Venezuela continues its descent into Zimbabwe levels of dysfunction:
VENEZUELANS DESPAIR at the lack of international interest in the political crisis that is rocking their country. Since anti-government protests began early last month, at least 34 people have been killed, most of them opposition supporters gunned down by security forces or government-backed gangs. Some 1,600 people have been arrested, and many say they were beaten or tortured. One of the opposition’s top leaders has been jailed for more than a month.
Yet when another senior opposition figure, National Assembly member María Corina Machado, attempted to address an Organization of American States meeting in Washington on March 21, the OAS permanent council first voted to close the meeting to the media, then to prohibit her report. The shameful stifling — which was entirely at odds with the organization’s Democratic Charter — was enabled by some 15 Caribbean countries that depend on heavily subsidized Venezuelan oil, but it was also supported by regional powerhouse Brazil.
Vice President Biden should host Ms. Machado to allow her to deliver her report to the assembled media here in Washington, D.C.
