How is an oil rich nation like Venezuela as poor as Haiti?
Ask a socialist.*
South America is not a continent that Americans think of much.
At one point it was notorious for tin-pot dictators, hyper-inflation, and of course the drug thing.
But Colombia is now actually an American ally and won its war against Marxist narco-terrorists.
Brazil has been a stable democracy with a peaceful transfer of power between political parties for 30 years. Also, Viva Bolsonaro.
Back in our sub-teacher days, Bernardsville had a large Paraguayan ex-pat population. Nice kids. We always felt for them during the winter. Bernards High School's language policy was simple, they paired a new kid up with an older kid and threw them into an ESL class. That kid learned English via emersion. The class TV was always on during the World Cup. We once jokingly called soccer a woman's game. Those kids weren't angry, they weren't even offended. They were hurt. They came up to us after class and spoke lovingly of their game.
Argentina and Chile are among the best places in the world to live. Viva Pinochet, savior of Chile.
Of course the people horrified by William Stroock dot blogspot dotcom's support for Pinochet love Chavez and Maduro so....
*Sorry, no AOC joke.
Bloomberg says Trump has recognized this Guaido fellow as interim president of Venezuela.
President Donald Trump recognized Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela minutes after the opposition leader declared himself the head of state, in the U.S.’s most provocative move yet against the leftist regime of Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido, 35, is the president of the Venezuela National Assembly, which Maduro doesn’t recognize.
We're not sure what any of this means.
But anything that gets Maduro out of Caracas is fine with William Stroock dot blogspot dot com.
We are reminded of a reverse situation, when in 1989 Philippine President Corazon Aquino faced a military coup. President Bush rightly, in our opinion, scrambled some Phantoms out of Clark AFB to keep the opposition air power out of the sky. Aquino survived.
Similar action down Venezuela way would be right and appropriate.
Who would really oppose such action? Does anyone think Colombia wants a socialist dystopia right next door? What's Spanish for 'Hunger Games'? Markey Mark?
I know, Brazil's Bolsonaro. He loves socialism.
In the mean time, speaking of South American intervention:
