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March 5, 2019
In order to explain the long history behind Venezuela’s current crisis, former Ambassador to Venezuela and director of Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Patrick Duddy delivered a Capitol Hill briefing, March 1. Duddy spoke to an audience of congressional staff, foreign embassy personnel, and federal employees at the Duke in DC-sponsored program.
In addition to Duddy’s diplomatic expertise, the program benefitted from Duke’s relationship with the Department of Education’s Title VI program. Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), which Duddy directs in consortium with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, receives grant funding as a Title VI National Resource Center. The research done at CLACS directly contributed to his thorough and continued expert insights into the current crisis in Venezuela.
As part of the Department of Education’s effort to understand issues in world affairs, National Resource Centers such as CLACS “establish, strengthen, and operate language and area or international studies centers that will be national resources for teaching any modern foreign language.” Continued funding of these centers helps not only train future federal employees with international language and cultural competency, but also, as evidenced by this briefing, contribute more immediately to the knowledge and understanding for Congressional staff and other federal employees.
According to Duddy, international observers have seen cracks in the Venezuelan system since 2007. The year 2014 saw epidemic street protests against the government. In December 2015, the Opposition Democratic Unity party won two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections. In 2016, more protests called for the removal of president Maduro, blaming him for the economic crisis.
The Venezuelan constitution provides for situations in which the president is either incapacitated or illegitimate. In such case, the head of the National Assembly becomes the interim president until new elections can be held. Juan Guaido has already received some international recognition as the legitimate interim president, per his role as Opposition leader. The United States, Canada, many Latin American countries and some European countries recognize him as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
The role of international actors in Venezuela’s situation was the focus of an event on Duke Campus, March 6. Keith Mines, Director of Andean Affairs in the State Department with responsibility for managing U.S. relations with Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, spoke on the uniqueness of the situation in Venezuela from a regional perspective. In addition to his extensive diplomatic experience, Mines has worked in conflict and conflict-recovery zones around the world. His trip to Durham serves to strengthen the diplomatic, academic and educational ties all needed to understand a situation as complex as Venezuela’s.
Once the model of democratic government and ‘Modern’ Latin America, Venezuela has succumbed to its own worst instincts. From high-level corruption and police brutality to drug and food shortages, Venezuela must now resolve its political crisis before it can address its economic one, argued Duddy. When those in power ascend and maintain that strength by rewriting the rules of the economy in their favor, political evolution may need to presage economic change. Patience and international pressure, according to Duddy, are key to righting Venezuela’s long crisis of expectations and political malpractice.
They are librarians and researchers. They are students, pursuing degrees in business and nursing. They are resource officers. They are the fastest growing student group on campus.
They are veterans – the 122 currently enrolled as students and the 700 self-identified military veterans in Duke’s workforce and on this Veterans Day, we honor them.
In 2008, Congress passed the post-9/11 GI Bill, creating a fund that covers the full cost of an undergraduate education at any public university or college in the country and many private schools for veterans of the nation’s most recent conflicts. The legislation also established The Yellow Ribbon Program meant to make private schools more accessible for veterans. In June of 2009, Duke announced a partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs to participate in the Yellow Ribbon program.
In the years since the passage of the new GI Bill, the number of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students receiving VA benefits at Duke has increased by 451 percent. Bruce Cunningham, Duke’s assistant vice provost and university registrar says the increase is a result of both programs by making it possible for veterans to attend Duke for a “very reasonable cost.”
Cunningham says Duke has been “very generous in our Yellow Ribbon offerings and they have been increased every year of the program. We’ve participated fully every year of the program. All of our schools participate in Yellow Ribbon; I’m not sure if that is the case for all institutions. I really think the Yellow Ribbon is the key to our growth in vets attending.”
This commitment to providing services for veterans doesn’t stop once a student makes the decision to attend Duke. The Division of Student Affairs offers a wide range of services to current students, staff and faculty meant to support the particular needs of the veteran population.
Student Affairs has provided extensive training to staff members at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) on how to best help veterans with psychological and emotional issues. This summer, student affairs also hosted a training facilitated by the VA on resources available for veterans. It was followed by an open house for students who were looking to better understand their benefits.
Once they graduate, Duke’s student veterans will join a distinguished group of Duke alumni, many of whom continue to serve fellow veterans and their nation. Duke alumni veterans serving in the federal government include Secretary of Veteran Affairs’ Eric Shinseki (MA ’76) , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey (MA ’84), and Tommy Sowers (AB ’98), the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the VA.
Another veteran alumnus, Eric Greitens, started The Mission Continues, an organization that awards community service fellowships to post-9/11 veterans. This past summer, a group of six Army officers – and fellow Duke alumni – completed a 500-mile run from the Duke Chapel to the World Trade Center site in New York City (with a stop in Washington, D.C.) to raise money for The Mission Continues.
The Duke University Office of Federal Relations thanks all of those who have served our great nation and remains committed to supporting the needs of our student and alumni veterans.