Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, was interviewed for Background Briefing with Ian Masters, where he discussed the Trump administration’s foreign policy towards Venezuela during this crisis and how their militarist thinking is not the best course of action.
On July 28, Ambassador Tom Shannon, former under secretary of state for political affairs, participated in a virtual briefing organized by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) to discuss a new report by SFRC Democratic Staff. The report is titled Diplomacy in Crisis: The Trump Administration’s Decimation of the State Department.
China has become an essential, reliable partner for Latin American nations, while the United States, under the Trump Adminstration, has alienated itself away from longtime regional partners.
The United States must now reassess its approach. Washington shouldn’t give up its sustained focus on the crisis or its stated objective of restoring democracy and constitutional order, but it does have to accept the facts on the ground and recognize that maximalist demands are unhelpful.
While the crisis in Venezuela is primarily humanitarian in nature, international involvement has escalated to the point where a discussion of the geopolitics surrounding the issue is both appropriate and timely. To that end, the Inter-American Dialogue co-hosted a discussion on May 21 titled “Is the Venezuela Crisis Becoming a Proxy Conflict?” with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Venezuela’s stalemate will not last forever, but an immediate and easy return to democracy is highly unlikely. The quicker the opposition and its international supporters adapt their strategies to this hard reality, the sooner the country can begin to find a way out of this unprecedented crisis.
While the Trump administration’s “America first” policies are aimed primarily at giving higher priority to national security and economic growth for the United States, the White House’s approach will have impacts on energy relations with the rest of the hemisphere that should also be considered.
Michael Shifter, presidente del Diálogo Interamericano, ofreció una entrevista al programa La Tarde de NTN24 en la que conversó sobre la actual situación en Venezuela.
Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, was interviewed by CNN International on the anti-Maduro protests taking place in Venezuela as well as the role of Cuba in the Maduro regime.
Michael Shifter spoke with Laura Trevelyan on BBC World News to analyze the future of Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan military as as the pressure coming from the Trump administration.
On April 25, Julia Yansura spoke at an event hosted by the Inter-American Dialogue, the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Washington Office on Latin America where she discussed the migratory crisis in Venezuela.