Obama - Kerry Foreign Policy Legacy: Chickens coming home to roost in Venezuela

The downward spiral continues in Venezuela

Dictator Maduro with his puppet court in Venezuela

  Venezuela has been a dictatorship for sometime under the Maduro regime and the Venezuelan judiciary has not been an independent body for years meaning that the rule of law has long been absent.

Therefore the decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court to strip the powers of the Venezuelan National Assembly and repeal the immunity of its members while further expanding the powers of the executive should come as no surprise. Venezuelan democrats have been under fire for years. Many, like Leopoldo Lopez, have been unjustly imprisoned.

 Nor is the continuing downward spiral into greater misery for Venezuelans a surprise because it is the natural outcome of "21st Century Socialism" which bears a striking resemblance to 20th Century Communism.

Dictator Nicolas Maduro and Secretary of State John Kerry

We are witnessing in the tragic developments in Venezuela the fruits of Secretary of State John Kerry's diplomatic strategy in that South American country.  It was Secretary Kerry who said on August 20, 2015 that "the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis." This implied that the U.S. was on board with Maduro continuing in power in Venezuela while trying to find ways to stabilize the country.

Embracing Chavez in 2009 and Castro in 2014 did not help Demoracy in Venezuela

President Obama early on in his presidency began his outreach to the Venezuelan regime of Hugo Chavez and the Cuban regime of the Castro brothers.

Hopefully this approach will change with the new administration in the White House and there is reason for hope as democracies in the Americas have finally spoken up to express their alarm with the course of action take by the Maduro regime. Let us pray that this will not be another case of too little, too late.