Leave Venezuela Alone
The Los Angeles Times has just published an article that proposes a way for the U.S. government to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro from power: “The harshest possible sanctions must be leveled against Maduro and all state-owned industries to make an exit plan his best option.” The article was authored by Kristina Foltz, “a researcher and writer based in California and Colombia.”
Wow! What a brilliant idea! Ingenious, really. Why didn’t anyone think of that idea before now?
Oh, wait a minute. Somebody did! In fact, the U.S. government has been imposing the harshest economic sanctions against Venezuela ever since Maduro took power and even before him, during the regime of his predecessor Hugo Chavez.
What has been the result of those harsh sanctions? Did they succeed in ousting Chavez from power? Have they succeeded in ousting Maduro from power?
Well, obviously not. Instead, the sanctions have actually fortified the dictatorial stranglehold that both rulers have had on power. Moreover, they have given both dictators the opportunity to blame Venezuela’s economic crisis solely on the sanctions and not jointly on the sanctions and on Venezuela’s socialist economic system.
In fact, someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the harsh economic sanctions that the U.S. government has been leveling against the Cuban people for more than 60 years (along with U.S. state-sponsored assassinations and terrorism) did not succeed in ousting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro from power or the communist regime that continued after his death in 2016. Nonetheless, the U.S. embargo on the Cuban peop
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