Thursday, February 16, 2017

Venezuela bans CNN for exposing passports for cash racket at its Iraqi Embassy

(Caracas) Venezuela's Socialist government has suspended CNN in Spanish, shutting off the news channel after it aired a report on fraudulent passports being sold to cash from its Iraqi Embassy. Not only that but the story implicated the Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami as directly linked to the granting of 173 passports, including to members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The very same El Aissami who this week had sanctions imposed on him by the US for allegedly trafficking drugs. He was described by the US treasury as a drug "kingpin" who worked with traffickers in Mexico and Colombia to ship drugs to America.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (R) and his vice-president Tareck El Aissami
In response, he accused the US of "imperialist aggression", and President Nicolas Maduro demanded a public apology.