President Donald Trump's full-fledged backing of Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president of Venezuela last week, was met with a bipartisan support among American political leaders.
The elder statesman of America's left penned a tone-deaf letter, co-signed by dozens of U.S. intellectuals, rejecting attempts by Venezuela's opposition to remove Nicolás Maduro from office and insisting that U.S. sanctions are to blame for "Worsening" Venezuela's economic calamities.
Rep. Ro Kahnna took a shot at Sen. Dick Durbin for embracing the opposition leader, calling Venezuela's situation an "Internal, polarized conflict." Rep. Ilhan Omar took to Twitter to decry "U.S. meddling," adding that Venezuela's Supreme Court, stacked with Maduro loyalists, had declared Guaido's action "Unconstitutional." Never mind that in 2017, that same court allowed Maduro to strip Venezuela's Congress-the only governing institution he did not then control-of its powers and set up a parallel legislature, essentially giving him dictatorial power.
To be clear, supporting Maduro or downplaying the catastrophe he and Chavez have overseen in Venezuela is a fringe position.
Leftists in the U.S. won't disavow Maduro because they cannot accept that they were wrong about Venezuela, that the socialist experiment they pinned their hopes on not only failed but led to a humanitarian crisis.
No U.S.-backed coup has taken place in Venezuela.
Needless to say, one doesn't have to defend economic sanctions, let alone support military intervention in Venezuela, in order to reject Maduro's legitimacy.
http://reason.com/archives/2019/01/28/americas-stubborn-left-clings-to-nicolas
The elder statesman of America's left penned a tone-deaf letter, co-signed by dozens of U.S. intellectuals, rejecting attempts by Venezuela's opposition to remove Nicolás Maduro from office and insisting that U.S. sanctions are to blame for "Worsening" Venezuela's economic calamities.
Rep. Ro Kahnna took a shot at Sen. Dick Durbin for embracing the opposition leader, calling Venezuela's situation an "Internal, polarized conflict." Rep. Ilhan Omar took to Twitter to decry "U.S. meddling," adding that Venezuela's Supreme Court, stacked with Maduro loyalists, had declared Guaido's action "Unconstitutional." Never mind that in 2017, that same court allowed Maduro to strip Venezuela's Congress-the only governing institution he did not then control-of its powers and set up a parallel legislature, essentially giving him dictatorial power.
To be clear, supporting Maduro or downplaying the catastrophe he and Chavez have overseen in Venezuela is a fringe position.
Leftists in the U.S. won't disavow Maduro because they cannot accept that they were wrong about Venezuela, that the socialist experiment they pinned their hopes on not only failed but led to a humanitarian crisis.
No U.S.-backed coup has taken place in Venezuela.
Needless to say, one doesn't have to defend economic sanctions, let alone support military intervention in Venezuela, in order to reject Maduro's legitimacy.
http://reason.com/archives/2019/01/28/americas-stubborn-left-clings-to-nicolas
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