First: I apologize for my stinking cold.
Second: Joel Rubin who was the legislative affairs liaison to the House for John Kerry, Secretary of State under Obama, John Kerry, really knows his Foreign Policy.
Earlier today he wrote a fabulous substack: a five-point guide for the Trump team to avoid screwing up the next chapter(s) in Venezuela. And that’s what we discuss in our live video chat. Essentially his message is this: the only way to create stability, is to let Venezuela - not us - be the primary beneficiary of its oil; We need to partner with the country’s leadership and law-enforcement to help stop drug-trafficking; we need to help restore democratic governance; we need to build partnerships in the entire region; and we need not to crow while doing any of this…our adversaries are watching.
So, a lot hangs on the shoulders of Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who drove the momentum for Nicolas Maduro’s capture and who is doing the talking with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez.
Given Rubio’s personal history, it’s unlikely he wants to topple an autocracy, just to replace it with another autocracy. But we’ve seen that his boss seems focused on getting the oil, not altering the country’s governance.
So, it looks as if Rubio is going to have manage up at home as well as with Venezuela’s leaders if he wants the toppling of Maduro to make the meaningful difference he surely hoped for. That’s going to be quite the juggling act.
Thank you Caro Henry, the real pambo, Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH, Cat Wilson RN, BLONDE LEGALLY 🙋🏼♀️🧩🔍⚖️✨, and many others for tuning into my live video with Joel Rubin! Join me for my next live video in the app.
