J.D. Tuccille: Why Flounder Over Ukraine When We Can Be Frustrated by Venezuela?

Tensions escalate as a soldier is fatally shot in
the head during a clash with protesters. Government forces seize a
hotly contested public square long occupied by demonstrators, only
to see opponents of the regime return in reconstituted form. The
country’s economy teeters on the edge of collapse under the weight
of deep corruption and profoundly intrusive state policies. And the
nation’s posturing, yet elected, leader points to a powerful
foreign government as the source of his regime’s problems of
legitimacy and basic competence.

Welcome to…Ukraine? No, this is closer to home: Venezuela
under the rule of President Nicolas Maduro, a leader every bit as
thuggish as his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, but with even less charm.
With Venezuela in our own hemisphere, asks J.D. Tuccille, why
venture to the fringes of Europe to find a heartbreakingly divided
and failing nation that defies easy solutions by Americans?

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