Shame on Trump and leaders of Mexico, Brazil for failing to condemn Putin | Opinion

While President Joe Biden and key European leaders have accused Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin of being responsible for the death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the reaction of U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump and several Latin American heads of state has been pathetic.

The populist-leftist presidents of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, who claim to be champions of human rights, have failed to condemn or even express concern about the circumstances of Navalny’s death.

Latin leaders silent

At the time of this writing, four days after the news of Navalny’s death, none of the three Latin American leaders had categorically condemned Putin or raised questions about the Russian opposition leader’s death.

What’s worse is that Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came across as siding with Putin. Talking to reporters at an African Union summit in Ethiopia, Lula asked not to jump to conclusions about Navalny’s death before an investigation takes place.

“What’s the rush to make accusations?” Lula said, as if there were the slightest chance that the Putin regime would allow a fair investigation into the prominent prisoner’s death.

Prison authorities said that Navalny, 47, died of “sudden death syndrome” while he was taking a walk at Russia’s arctic prison camp where he was being held. Navalny had been seen in good health a day before his death.

Navalny’s relatives say the Putin regime has not allowed them to see his body, or to have it examined. That’s most likely because he had been poisoned and the Russian government did not want forensic doctors to find traces of poison in his body, his supporters say.

Death of Navalny

Navalny had already survived an assassination attempt by poisoning in 2020. German and French lab tests later revealed that he had been poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) agents had planted the poison in his underwear at his hotel room, according to an investigation by Bellingcat, CNN and other major international news organizations.

Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Colombia’s leader, Gustavo Petro, have remained silent on Navalny’s death. In America, U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump and the pro-Putin wing of the Republican party have abstained from holding Putin accountable.

Trump response

While President Biden denounced Putin as responsible for Navalny’s death, Trump issued a statement days later in which he failed to mention the Russian dictator. What’s more, Trump absurdly compared himself to Navalny as if they both were victims of the same kind of political repression.

Republican hopeful Nikki Haley, who is competing with Trump for the Republican nomination, said on the social media platform X that “Donald Trump could have condemned Vladimir Putin for being a murderous thug. Trump could have praised Navalny’s courage. Instead, he stole a page from liberals’ playbook, denouncing America and comparing our country to Russia.”

Putin apologists in Latin America and the U.S. had a similar reaction two years ago when Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. They failed to categorically denounce Putin for starting the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

The tragedy of these leaders and presidential hopefuls is that, with their complicit silence, they are helping normalize impunity for major crimes against democracy and world peace.

Putin impunity

“It’s a horrible precedent,” William B. Taylor, a Russia expert with the U.S. Institute of Peace and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told me. “If Putin gets away with invading his neighbor Ukraine, with killing his opposition leaders, with violating all the norms and standards that have made this world a better place since World War II, other nations, other dictators, will see that they can get away with it as well.”

Indeed, if Putin gets away with not facing international condemnation for Navalny’s death, there will be plenty of dictators and would-be autocrats around the world who will be tempted to kill the top opposition leaders in their own countries. It’s already happening in some countries but will become the new normal everywhere.

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