Among America’s more high-profile antagonists is Venezuela. But for those looking for signs of encouragement in the strained Washington-Caracas relationship — beyond the Obama Administration’s pragmatic inclination to talk to America’s adversaries — it might lie in the Miss Universe contest.
The newly crowned Miss Universe is from Venezuela. And her predecessor was also from Venezuela. So were four others. Venezuelans lionize good looks. Their beaches are paeans to the T-back. Hey, we can work with these people.
They love baseball, including America’s Major Leagues. The Rays even have a prospect compound there. And Caracas, for all of its portentous street crime, is a modern city with enviable light rail and a designated financial district.
It’s a reminder that for all of Hugo Chavez’s blustery rhetoric, rogue populism and oil-skewed, Bolivarian revolution, Venezuela remains a country we should be able to deal with. We have stuff — from cultural excesses to polarized politics to tabloid media — in common besides oil-based economies and political enmity.
We might be imperial “Yankees” on a given day in Venezuela, but that’ll beat anti-Islamic “infidels” any time.