More than Lip-service on Venezuela

Violent repression in Venezuela intruded on President Obama’s meetings with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts yesterday. It prompted him to call for dialogue and the release of political prisoners by the corrupt and repressive regime led by Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, Nicholas Maduro.

Unfortunately, such presidential attention will probably prove as fleeting as it is inadequate to the present crisis in Venezuela. Still, it marks a departure from Team Obama’s practice of, at best, ignoring and, at worst, enabling the threat posed by the dictators of Venezuela.

Thanks in part to such U.S. behavior, that threat has metastasized, including take-overs of friendly governments by forces hostile to us, often with ties to narco-traffickers, Iran and China.

We must recognize these dangers and make an enduring priority of countering them.