Author: Peter Ludlow

Maduro’s Venezuela Peter Ludlow Over the last few weeks I’ve been surprised and puzzled by some of the social media posts about the situation in Venezuela. People that I ordinarily take to be intelligent have been filling my newsfeed with posts suggesting that somehow Maduro is very popular with the Venezuelan people. What really puzzled me, though, were posts that suggested that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a sell-out because she refused to support Maduro and wanted to not take sides. My view is that AOC is right here: We should not take sides. While I argue below that Maduro’s presidency is illegitimate, that he is corrupt, and that he is deeply unpopular with the Venezuelan people, that doesn’t mean the United States or Western powers should be involved. Given its history in the Americas, I don’t see that the US has any moral standing to get involved. But that doesn’t mean people should be supporting or cheering on Maduro. The man is an inept, corrupt, two-bit despot. Can I back that up? Hold my beer. Now, as people correctly point out, Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. So, a lot of these recent events perhaps ARE being driven by US and other Western corporate interests. There is no denying that. But it does not follow that we should support Maduro. To the contrary, the socialist left...