Why the Americas are letting Venezuela self destruct

At the Turn of the 21st Century, Latin American Nations Made Commitments to Defend Democracy. Those Days Are Gone.

Author

Christopher Sabatini

Dr. Christopher Sabatini, is a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, and was formerly a lecturer in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. Chris is also on the advisory boards of Harvard University’s LASPAU, the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch's Americas Division, and of the Inter-American Foundation. He is also an HFX Fellow at the Halifax International Security Forum. He is a frequent contributor to policy journals and newspapers and appears in the media and on panels on issues related to Latin America and foreign policy. Chris has testified multiple times before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2015, Chris founded and directed a new research non-profit, Global Americas and edited its news and opinion website. From 2005 to 2014 Chris was senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and the founder and editor-in-chief of the hemispheric policy magazine Americas Quarterly (AQ). At the AS/COA, Dr. Sabatini chaired the organization’s rule of law and Cuba working groups. Prior to that, he was director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy, and a diplomacy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working at the US Agency for International Development’s Center for Democracy and Governance. He provides regular interviews for major media outlets, and has a PhD in Government from the University of Virginia.

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Elected leaders across the hemisphere gathered to condemn and possibly sanction a neighboring president who closed down independent media and harassed political opponents.

Venezuela? If only. That was Peru in 2000.

The actions of Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori back then pale in comparison to the recent steps taken by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Partisan distribution of resources to local governments? Seizure of independent media critical of the government? The packing of the judicial system and the electoral commission with political supporters? In Venezuela those are so yesterday. All those things occurred in Venezuela under (President for Life, naturally) Hugo Chávez, with barely a peep from a regional community that once committed itself to the defense of representative democracy.

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