Respecting democracy...

Writing in today's New York Times, Michael Shifter, a vice-president at the think tank Inter-American Dialogue, notes that the White House has decided to withdraw support for $250 million in loan requests that Venezuela has before international financial institutions.

It's an action that has gone "virtually unnoticed."

Shifter says that the US pointed to accusations about Venezuela's role in the international trafficking of women and children. While certainly a laudable concern, Shifter goes on,

[t]here are, however, serious questions about the motives behind the decision. The trafficking rationale seems particularly odd. ...

The sanctions will amount to little more than a pinprick in any case, and the loans could still be approved by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, with backing from other nations. The $250 million involved is small change for Mr. Chávez, who is enjoying a tremendous windfall from record oil prices. This hardly constitutes real pressure. The impact - either in reducing trafficking or making Mr. Chávez more democratic - will be minimal at best. The measure will also probably prompt other Latin American governments to vote in favor of the loans to Venezuela - if for no other reason than to get back at the United States.

In fact, Shifter says, the rationale "risks trivializing, and politicizing, one of Latin America's most critical problems," one in which Venezuela is not the worst offender.

So let's see. It accomplishes nothing positive, further alienates our fourth-largest oil supplier, and generates irritation across Latin America, while trivializing the problem it claims to address.

So why do it? It wouldn't have anything to do with the Bushites petulant frustration over Chávez's clear victory in the recent recall, would it?