On dictator Nicolás Maduro’s abrupt leave-taking from Venezuela, Daniel Johnson observes in The Telegraph, “The same raddled radicals who half a century ago cut their teeth worshipping at the shrines of Castro and Mao, who spent their youth marching for Chile and Nicaragua, who rallied behind Saddam’s Iraq and still champion Hamas in Gaza, are now recycling their anti-American agitprop on behalf of a tin pot tyrant who even by Latin American standards is entirely unlamented.”
One of the American rattled radicals who spent his youth
worshiping at the shrine of the Ortega brothers in Nicaragua was present
Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders, who spent his honeymoon, such as it was, in
the Soviet Union, a collection of formerly free and independent states hauled
by force into the Soviet Union by Stalin – no democrat he. Stalin was, even as
Nikita Khrushchev knew, a true believer in the politics of the terror, the
bullet and the gulag. The same may be said – and has been said of Maduro and
his predecessor Hugo Chávez -- by frustrated democrats both inside and outside
of Venezuela.
It is remarkable how predictable the left, both in Europe
and the United States, has become. Predictability is usually the sign and
signature of ideological rigidity.
Johnson, a conservative British columnist, writes, “The love
affair between Venezuelan dictators and the British Left goes back at least two
decades. As Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone struck up an unrequited dalliance
with Hugo Chavez, the former colonel who, after a failed military coup, had
been elected Venezuelan president… The British Left is notoriously
incorrigible. Once espoused, no cause is ever deemed too unworthy or
embarrassing. They condemned US precision strikes against the Iranian nuclear
programme [sic], but remain silent in the face of mass protests against the
regime – one of the bloodiest on earth… Those with impeccable credentials in
the never-ending war against Anglo-American imperialism are somehow able to
turn a blind eye to the role of Xi Jinping and his sinister Belt and Road
policy – as blatant an example of neocolonialism as anyone could conceive.
China’s strategic acquisitions across Latin America – like those in Africa,
Asia and Europe – have been a source of concern in Washington under both
Democratic and Republican administrations.”
Johnson characterizes President Donald Trump’s
justifications for his intervention in Venezuela as “specious.” However, “he
may well prove to have done the right thing for the wrong reasons. Though he
dismisses the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, this heroic
woman may yet emerge as head of state.” It may be noted in passing that the condemnations
of Maduro by the all-Democrat Connecticut U.S. Congressional Delegation are far
less robust than those of Machado or Venezuela democrats among the general
population who won the most recent presidential election by a massive majority.
Maduro and newly elected mayor of New York City Zhoran
Mamdani have some things in common. Both are socialists. Historically,
socialism has been but the first step toward what the No King’s movement would
regard as an unacceptable authoritarian regime. The Maduro regime in Venezuela
– once among the most prosperous Latin American countries -- managed within the
short period of two socialist heads of state to bankrupt Venezuela and change
the country into a terrorist state.
Ironies abound. During his socialist campaign for the
governorship of the Big Apple, Mamdani vowed he would arrest Israeli Premier
Benjamin Netanyahu should he be so bold as to set foot in New York City.
Now this: Fellow socialist Maduro has been scooped up by
Delta Force and deposited in a jail in Brooklyn, New York. Maduro is facing terrorism and drug
running charges in a case that began in 2020. The full indictment, very precise
and detailed, may be found here. It seems clear that Mamdani either has studiously avoided
the telling details included in the indictment, or perhaps a less than
attentive reading of the indictment has convinced Mamdani that a guilty verdict
at trial would be highly appealable. The entire country is awash in defense
lawyers and apologetic news reporters and commentators. In any case, socialist Mamdani feels no
hesitation in coming to the aid of fellow socialist Maduro. Comradery of this
kind is to be expected of fellow socialists.
The Democratic Socialists of America
(DSA), partly responsible for Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign, already
has unleased an entirely predictable manifesto: “[The Trump] Administration has
started an illegal war against Venezuela. This is a nakedly imperialist war to
install a US puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to
US corporations and to force US hegemony over Latin America — the new ‘Trump
Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine. This war is illegal both under international
law and the laws governing the declaration of war within the United
States."
In a September 2025 manifesto of his own, Mamdani declared,
“Many of the new arrivals have been displaced as a result of destabilizing
economic policies by the United States’ ruling class: from the climate crisis
caused by multinational corporations to direct foreign interventions against
nations like Venezuela, Cuba, and Guatemala.”
The September 18 statement was also signed by US Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 20 other politicians from across the [New York],
according to a New York Post report. We are to
understand that the decades old exodus of Venezuelans, about 7 million, was not
caused by repressive and punishing socialist policies inaugurated by Hugo
Chávez and Maduro. No, no – all the havoc in Venezuela was caused by a
reactionary US policy that now seeks to imprison Maduro in a Brooklyn jail on
charges that should be upheld by any jury in the United States – even one empaneled
in Mamdani’s New York City.
Comments