Unlike Trump and ignoro-patriots, Maduro actually knows US military and US intelligence history in Latin America: bloody, repeatedly subversive of democracy and elections, kleptocratic, and impoverishing. History doesn´t go away even when a country´s own press and people don´t know it and lament a prior purity that never existed, but was handled more secretively and more diplomatically.
How do you explain Trump's warmth to the strongmen in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala? Your theory is off. It's not that he likes strong men. It's that he likes right wing regimes.
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"...Mr. Maduro’s false claim that the collapse of his country is because of a United States-led conspiracy..."
How can these authors make this claim so easily? Methinks reality will disprove their assertion...
Why not? 1. For the same reason my tom cat doesn't get along with the other toms living in close proximity. 2. His tan is natural, not Coppertone. Boy, does that make Trump see red. 3. He's Hispanic; and something about that sets Trump off.
Could it be as simple as this: that Trump sees “stability” and investment potential in places like Russia, China, and even North Korea — think of all those pristine beaches! — and all that untapped wealth.
This may be a backward way to “follow the money” but in Trump’s case that may be what we’re looking at.
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1) Trump hates brown people
2) The Right Wing Noise Machine has successfully turned Venezuela into the newest buzzword for "Socialism". That millions are going hungry there is one of the greatest things to happen for conservatives in the US.
So he gains nothing in aiding them and has everything gain in joining in the chorus against them.
Maduro looks Mexican, strike 1,2 and 3 with Trump.
Mr. Trump is living in the '70s. Back then, according to the be-nighted wisdom of that decade, Latin America was a "mess", "Puerto Ricans" were all trouble-makers. If you look back in the archives of the Daily News or the Post these prejudicial stereotypes will jump out at you. Trump didn't read the Times.
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A. Yes, it does "mean that Mr. Trump can’t have acceptable working relations with democratic leaders." Just look at the G7 and NATO meetings, and his state visit to England.
B. Even Trump can see that Maduro is a hopeless loser. Trump wants to associate with strong leaders who are winners, because he thinks it rubs off on him. What actually rubs off on him is the stink of brutality and corruption.
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Well, of course. White Dictators are great men who should be emulated. Brown dictators are criminals and tyrants who must be removed.
Evidently, based on migration patterns, Latin Americans must love Trump.
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Uhhhh, skin color?
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@Red O. Greene,
1. no. OIL. we don't need to own it outright. as long as it's in friendly hands where we have a say.
2. Petrodollar, as long as oil trades in the almighty dollar.
3. Saddam Hussein and Kaddafi are two come to mind.
Best Answer: hatred of latinamericans.
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Simple: the word "maduro" means "dark" (as in tobacco leaves) and the man is an Hispanic, which means the same to Trump as the term "Untermensch" (sub-human) meant to Nazis.
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@Carl Ian Schwartz Maduro means "mature" and "ripe". Dark, not at all.
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Ok.
I am Venezuelan. I have been watching this train wreck from the US for 20 years. You have to go back to the beginning to understand why not Maduro. If you are too impatient for the punchline, I will short cut it for you. Trump has the respect for Maduro that one mistress has for another. They are both bought and paid for by the same john.
To understand Maduro, you have to go back to the early 00s, when Chavez discovered Fidel, who in turn introduced him to the Russians. If you've been following Venezuelan politics, as I have, you would know about the flow into Venezuela of all manners of Russian influence: from missiles, to Uzis, to money, to influence, to tactics, to other arms, to ideas.....
In fact, when the Ukraine was burning in 2014, so was Venezuela and at the time, the language and tactics being used to repress where strikingly specifically SIMILAR.
Why Venezuela? Location and oil. Putin rightly understood years ago that Venezuela had a strategic relationship to the US via its oil production and an awesome location from which to wreak havoc.
For Putin, Maduro is the useful idiot that came after Chavez. In fact, sometimes he is a bit uppity so he allows Trump to do the occasional smack down to keep him in place.
If Trump proceeds unimpeded, and if Rosfnet decides it needs to squeeze the lemon harder, I could force a military interaction or two.....enough to strike a blow across the face, but nothing more.
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@GWE
"If you've been following Venezuelan politics, as I have, you would know about the flow into Venezuela of all manners of Russian influence: from missiles, to Uzis, to money, to influence, to tactics, to other arms, to ideas....."
¡Epale, pana!
How many shares of Citgo do you think Pootski owns?
GWE--Very instructive. Thanks.
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Thanks, Tom Brennan. That's one more∂∂ "socialist" (or "communist") dictator that Trump doesn't approve. "Socialist" is the answer to this silly column. It has nothing to do with Latin America. (China isn't "socialist" any more, so it's exempt from Trump disapproval.)
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@Thomas Zaslavsky
You make a good point. What most Americans don't know is that the largest companies in China are by far still state run. They don't want you to know this in this country especially since they have been running circles around us economically and their standard of living has been rising dramatically while ours has fallen (discretionary income) for most of our population over the past decade. Not that we should necessarily emulate them, but there is some rotten (not in Denmark) these days.
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Thomas--Hahahaha! Good one!
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Name one "socialist" dictator that Trump approves of. That is the answer to this silly column.
