$1 billion in Zimbabwe and overseas.

The cable read:“The full extent of President Mugabe’s assets are unknown, but are rumored to exceed US$1 billion in value, the majority of which are likely invested outside Zimbabwe. Inside Zimbabwe, the bulk of Mugabe’s assets are reported to be in the form of real property -- he and his wife have six residences, including a multi-story mansion still under construction in Harare, in addition to a number of farms around the country.”

A lawsuit filed in Singapore also provided a small glimpse into the wealth of the Mugabe’s. A villa was bought in 2008 by a company called Cross Global and sold in 2010 to a Taiwanese-born South African Hsieh Ping Sung believed to have been a one-time Mugabe confidant and front. The Mugabes sued both Cross Global and Hsieh in 2014 claiming ownership, arguing in court papers that the businessman was just a front. TheMugab’s also admitted to buying another house in neighboring South Africa.

When Washington and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on him, Mugabe openly challenged them to seize any of his assets outside, saying he had none. Mrs. Mugabe also told party supporters in 2015 that her husband was a man of little means who was just passionate about the suffering of Zimbabweans.

Blue Roof Mansion

The Mugabes’ most prized asset is the so-called Blue Roof Mansion located in Borrowdale Brooke, Harare. A then Yugoslavia-based company, Energoproject, constructed the 25-bedroomed house. The architectural design is Chinese. In 1999, the ruling Zanu-PF party bought the 12-hactare plot and donated it to Mugabe for his retirement home. The Mugabes later bought out and forced out some five families at adjacent properties to construct the mansion.

When Mugabe died, it emerged that the property was still listed in the name of the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, who once threatened to turn the house into a museum, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the property is now being transferred to the family.

“The latest is that the Blue Roof is being transferred to the late president's family. The process started a few weeks ago and I am sure by now it’s almost concluded or it’s about to be concluded.”

Hussein also confirmed the pending transfer. “I do understand that that process is in the pipeline. I don't believe it's completed yet but I do understand that it is in the pipeline and it is being attended to.”

Constitutional law expert and University of Zimbabwe law Professor, Lovemore Madhuku, says Mrs. Mugabe under Zimbabwe’s inheritance laws is entitled to the mansion.

“The asset that is called the matrimonial home means where he was staying with his wife, that one is taken by the spouse. If the spouse was married, in this case we know that she was married in terms of the Marriage Act, she would get the matrimonial house. Therefore, if the matrimonial home is the Blue Roof, then that means it goes to Mrs. Grace Mugabe.

“Even those who are married under customary law, every surviving wife gets the assets belonging to them in terms of where they were staying. If it is a matrimonial home. The rest of the properties are shared. So even if there is no will, the matrimonial home is a very straightforward distribution of assets.”

Mugabe Multiple Farm Owner

According to the papers submitted to the High Court, the Mugabe family says he owned only one farm,Highfield Farm in Norton, south of the capital Harare, that he bought commercially. But government sources have linked him to more than 10 farms namely:Gushungo Estates (4 046 hectares) in Mazowe; Gushungo Dairies (1 000 hectares); Iron Mask Estate in Mazowe (1 046 hectares); Sigaru Farm in Mazowe (873 hectares); Gwebi Wood (1 200 hectares) in Mazowe; Gwina Farm in Mazowe (1 445 hectares); Leverdale Farm in Banket (1 488 hectares);) and in Norton, they own Cressydale Estate (676 hectares); Tankatara Farm (575 hectares); John O’Groat Farm (760 hectares); Clifford Farm (1 050 hectares) and Bassiville (1 200 hectares), putting the land holding of Mugabe’s family to about 16 000 hectares.

Hussein though says Mugabe was a “modest man” and was not a multiple farm owner. Asked about the alleged multiple farms,“Well there again goes those myths - produce them (farms), show us that they were in his name. Show us that he was allocated them. Nobody is able to come forward with them. So once again, those are myths that were being peddled. But the good thing about it is the truth always prevails.”

Sources close to the former First Family though say some of the farms are listed in the names of his children and widow. Professor Madhuku says trying to tie those properties to the former President is difficult.

“Those are not the assets of President Mugabe. His assets are the assets that belong to him in terms of ownership. If an asset is registered in the name of someone else, then the presumption is that that other person is the owner. Those properties ought to not even be talked about; they should not even be addressed. If for example there is a farm, which is an immovable property registered in the name of someone else tied to a child or spouse that property belongs to that person. It's not his assets.”

Mrs. Mugabe, according to Madhuku, will also inherit the lion’s share of the properties.

However, the government is threatening to seize some of the farms saying it is going to implement a one-family-one-farm policy. Critics of the government say the policy is designed to target the former first lady who allegedly riled the government after refusing to have the late national hero to be interred at the National Heroes Acre in Harare - reserved for the country’s most illustrious individuals.

