Jackson Diehl

Diehl joined The Washington Post as a reporter in 1978. From 1982 to 1992, he worked at the paper's foreign bureaus in Buenos Aires, Warsaw and Jerusalem. He was foreign editor and assistant managing editor for foreign news from 1992 to 1999, and oversaw the expansion of The Washington Post's foreign staff. In 1999, he became assistant managing editor for national news and oversaw coverage of the 2000 presidential election campaign.

As an editor and columnist, Diehl favored the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the George W. Bush administration. Diehl had advocated for democratic reforms and a tougher U.S. policy toward Egypt, criticizing Barack Obama for his "dangerous passivity," and in 2011 he was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, for his commentary on Egypt.

Coverage of Venezuela

In Jan of 2010, Diehl criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution and wrote that "Chavez's socialism for the 21st century" had been defeated "and is on its way to collapse."

In October 2011, Diehl, in his opinion column, Obama's policy on Venezuela leaves Chavez's victims paying price, criticized the Obama administration over their foot-dragging, in granting asylum for Nelson Mezerhane. Mezerhane, who had been threatened by Chavez, to stifle Globolvision's network coverage criticizing Chavez, had fled Venezuela, after he and his family faced threats to their lives. Diehl noted in his column, that asylum decisions should be nonpolitical, but under Hillary Clinton's State Department, a strategy of avoiding "scrapes" with Chavez, left people like Mezerhane danger. In his column he wrote:

"The price of this policy is borne by Chavez’s victims — journalists, union leaders, businessmen, would-be opposition presidential candidates — whom he persecutes and frequently drives out of Venezuela. The administration rarely speaks up for these beleaguered defenders of human rights and democracy; and when it does, then only at a low level. It has made no effort to hold Chavez accountable at forums like the Organization of American States."

Diehl was also critical of the Trump administration's handling of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, saying of Trump's foreign policy, in his column in January 2020:

"a year later, the regime of Nicolás Maduro appears to have stabilized. The lights are back on in Caracas, once-empty stores are full of goods, and the U.S.-backed opposition has been ousted — at least physically — from the National Assembly. Trump’s demand — that Maduro leave office and make way for fresh elections — won’t be realized anytime soon."