The news from Venezuela is not encouraging. Last Friday, CNN reports, President Nicolas Maduro declared a state of emergency in order “to tend to our country and more importantly to prepare to denounce, neutralize and overcome the external and foreign aggressions against our country.”
In truth, Maduro is trying to intimidate and silence the growing domestic opposition to his rule, which saw inflation balloon, shops empty and, according to The New York Times, hospitals fill with dying infants.



Like my Cato colleague David Boaz, I am a bit peeved when American leftists refer to people like Nicolas Maduro and Raul Castro of Cuba as “Presidents,” while referring to people like Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay and Augusto Pinochet of Chile as “Dictators.” None of them were elected in free and fair elections, and they ought to be treated equally.