A tale of three presidents: What Trump, Maduro needs to learn from Chavez

Nicolás Maduro and Donald Trump have an authoritarian bent, as did Hugo Chávez, but the Chávez I knew also believed in social justice, equality and fundamental freedoms

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations last month, President Trump said he would be willing to meet with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, if he were here. Despite Mr. Maduro’s constant diatribes against the American Empire, even a tenuous offer to meet with an autocrat-friendly American president was one Mr. Maduro couldn’t refuse.

Just moments before he extended this unexpected olive branch to the embattled Mr. Maduro, Mr. Trump said once again that he was considering a “military option” against Venezuela. Declaring you might invade a country to oust its leader and then in the same breath saying you’d be