Though Mugabe’s close allies claim that he lived a modest life, his family is said to have secretly amassed vast wealth, with his widow and children owning Rolls Royces, Porsche and Range Rovers. The Mugabe family also has a stake in the struggling Gushungo Holdings, trading as Alpha Omega Dairy (Pvt Ltd).

Mrs. Mugabe also owns AmaiMugabe Junior School, aprivate school in Mazowe. The extent of the Mugabes’ wealth was also revealed in 2015 when the former first lady sued a Lebanese executiveJamal Joseph Ahmed. (VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean politician, who fled the country when the Zimbabwe Defence Force staged a defacto military coup that led to the toppling of former president Robert Mugabe, has started campaigning for the 2023 presidential election, in what is viewed by some observers as the rise of a faction of the party once led by former First Lady, Grace Mugabe.

The campaign #TysonWabantu Movement, kick-started today in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, comprising mainly of young people, who believe that former Zanu PF secretary for administration, Saviour Kasukuwere, should lead the nation instead of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his colleague that are regarded by the movement as too old to revive the southern African nation with an almost comatose economy.

Butho Ngwenya, a former Zanu PF activist who is leading the campaign in the city, says they believe that Kasukuwere is the right person to lead Zimbabwe as he is “young, experienced in governmental issues and liked by most people”.

He says Kasukuwere, who was also Zimbabwe’s Youth Minister and was sought by the Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 when the army seized power and forced Mugabe to resign, is expected to return home soon to spearhead the campaign nationwide.

Kasukuwere was among some senior Zanu PF leaders that fled two years ago as the army claimed that they had usurped presidential powers in conjunction with the then first lady and wanted former State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi to succeed Mugabe.

The president had sacked his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa and then came back to take the presidential post after the long-time Zimbabwean leader was toppled.

Zanu PF supporters say Kasukuwere and his #TysonWabantu Movement are wasting time as Mnangagwa is expected to win the 2023 presidential poll.

Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Information Secretary Nick Mangwana were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Kasukuwere’s pseudonym is Tyson.

Ngwenya says they hope to convince Zimbabweans that Kasukuwere is fit for the presidential post. (VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean politician, who fled the country when the Zimbabwe Defence Force staged a defacto military coup that led to the toppling of former president Robert Mugabe, has started campaigning for the 2023 presidential election, in what is viewed by some observers as the rise of a faction of the party once led by former First Lady, Grace Mugabe.

The campaign #TysonWabantu Movement, kick-started today in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, comprising mainly of young people, who believe that former Zanu PF secretary for administration, Saviour Kasukuwere, should lead the nation instead of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his colleague that are regarded by the movement as too old to revive the southern African nation with an almost comatose economy.

Butho Ngwenya, a former Zanu PF activist who is leading the campaign in the city, says they believe that Kasukuwere is the right person to lead Zimbabwe as he is “young, experienced in governmental issues and liked by most people”.

He says Kasukuwere, who was also Zimbabwe’s Youth Minister and was sought by the Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 when the army seized power and forced Mugabe to resign, is expected to return home soon to spearhead the campaign nationwide.

Kasukuwere was among some senior Zanu PF leaders that fled two years ago as the army claimed that they had usurped presidential powers in conjunction with the then first lady and wanted former State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi to succeed Mugabe.

The president had sacked his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa and then came back to take the presidential post after the long-time Zimbabwean leader was toppled.

Zanu PF supporters say Kasukuwere and his #TysonWabantu Movement are wasting time as Mnangagwa is expected to win the 2023 presidential poll.

Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Information Secretary Nick Mangwana were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Kasukuwere’s pseudonym is Tyson.

Ngwenya says they hope to convince Zimbabweans that Kasukuwere is fit for the presidential post. (VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A court in Zimbabwe on Thursday appointed Robert Mugabe’s daughter to identify assets left by the late former leader so they can be distributed to his beneficiaries, his lawyer said.

Zimbabweans are keen to know how much wealth Mugabe accrued during his 37 years in power. Many assume that he and his family amassed a vast fortune - perhaps as much as $1 billion, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2001.

The Master of High Court in Harare appointed Bona Chikore executor of her father’s estate, the Mugabe family lawyer Terrence Hussein told reporters, adding that this had been agreed by family members.

Hussein said Mugabe’s wife Grace and Bona attended Thursday’s meeting at the court but sons Robert Jr and Bellarmine Chatunga were away. They, however, gave written consent that their sister should be appointed executor.

For many years, Mugabe and Grace were widely reported by Zimbabwean and foreign media to have deposited money and bought properties abroad, including in Asia, where they spent most of their annual family holidays. The family has denied this.

But a legal dispute that spilled into the public in 2014 over a $5 million villa in Hong Kong suggested Mugabe’s family had been buying overseas property. The government said it owned the house.

Hussein said journalists and United States and Britain, who were critical of Mugabe, should prove that he had properties abroad so they could be registered with the court.

“This is the good thing about saying falsehoods, those falsehoods will be exposed. Where are the properties?” Hussein said when asked about reports that Mugabe had properties abroad.

