Versión Español
The American Left is repeatedly pushing a fantasy about Venezuela that is completely removed from reality. In this fairy tale reality, Venezuela is a deeply divided society, and the best thing for everyone would be sit down and work out their differences at a “roundtable discussion.” Never mind that the “international community” has been suggesting this for years with nothing to show for it. Venezuela has only plunged further into economic collapse, totalitarian governance, and social unrest.
Unlike the so-called “activists” at the supposedly “anti-war” group Code Pink, I know dozens of Venezuelans, and have talked to hundreds of Venezuelans. Whether they are living inside or outside of the country, one thing is clear: Maduro has absolutely no popular support. The couple hundred people at his “rallies” are in fact government employees who are forced to show up there, or they lose their jobs. This has been a frequent tactic of the Chavistas for twenty years: support us or you’ll be reduced to poverty.
Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin has an interesting and checkered past, which involves support for a wide variety of Communist and socialists dictatorships. From 1979 to 1983, she lived in Cuba, where she worked at a Communist newspaper. Interestingly, she was deported by the Castro regime after she wrote an article detailing censorship on the island, which she had originally described as “heaven.”
Strangely, despite experiencing the repression of a Communist regime firsthand, her perspective did not change. She continues to champion regimes such as Maduro’s Venezuela. (Of course, we have not yet even mentioned that if Ms. Medea were a Cuba as opposed to an American, she would face a far worse fate in Cuba than mere deportation).
Now Benjamin is the public face of a campaign by Code Pink to camp out at the abandoned Venezuelan embassy, allegedly at the invitation of Nicolas Maduro himself. In response, hundreds of Venezuelans have turned out to support the Guaido government, and protest the repression of Nicolas Maduro.
While Benjamin and friends once had around 50 supporters living on the premises, those numbers have now been reduced to around 15, as various media outlets have reported.
Yesterday, the utility company, Pepco, cut the power to the building, prompting cheers from the throngs of Venezuelans gathered around the building.
We will wait to see how long Code Pink activists can endure their stay with no electricity; but it may serve as a teachable moment for them. How much would they like being without power or running water or food or schools or medical care on a regular basis?
The regime that was supposed to champion the “common man” and “provide for their basic needs” has now ensured that most Venezuelans do not have regular access to any of these goods and services.
It is time to expel the illegal occupiers of the Venezuelan embassy by force. They are criminally trespassing on property owned by the legitimate interim president of Venezuela. It is high time that Guaido’s government puts an end to this farce, and takes control of the embassy.
Who are Code Pink and their band of “activists”? Really they are spoiled and pampered brats with USD $250,000 degrees in sociology and philosophy paid for by Mommy and Daddy’s trust fund. They have never wanted for anything in their life, and have no conception of what it really is like to live under socialism.
Let’s send these Code Pink “activists” to Venezuela and see how much they enjoy living under a socialist dictatorship. Living without electricity at the embassy will be a good start.
The reality is that these Code Pink activists should be arrested for criminal trespass. This isn’t Venezuela, where Maduro and friends can conveniently just shoot political opposition and protesters. Code Pink will be given civil rights and due process. They likely won’t face any jail time. But they should face arrest and criminal prosecution, because they are breaking the law.
