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Jamaica and the United States share a deep democratic tradition. I have been fortunate to serve during an election here in Jamaica and to have seen that democratic tradition in action.

After a hard-fought campaign, there was a gracious and peaceful transfer of power, Jamaica's sixth since Independence. Our common democratic heritage has helped to bind our two countries and solidify our partnership since Jamaica's Independence in 1962.

It is our collective responsibility as democratic nations to defend human rights and democracy in Venezuela. In 2001, we adopted the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which affirmed the right of every citizen across the hemisphere to democracy and obligated our governments to defend that right.

Unfortunately, in Venezuela today, the Maduro government has relentlessly and intentionally undermined other constitutional branches of government from the inside. Since opposition parties won a majority of seats in 2015, Venezuela's National Assembly has been systematically stifled by the Maduro government. The Maduro regime's increasing inability to govern the country has led to tremendous human suffering in Venezuela, caused by shortages of food, medicine, and an abysmal economy.

When a government does not respect democratic principles, we are called to join in solidarity with its people. Not through intervention or interference, but with proactive, engaged diplomacy and mediation among all parties to help find a peaceful, democratic, and comprehensive solution.

The upcoming General Assembly of the Organization of American States will provide us a forum to discuss the situation in Venezuela. Historically, the OAS has responded effectively to military coups that have usurped democratically elected governments. Today, we are witness to a crisis of democracy and human suffering in Caracas.

Citing vague, unproven claims of electoral fraud, allegedly committed by three legislators, the government has denied the legislative branch the right to pass laws and the pro-Maduro judiciary has declared Venezuela's Congress "in contempt", stripping it of all legislative authority.

Imagine if a prime minister of Jamaica declared that he or she held sole lawmaking and executive authority? I fully expect that the Jamaican people, across party lines, would join in full-throated protest and use all constitutional means to restore democratic norms, just as the Venezuelan people are now doing.

Today in Venezuela, President Maduro is squelching an attempt to put his leadership to a vote through a recall referendum. In contrast, the late President Chavez vigorously defended Venezuelan people's right to referenda, in order to hold to governments accountable for their actions.

Both Jamaica and the United States have a long and honoured tradition of an apolitical military. Indeed, the Jamaica Defence Force and the US armed forces are among the most respected and trusted institutions in our respective countries. Yet Maduro is attacking the principle of an apolitical military. He relies increasingly on the Venezuelan military to control the economy, intimidate opponents, and suppress popular discontent.

Distressingly, more than 331 Venezuelan civilians are being held and prosecuted by military courts in secret trials. Venezuela's own attorney general, appointed by Chavez in 2007, has condemned the trials and the military has refused her access to the prisoners.

Faced with a crumbling economy and massive popular dissatisfaction, the Maduro administration has called for the abandonment of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution. If his attempt succeeds, it would eliminate the current popularly elected National Assembly, the attorney general, and other existing institutions.

I call on the citizens of Jamaica to ask yourselves: If this were happening here, what would you want your democratic friends and neighbours to do? I know from my two and a half years of listening to Jamaica's vigorous democratic debates on radio and reading them spill across the pages of The Gleaner that you would expect, even demand, that our American family of nations speak out, and reach out, to help restore fundamental democratic freedoms.

We are grateful for Jamaica's help in the Organization of American States in supporting the return to democratic norms in Caracas. Jamaica, as a long-time friend of Venezuela and the Venezuelan people, plays a unique role in this process by fostering constructive dialogue in Caracas and across the region. We look forward to working with Jamaica in supporting a return to democratic norms in Caracas as we stand by the Venezuelan people's effort to reclaim their democracy.

- Luis Moreno is US ambassador to Jamaica. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

Link:
Luis Moreno | Defending democracy with diplomacy in Venezuela - Jamaica Gleaner

Forbes

Greece's Long Love Affair With Soviet-Maoist Communism Forbes Greece's biggest problem isn't a heavy debt burden. It's the love affair of its citizens with Soviet-Maoist communism, a system that wastes the country's resources and talent, killing sensible economic growth initiatives. Greece never became a ...

