Posted on 02/23/2014 1:48:36 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The protesters in Venezuela do not seek anything extraordinary: They demand to be secure in their homes and their persons, they demand an end to current shortages of staple foods and other goods in the country, and they demand the right to free speech. That these things should be considered a challenge to the Maduro regime is what is extraordinary, along with the regime’s brutal response to the protests — both speak to the character of the current Venezuelan government. If honoring such basic human decencies requires a regime change in Caracas, that is more a reflection on the current government of Venezuela than on those who, laboring miserably under it, demand a civilized life.
President Nicolás Maduro, in an apparent bid to out-redshirt Hugo Chávez, has reverted to classical form, shouting “Yankee go home!” from the dais — he claims that the protests are an American plot to destabilize his government, as though the Obama administration were that deft — and arresting the opposition leader, Leopoldo López, on charges of terrorism and conspiracy. Protesters have been killed.
The economic reduction of Venezuela has been a breathtaking thing to watch. Blessed (and cursed) with enormous wealth in the form of oil, Venezuela seemed to thrive for a time, boasting (possibly with some exaggeration) at one point that its workers were the highest-paid in Latin America. The government spent lavishly on social programs and patronage, and, like many a misgoverned country before, saw its economy ravaged by inflation — 30 percent and more in the late 1980s, 100 percent in the late 1990s, 30 percent a year or two ago, and more than 50 percent today. The Chávez regime attempted to manhandle economic reality with police powers, imposing controls on foreign exchange, prices, and trade. The result was what it has always and everywhere been: shortages of basic goods as economic activity and trade are driven underground.
President Reagan used to joke that if government planners were put in charge of the Sahara Desert there’d be a shortage of sand in three years. The current state of Venezuela looks like a half-baked Cold War joke that Reagan might have rejected as over the top: The government has gone so far as to order the armed occupation of a toilet-paper factory, that commodity being in acute shortage, along with such essentials as milk, flour, and cooking oil. The key difference is that Reagan’s jokes were funny. The situation in Venezuela is not.
The world cries, and rightly so, that the demands of those marching in Kiev be heard today, and sanctions against the Ukrainian government already are being enacted. But there is an awkward silence on the subject of those who are on the march in Caracas. Perhaps that has something to do with the Western intelligentsia’s shameful embrace of Chávez and Chávezism and their subsequent ambivalence about the immediate and entirely foreseeable legacy of that embrace. Who can forget the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s praying at Chávez’s graveside as Sean Penn and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looked on? Or Representative Chaka Fattah and other Democratic grandees eagerly accepting gifts of discounted Venezuelan heating oil on behalf of their constituents? Representative José Serrano’s paean to the dictator as a man committed to “empowering the powerless”? Oliver Stone’s praise of the “great hero”? The lionizing of the authoritarian regime by Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover? Barack Obama’s physically clinging to the man who would later denounce him as a “clown”? The descent of Venezuela into autocracy and misery has been enabled in no small part by American elites and by elected members of the Democratic party specifically. There should be a reckoning for that fact.
The Obama administration has urged the Maduro regime to release the political prisoners it is holding and to address the “legitimate grievances” of the Venezuelan people. It should be prepared to do more, including placing an embargo on Venezuelan oil. (Which would be a much lower-cost proposition if there were, say, an expanded pipeline system connecting U.S. refiners to Canadian oil producers.) For years, the dominant voice in Caracas has been that of the Castro regime in Cuba. If we have learned anything from the feckless foreign policy of the Obama administration it is that if the United States does not lead, someone will.
Those things are becoming a challenge for this country too.
LOL/grimace….a circus clown or a John Wayne Gacy clown?
John Kerry on the deteriorating situation in Venezuela: “
Global Warming is killing the people of that great country. We need to immediately cough up another 2% of whatever salaries you... errr we are earning to help these poor dictators...err people. Yeah people.”
Another “unintended consequence brought to us by the left.”
How come the media isn’t asking Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte or Danny Glover’s opinion? They were the biggest proponents of this folly. Personally, I want to hear what they have to say.
Exactly.
How come the media isn’t asking Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte or Danny Glover’s opinion? They were the biggest proponents of this folly. Personally, I want to hear what they have to say.
Citizen journalists could be in their faces 24/7 until comments are extracted from these tools just for more laughs. Check the laundromats. Look for disquised dissidents washing their Che t-shirts.
Think how the situation would be different if each of those people had a gun.
A secure energy supply allows a country to take the moral high ground in foreign affairs. Canadian PM Harper has formed closer ties to Israel while Obama/Kerry seek the opposite. Canada faced down an attempt at blackmail by the UAE over bases and landing rights. Canada closed the Iranian embassy as the US gets closer to Iran. Harper, seemingly, does not miss an opportunity to stand up to the Arabs.
There is more oil in Northern Alberta than in Saudi Arabia. Trans Canada is offering to pipe that oil to the gulf coast, at no cost to the US. If it had been approved five years ago, Keystone would be operational today. Why has Obama delayed it?
Don't tell Joe Kennedy.
“Citizens Energy is ready to move forward with the heating assistance program as soon as the Venezuelans provide us with the oil. Every indicator so far has been that they will help out... We very much hope that the Venezuelans will come through as they did for so many years under President Chavez’s leadership"
Don't hold your breath, Joe.
Unfortunately we have a marxist president and any meddling he does there is bound to make things worse.
So I want to pay more for my gasoline to show support for the opposition in Venezuela? Sorry, I don't care that much for them.
The NYT will run this photo with the caption: Millions Line Streets for Maduro.
The Latin American policy of the Bush administration wasn't much better.
We’ve mostly ignored central and south America for 20+ years and it shows.
I wonder if this toilet paper shortage was brought on by "preppers" who knew where things were headed and began to stock up early on?
The listing of Jesse Jackson, Sean Penn, Danny Glover, etc., should have led with Noam Chomsky who certainly would be on a leftist Rushmore with Obama, Alinsky and Piven.
The left doesn’t like it. It’s the wrong people rising up against a oppressive regime. In the leftist mind, it should be the poor oppressed people rising up and ESTABLISHING a leftist regime, not protesting it.
So the left and the media ignore it.
Think how different things could be in this country if all of the armed citizenry, which is substantial, were to suddenly march on Washington with weapons at the ready.
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