During the 2002 State of the Union address given by President George W. Bush, the term “Axis of Evil” was coined by the former president to identify the terrorism-facilitating countries of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, that posed a threat to the U.S.
A new “Axis of Evil” has risen since President Bush first uttered the term, this one hits closer to home as dictatorships Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, and Iran all pose a clear and present danger to the United States and to the entire Western Hemisphere.
President Trump’s current anti-Socialism campaign narrative against the Democrat Party and congressional Democrats like self-styled Democrat Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), is resonating with certain voting blocs.
“Socialism promises prosperity, but it delivers poverty,” said President Trump during a visit to Florida in early 2019. “Socialism promises unity, but it delivers hatred and it delivers division. Socialism promises a better future, but it always returns to the darkest chapters of the past. That never fails. It always happens. Socialism is a sad and discredited ideology rooted in the total ignorance of history and human nature, which is why socialism, eventually, must always give rise to tyranny, which it does.”
Democrats have dismissed Trump’s Socialism warning as a “red scare” campaign tactic, but in looking at the rising popularity of Socialist and Marxist militant groups like ANTIFA across the country, and a sort of ‘reset’ of the Socialism movement in Latin America, Trump’s “red scare” warning needs to be heeded.
The rise of Communism or Socialism in the Western Hemisphere can be attributed to the notion that the current “Axis of Evil” is reasserting its influence and control of Latin American governments like those in Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, and possibly Ecuador in the months to come.
In the past, all roads to Communism led back to Cuba, but now it appears as if Venezuela has become the new launching pad for Latin America, with Dictator Nicolas Maduro at the helm.
Maduro’s well-publicized criminal enterprise, which includes drug trafficking, rampant corruption, and illegal mining, has been propped up with the support and financing from members of the new “Axis of Evil” — China, Russia, and Iran.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R), who has been targeted for assassination by the Maduro regime and has been blamed for causing much of the economic distress in Venezuela, echoed what many leaders have now come to know of the Maduro “government.”
“They are not a government,” said Sen. Rubio on Fox Business. “The Maduro regime is an organized crime organization. It’s a crime syndicate.”
A new report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) titled “The Fabulous Five: How Foreign Actors Prop up the Maduro Regime in Venezuela,” warns that the Venezuelan situation is no longer a local or regional problem, it’s one with heightened global implications, due to the regime’s stronger alliances with Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, and Cuba (the fabulous 5) in organized criminal activities.
Russia, Iran, and China continue to play a significant role in trying to compromise U.S. elections, government, and the American private sector. Just a last week, the director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe claimed that both Iran and Russia obtained U.S. voter registration information in an effort to interfere in the election, including sending intimidating emails to voters.
Wounded combat veteran and Florida Rep. Brian Mast (R) told The Floridian that he sees how Russian and China are trying to destabilize the U.S. via Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.
"We know that bad foreign state actors are using Latin America, including Venezuela, as an inroad into the Americas, and as a nation, we need to be very wary of any activity by Russia, China, Iran and others that seek to destabilize the United States through Venezuela,” said Rep. Mast. “ Every decision we make regarding foreign relations with countries in Latin America needs to be viewed through this lens."
On the other hand, two independent reports, one by House Republicans and the other by House Democrats, both acknowledged the growing Chinese threat to the U.S. and called for a more “aggressive” position against Communist China’s efforts to compromise the American election process, and for the theft of American intellectual property that Beijing continues to take part in.
In terms of this new “Axis of Evil’s” organized criminal activities with Venezuela, analysts agree that the path forward is to aggressively curtail access to those illegal sources of funding and the support that these adversary nations provide the Maduro regime.
David Kramer, an expert on Russian relations at Florida International University also told The Floridian that Russia’s motivation to destabilized the U.S. is “largely to stick it to the U.S.” and to “boost” its influence throughout the region, and to try to show nations in the Western Hemisphere that the U.S. “is not a reliable ally.”
As for China, Kramer says that it is primarily undermining the U.S. “to expand its global influence” and to “provide assistance to boost its leverage and influence” to countries like Venezuela.
“Russia is blunt. China is more sophisticated and let’s Russia do its’ dirty work,” said Kramer.
