While Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is drawing well-deserved international attention, there is another phenomenon that should ring alarm bells everywhere: the proliferation of what many in Washington see as “tolerable dictatorships.”
That’s the first thing that crossed my mind recently when Organization of American States Secretary (OAS) General Luis Almagro endorsed Bolivian President Evo Morales’ unconstitutional bid for a fourth term in office and when the Trump administration failed to condemn Morales’ re-election move.
Bolivia has become a “tolerable dictatorship,” a country whose president breaks the rule of law, but is not condemned by the world’s democracies.
That’s exactly what Venezuela and Nicaragua were until massive bloodshed on the streets forced the United States and other countries to pay attention. Before that happened, the two countries’ rulers were able to carry out slow-motion coups, gradually dismantling their countries’ institutions until they had absolute powers, while the rest of the world looked the other way.