Do you believe that this approach of relying on Delcy Rodriguez, the now-president of Venezuela, to deliver some kind of environment in which the U.S. can go in, revitalize the oil industry, pull out that oil, do you think that can work and not relying on Maria Corina Machado and the opposition? When we contrast and look at the approach by the Biden administration to both of these countries, which was entirely hands-off and to look the other way at the degradation of the security environment and security capacities, pulling back -- particularly in the cases of Colombia and Mexico, pulling back operations against the cartels and guerrillas, all of this was done with the United States not putting any pressure on these governments, these leftist governments, and had destructive consequences for both countries. I think the region, what we're seeing increasingly, particularly with the slate of elections over the past several months, is that voters and this new group of leaders across Argentina, Chile, Colombia -- Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, they are calling for U.S. engagement and cooperation to confront these challenges, because, again, they are the people who have suffered in many ways most directly from that absence of U.S. engagement in confronting these threats, which has allowed them to metastasize to these terrible proportions that we're facing now.
Author: Nick Schifrin, Nana Adwoa Antwi-Boasiako
Published at: 2026-01-06 23:25:26
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