MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
Obama Made Maduro a Martyr
By Michael Wolraich on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 10:27am |Per my comments on PP's thread...
Just a few weeks ago, President Obama was being praised across Latin America for his decision to re-establish relations with Cuba, while President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela appeared increasingly isolated — a wobbly, unpopular leader resorting to ever more aggressive tactics to confront an economic crisis and clamp down on the political opposition.
But with Mr. Obama’s declaration this week that Venezuela is an “extraordinary threat to the national security” of the United States, that dynamic may be coming undone.
Suddenly, the United States is being cast again in the familiar role of the hemispheric bully trying to push around its smaller neighbors. And Mr. Maduro has taken on the mantle of victim, stirring up patriotic support at home, setting the opposition on the defensive and declaring that “we will never kneel before this arrogant empire that attacks and threatens” his country.
URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/world/americas/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-obama.html
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Comments
Don't you think that the boilerplate 'Yanqui Go Home' portrayal was no surprise to Obama and his foreign policy experts?
According to a guest on NPR Maduro, in his short rule, has claimed to have foiled 14 separate coups. He has an approval rating of 22%, has elections coming up in December.
Maduro becoming a 'martyr' because 7 of his thugs were sanctioned apparently seemed less of a 'bad' factor to the White House than Maduro arresting more opposition leaders. Meanwhile, Venezuela is slipping more and more into a failed state status (murders, kidnappings, crime rate/gangs, disappearance or emigration of middle class).
by NCD on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 7:33pm
Exactly. So why would we boost his approval rating? Why not wait for the election? And why Maduro as opposed to more brutal dictators around the world with whom we get along quite happily? El-Sisi has slaughtered hundreds and imprisoned thousands of political opponents, yet instead of sanctioning him, we send military aid just like we did to Mubarak before him.
by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 10:14am
See my response to PP below.
As to Sisi, it is obvious with the Middle East crawling with weapons, bombers, throat cutters and Jihadists from Libya to Syria to Pakistan, and with our democracy experiment in Iraq ending in chaos, guys like Sisi, in many Arab nations, may be the only alternative to civil war, mayhem or another Caliphate. The region is not better off without Saddam, or Mubarek and it won't be better off without Sisi.
by NCD on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 11:52am
First, I don't accept that Egypt is better off under Sisi. Morsi may not have been a great president, but he was much less repressive than Sisi, and unlike Sisi, he was actually democratically elected. But even if one accepts your premise that the region needs Sisi's autocratic leadership, doesn't that create a double-standard? What's acceptable to us in the Middle East (and Africa and Central Asia) is not acceptable in South America? It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the disparity is not about stability or human rights but rather about the attitude of these leaders to the United States.
by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 1:30pm
I totally agree
The US Cartel is stepping up its game against their enemies and supporting their friends.
Model to follow
Mexico's 7 Most Notorious Drug Cartels - Business Insider
President Nicolás Maduro and others either agree to obey the pecking order, or they’re out.
by Resistance on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 1:47pm
Yes, if I believe some Islamic nations like Egypt, Iraq and even Libya, were/or/are better off under military dictators, while not so in most other nations.
I agree that is a double standard. I don't think many Islamic nations in the Middle East are ready for authentic secular democracy as we know it. What they need is security, and more security, and Egypt has had orders of magnitude less casualties getting to where they are now, then our $1-3 trillion dollar 10 year experiment in western style democracy spreading in Iraq.
by NCD on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 9:58pm
Casualties were relatively few in Eastern Europe over 40 years as well.
Certainly not the only measure of success.
I also would never phrase what we did in Iraq an "experiment in western style democracy" - it was an experiment, but one for export only, like those tarnished goods we dump on 3rd world countries.
Perhaps we could think about resuming non-military aid, trade, job/industrial growth and democratic institutions as the key parts of our diplomacy - won't work for everyone, but even David Brooks has noticed that poor people (oops, "people without values") sitting around with too little opportunity tend to lead lot rougher self-destructive lives.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 03/14/2015 - 3:21am
Besides what you said, you'd think that focusing on say Mexican relations & issues would be a much more productive use of our time. There's only so much attention we have for foreign policy, and when we waste it in 1 direction, there's nothing left for others.
[and yes, there's a whole 1 1/2 continents down there to think about - and we mostly ignore them even though they're largely our friends and trading mates despite us being arrogant pushy bastards most of the time. Much of the Latin American economy gets run out of Miami.]
Perhaps Obama can read the famous Doña Barbara to see what this caudillism is that he seems to want to revive in Latin America. Perhaps he's working against FDR-style overreach in other countries so he can finally attack it at home. [comment applies to Chavez more than Maduro, who's a puny also-ran to his much more talented predecessor]
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 11:21am
Basically agree. Almost certain the Venezuela move will have little effect on the nation's descent into whatever it is descending into, the US move may be the scheming bright idea of some Latin American/Pentagon geeks than something Obama was losing sleep over.
by NCD on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 11:51am