Those regrettable moments

I know that Maxima is an habituée of hard core repressive regimes, but this....

The Netherlands King visits the naked emperor of chavismo

In the series of royalty mistakes Willem Alexander should bitch back at the Dutch government for forcing him to visit Venezuela. Certainly doing a Caribbean tour and not stopping by Caracas is a dangerous initiative as The Netherlands share an important maritime border with Venezuela (4 islands!). In addition the economy of three of these islands is quite dependent on Venezuela, from the oil they refine there to the fresh vegetables they ship regularly.  But from there to go and support such a contested figure like Maduro just when he is becoming a full blooded dictator...  Pleaaaaase...  I mean, even the French have manged not to send a president or a Prime Minister!

Of course, speculation is going good. Did they came for an oil concession? Is Venezuela holding some form of blackmail over Aruba?  What is the Dutch prime Minister snorting these days?  Can Timmermans be so incompetent?  Etc.  Whatever it is the opposition is shocked, and I include myself in this, having refused to believe that such a visit could take place, that Wilhelm would come down with the flu at the last moment or something.

We already know that chavismo has no friends and that no matter who do they smile at today, tomorrow they will stab in the back as needed. If the Dutch government does not know that they will learn it soon enough. What is graver for the Dutch is that an hypothetical but not uncertain post chavista administration may not be too forgiving. There is, oh, say, this tweet of Lopez:

Mientras Maduro reprime los reyes de Holanda vienen a pedir concesiones petroleras. Que sepan los "reyes" q se les ven las consturas.
— Leopoldo López (@leopoldolopez) November 23, 2013

While Maduro represses {the people} the kings of Holland come to ask for oil concessions. We got their number.

Needless to say that this visit is quite, quite regrettable and that the Dutch are going to regret it the most.
And to think that there are full gay rights in Amsterdam, freedom of the press, civility, etc. etc.

PS: and let's talk about a commie president kissing ass to royalty.  Chavismo is actually rather discrete about this visit, just enough to try to refurbish Maduro 's image overseas. But we gotta love the ideological incoherence.