On the surface, the upheaval in Ukraine and the political unrest in Venezuela seem far apart in distance and character. But dig a little deeper and the parallels are striking — and ominous. Protesters in Ukraine want their country to join the West by becoming closer to the European Union, but President Viktor F. Yanukovych prefers to sidle up to Russia. The conflict playing out on the burning streets of Kiev may be the last battle of the Cold War as a new Europe emerges. In Caracas, as in Kiev, the underlying issue is whether the country will follow a worn-out and discredited authoritarian model from the last century — Cuba — or ally itself with regional democracies that honor human rights and political freedom.
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