Let's just focus on the not-legitimately-elected ones. Venezuela was a functioning democracy until Maduro took control through force and fraud. Shed not one tear for him.
I won't. That still doesn't mean this is over by a long shot. My bet is on the oil with a side dish of Epstein distraction. At least the latter seems to have worked. Wouldn't it be too bad if Venezuela actually gets to decide who they want to deal with regarding their oil and they pick France, the UK or China...
Jack Smith also made the clear case to Congress last week that he has the evidence that Trump did try to overthrow the 2020 election and inspired the January 6th insurrection, so he should not have been eligible to run in 2024. He should have been in prison.
To be fair, the English names for all other places named after Cristoforo Colombo use the English spelling for Christopher Columbus. It might be difficult to remember the (locally-less common) exception.
And our primitive spell checkers often cannot deduce from context, as there are many, perhaps most cases, where Columbia is the most-likely correct rendition. Even if we transcend our own difficulties, Siri might defeat us.
You are correct that the correct English spelling for Colombia is Colombia, and surely it is problematic to localize a foreign country's name.
So please reciprocally acknowledge receipt of our formal request for Colombians to stop calling the USA "EE. UU.", "Estados Unidos de América", and all other such indignities. :)
Plus, the stalemate on Taiwan right now is US strategic ambiguity. Maybe Trump “visiting” China to offer his strategic brilliance during their expansion will finally get him a bigger peace prize.
It’s also worth noting that, according to Trump’s former Russia advisor, Fiona Hill, Russia once pushed for a “swap” in which it would abandon its support for Venezuela in exchange for the U.S. abandoning its support for Ukraine.
> I haven't seen a convincing argument about why it would have been better if he remained in power.
You're way off base here. No one is arguing that he should be in power. It's the way it was done. You're also ignoring a very important question: now what?
Sorry, but the last year has not inspired confidence that this administration knows what it's doing.
Very deep observation.
Maduro had to be removed, this is a win for Venezuela. On one side he's a criminal, on the other side people at the country are cheering for this [1].
He didn't even win the most recent election. I'll write that again, he was not elected.
I haven't seen a convincing argument about why it would have been better if he remained in power.
1: https://x.com/SofyCasas_/status/2007455810884886992