It's always refreshing to see the truth about Cuba and Venezuela in the U.S. media.  We've had our share of great "health care" stories about Cuba or movie stars embracing Hugo Chávez.

Let's thank Ioan Grillo for pulling the curtain and exposing the truth about Venezuela:

In Venezuela the food lines are only the most visible evidence of a nation in free fall. Known as las colas, the lines form before dawn and last until nightfall, several bodies thick and zigzagging for miles in leafy middle-class neighborhoods and ragged slums alike. In a country that sits atop the world's largest known petroleum reserves, hungry citizens wait on their assigned day for whatever the stores might stock: with luck, corn flour to make arepas, and on a really good day, shampoo.

"I never dreamed it would come to this," says Yajaira Gutierrez, a 41-year-old accountant, waiting her turn in downtown Caracas. "That in Venezuela, with all our petroleum, we would be struggling to get corn cakes."

This is insane and makes you want to scream.  It is a such a shock for those of us who knew pre-Chávez Venezuela.  As I recall, it was a nation with a large middle class who loved life, talking baseball and beauty pageants.  Yes, in Venezuela, they love their baseball players and all of those beautiful women who appear in the Miss Universe pageants.

For Cubans like my parents, as well as those of us who grew up here, it is like watching a horrible movie remake.    

The article talks about "las colas," or the lines outside stores to buy the basic items.  Or the people who cross the Colombia border to buy anything for their families.  Or the repressive nature of the state.  It is Cuba all over again!

President Trump has a great opportunity to put the U.S. on the side of the Venezuela people, especially all of those marchers calling for change.   

I'm not talking about a military invasion.  I am talking about an invasion of "ideas" and "messages" that change must come and that the U.S. does not stand with the corrupt dictatorship.  It may be just what the opposition needs to bring down the Maduro regime.     

In the meantime, share this article with the next clown that you see wearing a Che T-shirt.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.