Mr. Trump or Shabby Dialogue

Trump’s proposed hypothetical dialogue in order to find a way out of the Venezuelan labyrinth should be encouraged because, after all, it is a peaceful route to resolving controversy. The road in this case is murky, slippery, tricky and bordering on the impossible.

At one time, Farouk I, King of Egypt, in addition to being a tyrant, murderer and a degenerate, served Great Britain. When Hitler invaded, he rushed to thank him through an open letter. Former Prime Minister Churchill invited Farouk to 10 Downing St., London, under difficult circumstances, although not as difficult as for Venezuela. However, the king was also a compulsive kleptomaniac; when his host was momentarily distracted, he stole a pocket watch with the chain, both made of 21-carat gold.

The hypothetical partner in negotiations with President Donald Trump is a moral and mental cripple. He can’t even pull together the reflexes, the speed, the silk hands of the monarch. He could not possibly copy King Farouk with Trump’s wallet or wristwatch, although not for lack of wanting to. In scheduling days of phony negotiations, there will be some break for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even a snack when he surely pockets some spoons or various forks. And if the cutlery is silver, so much the better.

There are worse things than pilfering a watch or silverware — like the common thief that he is — in a summit with heads of state. Collude with a professed facilitator, like Samper Pisano or [José Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero, and you will know how much to trade for a negotiating table. Convene a farce with those who pretend to be opposition, but are on the payroll of the narcotyranny that runs loose in Venezuela. Resort to whatever bad faith peaceful mechanism of conflict resolution — dialogue, referendum, town hall, citizens’ assembly — simply to buy time, and meanwhile, torture, traffic in drugs and deprive and abuse indigenous child slaves in the Arco Minero.

We stress that support for all peaceful solutions to conflict must be in facts and law, and now we arrive where we didn’t want to: It is against the law, justice and decency for any citizen, including the head of State, to sit down and negotiate with someone who is a fugitive of justice due to trafficking in drugs and exporting weapons for foreign wars for profit and, also undermining the socioeconomic structure of such a nation.

Trump’s hypothetical dialogue, if any, would have to be unconventional. In Venezuela’s case, the traditional agendas are tired and lifeless through use and abuse. Elections which, when the promoters lose, they steal; restructuring the electoral system illegally; amnesties for exiles, political prisoners who are generally persecuted for the same reason, only to persecute them again after the song-and-dance. Negotiations like the one proposed by the U.S. president, have to carry different Hamletian dilemmas.

The gang of Venezuelan narcodictators is going to hand over their power? In 48 or 72 hours? Any expatriation will absolutely include a one-way ticket to a golden exile — Paris, Prague, the Greek islands — to live fat on the money stolen from our people.

We can’t imagine former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, now deceased, and Manuel “Pineapple Face” Noriega, usurper of power in Panama, drug lord, like his rival from Cucuta, [Colombia], in a furtive meeting, under the same predicament: “Hi! Pineapple Face, when and how do you want to go into exile, instead of being handcuffed and escorted to the U.S. by military police to face justice for drug trafficking?”

A gang of drug traffickers does not fold because of dialogue, conciliation or referenda. They have to be thrown out. The volunteers take their place, in the order that the players have already written down with the first one in a long line.