Opinion

Conrad Black: China’s Expanding Influence Rekindles US Engagement in Latin America

Conrad Black: China’s Expanding Influence Rekindles US Engagement in Latin America
The U.S. Navy warship USS Lake Erie docks at the Port of Balboa in Panama City on Aug. 29, 2025. The United States sent three warships to the region amid escalating tensions with Venezuela. Mauricio Valenzuela/AFP via Getty Images
Conrad Black
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Commentary
Venezuela has followed a sharply sloping descent from being the most prosperous country in Latin America 50 years ago, based on its ample oil resources, to a catastrophic condition today. With the election of Marxist Hugo Chavez in 1999, and the succession of Nicolas Maduro as president in 2013 after Chavez’s death, approximately 20 percent of the population of Venezuela (8 million people) has fled the country and its GDP has declined by about 70 percent. It is by many yardsticks the most chronically under-performing country in the world.
Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Author
Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. He’s the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently, “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other,” which has been republished in updated form. Follow Conrad Black with Bill Bennett and Victor Davis Hanson on their podcast Scholars and Sense.