By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire on Saturday, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 80 others in one of the deadliest disasters ever to hit the country's key oil industry.
Venezuela recently shipped fuel to a Syrian firm under U.S. government sanctions, in moves that could open the South American nation to punitive U.S. measures, according to energy experts.
Opposition groups in Venezuela are warning that billions of dollars in Chinese loans are driving the state oil company toward bankruptcy.
Chinese officials signed $6 billion in new loans to Venezuela on Thursday aiming to boost the South American country's oil industry.
International criticism of Egypt's military rulers mounted Wednesday as police clashed for a fifth day with protesters demanding that the generals relinquish power immediately.
Absent a coherent U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, the best ally of democrats in the region has always been the inevitable economic backlash that socialist economic policies
"That gas generated a cloud that later exploded and has caused fires in at least two tanks of the refinery and surrounding areas," Ramirez said.
He said the country's other refineries were operating at full capacity and would be able to "deal with any situation in our domestic market."
