On VOA, professor urges Brazil to isolate Venezuela regime

The consolidating Bolivarian dictatorship is destroying the Venezuelan economy and threatening to destabilize South America and the Caribbean. Professor J. Michael Waller said that the government of Brazil should lead a regional offensive to isolate the Venezuelan regime.

In the Spanish-language programs on VOA radio and VOA-TV on June 21 and 23, 2005, Waller called on Brazil, as Venezuela's largest and most influential immediate neighbor, to lead a regional political offensive against the violent and repressive regime in Caracas.

"The government of President Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil represents a generally responsible and nonviolent democratic Left, something that the Chavez model threatens with its subversion and armed militance," Waller said.

"If the Left in Latin America wants to keep its hard-fought credibility as a responsible segment of the international community, it must remain committed to the peaceful and democratic road, and not revert to the foreign-sponsored violence and subversion of old. So Brazil should take the lead against Chavez."