We don’t have to wait till January 2025 — the Trump effect is already underway.

In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro's dictatorship is releasing political prisoners. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and his wife passed a radical constitutional reform consolidating power. In Cuba, the regime is amplifying its repression and surveillance over its citizens.

The autocrats are in panic mode.

In July 1980, then-candidate Ronald Reagan said, “We know too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.”

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will promote “peace through strength,” a strategy that Reagan implemented as part of his foreign policy vision. And the winds of change have tyrants like Nicolas Maduro and his cronies afraid.

Maduro has congratulated Trump for his decisive victory, praised the civility of U.S. citizens and is begging his archenemy for dialogue. With almost 2,000 political prisoners, Hugo Chavez's anointed one is now begging for clemency. He is not willing to transfer power in a democratic fashion or form, but the regime wants a........

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