Hussein told Reuters on Tuesday that the process of establishing Mugabe’s assets would take some time, casting doubt on a state media report that the former leader left $10 million and some properties in the capital. (MacDonald Dzirutwe/Alison Williams/Reuters/VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A senior United States official working in Zimbabwe has questioned development aid figures released recently by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2020 national budget statement, saying the funds are less than what his country provided in the 2019 financial year.

In an interview in Masvingo on Tuesday, Deputy Ambassador Thomas Hastings, said the amount of financial aid to Zimbabwe this year was understated by the government.

“… They recently released the total amount of money that we gave in 2019, it was about $330 million. So, it was a bit more than it was in the budget report that’s the total amount that includes our work with PEPFAR (U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), it includes work that we have provided this year for food relief, people who are faced with food insecurity because of the drought and other causes it includes drought and any other causes and it also includes the assistance that was given to people who suffered the consequences of Cyclone Idai. So, putting all the numbers together it was over $330 million this year.”

Thomas said Zimbabwean authorities should include all the development aid provided by the United States in 2019.

“Well, it’s important to include all of the programs and that’s why we recently put the information out there to make sure that the total amount of our assistance was made on to the people of Zimbabwe.”

He could not be drawn to comment on suggestions that the undervaluing of the development aid provided by the Zimbabwean government was being deliberately done by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

“I don’t know about that, you have to talk to the Ministry of Finance about how they came up with all those numbers … when you take the amount of work we do with health, with food assistance and Cyclone Idai and emergency relief, that’s how much it totaled.”

In the budget statement, Ncube indicated that Zimbabwe this year obtained development support from USA amounting to $252,722,653.

Information secretary Nick Mangwana and Finance Minister Ncube were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.

The Chinese government recently questioned figures indicating that they provided only $3,631,500 for development support instead of over $136 million.

In response, the Zimbabwean government promised to look into the issue. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services’ Twitter handle, the government said, “Govt has noted the query raised by @ChineseZimbabwe regarding bilateral aid figures captured in the 2020 National Budget Statement. Necessary consultations are underway to establish a common accounting position. We thank the Chinese Govt for their support.” (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - U.S. lawmakers are formally accusing President Donald Trump of misconduct and obstruction, based on what they say is amonths-long effort by the president “to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election.”

The report, released Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee—which is controlled by opposition Democrats—is titled “The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report.”

Republican members of Congress say the Democrats uncovered no smoking guns that would merit Trump’s impeachment.

Democrats disagree. “The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election. These investigations were designed to benefit his 2020 presidential re-election campaign,” according to a statement released by Adam Schiff, Carolyn Maloney and Eliot Engel, who respectively chair the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees of the House of Representatives.

“The evidence is also clear that President Trump conditioned official acts on the public announcement of these investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary,” the statement adds.

The Democratic lawmakers also accuse the president of engaging “in categorical and unprecedented obstruction in order to cover up his misconduct.”

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham is rejecting the report’s conclusion.

“At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump,” she said in a statement. “This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”

Schiff told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference that if Congress does not punish Trump for soliciting foreign interference in a U.S. election, "we are begging for more of the same." (VOA)

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - Zimbabwe's former President Robert Mugabe left behind $10 million, 10 cars, a farm and several homes, but apparently no will, his estate revealed Tuesday.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported Tuesday that Mugabe's daughter, Bona, registered the estate with the High Court on behalf of the family.

The family's lawyers say they are still searching for a will but if one is not found, the estate will be divided between former first lady Grace Mugabe and four children.

Mugabe died in September at a Singapore hospital two years after he was forced out of office by his Zanu-PF party and the military.

Mugabe has long been rumored to have amassed a massive fortune during his 37-year rule.

A 2001 diplomatic cable sent by the U.S. Embassy in Harare and released by WikiLeaks said Mugabe was rumored to have more than $1 billion worth of assets in Zimbabwe and overseas, which "include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas, and castles in Scotland.”

News of his wealth comes days after the United Nations warned that millions of people in Zimbabwe are facing food insecurity.

“Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation," and the number of people needing help is "shocking" for a country not in conflict, Hilal Elver, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said. (VOA)

MINNEAPOLIS, LELEMUKU.COM - U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who's engaged in an intensifying feud with President Donald Trump, has raised nearly $830,000 in the first quarter for her re-election campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

The Minnesota Democrat -- a Somali American and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress -- drew many out-of-state contributions and had just over $600,000 cash on hand as of March 31.

Omar won election in November to a reliably liberal Minneapolis-area seat. Her remarks in recent months on Israel and the power of Jewish influence in Washington have drawn intense criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism, and prompted speculation that she might face a primary challenge. But no challenger has emerged, and progressives across the country have rallied to her side.

Trump told KSTP-TV during a visit to Minnesota on Monday that he has no regrets about tweeting a video Friday that attacked her for remarks she made last month that supposedly offered a flippant description of the Sept. 11 attacks and the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people.

