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For decades, one of the central pillars of American foreign policy has been to advocate for human rights and democracy. The U.S. promoted these principles in Venezuela, but after it took dramatic military action to remove President Nicolás Maduro, democracy and human rights have taken a backseat. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports from the Colombian border with Venezuela.
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EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Nearly every week, you can find Jorge Rodriguez on the bridge that leads to Venezuela holding a banner with the picture of his father. His dad was arrested by Venezuelan security forces and thrown in jail.
JORGE RODRIGUEZ: My father, after four years in jail, doesn't have criminal notation.
PERALTA: The government, he says, never explained what he did wrong. He was never tried, but he says his dad was charged with a hate crime under a statute the Venezuelan government often uses to punish dissent. Rodriguez says his father, who is a Colombian citizen, got caught up in Venezuela's repression. So every week, he and about a dozen other Colombians hold signs at the bridge, asking for their loved ones to be released.
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RODRIGUEZ: All these people you can see here is innocent.
PERALTA: Rodriguez says he felt a surge of hope when the U.S. seized President Nicolás Maduro, but ever since, the talk on Venezuela has focused on drug trafficking and oil and business opportunities for American companies. Rodriguez says he's thankful to Trump.
RODRIGUEZ: But we need more action.
PERALTA: Kenneth Roth, who ran Human Rights Watch for nearly three decades, says the U.S. operation in Venezuela was not only illegal, but it's done little to improve the human rights situation there.
KENNETH ROTH: What Trump did was remove only the top and kept intact the repressive machinery.
PERALTA: The U.S. does have a complicated history in Latin America. It has often supported governments with checkered human rights records. But more recently, says Roth, U.S. policy was guided by a concern for democracy.
ROTH: Overall, the U.S. government did seem to support human rights until Trump came along.
PERALTA: Trump, for example, he says, supported President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. Bukele has suspended constitutional rights and thrown tens of thousands in jails without due process. In Venezuela, Roth says, Trump has shredded international law, dismissed opposition leaders and focused instead on what the United States can take from Venezuela.
ROTH: If Trump's, you know, sphere of influence view dominates, you know, the view that the regional power can do whatever it wants within its hemisphere, this is a recipe for chaos.
PERALTA: Roth says actions like that open the door for China to take Taiwan, for Russia to threaten Europe or for Rwanda to take minerals from Congo.
ROTH: We're going to see more of this if Trump legitimizes this idea that might makes right.
PERALTA: The Trump administration has said a political transition will come eventually.
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PERALTA: Along the border here with Venezuela, we find that one thing hasn't changed. Venezuelans are still walking out of their country. We find Jose on the side of a highway. We're only using his first name because he fears retribution from the government. He left a couple of days after Maduro was taken into custody by the U.S.
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JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: Armed men, he says, showed up at his farm and forced him and his wife off the land. If you're not loyal to the government, he says, paramilitary groups, known as colectivos, seek revenge. Even as they fled, he says, the colectivos checked his phone, and they stole all of his belongings.
JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "They are the law in Venezuela right now," he says, and they've left him with nothing.
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JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "They say men don't cry," he says. His eyes fill with tears.
JOSE: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "But we do feel the pressure," he says. "We feel the humiliation."
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Cúcuta, Colombia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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