West Wing Reads Don’t Call it a Coup. Venezuelans Have a Right to Replace an Oppressive, Toxic Regime.

Don’t Call it a Coup. Venezuelans Have a Right to Replace an Oppressive, Toxic Regime. “Tuesday’s uprising is not a ‘coup attempt,’ as the Maduro regime, echoed by too many people abroad, calls it. Rather, it is the latest in a series of legitimate and, for the most part, nonviolent efforts by Venezuelans, both civilian and military, to throw off an oppressive, toxic regime so that they can freely elect a legitimate government,” The Washington Posteditorial board writes. “Supporters of freedom and democracy should stand in solidarity with Mr. Guaidó and the many thousands of Venezuelans now bravely asserting their rights.” Click here to read more.  Watch: A message to all the patriotic citizens of Venezuela Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido “and his supporters are now trying to save their country from Maduro’s misrule. If the military does indeed defect this week, forcing Maduro to leave, Guaido has pledged to quickly prepare Venezuela for real elections,” Eli Lake writes in Bloomberg. “That’s not an anti-democratic coup. It’s a democratic rescue mission.” “Bad enough that The New York Times published what one of the paper’s own columnists called a ‘despicable’ cartoon containing so many anti-Jewish images that ‘the only thing missing was a dollar sign,’” the New York Post editorial board writes. “Worse, it took more than 24 hours of controversy before the Times saw fit to apologize — after first offering a feeble ‘editor’s note’ citing only ‘an error in judgment.’” “Border Patrol agents stationed on the U.S-Mexico border arrested a group of 424 people who illegally crossed into New Mexico on Tuesday morning. Authorities said the group is the largest ever apprehended at once,” Anna Giaritelli reports in the Washington Examiner. “Border Patrol's parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, said the groups are not traveling to the U.S. on their own, they are paying human smugglers and cartels to get them into the U.S.” “Fifty years ago the U.S. led humanity to the moon,” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan writes in The Wall Street Journal. “To borrow the words of the plaque left on the lunar surface by Apollo 11: ‘We came in peace for all mankind.’ China and Russia make no such claim. Until they credibly commit to such a course, we must ensure our nation’s military remains the most advanced on Earth—and above it.”