Caracas Chronicles

On any normal day, Diosdado Cabello penning a lie-filled Op-Ed for The New York Times about Venezuela’s human rights record would have been the big story.

But today was so crazy, the only bit of his Op-Ed anyone will remember will be the third-to-last paragraph. It took me a third reading to get it, and I think my original first impression was wrong.

Reading it again, well, you tell me…

In Cuba, a decades-long trade embargo caused great hardship but failed to realize the United States’ objective of ending the Cuban revolution. The United Nations’ many votes to lift the embargo exposed how isolated Washington had been in its policy. It would be regrettable if sanctions against Venezuela, first opposed by the White House, now became a way for the Obama administration to appease those in Congress who oppose the historic restoration of relations between the United States and Cuba.

[…]

We have tried to move toward improving relations with the Obama administration, but have been rebuffed.

So what did Diosdado know? And what did Maduro know? And when?

There’s a bottomless pit of Kremlinology to be had here. Or maybe the guy’s just trolling us. The fact is that the piece is remarkably tone-deaf.