“Look, she's been very disrespectful to this country,'' Trump said. “She's been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel.... She's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she's extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country.''

Neither Trump's tweet nor the video included Omar's full quote or the context. She told the Council on American-Islamic Relations on March 23 that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the Sept. 11 attacks and were tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,'' she said. While CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.

Omar said Sunday that it's more than a rhetorical squabble and that lives, including hers, are at stake. She spoke after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has taken steps to ensure Omar's safety. Pelosi also urged Trump to take down the video, but it was still in his Twitter feed Tuesday. (VOA)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - Indonesia has entered the final stage of a three-day cooling down period before Wednesday’s national election, with officials removing political billboards across the archipelago amid a ban on election broadcasts after months of rowdy campaigning.

The incumbent, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, made a brief trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where he performed the umrah, or minor haj, with his wife and two sons, while his rival, Prabowo Subianto, made a pilgrimage to the grave of his father, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, a renowned economist.

The pair had squared off in five nationally televised debates, with most political pundits judging the contest about even, although Prabowo remains up to 20 percentage points behind in opinion polls.

The Prabowo camp has already complained about “ghost voters” and the potential for rigging.

But National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian told The Jakarta Post he had not received reports about incidents impeding the electoral process.

“Two days to go; we are convinced that we have security measures under control,” he said.

Kevin O’Rourke, an analyst with PT Reformasi Info Sastra, said there were still major issues with voter registration, despite this election being the fifth ballot since democratic reforms were instituted, following the downfall of President Suharto in 1998 and the outbreak of deadly protests.

“Theoretically the system could be susceptible to people voting multiple times, but in practice it really hasn’t been a problem in past polls and I really wouldn’t expect it to be so this year,” he said.

O’Rourke said Prabowo, following his defeat to Jokowi at elections in 2013, had launched a legal campaign challenging the result when he lost by six percent of the overall vote.

“I think it’s an attempt by the Prabowo campaign to justify a basis for making an electoral dispute, but I think that’s only going to be feasible for them if the margin of victory for Widodo is more narrow than expected,” he said.

That puts pressure on Jokowi to secure a comfortable victory with a margin of around eight to 10 percent. Of Indonesia’s 264 million people, about 190 million are expected to vote, with 60 million under the age of 30.

Low turnout

Surveys indicate a large number will not turn out, known as “golput,” a term that first emerged in 1971 from protesting students opposed to an election they considered undemocratic. Now the term has been adopted to describe voters who abstain or deliberately spoil their ballots.

While Jokowi has delivered on infrastructure growth and national security, he has failed to deliver on promises of finding justice for the victims of Suharto’s regime, the mass killings of communists in 1965, guaranteeing freedom of religion and reducing sexual violence against women.

According to the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, sexual violence against women rose 76 percent from 2016 to 2017, while, as president, he has not been shy in pushing a more conservative brand of Islam.

Nevertheless, he remains the favorite to win a second term. He will have to stand down in 2024 as mandated by the constitution.

Analysts expect a more confident and conservative Jokowi during the coming five years. Marcus Mietzner, an Indonesian specialist and senior fellow with Australian National University, said he expected Indonesia to emerge as a more socially conservative and a “religiously marked” society from Jokowi’s second term, assuming he wins.

The pattern was established by Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who Mietzner said had the opportunity to introduce social and political reforms in his second term, but did not, and he expects that pattern to continue.

“I think he is a very careful politician, a very cautious politician, he will want to continue balancing political forces," he said. "He will continue to integrate retired military officers into his state apparatus as he will integrate more pious Muslim figures like his vice president.”

Jokowi chose Ma’ruf Amin, a Muslim cleric who is popular among fundamentalists, as his running mate, which some analysts have said was a deliberate move to win support from the conservative Islamic elements in Indonesian society.

However, others have said he was pushed into accepting Ma’ruf as part of a broader political play and positioning for the next election in 2024.

But on the streets of the capital those arguments remain in the distant future. As the political signs came down, there was no shortage of voters on the streets, who were preparing to vote Wednesday, a national holiday.

“I like elections. I want Indonesia to be a democracy, a democracy like the United States, like Canada, Australia and in Europe,” Masi, a 26-year-old computer programmer said.

“Indonesia is maturing,” he added. (Luke Hunt-VOAnews)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Sunday (14/04/2019) met with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman in a bilateral meeting held at the Palace of the Crown Prince in Riyadh. The meeting then continued with a state banquet.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi who accompanied the President during the bilateral meeting said that Indonesia-Saudi Arabia have agreed to establish a leader-level consultation mechanism and hold meetings once a year.

“Indonesia-Saudi Arabia also agreed to immediately hold a meeting to discuss investment and other economic cooperation,” Retno said, adding that Saudi Arabia has also expressed interest to collaborate in the fields of energy and petro chemistry.

