Diplomacy Maduro-Style

Nicolás Maduro announced new measures aimed at the United States. All of them hurt Venezuela. They will lead to the following:

--fewer tourist dollars from the United States
--fewer executives flying to Venezuela
--less low-level diplomatic interaction

Those outcomes will go largely unnoticed in the U.S. but will post further problems for Venezuela at a time when it does not need anything more.

Bizarrely, he is also prohibiting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Marco Rubio, and a few others from obtaining visas to visit Venezuela. Rubio in particular will use that to his advantage in the primaries. The others will chuckle and make jokes about their cancelled Caracas vacations.

I can't see any benefit to Venezuela for any of these measures. It's hard to imagine them even providing Maduro a domestic nationalist boost.