Dear fellow journalists: Let’s stop calling Maduro ‘president.’ He’s a dictator

(Photo: Miraflores press office via AP)

In light of the tragic events in Venezuela, it’s time for us in the media to start calling things by their names, and refer to Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro as what he is — a dictator.

Most media organizations still refer to Maduro as “Venezuelan President,” “Venezuelan leader” or “Venezuela’s head of state.” That’s OK for a first reference, but it puts Maduro at the same level as Germany’s Angela Merkel, or — even if you consider him a disastrous president, like I do — Donald Trump.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dictator is “a person who rules a country with total authority and often in a cruel or brutal way.” You won’t find any definition of a dictator in any other dictionary that doesn’t apply to Maduro.

That’s why U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was right on target when he stated on July 31 that “Maduro is not just a bad leader: He is now a dictator.”

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