In the meantime, President Jokowi said that Indonesia is eager to be part of the implementation of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. “The Crown Prince also appraises ​​Indonesia’s stable political stability and positive economic growth,” said Retno.

On that occasion, the Crown Prince delivered the decision to add 10,000 hajj pilgrimage quotas for Indonesia.

After conducting a series of meetings with the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the President and First Lady Ibu Iriana left for Mecca to perform umrah or minor pilgrimage. (Setkab)

SEOUL, LELEMUKU.COM - Since emerging from his international isolation just over a year ago, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been a busy man.

Kim has met twice with U.S. President Donald Trump, three times with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, four times with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and once with Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong.

One name missing from that list: Russian President Vladimir Putin. That could soon change.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Monday that preparations for a long-rumored Kim-Putin summit are underway. The meeting could happen as soon as next week, according to South Korea’s semi-official Yonhap news agency.

Pyongyang and Moscow have clear motivations for the meeting.

Kim, whose government is being squeezed by international sanctions, is likely to push Putin for economic aid that would give him more leverage in nuclear talks with the United States.

Putin may use the meeting to boost his influence in North Korea and ensure Moscow is not sidelined in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Putin as spoiler? Maybe not.

Under Putin, Russia has attempted to disrupt U.S. interests around the world, in areas as diverse as Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

But Putin is not likely to play the role of spoiler in the North Korea-U.S. talks, in part because he doesn’t have much leverage over Pyongyang, says Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University.

“And in this case, Russia’s interests are not that different from that of the United States. Both sides want to preserve the status quo and want denuclearization,” Lankov says.

Russia may also be reluctant to upset South Korea, an important trading partner, whose progressive government is heavily invested in engagement with the North.

Russia has carried out a balancing act in its approach toward Korea.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian leaders decided to prioritize relations with South Korea over the North.

But since the mid-1990s, Moscow’s policy has been based on “equidistance,” or balanced relations toward both Seoul and Pyongyang, says Anthony Rinna, a North Korea-Russia relations specialist at the Sino-NK research group.

“The Kremlin is trying to reverse the post-Cold War decline of its influence in East Asia,” Rinna says. “In order to do that, Moscow needs to strengthen its ties with the DPRK.”

Though Moscow supported intensified U.S.-led international sanctions on North Korea following missile and nuclear tests in 2016 and 2017, it later called for them to be eased. Russian companies have since supplied oil to North Korea, in violation of those sanctions.

Another factor: Russia sees North Korea as a buffer against the U.S. military presence in the region, including the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.

But for now, Russia’s biggest priority may be preventing a return to the provocations of 2017, when Kim and Trump regularly exchanged threats of nuclear war.

“Preserving the status quo is the major goal,” says Leonid Petrov, a Korean studies expert at the Australian National University. “That means slow-motion conflict without major shifts or changes.”

What does North Korea want?

Kim’s goals, too, are diverse. At the top of his list is economic aid to relieve the pressure of sanctions and expand his leverage in stalled talks with Trump.

At a February summit in Hanoi, Trump pushed for a “big deal” in which North Korea commits to completely giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for the United States lifting sanctions. North Korea countered with a gradual approach, offering to dismantle a key nuclear complex in exchange for partial U.S. sanctions relief.

By meeting with Putin, Kim may be trying to show Trump that he has other options for economic help. But it’s not clear how much Russia can offer, in part because of Russia’s struggling economy and also because such help could violate sanctions.

For example, North Korea has expressed interest in buying new Russian civilian aircraft to replace its aging fleet, according to Russian state media. However, a 2017 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibits the sale of transportation vehicles to North Korea.

Besides economic aid, Kim could also ask Putin for a commitment to military assistance in the event North Korea is attacked, as well as continued diplomatic support at the United Nations, Petrov says.

“It’s a shopping list, and we don’t know what’s going to materialize,” Petrov says.

In any case, Putin will not likely offer enough to fundamentally change North Korea’s calculation for the nuclear talks, says Kim Heung-kyu, a political science professor at Seoul’s Ajou University.

“Considering its internal circumstances, Russia is not capable of focusing very much on issues in East Asia,” Kim says. “It's also not willing to have regional conflicts.” (William Gallo-VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - Key Democratic lawmakers on Monday accused the Trump administration of "a bizarre and unlawful attempt to score political points" with a possible plan to send undocumented immigrants detained at the U.S.-Mexican border to congressional districts represented by Democrats.

Congressmen Jerrold Nadler, Elijah Cummings and Bennie Thompson, all chairmen of House of Representatives committees investigating President Donald Trump's administration, demanded documents and communications about the plan to move migrants from the border to hundreds of communities throughout the United States.

Local officials in areas across the country have declared their jurisdictions are sanctuary cities for migrants, with policies limiting how much they cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and in some cases allowing undocumented immigrants to access city services and obtain identification cards.

Federal law does not require local police to detain people based on their immigration status, and local law enforcement officials in sanctuary areas have said they would rather immigrant communities not fear interacting with police.

