A Colombian Marxist’s Charm Offensive

Gustavo Petro’s anticapitalist message is welcome in the Biden White House

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady.

"Mr. Petro’s first stop on his U.S. tour last week was the United Nations in New York, where he argued for a “path of dialogue” in Venezuela and for lifting international sanctions. Those sanctions were put in place to press Mr. Maduro to release his jailed political opponents, estimated to number 282, to organize free elections, to restore media and other civil liberties, and to end the harassment of nongovernmental organizations.  

The sanctions have had the effect of forcing the regime to allow the dollar and prices to trade freely, thus ending dire food shortages. Yet after 15 years of international pressure, coupled with off-and-on “talks” with the regime, the state’s grim human-rights record hasn’t changed. Mr. Petro’s big idea to break the stalemate is for the U.S. and its allies to fold.

At Stanford University on Tuesday, Mr. Petro reasserted his communist sympathies. His lecture mixing warmed-over Marxism and climate doom is available on YouTube. But here’s the spoiler alert: Capitalism kills."

"Mr. Petro says fossil fuels will lead to human extinction. But his intellectual integrity looks like Swiss cheese. His government depends on revenue from coal, oil and gas, and his plan to replace them with tourism is futuristic pie-in-the-sky. A true greenie would be pleased with less oil coming out of Venezuela. But an end to sanctions implies a restarting of the petroleum industry. In the eyes of Messrs. Petro and Biden, won’t this accelerate the demise of humanity?"