A domestic flight crashed in Cuba last month, killing more than 100. The next day, President Nicolás Maduro held mock elections to seal his grip on Venezuela, a country that thousands of his citizens flee from every day. In Nicaragua 10 days later, 19 died after gunmen opened fire on a Mother's Day march against President Daniel Ortega.
As well as these costs to life, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua have much in common as members of a gaseous project that Hugo Chávez called “21st century socialism”.
For many years, they provided mutual support and learnt from each other's systems of social control. Suborning the courts and electoral authorities, destroying the opposition, making national parties personal fiefs, they turned their countries into elected dictatorships. That kept them in power, but did nothing for their economies, which are now crumbling — perhaps decisively so.
That is especially so in Venezuela. The Cuban advisers employed by Mr Maduro to maintain political control have no economic expertise, especially in such a corrupt country. Despite the world's largest energy reserves, Venezuela is wracked by hyper-inflation, shortages and default.
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