Some states have gone the other direction, passing anti-sanctuary laws requiring cities to work with federal immigration authorities.

Trump suggested again Monday he wants to move the immigrants detained at the border to the sanctuary cities and states after saying over the weekend he wants them "to take care of the Illegal Immigrants -- and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds."

The Democratic lawmakers said, "It is shocking that the president and senior administration officials are even considering manipulating release decisions for purely political reasons."

The government's Department of Homeland Security has said that Congress has not appropriated any money to transport the migrants from the border to far-flung sanctuary cities, while the Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency has called the idea an "unnecessary operational burden."

But Trump, who is often at odds with Democratic lawmakers over border security funding, revived the idea in recent days, claiming that opposition Democrats who favor what he calls "open borders" ought to approve of accepting the migrants into their communities. Some local Democratic officials have said the migrants, mostly from Central America, are welcome in their cities, while other party officials have claimed that Trump has no legal right to single out specific communities for an influx of migrants.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told the U.S. cable news program Fox News Sunday, "We certainly are looking at all options as long as Democrats refuse to acknowledge the crisis at the border."

Trump, in one of several Twitter comments on border security in recent days, said, "The USA has the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to Sanctuary Cities. We hereby demand that they be taken care of at the highest level, especially by the State of California, which is well known (for) its poor management & high taxes!"

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee told NBC's Meet The Press that his state welcomes people who are awaiting their asylum hearings.

"You can't threaten somebody with something they're not afraid of. And we are not afraid of diversity in the state of Washington," Inslee said.

He criticized what he called immigration solutions based on "trolling on the internet" and instead promoted a system to process more asylum claims, a path to citizenship for those already living in the United States who came to the country illegally, and having an overall "acceptance of refugees because we're a humane nation."

The United States now houses thousands of migrants at the border but is running out of beds and instead is releasing new arrivals into the country on their promise to appear at asylum hearings that might not occur for two years. (VOA)

CARACAS, LELEMUKU.COM - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has met obstacles at nearly every turn since he declared presidential powers in a bid to end socialist President Nicolas Maduro's rule, and his visit to this once-thriving oil center was no different.

He was forced to take a boat to outmaneuver police roadblocks and reach throngs of supporters waiting to hear him speak in the sweltering heat in Maracaibo, a city now infamous for its blackouts.

Security forces had blocked the bridge across Lake Maracaibo just as Guaido arrived on Sunday. Undeterred, the 35-year-old opposition leader and his entourage boarded a private boat and sped off across the water.

While Guaido has gained backing from the United States and some 50 other nations, Maduro remains firmly entrenched nearly three months into the struggle for control of Venezuela. Guaido has been stripped of his immunity and faces the looming threat of arrest — something he warned would be a "big mistake."

"It would only deepen the crisis," Guaido told The Associated Press as the boat crossed the choppy waters. "The consequences would only hurt the regime."

Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city of 1.5 million where refineries that once hummed with constant activity have fallen into disrepair, is a window into a nation that has plunged into chaos.

The power has returned for most of Venezuela after a massive electrical grid failure that blanketed most of the country's 30 million residents for days starting March 7. But Maracaibo hasn't bounced back.

The city is a crumbling version of its former self. Gushing oil wells that helped make a nation with the world's largest oil reserves flush with cash have given way to broken-down oil platforms that sit idle as nearby shores are black with oozing crude.

Maracaibo has endured rampant blackouts for more than a year, leaving residents of a city where temperatures regularly reach 100 degrees without air conditioning and refrigerators, spoiling food. In the streets, residents spend hours searching for water, and schools barely open.

Frustration spilled over for several days in mid-March, with mass looting by mobs that overran shopping centers sacking 523 stores — many of which have not reopened their doors.

Residents say they live in fear of a serious illness or injury. Doctors in the main emergency hospital tell patients to bring their own water to clean wounds and even the most basic items like aspirin are lacking.

Guaido's first visit to Maracaibo since declaring presidential powers on Jan. 23 comes at a time when he seeks to tap into popular frustration and anger to re-energize his campaign.

Some fear he's leading yet another fatally stalled opposition movement unable to break free from Maduro. Guaido has failed to win a critical mass of the armed forces away from Maduro or bring in international shipments of humanitarian aid.

The masses of supporters who flooded the streets in the capital, Caracas, immediately after Guaido declared presidential powers aimed at toppling Maduro have begun to wane.

But in Maracaibo, a historic opposition stronghold, he was met Sunday by thousands who turned out at a series of rallies to hear him speak even as his voice turned hoarse. Several thousand followers waited more than four hours in the middle of one of the city's main avenues.

The visit came as pressure on Guaido is only tightening. The National Constituent Assembly, stacked with Maduro loyalists, withdrew Guaido's parliamentary immunity earlier this month, opening the path to prosecute and arrest him for allegedly violating the constitution. Days earlier Guaido's chief of staff was jailed as an accused terrorist.

