José R. Cárdenas

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Russia’s annexation of Crimea is an egregious violation of international norms that demands a concerted international reaction. However, as foreign policy pundits settle into their Eurocentric comfort zone, Washington must not neglect its important strategic interests elsewhere in an increasingly interconnected world.

Consider Venezuela. A country of vast oil wealth, with historically deep ties to the United States, and strategically located astride major drug smuggling routes to the United States, Venezuela been roiled by 30 days of spreading street protests that have been met by government repression. Yet it appears only a small group in Congress is interested in an effective U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Just shy of one year since the death of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, the movement he created is floundering. In recent days, massive demonstrations have rocked the government of Chavez’s hapless successor Nicolas Maduro.

What began as student protests against rampant street crime has morphed into widespread mobilizations against the shortages of basic goods, out-of-control inflation, electricity blackouts, political polarization and, finally, the systematic elimination of political space to voice dissent.

While there is no question that he was bequeathed a dysfunctional economy and political system, Mr. Maduro, unlike Chavez, lacks the deft political skills to defuse crises before they became critical.…  Seguir leyendo »

Voters in El Salvador will go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president from two decidedly opposite ends of the political spectrum. Former guerrilla and current Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, of the hard-line wing of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), is facing off against San Salvador Mayor Norman Quijano of the pro-U.S. opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party.

As if the stakes were not high enough already — for the Salvadoran people and for U.S. interests in the region — the election is being complicated by the unhelpful role of a third-party candidate, Antonio Saca, the former president of the country who served under the ARENA banner from 2004 to 2009.…  Seguir leyendo »

When the world last heard from Honduras in 2009, the country had sparked a regional crisis after deposing its president, Manuel Zelaya, for his repeated illegal attempts to rewrite the Honduran Constitution as his amigo, the now-deceased autocrat Hugo Chavez, had done in Venezuela. Despite the fact that the Law Library of the U.S. Congress later found the process to be constitutional, the Obama administration joined Chavez and other radical regimes in branding Mr. Zelaya’s removal a “military coup” and unleashed punitive sanctions on one of the region’s poorest countries.

Honduras survived that assault, but not before enduring such affronts to its sovereignty as Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

The shocking, razor-thin result in Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela demonstrates that the future of the late President Hugo Chavez’s movement is anything but certain and that the country could be heading into another period of political crises not seen since 2002, when Chavez was briefly ousted from power.

The larger-than-life Chavez, who died of cancer last month, had anointed Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his successor, and the conventional wisdom was that the sympathy vote, massive social spending, and lopsided electoral playing field would guarantee an easy victory for Chavismo.

It was not to be. Challenger Henrique Capriles, who lost the last election to Chavez by 11 percentage points, nearly pulled off an epic upset before falling just short with 49.1 percent of the vote to Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

Venezuelans go to the polls this Sunday in what is shaping up to be the strongest challenge yet to the 14-year reign of President Hugo Chavez. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, a former governor, has exceeded all expectations by running an energetic, focused campaign and has remained undaunted against Mr. Chavez’s overwhelming advantages and dirty tricks to make it a close race to the finish.

As Mr. Capriles’ candidacy has surged, though, so too have concerns that an ailing Mr. Chavez may turn to violence if he sees his political fortunes going south on election day.

Mr. Chavez himself began stoking those fears in public speeches by referring to “civil war” if he loses the election.…  Seguir leyendo »

With the Cuban government under increasing pressure last week to explain the suspicious death of a prominent dissident, Raul Castro did what any cornered dictator would do: He tried to change the subject. He grabbed his dog whistle and sent the media hordes scampering off in a new direction by announcing he is willing to sit down for talks with the United States.

It’s not that he hasn’t said it before, but he knows what buttons to push when the time is right. A story that places the United States on the defensive is just too irresistible for the international media, and they reacted predictably, pushing aside the more important story of whether the regime murdered Oswaldo Paya, winner of the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for his effort to organize a plebiscite on Cuba’s lack of freedoms.…  Seguir leyendo »

Supporters of President Obama scrambled last week to defend his startling comments that Venezuelan firebrand Hugo Chavez poses no threat to U.S. national security. In the face of fierce criticism from Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign responded, “People like Hugo Chavez want attention — and that’s exactly what Mitt Romney and his supporters gave him today. Gov. Romney is only playing into the hands of Chavez by acting like he’s 10 feet tall.”

Another supporter told the Miami Herald, “Hugo Chavez is not going to attack us, he’s not going to occupy our embassy, he’s not going to bomb U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

The recent crash-landing in Ecuador of a light aircraft with $1 million in cash tied to Mexican drug cartels highlights once again the high price some Latin American populations are paying for their governments’ lackluster counternarcotics cooperation with the United States.

In recent years, radical populist leaders in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have rallied around the notion that such cooperation constitutes an affront to their country’s sovereignty and, in high dudgeon, have either expelled U.S. counternarcotics officials or relegated the issue to the proverbial back burner.

In doing so, they have invited even more corruption, violence and social degradation into their societies for the spurious sake of burnishing their anti-American credentials.…  Seguir leyendo »

With Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returning to Cuba this week for more treatment in his battle with cancer, much speculation has begun about the future of his authoritarian, anti-American populist model in Latin America. Will his movement die with him, or will someone be there to pick up the banner when the strongman falls?

Well, if there is anyone who has been auditioning for the job of new standard-bearer, it is Ecuador’s Rafael Correa. Although he hasn’t generated the same international attention as the Venezuelan caudillo, it hasn’t been for lack of trying.

Mr. Correa may not have Mr. Chavez’s vast oil wealth (although oil-producing Ecuador is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) but he has enough.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Justice Department’s recent announcement that an Iranian agent attempted to recruit a Mexican drug gang to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States presents an opportunity for the Obama administration finally to draw the line on Iran’s growing presence in the Western Hemisphere.

As we establish in a paper we co-authored recently for the American Enterprise Institute, “TheMountingHezbollahThreatinLatinAmerica,” over the past several years, Iran, with its Hezbollah proxy in tow, has made a major push into the Western Hemisphere to gain access to strategic resources and establish a new platform from which to wage its war against the United States.…  Seguir leyendo »