Venezuela
March 3, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Are we about to invade Venezuela? There’s a lot of talk about it at the moment, with my old office suite-mate John Bolton invoking the Monroe Doctrine on TV this morning. The odious Maduro regime, and especially its Cuban, Russian, and Hezbollah (yes, Hezbollah) mercenaries, richly deserve every bit of hot lead American soldiers might wish to deal out to them, but I hope we don’t. I can think of few
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February 24, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The last few days have seen an escalating crisis in socialist Venezuela. That country’s economy has virtually ceased to exist. Millions have fled rather than starve. Venezuelan currency has become worthless. The U.S. and 50 or so other nations have recognized Juan Guaido, President of the National Assembly, as interim president of Venezuela. (He has declared himself interim president, and has a colorable right to do so under Venezuela’s constitution.)
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February 19, 2019 — John Hinderaker
This evening on Fox Business I talked about the Democrats’ Green Red New Deal, and how it replicates the disaster that is socialist Venezuela–a point that was made eloquently by Daniel Di Martino, and Venezuelan teenager who is now a college student in the U.S., in USA Today. His theme is: socialism ruined my country. Don’t let it ruin yours. The Clear Energy Alliance is preparing a series of videos
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February 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
President Trump has rejected the status quo ante in American foreign policy. He has rededicated the United States to the support of Israel. He has withdrawn the United States from the disgraceful deal with Iran. He has tightened the sanctions regime with the intent of disabling the mullahs. He has shaken up matters with the North Korean regime in the interest of putting their nuclear weapons program on the path
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February 15, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I was scheduled to appear on Fox Business this evening to talk about recent developments in Venezuela, but was bumped on account of the border emergency and other news. If I had appeared, I would have talked about the fact that the socialist collapse in Venezuela, years in the making, is being transformed into a domestic policy dispute here in the U.S. Which is ridiculous: Venezuela has been going downhill
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February 14, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s exchange with Special Envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams yesterday consumed less than five minutes, yet it warrants close scrutiny (C-SPAN video below). As a newly installed member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee doing her thing, we see the devolution of the Democratic Party. Omar begins by calling Abrams “Mr. Adams.” She pretends to deep knowledge about him, launching an ad hominem attack on Abrams for wrongdoing
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February 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Ilhan Omar questioned Special Envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams at a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing. As Max Boot observes elsewhere on Twitter, she doesn’t seem to realize that Abrams is a leading advocate of human rights and democracy–not a promoter of genocide. She does seem to know, however, that Abrams is a supporter of Israel and the member of a suspect “faith tradition.” Related: The Spectator USA’s Dominic Green
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January 29, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Venezuela has been falling apart for more than a decade, but when matters reached a seeming crisis point last week, I decided it was high time to catch up with Mark Falcoff, the longtime Latin American expert now retired from the American Enterprise Institute, to walk us through the scene (including some terrific trivia about the structure of the Venezuelan army). Then I shift focus to the other member of
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January 28, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Fox Business has posted this video of my appearance tonight on the Evening Edit show with host Elizabeth MacDonald, along with Lt. Col. Allen West. It is brief, edited down from the two segments that we did. Still, I think it is worth watching:
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January 28, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I will be on Fox Business’s Evening Edit with host Elizabeth MacDonald and Lt. Col. Allen West this evening at 5:35 Central, 6:35 Eastern, talking about the latest developments in Venezuela. It sounds like we will be doing two segments. Tune in if you can!
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January 27, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Secretary Pompeo is executing a Trumpian foreign policy that supports American interests and favors freedom. He’s the best secretary of state we have had since George Shultz. Yesterday morning he spoke at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on events in Venezuela. The State Department has posted video of his remarks (I have embedded the video below via C-SPAN) as well as the text posted here. “Now, it
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January 26, 2019 — John Hinderaker
What is the difference between Nicolas Maduro, disgraced soon-to-be former President of Venezuela, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC,” as she calls herself now)? It isn’t their political ideologies. Ocasio-Cortez, like Bernie Sanders and many others in the Democratic Party, is a fervent socialist, just like Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Barack Obama allowed himself to be schooled on history by Chavez; to my knowledge he has not commented on Venezuela’s
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January 25, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It’s not that we are obsessed with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. The problem is that she does so many outrageous things. And also, when she vents on foreign policy, we have to take her seriously as a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, courtesy of Nancy Pelosi. So this idiocy is newsworthy: A US backed coup in Venezuela is not a solution to the dire issues they face. Trump's efforts
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January 24, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Socialism in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro ended as socialism always ends: Chavez family members and cronies became billionaires (in some cases, multi-billionaires) while most other Venezuelans starved. Now the Venezuelan people are throwing off the socialist tyranny. As we noted here, the Trump administration has recognized Juan Guaido, the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as interim President of Venezuela. A number of Western Hemisphere governments have
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January 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Venezuela’s catastrophic experiment with Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style socialism appears to be drawing to a close. Mass demonstrations against the Chavez/Maduro regime have broken out across the country: The Venezuelan Army, which has kept the socialists in power through brute force–how else does a socialist government ever maintain control?–appears to be wavering. Today, President Trump recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido, the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as interim President
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December 26, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Here in the U.S., the press enthusiastically cheers on “democratic socialists” like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. But in the real home of democratic socialism, Venezuela, things aren’t so rosy. We have been covering for some time the long, catastrophic collapse of that country. If you have no need of toilet paper and like to eat rats for dinner–when you can catch them before your neighbors do–socialism is the system
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August 27, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Daniel Pipes has a column in the Wall Street Journal on Venezuela which, if you are not a subscriber, you can read a portion of at Pipes’s web site. A key paragraph: The story of Venezuela, brought from affluence to misery by its own madman in authority, makes this point with singular clarity. In 1914, the discovery of oil on Venezuelan land brought the country vast revenues and produced a
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