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I remember when with the help of the treasonous Brian Mulroney we were forced to "sell" our highly successful oil company. I am grateful to Trump for drawing back the curtain and letting the world know it is not about values and ethics , it is only about money and power.When Russia became totally committed to neoliberalism Putin's friends were well rewarded. All that remains in Venezuela is how to pretend that Venezuela's oil belongs to Venezuelans when all the money ends up in London and New York.
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Because we do not give Russia foriegn aid.One thing about Putin ,he's honest and he doesn't beg. Putin doesn't send Russians here to leach on the US taxpayer.
@Alan Einstoss. What am I missing? This seems a somewhat dated view of the word “aid.” I don’t understand the notion that we don’t give Russia foreign aid. The president of the United States is giving Russia aid every day in establishing dominion over more people and resources. He’s giving them aid every day by destroying the Western alliance that has kept Europe safe for 70 years. As for financial foreign aid, we don’t have to give Russia any. They steal it.
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ADN--Yep, aid and comfort. Isn't that a crime?
@Alan Einstoss And you know Putin doesn´t lie, how? It is blind followers that are among the most dangerous in our country.
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Mexico's "perpetual president," Porfirio Díaz, reputedly quipped, "Poor Mexico; so far from God, so close to the United States." Shifter & Toppelberg's compelling op-ed certainly buttresses don Porfirio's words, undergirding them with facts.
Apropos of Venezuela's reigning "caudillo del día "nasty" Nick Maduro, it might be worth noting that Trump's animus toward him, besides stemming from garden-variety Yankee contempt of anything south of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo del norte, could also be the byproduct of his recognition of the Venezuelan exile community in southern Florida's waxing political influence if not power.
After all, there's a growing section of the Miami suburb of Doral that's now called "Little Venezuela." Cuban exile political clout has had a good deal of wind knocked out of its sails these days. Perhaps Venezuelan exiles, as well as Puerto Rican refugees of Hurricane Maria, might step in to replace it.
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The reason is that Trump cannot foresee the building of a Trump Tower in Venezuela. Conversely, a tower in Manila, Moscow, Riyadh etc are all possibilities. Trump's measure of if he likes you or depends exclusively on whether you can get a Trump Tower built in your country.
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Let's remember to include Hun Sen (Cambodia) on this list of missing despots. Plenty of other African nations should also share billing. So many tyrants, it must be difficult to choose.
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Trump is a fan of oligarchs the world around but not of those in our hemisphere displacing his own real estate speculation interests (and/or that of his funders).
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"Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the Monroe Doctrine — which in 1823 unilaterally established the region as an exclusive United States sphere of influence... “as relevant today as it was the day it was written”
The best and the brightest... but what is dismaying is that the quote reflects the point of view of a significant, deeply ignorant portion of the American population.
Dear reader, know that your country is not immune to the forces of extremism and can be crushed under the wheel of changing world power arrangements. In this dear reader, know that America will someday suffer for the sin of arrogance exemplified in the above quote, and brought low.
If Trump is not impeached and re-elected you will reap the whirlwind.
Vote. Democrat.
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Trump should mot be congratulated for ANYTHING
He wouldn’t remember it anyway
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A few years ago US leftist 'democratic socialists' were fawning over Venezuela as a model to economic equality.
Mention Venezuela to a leftist now and they pretend to have never heard of it... yet speak the same leftist rhetoric as Comrade Hugo in his early years!
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"Strongmen Have the Edge With Trump. Why Not Maduro?"
Um, because he's Latin American. It's not that hard. Trump is a racist with particularly venomous views of African Americans and Latinos.
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I am surprise that Trump has no affinity with Maduro. After all both are expert in bankruptcy. Trump has six personal bankruptcies and was the number one cause of the bankruptcy of the United States Football League. Maduro bankrupts a country: Venezuela. Oh! Wait! Trump did not bankrupted the USA. Not yet!
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Wilbray--Give him time, and he will, unless we kick the Republicans out of our government, and undo the Republican tax "reform." They don't stand for anything, except greed, power, and money.
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Trump is racist against latinos. Apparently the racism is so strong that authoritarians don't even get a pass. Surprising that this is not addressed in the article, given the well-known fact of his racism against latinos.
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Why should the populists of Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and other Latin American countries not have a say in running their native lands? What is our vaunted democracy if not the will of the people?
Oligarchs look at the world differently. They see monetizable commodities and overlook the people. Sadly a we win--you lose situation.
That's why we of the left come down on the side of the poor. And it is a struggle for power in all countries of the earth.
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Mr. Trump has an affinity for dictators who at least project some degree of success, even if their country (e.g. Egypt. Philippines) has serious problems.
Venezuela is certainly in Mr. Trump's view, and apparently in reality, a "basket case". Why would he feel anything for a bankrupt dictator? It is the bankrupt which is the key here.
Cuba may not be Venezuela in terms of economy, but comes with emotional baggage of decades, strengthened by hostile vocal expatiates in the US. The Russians of Brighton Beach are hardly the same (actually they are light years away from the types of attitudes of e.g. Florida Cubans) and in any case, Russia is not Cuba.
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