Guaido said he has urged his international backers to adopt a stance of "zero tolerance" toward Venezuela's rampant corruption and the mismanagement of its resources.

Maduro boasts support from Russia, China and Turkey, but Guaido dismissed that as "more of a show" than having any substance amid Venezuela's crisis. Guaido refuses to negotiate with Maduro.

"There's no possibility of a dialogue with Maduro," Guaido said. "He's the problem.''

Given the fading anti-government protests and the opposition's refusal to open a dialogue with Maduro, the option of some sort of U.S. military deployment — starting with efforts to bolster humanitarian aid deliveries to Venezuela — has been gaining strength, especially among some figures in Washington.

"It is becoming clear that we will have to consider the use of American military assets to deliver aid," Florida Sen. Rick Scott said last week at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Maduro and his thugs have left us no choice."

The Trump administration is determined to see Maduro removed from power, preferably through diplomatic and economic pressure. The White House has slapped dozens of officials in Maduro's government with financial sanctions and targeted Venezuela's oil industry, its most important source of revenue. But while White House officials have repeatedly warned that "all options are on the table," no plan appears to be in place backing up the tough talk.

Reaching the other side of Lake Maracaibo, Guaido hit another police roadblock. His entourage abandoned their cars and turned to local residents to help them navigate around backroads.

Guaido spoke at several rallies, urging Venezuelans not to give into Venezuela's collapsing public services. Rather, he said, they need to keep the protests alive throughout the country, rejecting Maduro's government.

"We're not going to bend our knees — if that's what they tell us to do,'' Guaido said, as the mass of people cheered in support. "Yes we can!" they shouted. (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld announced his candidacy Monday to challenge President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

"In these times of great political strife, when both major parties are entrenched in their 'win at all cost' battles, the voices of the American people are being ignored and our nation is suffering," Weld said in a statement. "It is time for patriotic men and women across our great nation to stand and plant a flag."

Weld, 73, who served two terms as governor, from 1991-1997, enters as a long-shot candidate against an incumbent president who has remained popular within his party. Weld in February had said that he planned to challenge Trump.

Trump's campaign raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, it said Sunday, far outpacing the sums raised by individual Democratic candidates during that period.

The fundraising underscores the willingness of Republican donors to invest in Trump's re-election bid. (VOA)

ATHENS, LELEMUKU.COM - Repaying earlier expensive International Monetary Fund loans is a significant step for Greece which will create favorable conditions for its economy, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday, promising more relief measures.

"We are gaining points of [economic] freedom," Tsipras said during an interview with Greece's Antenna television. Greece this week plans to file a request to the euro zone's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), seeking its consent for the early repayment of the loans, sources told Reuters earlier Monday.

The country emerged from its third international bailout since 2010 in August last year.

During the live interview, Tsipras also said his administration would not lower a tax-free threshold, a measure which has been agreed with international lenders and is supposed to take effect next year to broaden the country's tax base.

"The tax free [threshold] will not be reduced as long as Syriza is in government," Tsipras said, referring to his left-wing party in power since 2015.

Elections are due later this year and the leftist leader ruled out an election earlier than that, vowing his government would see through its full term of 4 years.

Greece is expected to meet its fiscal targets again this year and any outperformance will be distributed to the public, Tsipras said.

"After the [Easter] holidays I will meet with the minister of finance to consider what we can offer, not as a pre-election gift but as permanent relief measures because the Greek economy is faring better." (VOA)

JERUSALEM, LELEMUKU.COM - Israel's president began post-election consultations Monday with political parties that will lead to his appointment of a candidate to form a government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nomination seemed virtually ensured after his right-wing Likud won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the April 9 ballot, and his closest rival, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, conceded defeat.

President Reuven Rivlin said he would announce his choice Wednesday after meeting with all of the parties that captured seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Under Israeli law, after consultations with the parties the president taps a legislator whom he believes has the best chance of forming a government, delegating 28 days, with a two-week extension if necessary, to complete the task.

Netanyahu said he intends to build a coalition with five far-right, right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would give a Likud-led government 65 seats, four more than the outgoing administration he heads.

All of those parties have now said they will back Netanyahu, with the last to hold out, former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, pledging support late Monday.

"The country has decided and we need to honor the decision," Lieberman said in a speech to party supporters. "Tomorrow at the president's, we will recommend Benjamin Netanyahu as the candidate to form the government."

Gantz, a former military chief of staff whose party won 35 parliamentary seats, would likely be next in line to try to put together a government if Netanyahu fails.

For the first time, Rivlin's consultations with the parties were being broadcast live as part of what he described as a display of transparency in what has historically been a closed-door process in Israel.

At the meeting with Likud representatives, Culture Minister Miri Regev noted Netanyahu had won re-election despite Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's announcement in February that he plans to charge the prime minister in three graft cases.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing. He can still argue, at a pre-trial hearing with Mandelblit whose date has not been set, against the filing of bribery and fraud charges against him.

