“This troika of tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere.” That was National Security Adviser John Bolton speaking last week in an address from Miami’s Freedom Tower, the 17-story building where Cuban refugees were processed after fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime. The three states he had in view were, of course, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
“Troika of Tyranny” may lack the resonant felicity of George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” but the reversal in policy captured by Bolton’s phrase is just as necessary as its predecessor. “Under this administration,” Bolton said, “we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this Hemisphere.”
The Obama administration took more or less the opposite approach. When then-Secretary of State John Kerry declared in 2013 that the “era of the Monroe Doctrine is over,” he enunciated one form of the foreign policy his boss had embraced since the beginning of his administration: Offer financial and diplomatic rewards to dictatorships in the hope that they become more civilized and humane. That approach failed in Iran, which used the relaxation of sanctions in order to pursue its terror-imperialism with greater vigor, and it failed in Latin America the same way.
The Obama Doctrine rewarded but didn’t change the regime in Cuba, which responded to the Obama administration’s move to normalize relations by continuing to oppress its impoverished people. On Venezuela, the Obama State Department seems to have expected Brazil, then run by Dilma Rousseff, to play a major role in resolving the crisis in Venezuela, but Roussef was soon impeached in a massive corruption scandal and had neither the inclination nor the capacity to broker peace with Hugo Chávez nor Nicolás Maduro. A similar benign neglect was evident in Obama’s policy approach to the nascent crisis in Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua, which has since degenerated into full-blown chaos in which the regime has imprisoned or killed hundreds.
Bolton believes the troika’s leader is Cuba. He’s right. Caracas and Managua have learned from Havana how to terrorize their citizens and commandeer their private property. Maduro and Ortega, Bolton suggested, are inspired by the three pillars of Cuban rule: “oppression, socialism, and totalitarianism.”
Other than an end to the policy of benign neglect and semi-normalized relations, what will the new policy look like? Bolton announced new penalties against dozens of entities linked to Cuban military and intelligence services, as well as a new executive order that authorizes sanctions on Venezuela’s gold sector. The Trump administration has already sanctioned Maduro himself, his wife, and officials close to him. And it has started to reverse Obama’s policy of appeasement with Cuba by restricting business ties and travel.
What’s needed furthermore is a way to ensure a coherent and aggressive approach to Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. The suggestion that the administration appoint a White House-based “czar” to oversee policy on Latin America’s three malign dictatorships has a lot to recommend it. The three dictatorships are connected, with each other and with Russia. As Venezuela and Nicaragua fall apart, both Russia and Cuba can be counted on to prop them up. A fully coordinated approach stands a chance of interdicting that aid.
We can’t vouch for John Bolton’s genius for alliteration. And we worry there is a reason for Bolton’s geographic specificity—“in this hemisphere” —when he announced an end to appeasing dictators and despots. But his clear-eyed view of Latin America’s rogue states, and his willingness to speak bluntly about the regimes, is refreshing.
