Venezuela has the largest proven petroleum reserves in the world. That alone should compel Americans to pay attention to what’s going on there. Or perhaps you care about democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and other good-government principles.
Those are taking a beating in Venezuela now that President Nicolas Maduro refuses to give up a seat he lost in a landslide. But whether you care about Venezuela or not, that country’s election could have a major impact on our own election. And neither of the two candidates for president seems prepared to handle it.
The Venezuelan election was held July 28. The current president, Nicolas Maduro, claims he was re-elected with 51 percent of the vote. But an exit poll by Edison Research projected that the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, would get 65 percent to a mere 31 percent for Maduro.
So far, the Maduro regime has not offered any proof that their man actually got a majority of the votes. You can see the problem for Donald Trump. In 2020, he also wanted to remain in power despite losing by seven million or so votes.
He recently derided Maduro as “a dictator.” But if you turn down the volume, Trump’s Jan. 6 riot is reminiscent of a pro-Maduro riot.
But let us leave that aside for a moment to discuss a more amusing aspect of The Donald’s history with Venezuela. Along with oil, Venezuela produces beautiful women. That country is famed for the number of winners it produces for the Miss Universe pageant.
One of them, Irene Saez , made a strong run for president against dictator Hugo Chavez. The Donald likes nothing more than a beauty queen. So in 1996 he bought the rights to the pageant.
That created the sort of contretemps that only The Donald can create. It seems that the 1996 winner, Alicia Machado, celebrated her win by putting on weight. Trump responded by calling her names like “Miss Piggy.
” He put her on a strict regimen of diet and exercise, calling in the TV cameras to shoot her workouts. In 2016, Machado got her revenge. She showed up at Trump’s presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, who pointed out to the viewers that Trump also called Machado “Miss Housekeeping.
” That was a bit of ethnic stereotyping that only the Donald could get away with – which he did. So whatever you say about Trump, you can’t say he’s unfamiliar with Venezuela. You could say that about the Democrat he’s running against, however.
In her first trip to the border after winning election as Vice President, Kamala Harris promised us she would address “the root causes” of the border crisis in Latin America. She cited the three countries in the Northern Triangle, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. But in a later speech, President Biden said Harris would “lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.
” Of those other countries, Venezuela sends the most migrants. The New York Times recently reported that hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have come over our southern border during the Biden administration. “Over the last year, we’ve interviewed hundreds of Venezuelans headed to the United States,” the Times reporters wrote.
“The short answer is that people are exhausted by so many years of economic struggle, and global policies meant to change the situation have failed to keep them at home.” So much for addressing the root causes. This remains a potential source of embarrassment for the Biden administration in the three months remaining until Election Day.
A campaign theme endorsed by the administration is an emphasis on “freedom.” That word is subject to various interpretations, but I think that most Americans would agree that the Venezuelan government’s policy of rounding up opposition leaders and imprisoning them – known as “Operation Knock-Knock” - violates any notion of freedom. The situation is similar to the situation in Grenada in 1983, when a small but heavily armed band of Marxists ran the country after a coup.
At that point President Reagan ordered an invasion to chase the Cuban advisers off the island. The UN General Assembly ruled the invasion “a flagrant violation of international law”by a vote of 108 to nine. But the next year the American people re-elected Reagan by the biggest landslide in the modern era, 525 electoral votes to 13.
Reagan’s opponent, by the way, was Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Minnesotans, whether Republican or Democratic, don’t tend to fare well in presidential politics. That didn’t stop Harris from nominating Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz as her running mate. Perhaps the American people will be receptive to his views on domestic politics. But unless Sarah Palin returns to politics, it would be hard to find someone farther removed from Latin America.
This is a classic “damned if you do; damned if you don’t” situation for the Harris candidacy. The best that can happen for the Democrats is nothing, But if anything does happen, the Democrats will get the blame - as long as the Republicans can keep The Donald away from the beauty queens. More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.
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