OPINION:
Our southern neighbors are freeing themselves from the shackles of communism and socialism. Earlier this month, Jose Antonio Kast, a conservative who vowed to crack down on illegal immigration while strengthening the family, was sworn in as Chile’s president.
Mr. Kast defeated Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara, ending the South American nation’s three-decade dalliance with socialism. His colleague in Argentina, President Javier Milei, put this decisive electoral victory into context.
“One more step for our region in defense of life, liberty, and private property. I am certain that we are going to work together so that America embraces the ideas of freedom and we can free ourselves from the oppressive yoke of twenty-first-century socialism,” Mr. Milei wrote.
Mr. Kast’s commonsense platform called for advancing prosperity and preserving public order. He recommended, for instance, stripping all public benefits from anyone convicted of vandalism or violence — a great idea that we ought to adopt on our shores.
Chile just became the 18th country to join the United States as a member of the America Counter Cartel Coalition, along with Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago.
The combined might of these states, backed by U.S. spy satellites, is enough to make the multibillion-dollar narco-terrorist crime networks start to sweat. That’s a boon for the entire region.
As if that weren’t enough, President Trump’s removal of Nicolas Maduro offers Venezuela a path toward liberty. What remains to be seen is whether the ruling kleptocracy can be persuaded to step aside so democracy can return. Even if that doesn’t happen, Venezuela is no longer a pariah state to its neighbors.
That’s bad news for the communist regime in Cuba. The island, 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, has depended on cheap oil from Caracas since 2000. Before that, Havana relied on energy shipments from the Soviet Union to keep the wheels of oppression greased.
Since Mr. Trump stopped the flow of Venezuelan crude, Cuba has been gripped by a nationwide blackout. The remnants of its meager economy have ground to a halt. Conditions are so bad that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg recorded a video pleading with the government to resume oil shipments.
That’s a remarkable turnaround for an activist who gained fame reprimanding the world for its reliance on fossil fuels. She didn’t call on Beijing to send an emergency shipment of windmills, nor did she express pride that her Cuban comrades had reduced their carbon dioxide footprint to nearly zero.
Mr. Trump won’t budge from his current policy until he pulls off what he called a “friendly takeover.”
“I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba. … In some form, yeah. … They’re a very weakened nation right now. They were for a long time. Very violent leaders,” the commander in chief said during an Oval Office meeting last week.
Should that come to pass, the last major domino to fall could be Brazil. Polls show Flavio Bolsonaro has a real shot at unseating the wildly unpopular socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October. Mr. Bolsonaro is motivated to win because it would mean releasing his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been held as a political prisoner since last year.
Freedom is on the march in our hemisphere. If only Mr. Trump could rescue Mexico and Canada from socialism, his work would be complete.
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