This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

For years, we have been warning about the inevitable consequences of presidents of both parties since Ronald Reagan neglecting Latin America. Mostly, it was benign neglect. But sometimes it was actually malign.

Either way, it was predictable – and predicted – that the vacuum of power thus created would be filled by those hostile to our country and interests. In the past year alone, Peru, Chile and Colombia have voted in Communist regimes, joining those that have already devastated places like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Brazil may be next.

The principal beneficiaries of these tectonic shifts are our enemies: China, Russia and Iran. They are, among other ominous things, now preparing to participate next month in military exercises in Venezuela and pre-positioning weapons, some of which will almost certainly prove threatening to us.

We can no longer ignore the gathering storm in our hemisphere.