Alvaro Piaggio

Elections in Venezula have been set, according to Delcy as reported by @Bloomberg. July 24, 2027 as Senator @BernieMoreno said? July 24 is Simón Bolivar’s birthday— he’s the LIBERTADOR of Venezuela, Colombia, Panamá, Ecuador (The Great Colombia), Peru, and Bolivia. We must rescue Bolivar’s legacy as liberator that Chavez and Maduro, and their uninformed international supporters, to put it politely, (who have suffered not enough reputational consequences and should have known better then or during or now: see @MarkWeisbrot @evagolinger @NoamChomsky_es @SeanPenn @mrdannyglover; follow and watch @jimepstein @iamGermania’s @reason documentary and @ThorHalvorssen for more info about why and how they’re uninformed and if they’ve ever recanted—will they do so now and support free and fair elections?) USED for their own mistaken, incompetent, and criminal “liberation” processes that: 1) destroyed the erstwhile and arguably most prosperous Spanish-speaking Latin American country, 2) eliminated a functioning tottering democracy with legacies such as Betancourt who was the first president to break with both tyrants Trujillo (right) and Castro (left), 3) created the largest migration crisis in the world, worse than Syria at its height (see @danybahar), 4) imprisoned and tortured judges like @mariafiuni and destroyed the fragile independent judiciary, as well as destroying the independent media see @marcelgranier and RCTV, 5) created some of the worst inflationary forces in recorded history in part because they thought that people who said that printing money would create inflation were Yankee neoliberal imperialists and they needed to test it out themselves see @ricardo_hausman , 6) eliminated property rights and free trade; 7) imprisoned and tortured the partners and prophets of tomorrow : @leopoldolopez @jesusarmasccs @Urruchurtu @Vic_navarroL @RDiamanti and persecuted @MariaCorinaYA and so many more; 8) gave people expired food and became obscenely and criminally corruptly wealthy in the process see @AlexNSaab and @robertodeniz amazing PBS’s documentary. 8) and kidnapped and held American citizens hostage for ransom as well and many other foreigners.

As @WSJForero — an astute observer and reporter of Latin and South America —, points out, Cuba’s dictator @DiazCanelB is congratulating @LulaOficial on his reelection in Brazil. The irony is extraordinary. Cuba has not held a free, competitive presidential election since 1948, as Juan says. Díaz-Canel is celebrating the choice of Brazilians while denying Cubans that very same right. What better moment for Lula to call on Cuba’s dictator to hold free and fair elections, allow genuine political opposition, and release political prisoners? Of course, given Lula’s long history of warm embraces and friendly relationships with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Daniel Ortega, I wouldn’t hold my breath. The photographs speak for themselves. But here’s a principle that should transcend ideology: “Democracy cannot be a privilege we celebrate for ourselves and our friends while denying it to others.” Or: “Democracy cannot be a privilege we celebrate for others but not for ourselves.” If democracy is worth celebrating in Brazil, it is worth defending it and demanding it (and wrenching it from the dictators’s grip) in Cuba. Will you speak up, @LulaOficial? Will you call on @DiazCanelB to let the Cuban people freely choose their own leaders? 📸 Photo credits: Lula and Fidel Castro, Havana, September 26, 2003. Photo: Antônio Milena / Agência Brasil. Lula and Hugo Chávez, June 27, 2008. Photo: Marcello Casal Jr. / Agência Brasil. Lula and Daniel Ortega, Brasília, July 28, 2010. Photo: Roosewelt Pinheiro / Agência Brasil. Source and agency: @agenciabrasil