Domestic troubles are complicating the job of U.S. foreign-service officials and eroding America's role as a model.
Entrusted with duties that include extolling democratic values in scores of developing and autocratic countries, career foreign service officers are finding their mission undermined by events back home.
But Zimbabwe government officials — who are rarely receptive to U.S. advice anyway — were particularly dismissive. The country’s defense minister said with contempt that the pressure was coming from a country that kills Black people “willy nilly. ... This is America for you.” She said she sees no contradiction between what the U.S. advocates abroad and how the U.S. protests were handled at home.
And Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington has been trying to overthrow for a year and a half with crippling economic sanctions, said the police brutality and racism disqualified the U.S. for making any demands. The events have created a dilemma for some ambassadors and top diplomats who work at the pleasure of the president and are expected to support administration polices.
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