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Venezuela is, again, in vogue. Is not Hugo Chavez calling George W. Bush names from an U.N. pulpit, but the actions of his Havana-picked heir, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro has all the power that Chavez... Let me rephrase: Maduro has more power than what Chavez could ever amass. Maduro has consolidated a narco trafficking, dictatorial, galloping kleptocracy and has vested himself, and his collaborators, with power quotas beyond democracy's and rule of law reach. Normal rules just don't apply to Maduro and his criminal organization. He can't be voted out, dismissed, impeached, or taken to court. For all practical purposes, he can't be ousted, for support and protection doesn't come only from Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence, Latin American governments, criminal gangs, opposition politicos, and Boliburgeoisie: Venezuela's armed forces -the only group that can actually do something on the ground- aren't going to topple him.
In such predicament, what's left for Venezuelans is hope. Hope in a loosely defined, indecipherable, "foreign intervention". Such intervention, like god or any other deity of choice, doesn't exist. No one can put a finger on it. No one knows where it resides, from where will it spring, or the likelyhood of ever materialising. So the exodus shall continue, and that's a very good thing, for it is payback time, albeit unfair and cruel.
Those of us denouncing the advancing authoritarianism, rampant corruption and outright criminality of chavismo have been mocked, for well over a decade, as conspiracy theorists. It is refreshing, comforting even to this observer, to see neighbouring nations "rushing to deal" with the Venezuelan crisis, alas it is too late comrades.
TB and other already-eradicated and under-control diseases are spreading from Venezuela to the region. Venezuelan idiosincrasy, and its ruinous features fomented in great part by nearly two decades of chavismo, are spreading in vast numbers. So now, those irresponsible neighbours, who kept ignoring our plights, have to deal with chavismo under own roof. That's fantastic, for it might prompt some reaction, but good luck.
The argument that Venezuela's problems are an internal issue can no longer be used. The argument that Venezuela has "an excess of democracy" is shown in its monstrous preposterousness. It took the destruction of our country, literally, for little men to realise that this wasn't just another political process.
And at the centre of it all lays the main topic of this website: corruption. It is the crux of the matter. It is the reason above all other reasons.
It is Juan Manuel Santos, and Alvaro Uribe before him, turning a blind eye, shoving -with plenty assistance from Uncle Sam- Colombia's narcoterrorists guerrillas and cartels to Venezuela's side of the border, while doing phenomenal trade with chavismo. It is Lula, and Dilma, coming to chavismo's rescue, time and time and time again, aiding and abetting, not only the regime in Caracas but the worst elements of Brazil's "entrepreneurial" class. It was Nestor and Cristina, on the take, since day one. Michelle Bachelet, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights -what a way of gutting that role BTW- was, perhaps, the only one who could have raised an alarm, but never did. The U.S. also has a big part in this. Bush's and Obama's "do not feed the troll" policy -executed by Tom Shannon- was beyond irresponsible. Now federal agencies, for one, are stretched beyond capacity as a result, and the telephone in the State Department doesn't stop ringing.
In sum, the worst elements of Latin America's realismo mágico, socialist politics and irresponsible capitalism came to coalesce and effervesce in Venezuela. Now fucking deal with this South American North-Korea, for this nightmare -for the international community- has just started.
