I have to say that the Trump administration is doing a good job with the Venezuela situation. Like many bad situations in the world, there are no good or easy answers. But unlike most of his foreign policies, Trump is actually trying to do something good. Since his so called America first agenda, Trump has been pulling away from the world. America has been losing its leadership in the world. But in this situation in Venezuela, Trump has been able to get allies around the world to support his policy of demanding that Maduro leave office. It is not sure that this will work. But by leading a multiple national effort, it is more likely to succeed and critics can't say anything about American imperialism as a goal here.
The Democrats has been rather silent on this issue except for some left leaning members of Congress who called for the U.S. to stay out of it. How can we not try to do something about this humanitarian crisis? By not coming out strongly against Maduro, it also will let the GOP claim that the left is socialist. At this time, I think centrist Democrats should support what Trump is doing because there isn't any good choices here.
Russia and China are supporting Maduro. But there is a difference in their support. Moscow wants a thorn on the U.S. side close to our shore. So Russia will support Maduro no matter what. China has invested a lot of money in Venezuela. It wants return in oil and money. But if China can be convinced that a new government will honor all previous contracts, it can change its support. For Russia, it is a political issue. For China it is a financial issue. So if Guaido can convince China that under him Venezuela will be stable and export oil to China, I think the tide may change.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
2 comments:
Use the following html code to make a clickable link in your comment (instructions in the sidebar). You can test the link by previewing your comment.
<a href="http://angryyellowman.blogspot.com">Angry Yellow Man</a>
The above example will display as Angry Yellow Man
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It seems that Maduro has become even more of a dictator than Chavez. After all this time, it shows how difficult it is to have much influence in Venezuela. I'm not even sure if Guaido will be a huge improvement, but something has to change there. I just caution that sending aid to a Guaido government may not be the best idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Maduro is letting journalists in to show the hunger going on in his country. It has not been a well hidden secret and is just bad PR for his regime. Plus it isn't doing him much good be blocking the food convoys.
Are you surprised at all that POTUS isn't siding with Russia on backing Maduro? I'm not sure what the U.S. has to lose by backing Guaido unless he declares Venezuela a Democracy and that it will end ties with Russia and China.
What am I missing here? And yes, I do believe it's the right thing to do, since there is international support, but I'm a little surprised that POTUS is on this side of the political spectrum.
-LBOAYM
The optimist side of me want to believe that Trump is finally listening to others who are more experienced than he is and is doing the right thing because it is the right thing. The pessimist side of me worry that he is doing this only for political reason.
ReplyDeleteThe political reason is the voters in Florida. The Cubans there were anti-Chavez since he was closely aligned with Castro. Maduro is just an extension of Chavez. So the Cubans in Florida would support a strong response to Maduro. There are also Venezuelans in Florida. In a state that is a toss up, it pays to be against Maduro. That is why Rubio is so involved in this also. In other states, Trump still can play the anti-socialist card against the Democrats. So even if Putin doesn't like this and somehow Trump owes him, this is too far for Russia to put much chips down. Putin is much more concern of U.S. response in Europe such as Ukraine.
Whatever the reason, I think Trump is doing the right thing so far. As long as he doesn't do a Bay of Pig sequel.