The rest is here:
Greece's Long Love Affair With Soviet-Maoist Communism - Forbes

President Trump announced his decision on Friday to partially reverse the previous administration's Cuba policies during in speech in Miami. "It's hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration's terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime," Trump said.

The president seized the opportunity to issue a forceful and vivid rebuke of the island nation's communist regime. "Many of you witnessed terrible crimes committed in service of a depraved ideology. You saw the dreams of a generation held captive. And, just literally, you look at what happened and what communism has done," Trump told the crowd of cheering Cuban Americans gathered in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

"You knew faces that disappeared, innocents locked in prisons, and believers persecuted for preaching the word of God. You watched the women in white, bruised, bloodied and captured on their way from mass. You have heard the chilling cries of loved ones or the crack so for firing squads piercing through the ocean breeze," he said. "Not a good sound."

Trump continued, drawing on the plight of the Cubans to speak more broadly about the dangers of communism as a model of government. "The exiles and dissidents here today have witnessed communism destroy a nation," the president observed, "just as communism has destroyed every single nation where it has ever been tried."

"But we will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer," Trump promised the crowd.

By contrast, former President Barack Obama did not use any form of the word "communism" in his May 2016 speech in Havana, choosing instead to speak of the country's "one-party system," "socialist economic model," and emphasis on "the role and rights of the state."

Emily Jashinskyis a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Link:
Trump's forceful condemnation of Cuban communism - Washington Examiner

Andrea Seastrand forgets to mention Russia's communism antics The San Luis Obispo Tribune After reading Ms. Seastrands viewpoint excoriating Rep. Rob Bonta's bill about allowing communists to work in state government (California's liberal Legislature voted for communism), I had a few questions for her. She listed many current regimes that ...

Continue reading here:
Andrea Seastrand forgets to mention Russia's communism antics - The San Luis Obispo Tribune

Joseph Morris

President at Lincoln Legal Foundation

Born and reared in Gary, Indiana, Joseph Morris earned his A.B. and J.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. He held several positions in the Reagan administration, and heads the Lincoln Legal Foundation individual liberties, limited, constitutional government. He is also on the board of advisers of the conservative Federalist Society, and is a former managing editor of The American Spectator. Over the years, he has held leadership positions in the Republican Party, including president of the United Republican Fund Illinois.

I put nailed in the headline of this post and, as you will see, I was being both accurate andrisqu. Bear with me.

In my opinion, Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal is the best theater critic in the business today.

On Friday he revisited a play, 4000 Miles by playwright Amy Herzog, that he has reviewed before in prior productions. Its now on the stage in Hartford, Connecticut, and he looks at it afresh.

Mr. Teachout praises everything about the play, from the text itself to the staging and the acting. He points out that the play has an overt, but subtle, anti-communist theme. Overtly, but subtly, is often the best way in which art can instruct us, and those who would join the Gramscian battle against socialists and statists for control of the high ground of culture and the academy should take note.

Of course, overt and subtle can be elastic terms, which you will understand upon reading the review and learning that a major characters denunciation of communism is delivered with an epithet and an analogy to non-consensual anal sex.

We live in times in which the overt and the subtle are not prized as much as they ought to be, but we must do the best, as Ms. Herzog seems to have done, as we can.

[Trigger warning (in the spirit of the age) about Mr. Teachouts review: He quotes the epithet, the f-word, which he defuses with the customary three stars.]

Teachout Reviews a Play in Which Communism Is Nailed as the Ignoble Flaw was last modified: June 16th, 2017 by Joseph Morris

See original here:
Teachout Reviews a Play in Which Communism Is Nailed as the Ignoble Flaw - Somewhat Reasonable - Heartland Institute (blog)