Jews are always the canary in the coalmine

I willingly admit that I never think about Venezuela. It turns out, though, that this kind of parochialism on my part is a big mistake. This National Review Online article demonstrates that bad things are happening down there, and Americans need to be watching the trends:

"The human-rights situation in Venezuela under populist president Hugo Chavez has been deteriorating for some time. But last week the proverbial canary in the coalmine died when Venezuelan police raided the Colegio Hebraica, the private Jewish school in Caracas. The raid took place in the early morning, just as students were arriving for the start of the school day. "