In a rare piece published Friday, the editors at The Boston Globe praised President Donald J. Trump for his leadership in recognizing Venezuelan National Assembly Juan Guaidó as the Latin American country's leader and his administration's condemnation of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.
via Boston Globe:
The Trump administration showed commendable leadership in Latin America this week by recognizing Juan Guaidó, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as the country’s legitimate president, in a repudiation of the Nicolás Maduro regime. It was a rare foreign policy move in the right direction by an administration that has been marred by one blunder after another. The move — and the global coalition behind it — offers reason to be cautiously optimistic that the leadership crisis in Venezuela might be approaching a resolution.
While not mentioning socialism by name, the liberal paper properly categorized the current economic situation in Venezuela as a disaster caused by a "repressive government."
Venezuela has deteriorated fast from a nation in economic distress to one facing a full-blown and unprecedented humanitarian crisis. In recent years, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled to neighboring countries due to a severe shortage of food and medicine. Venezuela is led by a repressive government that has ordered arbitrary arrests of dissidents, among other human rights abuses, and one that refuses to accept any humanitarian aid.
As noted by the paper, President Trump has thus far avoided militaristic regime change in Latin America while still showing strong support for the will of the Venezuelan people.
"On the 61st anniversary of a coup d’etat that brought modern democracy to the country, thousands of Venezuelans poured to the streets to protest Maduro. They also marched in support of Guaidó, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, the lone democratic body left in the country. Citing the constitution and calling the last presidential election a sham rigged by Maduro, Guaidó on Wednesday declared himself the rightful president. Then, a pronouncement from the US government: “The citizens of Venezuela have suffered for too long at the hands of the illegitimate Maduro regime,” President Trump said in a tweet. “Today, I have officially recognized the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido[sic], as the Interim President of Venezuela.”
Latin American experts weighed into the Globe warning against "knee jerk" reactions against President Trump's remarks simply because Americans may disagree politically the commander-in-chief in other areas.
In this instance, the US government got it right, and avoided the kind of unilateral, heavy-handed intervention of years past. “The moves by Trump in Venezuela have been uncharacteristically deliberate and have been done in a coordinated fashion in a way this administration has been apprehensive to do in other parts of the world,” said Jason Marczak , director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. “This knee-jerk rejection of everything just because it’s Trump does a disservice to the people of Venezuela,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and former State Department official under President Clinton. “Guaidó’s moves are bold but also according to Venezuelan law.”
The paper concluded saying, "..this is as close as Venezuela has gotten to regime change in years. And for the first time since Trump assumed office, the United States has been a leader on a significant foreign policy issue. On this the administration deserves credit and, crucially, domestic support. The last thing needed right now is to make the suffering of Venezuelans a partisan issue."
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