Venezuela's decent into chaos as socialism reaches its logical end point could threaten the success of Colombia after a long fight against communist and drug gang insurgents.
This article was just going to be part of a data dump, but this part is so important that I want to highlight it:
In 1821, Gen. Francisco de Paula Santander told a congress full of statesmen, “Guns will give you your independence, but laws will help you keep it.” Santander was addressing representatives of Gran Colombia, the political state that once covered most of northern South America, including what is today Colombia and Venezuela.
That is an excellent quote for what I've droned on about forever on this blog when discussing Iraq. Even before the surge offensive I called for help in governance and the judiciary to build rule of law in Iraq. It is why I was heartbroken we left in 2011, why I kept urging us to get back in before things went wrong, and continue to call for a continuing American military presence to support a broader effort to build rule of law in Iraq.
The "criminalization" of Venezuela's state institutions and mass migration to Colombia could threaten the government of Colombia's efforts to make ballots and not bombs the means of settling disputes in Colombia, before the long civil war can even be put safely in the rear view mirror.
Colombia should not face this problem alone. But American help is problematic given the touchy nature of even a justified humanitarian intervention. Besides, we have bigger military problems to prepare for without extending our portfolio to SOUTHCOM.
It would be nice if Brazil could lead a regional effort to deal with Venezuela to provide humanitarian support to prevent the outflow of people from Venezuela from destabilizing Colombia and other states; and ultimately to put an end to the Maduro regime which is a danger to the entire region.
