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Tuesday, March 12, 2019

US Diplomats Pull Out Of Venezuela

With the power outages continuing across Venezuela, the State Department announced that all US diplomatic personnel are being pulled out of that country.  America had only a small presence in the embassy in Caracas, but the departure is still striking.  It's a wise move.  The electrical grid has failed, and people across the country are starving as the little bit of food remaining has spoiled in the heat without refrigeration.  Water systems are working.  Medical emergencies are going untreated; for example, people on dialysis cannot get treatment and will die in a few more days.  Looting has broken out across the main cities.  And to top all of this, the Maduro dictatorship won't admit that lack of maintenance has caused the collapse but rather blames sabotage by the USA.  America may be a tempting target for pro-regime crazies as the world collapses in Venezuela.  It makes sense to get US diplomats out of that mess before there is total chaos.  There may be a revolt to topple Maduro, especially since Maduro is trying to use the chaos to take down as many of the opposition leaders as he can.

If this were happening in a different country, the media would be all over the story emphasizing the human tragedy of the disaster.  Venezuela is socialist, however, so the media is trying to give as little coverage as possible to the story.  They don't want to embarrass the socialist cause, especially since so many of them subscribe to it.  But there is a human dimension to this tragedy that politics should not coverup.  There are literally millions of people at risk of dying here.  This may sound alarmist, but just imagine how easily an epidemic of cholera could spread in Caracas as untreated water is distributed through that city.  It is unacceptable for the full picture of life in this socialist hell hole to be covered up. 

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