Maduro & Assad: The love-in continues

Posted on Sunday, 09.08.13

Maduro & Assad: The love-in continues
BY ANTONIO HERRERA-VAILLANT
AHERRERAVAILLANT@GMAIL.COM

Among the crop of dictators and tyrants that the late Venezuelan
president, Hugo Chávez, gathered around him was the leader of Syria,
Bashar Assad. Before he died, Chávez asked rhetorically, "How can I not
support Assad? He's the legitimate leader." Upon learning of Chávez's
passing, Assad mourned "a great loss to me personally and to the people
of Syria."

The relationship between Syria's barbaric regime and the chavistas
running Venezuela has survived the death of Chávez. While world opinion
has reacted with shock to Assad's use of chemical weapons against his
own people, for Nicolás Maduro, Chávez's handpicked successor, it's
business as usual.

In the months prior to the latest chemical weapons atrocity, which
claimed the lives of more than 1,400 people, including 400 children,
Maduro was already emphasizing his loyalty to Assad. Interviewed by the
French newspaper, Le Monde, this past May, Maduro was asked about his
refusal to condemn Assad's butchery. His reply dripped with contempt for
the sufferings of the Syrian people. The war in Syria, Maduro explained,
was the result of "foreign intervention" in the country.

Maduro then told his interviewer, as further justification for his
friendship with the Syrian leader, "We have a good economic agreement
with Bashar Assad." Just how good that relationship is for the Syrian
regime was revealed in June 2012, when, two days before Assad's troops
committed a horrifying massacre in the town of Houla, a Venezuelan
tanker, La Negra Hipolita, docked at the Syrian port of Banias carrying
300,000 barrels of Venezuelan diesel.

Since that time, Venezuela has continued to bolster the Syrian regime.
It has done so through further supplies of fuel, as well as enabling
Syria's closest international ally, Iran, to launder hundreds of
millions of dollars in Venezuelan banks. These money-laundering
privileges have also been extended to Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based
terrorist organization that is actively assisting Assad in crushing the
Syrian resistance.

Ever since Chávez came to power, the Venezuelan government has
increasingly aligned itself with extremist Middle Eastern tyrants, and
the government itself has been rife with pro-al Qaida and anti-Israel
fanatics, some of them recent immigrants from the Middle East. One
recent case in point is Adel-el-Zabayar, a well-known member of the
Venezuelan National Assembly born to Syrian parents, who last week took
a leave of absence to go to Syria to fight along with Assad government
troops. Maduro himself proudly made the announcement and displayed
el-Zabayar, bearing arms and in combat uniform, on government television.

When it comes to opposing western military intervention in Syria, Maduro
is certainly not alone. As demonstrated by the recent vote in the
British parliament ruling out the United Kingdom's participation in any
military operation, there's disquiet about intervention in established
democracies.

The difference, however, is this: Virtually none of the Western
politicians opposing intervention in Syria has also expressed hopes for
Assad's survival. But that is exactly what Maduro and his regime want.

For that reason, the upcoming vote in Congress over the length and scope
of a military operation against Assad will be closely watched not just
in Arab capitals, but in Caracas, too.

At stake is not just the future of Syria, but the principle of whether
and when democratic countries should intervene against dictators who
grievously abuse their own people. Maduro calculates that the more
authoritarian regimes there are in this world, the easier it is for his
regime to survive. Venezuela's allies include not just Syria, but the
tyrannies currently in control of Iran, Zimbabwe, Belarus, and most of
all, Cuba.

All these leaders will greet a losing vote for President Obama in
Congress as a welcome sign that the world's democratic nations will
permit them, when it comes to their own populations, to do exactly as
they like.

Conversely, a vote for intervention will send a message to Maduro that
American power and influence remains a force to be reckoned with. While
this outcome is likely to increase the volume of shrill anti-American
rhetoric from Maduro and his cohorts, in practical terms it will compel
them to think twice before they commit an outrage.

Antonio Herrera-Vaillant is editor of Venezuelan Daily Briefs, an
overview of Venezuela's economy, finance and politics, and a columnist
for Venezuelan newspapers.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/08/3610090/maduro-assad-the-love-in-continues.html