So God was Venezuelan. But the ruling class became corrupt, and wrecked the place. This was part of a disappointing global pattern, as many social democrats, many of whom had been active in the late Cold War fight against Communism, were corrupted, both in Latin America and Europe. The list of such leaders includes Nicaragua’s Carlos Andres Perez and European socialist anti-Communists such as Mario Soares (Portugal), Felipe Gonzalez (Spain), and Bettino Craxi (Italy), as well as Czech followers of Vaclav Havel.
Most of those countries have long since voted out the corrupt governments with which they were afflicted, but Venezuelans were not so fortunate. Not only was the economy ruined, but their rulers joined the ranks of a world-wide alliance aimed against the United States, Israel, and the West European democracies. Just look at the global lineup for and against Maduro today, and you can see it, just as General Mike Flynn and I wrote in our best-seller, The Field of Fight. Here is Maduro’s team: Cuba, Turkey, Russia, Iran, China, Nicaragua, and Hezbollah, Iran’s terror proxy. One will get you ten that North Korea is in there too.
That is the correct way to look at the turmoil in Venezuela. It isn’t just an internal affair; it’s part of a world war. You have surely noticed the reports of aircraft arriving in Caracas from Russia and other friendly countries. And you can bet that the Iranians and Russians are telling Maduro how to cope. You know what they’re saying: kill the ringleaders and arrest everyone else.
Yes, the war against communism never really ended with the fall of the wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It just took on a new form. And now much (more) of the Democrat Party are on the other side.
[Saturday-morning update]
The war against communism and socialism and marxism will never end because these are nothing more than means for people to gain dictatorial control. And to also justify heinous treatment of people.
People have wanted dictatorial control ever since people were invented.
But all of the Bernie, Warren, Harris, and Cortez supporters will deny they support marxists and tyrants all while advocating policies that strip Americans of their right to speech, assemble, and participate in the economy.
I don’t think either the USA or any other foreign government has the right to interfere on a country’s internal politics however. I don’t like Maduro’s rule over Venezuela either but he was voted into his position unlike the person the USA is pushing for the position. He also has much wider popular support than a lot of people in the USA seem to think. After all these are the same people who thought throwing down Assad was going to be a cakewalk and Maduro is no Assad.
Venezuela is a communist sh*thole which is apparently being used to destabilize South America and funnel terrorists into the US through the southern non-border.
If it was keeping its turds within its own border, no-one would really care. But it’s not; it’s flinging them far and wide.
Perhaps if the USA wouldn’t fund his opposition and shut down their only meaningful exports it wouldn’t have gotten to this point.
There would still be misery but less of it.
Much of it is self-inflicted by Maduro’s ineptness but that has never been a viable reason for an externally funded coup.
If Venezuela has a right to internal self-determination, the US has the right to the same, which includes refusing to trade with them.
Ah, yes. The problem is not communism, it’s Saboteurs! And Wreckers!
The left will never admit that their entire ideology is a recipe for poverty and war.
Then you are, one presumes, also unhappy with Cuba providing Maduro a secret police apparat and Russia providing Maduro a Praetorian Guard of mercenaries.
Maduro’s “election” was an obvious sham. He has no significant popular support and it seems the Venezuelan military can no longer be counted entirely in his corner either.
Even absent any overt U.S. military intervention, Maduro may well be only weeks away from ending up like Benito Mussolini. One hopes the Venezuelan revolutionaries will summarily put paid to all the Cubans and Russians too.
Based on the evidence of Chile’s experience in the 70’s and 80’s, the only way to really wipe out Marxism in a Latin American country is to wipe out all the Marxists.
The comment of the journalist about the “corrupt” socialists in Europe is also quite telling. i.e. he knows jack shit about what happened there. The fact is in most cases those rulers were replaced with more right-wing liberal rulers which were every bit as corrupt, or more, than them. In Italy for example you got Berlusconi. I could give more examples.
You could bloviate some more and float more fairy stories you mean. Upon assuming power, it is typical that “socialists” almost immediately switch from railing that property is theft to declaring that theft is now property. That was certainly the case with the almost comically greedy Ortega clan in Nicaragua, the Castros in Cuba and pretty much every other “socialist” regime one cares to examine. The proles go hungry but the ruling “socialists” not only don’t miss any meals, they are often notably obese – e.g., Maduro in Venezuela and “Piglet” in North Korea.
As for Europe, corruption is pretty much baked into the political cultures there – more the further south and east one goes. If one has a choice only between leftist crooks and non-leftist crooks, the correct choice seems pretty clear.
It just took on a new form. And now much (more) of the Democrat Party are on the other side.
What’s really scary is that much of the Republican Party seems to be on board as well.
It’s Trump and the American middle class vs. the entire rest of the world. The deep state, uniparty, communists, globalists, academia, media, corporations, bankers, all want to confiscate our wealth and wipe us off the face of the earth.
Hmm, “Press play to listen to this article”? Let’s give it a try.
“Speak prosody rate equals 95% PS Amazon breath duration equals X short volume equals medium, greater than what’s at stake in the Venezuelan struggle less than slash S slash P slash prosody slash speak. Speak prosody rate equals 95% PS Amazon breath duration equals medium volume equals medium greater than years ago, when I went to Venezuela to write a report on the country’s seemingly unstoppable boom, I was told that God is Venezuelan. Less than slash S Amazon breath duration equals X short volume equals medium, S less than slash S Amazon breath duration equals X short volume equals medium, S greater than oil aplenty. Less than slash Amazon breath duration equals …”
Ha!
I’m thinking that if enough of a people were sold on an absolute need for government agents to live by the same law as the common man, a lot more would be tyrants would be shot before they could ruin a country. Socialism is the same old antique order with a new coat of paint. For a real Revolution for the People, try rule of law, and rejection of titles of nobility.