At the Summit of the Organization of American States, this past week, John Sullivan, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, exchanged exceedingly hostile accusations over the deepening crisis of lawlessness provoked by the misguided policies of her President, Nicolas Maduro. In a few short years since the death of Hugo Chavez, Maduro has driven his country and its population over the economic precipice while using violence and all manner of illegal measures to emasculate the political opposition, up to and including the imprisonment of its leaders. At least 72 people have died and 1,300 gravely injured at the hands of Maduro’s merciless security forces in the past two weeks. Neighboring nations, you’d think, might have felt obligated to intervene – or to just say something – yet they have constantly failed to do so. It was the same story at the meeting of foreign ministers of the OAS here in Cancun last week. A resolution of censure only needed the support of 23 of the 34 member nations to pass. But the OAS couldn’t muster even that !
While the bickering went on at the Cancun Summit, Amnesty International had to report unrelenting brutality in London, Paris, Brussels, and, horrifyingly, 3,000 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo to which were added further hundreds of deaths in the Philippines and in Afghanistan.
For a quarter century now, we have – misguidedly – lived under the assumption that, with the end of the cold war, the world would surely progress toward a future of world-wide peaceful coexistence. Unhappily though, we are seeing the decomposition of civilized international order, not just in the increasing incidence of inhuman brutality but also in the impotence of international organizations which are failing in their efforts to do anything about it. Rather than to combine their efforts, member nations in these organizations are withdrawing their support. It isn’t just the indifference of a morally corrupt Trump government, but also the despicably aggressive hostile acts of leaders like Nicolas Maduro, who just now announced his government’s definitive withdrawal from the OAS in order to have a free hand in inflicting even more brutality on his suffering fellow citizens.
A worrisome new dimension has now arisen in the form of hate-crimes committed by extremists in response to acts of international terrorism: Just last Monday, an individual, screaming. “I want to kill all muslims”, drove a van into a crowd of innocent worshippers outside a London mosque, killing one and injuring 12 more. Hate crimes against American muslims have also risen to levels not seen since the days after September 11, 2001. The infliction of irrational vigilante justice against innocent members of different ethnic groups is a problem which international organizations are, at present, wholly unprepared to meet. What is described above reflects the current decline of the world's political leaders as well as the unjustifiable existence of some international organizations that seem to be at the command and the personal ambition of some politicians lacking personal ethics and commitment to society. There is no doubt that the world demands real politicians and institutions, not phony!
