Venezuela's crumbling alliances

For a long time, and more or less without getting involved , the international community watched as the Venezuelan government nationalized the media, filled just about every key government position with party members, imprisoned hopeful opposition politicians or excluded them from elections by coming up with dubious accusations over the past 15 years. Only the US exerted any kind of concrete pressure, for the most part in the form of travel restrictions for Venezuelan politicians. But Latin American governments and supranational organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union are slowly waking up, says Juan Carlos Hidalgo, a Latin America analyst at the Washington-based Cato Institute. "Increased repression in Venezuela has prompted harsher international criticism," the expert says.  More…