Letter: U.S. policy toward Venezuela ‘incoherent’ under Trump

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has company.

According to the Miami Herald, Colombia’s Ambassador Francisco Santos was careless in a cafe, venting unflattering views of the Trump administration in a conversation with Colombia’s Foreign Minister-designate Claudia Blum.

A fly on the wall (or a mike) recorded them for publication in Colombia.

The ambassador got it right when he said the State Department is “destroyed,” an ambition that Sen. Joe McCarthy could not achieve, though he and Roy Cohn tried.

The minister-designate also was on the mark, saying the Trump administration’s attempt to shove food aid into Venezuela was a “fiasco.”

Why? Because the United States didn’t have a Plan B for the likelihood that Venezuela would block aid’s entry across an international bridge from Colombia.

As with Ukraine, perhaps Trump has a two-track approach toward Venezuela, with huff-and-puff diplomacy and grinding economic sanctions the visible policy.

No doubt, U.S. officials working on Venezuela want to help its people. But out of sight, the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, represented the interests of a Venezuelan billionaire with reported ties to the Maduro regime.

Strange, unless Trump wants to milk Venezuela for Florida votes while avoiding steps that put us at cross purposes with the Kremlin, now part owner of Maduro’s kleptocracy.

In any event, readers should demand Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan refugees.

Without it, Trump’s stance is totally incoherent.

Ambassador Frank McNeil (ret.)

Boca Raton, Florida

The writer was ambassador to Costa Rica for presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He also was Reagan’s special emissary for the Grenada Mission.