SOURCE:
NATIONAL REVIEWURL:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437812/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-tyranny-oppression-obama-adminisrationby: Jeff Duncan
Venezuela, home to the largest oil reserves in the world, is literally starving. Suicide rates are skyrocketing, and food shortages affect 82 percent of the population. People wait in lines for hours just to buy food (if it’s available), and people are dying from lack of medicines.
Venezuela’s trajectory does not look good: According to economic forecasts, the socialist country may default on its sovereign debt and the debt of the state-owned oil company, PDVSA. Inflation is projected to be 720 percent by the end of 2016. Approximately 300 businesses are shutting down daily. Seventy-three percent of the population have indicated a desire for a change of government, and yet President Nicolás Maduro refuses to hold a constitutional recall referendum this year.
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the Obama administration has failed to articulate a clear message for what the United States stands for in Venezuela. What are we supporting — the people’s pursuit of freedom, or the Maduro regime, which controls practically the entire government and punishes dissent?
By sending Ambassador Thomas Shannon to Venezuela for high-level talks, the Obama administration offers a diplomacy victory to the Maduro regime, which is arresting protesters and using the judiciary as a tool for repression even as the Venezuelan people are starving and fighting for freedom. Lest we forget:
The Maduro government violently suppressed student protests in 2014, resulting in the deaths of 43 people. Since February, it has imprisoned over 4,000 people for political reasons. Today, almost 100 political prisoners remain incarcerated. In a remarkable twist of irony, only a few days before Ambassador Shannon arrived in Venezuela,
the Maduro government had the audacity to arrest a dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizen, Francisco Márquez. This follows the earlier imprisonment of U.S. citizen Josh Holt. Both individuals remain in jail. The Obama administration’s actions have rewarded the Maduro regime without prioritizing U.S. citizens or achieving anything significant. Such weakness in the face of consistent defiance of democratic principles does a serious disservice to the Venezuelan people, who are pursuing liberty against tremendous resistance. It also undercuts freedom throughout the Americas, as the guardians of democracy are sending mixed signals. The U.S. should be sending a consistent message through all available channels: release all political prisoners, including U.S. citizens; adhere to democratic principles; hold a free and fair recall referendum this year; permit the delivery of emergency food and medicine; and stop all drug-trafficking activities facilitated by the Venezuelan state and its officials. It is not too late for real action, but the Venezuelan people need true support now.
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