VENEZUELA AND OUR SILENCE

If Venezuela were ruled by a right wing dictatorship we would be hearing a lot from the left; marches would have been organized all over the country and the world would utter a high pitched cry of foul; being Maduro the puppet of the Havana Junta: thus, a left wing facilitator, the same persons that want to dismember America from within make no effort to change the course of events in that Latin American nation.

One would think however, that being our great nation the beacon of hope and a sworn enemy of communism and left extremism a sterner warning should have come out from Washington as we watch the graphic images of innocent people getting killed under precise instructions of the Cuban government. Then; as if out of the blue, a group of retirees from our military sends a letter to the Trump administration underscoring how strategically important is for us to have good relations with the  Cuban regime. I had hoped that the capture and sentencing of Ana Belen Montes, the highest ranking Castro spy ever incarcerated (that we know of since the cloak and dagger ways of espionage leave little room for credibility) had once and for all done away with such appeasing talking points; but as the convicted Puerto Rican is about to complete her sentence we still hear the same old same old.

As we all know; only a few insignificant individuals (that includes yours truly) are fool enough to trust the government and send spontaneous missives to presidents, senators and representatives; usually letters are mailed as per request from the addressee; which could lead us to believe that for all the Cuban American victory lapping in the right the Donald will not be as effusive as his predecessor; maybe he won't clumsily try to bear hug Raul Castro, but we are not to expect a distinct departure from Obama's policy. If this chain of conjectures is accurate the White House must be alarmed by the possibility of Maduro's downfall and Cuba's economic debacle.

The worst possible outcome for this administration is the improbable victory of the popular riots in Venezuela, Cuba's remake of the Periodo Especial and Washington as it has happened more often than not; perceived as siding with the wrong crowd and having to clean the mess just the same. In very simple words: the powers that be are not happy with a regime change in Venezuela, not because they like Maduro, but because they fear its catastrophic effect on Cuba. America bets on stability even if it makes us move to the wrong side of history. That principle is one of the pillars of our myopic foreign policy and one of the reasons why we are so unpopular. Kicking the can further down the road, avoiding to take the bull by the horns. Venezuela is on its own; Castro is flagrantly meddling in its internal affairs and America looks the other way.

For decades our government has accepted and at times even aided and abetted injustice in order to secure stability only to achieve neither. A quick look at today's world proves beyond any doubt that America is safe when it applies its overwhelming power. We must remain vigilant so that the industrial military complex won't drag us into useless conflicts, but abandoning the Venezuelan people is shamefully unAmerican.