The Israeli leader is under no legal obligation to resign if indicted. (VOA)

MADRID, LELEMUKU.COM - Analysts see this month's re-opening of an air link between Tehran and Caracas as the latest evidence of Iran's growing role alongside Russia and Cuba in bolstering the multilayered security apparatus keeping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power.

Mahan Air, a private airline sanctioned by the United States for its links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), initiated flights between Tehran and Caracas last week, according to Iranian civil aviation officials who announced the initiation of the air route when a Mahan airliner landed in Caracas on April 8.

"Unless Iran has suddenly become a source of tourists, this is another reason why the regime of Maduro has become a threat to the security of the U.S.," tweeted Senator Marco Rubio, who has major input into the Trump administration’s Latin American policy.

Spokesmen for Iran’s civil aviation organization have told the official Mehr news agency that the Mahan airliner carried high-level foreign ministry officials and airline executives.

IRGC Quds Force officers have worked with diplomatic cover at Iran’s large embassy in Caracas, providing intelligence and other assistance to the Venezuelan government, according to Pentagon reports.

The United States imposed sanctions on Mahan Air in 2011, saying it provided financial and other support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization last week. France and Germany banned the airline’s flights earlier this year, accusing it of transporting military equipment and personnel to Syria and other regional war zones.

Iran operated regular flights between Teheran and Caracas with stopovers in Syria’s capital Damascus about 10 years ago, when the two governments were exchanging state visits and signing a series of cooperation agreements. The flights were suspended after the U.S. voiced suspicions about passengers and cargo being offloaded at a special VIP section of Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar airport with no customs or immigration checks.

Iran joined Russia, Cuba and Turkey in declaring support for Maduro after President Donald Trump withdrew U.S. recognition from his government and threw his weight behind parliamentary leader Juan Guaido in February. The U.S. administration has toughened sanctions and threatened to intervene militarily to topple the Maduro administration.

Venezuela and Iran have joint military ventures including the manufacture of munitions and surveillance drones, according to Venezuela’s ex-defense minister Raul Baduel. Opposition sources say Iran has also negotiated mining concessions to tap Venezuelan uranium deposits and that some samples were flown from Caracas to Teheran by way of Damascus in 2010.

The administration of President George W. Bush formed a special unit to investigate Iran’s activities in Venezuela, according to it’s director David Asher, who told the U.S. Congress that President Barack Obama disbanded his team for fear that its findings could jeopardize negotiations to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies, top officials of Maduro’s regime have close connections with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries. Hezbollah enjoys Iranian support and is fighting in Syria’s civil war on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.

Maduro’s former vice president Tareck El Aissami is under U.S. indictment for funding Hezbollah with proceeds from a Venezuela-based drug trafficking ring. He met in Syria last week with Assad, according to Venezuelan state media, which quoted him as saying there were “similarities” between the conflicts in Syria and Venezuela.

El Aissami played a key role in dismantling a coup plot against Maduro last year when he ordered the arrest of almost 100 army officers. He has also organized paramilitary “colectivos” to silence the opposition, arming them with Iranian-made 5.56-mm compact versions of the Russian AK-47.

A Venezuelan colectivo leader of Lebanese origin, Ghazi Nasr al Din, ran a paramilitary training and recruitment center out of a gym in downtown Caracas. He is on the FBI terrorism watch list for “facilitating the travel of Hezbollah members to and from Venezuela.” He has also traveled as a diplomat to Syria and Iran.

“!ran is playing a far larger role in designing Venezuela’s security structure than is commonly known,” says James Humire, a Washington-based policy analyst and author who lectures on Latin America.

At a recent U.S. Congressional hearing, Humire presented a list of over 2,000 Venezuelan passports issued to suspected members of Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-supported Islamist groups

Retired Venezuelan National Guard brigadier Marco Ferreira has told VOA that some of the passports were issued when he worked at the interior ministry’s immigration office under the supervision of Cuban security advisors. He said one reason for establishing the Iranian air link was to facilitate the movement of suspect nationals from Middle Eastern countries.

Rear Adm. Touraj Hassani Moghadam, Iran's deputy head of naval operations, told the Meher news agency in December that the navy wants to send a flotilla equipped with “special helicopters” on a five-month mission to Venezuela. (VOA)

CARACAS, LELEMUKU.COM - Canada is imposing more sanctions on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who it blames for the country's deteriorating political and economic situation.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday announced sanctions against 43 high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including regional governors, and said they were implicated in the undermining of democratic institutions.

Canada had already sanctioned 70 other people linked to Maduro's government.

The sanctions include asset freezes and ban Canadians from any financial dealings with targeted individuals.

Canada, the United States and about 50 other countries support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who says he is the interim president and that Maduro must resign. Maduro says he is the target of a coup plot by the U.S., which has also imposed oil and other sanctions on Venezuelan entities and individuals. (VOA)