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As the United States withdraws from the world and international affairs, China and Russia step in, to the detriment of U.S. interests. The United States is now applying strong sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to bring the Venezuelan regime down. However, China and Russia (particularly Russia) have a major interest in keeping the Maduro regime alive. As part of a U.S. sanctions policy towards Venezuela, there are several U.S. companies whose license to operate in Venezuela has been temporarily extended until January. If these companies lose their licenses, it is expected that Chinese and Russian oil producers and their more than 600 service companies would take over American operations and assets. The U.S. must do everything in its power to remove Maduro and install a new temporary government led by Juan Guaido. Once a new government takes over, American companies can operate normally, and the Russians and Chinese can effectively be displaced.
The threats to the promising future of Latin America from crime in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Colombia. Today the world gravitation point is slowly displacing itself to Asia while in the Americas interdependence has weaved together all the economies and is moving slowly but surely to the establishment of an integrated economic space. Latin nations and the US could be the losing party in a chess game were Crime Inc will execute a clean checkmate in seven movements. And once this happens smaller gangs in the region will get emboldened.
The electoral fraud perpetrated in Bolivia for Evo Morales is comprised by a long series of wrongdoings in preparation for the crime committed on elections’ day. The absence of the rule of law, the total control of all branches of government, the manipulation of identification in voter’s registration, the enabling of Morales as a candidate, the fabricated primary elections, the falsifications and manipulation of electoral results, are some of the elements of the fraud. Due to the flagrancy of the crime and by its condition of being a “noteworthy fact”, the OAS’ observers and the observers of those countries who participated in the elections of the 20th of October, immediately recommended a second round of voting as a diplomatic way of saying what everyone in Bolivia and the media were already and very clearly saying: FRAUD!. The national indignation have all produced the request to consider these as NULL ELECTIONS, and to request Evo Morales’ departure from the government with the slogan “OUT EVO”. General Secretary Almagro has agreed with the regime to conduct a binding electoral audit. This is to say that he has involved the OAS with the fraud and the illegal and violent sustainment of Evo Morales. Could it be, perchance, that Almagro and the OAS ignore the flagrancy of the electoral fraud and related crimes? Does Almagro and the OAS know the legal concept of “noteworthy facts”? Why does he shy away from the initial report by his own electoral observers?
Diario de Cuba detected 22 diction mistakes in Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s 17-minute speech to the “Non-Aligned”. Sometimes confuses the letter “r” and the “l”. A huge mistake in the field of homophony or paronymy. Díaz-Canel confuses the Spanish verbs “propiciar” (propitiate in English) and “propinar” (to give in English). Nor does he know that “neoliberalism” does not exist. It is an empty label used by socialists of all kinds to disqualify their adversaries. What really exists is some sensible economic measures. Let’s make clear that liberalism is, first, a moral conviction; secondly, a legal issue; and, finally, certain economic proposals arising from experience. It is not about the disappearance of the State; it is about the State doing well the tasks we have entrusted to it. Regarding health and education, it is very important to strengthen them as a joint effort of society, but without placing them directly under state control. That is the true distinction between liberals and socialists. We liberals think that individuals are able to make personal decisions better, while socialists are sure that it is preferable that the State makes that selection. This does not mean that individuals always make the right decisions. To err is human, but much more human is to persist in error.
From Hong Kong to Chile, from Syria to Haiti, from Mexico to Catalonia, violent protests have engulfed daily life generating an expansive wave of destruction that seems to unleash a heretofore unknown civil wrath against the very system that has created the longest period of stability and prosperity ever known.
Dictatorships from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have shown they are a group willing to commit all necessary crime in order to indefinitely remain in power, To the cliché “Venezuela is not Cuba”, another cliché “Nicaragua is not Cuba” was coined, and now you even hear “Bolivia is not Venezuela” and “Colombia is not Cuba” or “Argentina is not Venezuela” or “Ecuador is not. . .” and in Chile there were no denials of this type because they had never ever imagined to have happened what is now happening there. At the terminal stage of weakness, the CastroChavism system has it appears to be replicating the Nazi Strategy known as “the Ardennes’ Offensive” a strategy with which they stopped and almost defeated the allied forces. It is neither posible, nor recommended, to enter into a covenant with crime because this violates the law, subverts public order, and sows one’s own defeat. CastroChavism’s offensive against democracies is an operation of a weakened group, but it will sustain itself and will continue if democracies do not accept the imperative choices; either put an end to dictatorships or continue enduring the consequences. In the meanwhile, the question remains; who is next?
Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicated “Organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world’s foremost economic and armed powers,”. He was yet to experience Culiacan where a plainclothes army disrupted the arrest of Ovidio Guzman, son and business heir to el CHAPO currently serving a life sentence in the US. In 12 minutes, the Guzman army was able to paralyze Culiacan; isolate the army platoon that had arrested Ismael Guzman; rendered impossible the arrival of support from the Mexican army. Truth of the matter is that Culiacan will enter history as the event that laid plain and clear an ugly reality that most would like to continue ignoring, organized crime is a geopolitical reality that can confront and defeat a nation state. International demand for drugs, arms, money laundering, counterfeiting, illicit trade in stolen goods, pornography, terrorism, and computer-related crime, generate enough resources to support the commanding center. Should the events in Culiacan not produce a revisiting of international rules preventing the internationalization of law enforcement, the strengthening of the UNCTOC and the change in the rules to establish nation states the fight against organized crime seems to be uphill.
The presence of American troops in Northern Syria constituted a deterrent factor against ISIS and against Turkish aggression against our allies. The Kurdish militias gave their soul and their lives to fight ISIS. By appealing to the principle of “ending the endless wars,” the United States gives the appearance of being fearful of military confrontation. If we decide, as the major superpower in the world, to abandon our allies and withdraw from world affairs, the Russians and the Chinese will step in. the U.S. isolationist approach will have repercussions not only in the Middle East but in other places such as Asia and Latin America. “Patriotism over globalism,” “America First,” and “Ending the endless wars” could mean precisely the opposite and this is dangerous for our image, for our national security, and for our domestic and national well-being.
The crisis in Venezuela is already having major regional consequences. Two events highlight the drama. the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Colombian guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN), The second event is that is the ratcheting up of repression by Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega who refuses to accept the demands of protestors. The files indicate that these guerrilla groups would play a dual role. First they would operate as an asymmetric force to protect the regime, namely as a para-military group. The other is that such groups would help expand the revolution abroad. The FARC dissidents, the ELN, and Hezbollah operatives in Latin America may increase their role in determining the future of the region by protecting and encouraging rogue regimes that also support their drug trafficking and criminal activities. The Western Hemisphere, the neighborhood in which we live, is becoming a more unpredictable and dangerous region. The first step to fight this is to secure the downfall of Mr. Maduro and his rogue regime. The more this step is postponed, the more problems will multiply.
Henrique Salas Römer decided to take challenge and wrote El futuro tiene su Historia ( The Future has History) a book that resorting to generational theory aims at explaining Latin Americans the nature and content of recent changes that have taken several countries several decades or even a century back as seems to be the case of his home country Venezuela. Henrique Salas Römer’s book adds to generation theory the figure of the Black Swan. This are what could be described as the leaders of counter history. That is to say, the unexpected leaderships that turn the course of history. Blacks Swans announce the end of an era, but they do not build the subsequent structure. Clearly his country Venezuela is living those days that see the Black Swan but not yet the ascent of a new cycle. And while the region awaits this development it can use the book as roadmap.
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