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Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world
On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro plans to defy his own people and the democratic world by assuming a third consecutive six-year term after stealing the election last July. A new term for Maduro would perpetuate a regime responsible for an economic collapse virtually unprecedented in peacetime and a wave of repression that has imprisoned some 1,800 political prisoners and caused an exodus of almost 8 million refugees abroad, more than those of Syria or Ukraine.
The democratic opposition, led by María Corina Machado, has led a courageous and peaceful campaign against Maduro’s fraud, providing evidence through copies of official polling station records to prove that opposition candidate Edmundo González won the election by a margin. more than two to one.
González has been living in exile in spain But he has vowed to return to Venezuela and defy threats of arrest to reclaim the presidency on Friday, while Machado has been organizing protests from a secret hideout.
RipeDespite repeated requests from the international communityhas failed to present any evidence to support its supposed victory, backed by allies such as Russia, China and Iran. In power since 2013, Maduro will rely on the army, police and feared Cuban-backed intelligence services to extend his regime.
The Venezuelan leader’s illegitimate third term presents the incoming Trump administration with one of its first major foreign policy challenges. The Biden administration attempted to negotiate with Maduro but its policy failed because it was based on the naive presumption that the Venezuelan The leader would hand over power voluntarily.
Instead, he allowed Ripe pocketing American concessions on oil sanctions without delivering on their own promises of clean elections. Maduro’s crackdown since the false result and his failure to accept Brazil and Colombia’s negotiation offer suggest that he intends to remain in power as long as the Venezuelan military allows.
Trump should resist the siren calls in the oil and bondholder communities urging him to strike a lucrative deal with Maduro. Instead, he should listen to figures like Marco Rubio, secretary of state-designate, or Mike Waltz, his pick as national security adviser. They have advocated strengthening the democratic opposition and withdrawing military support for Maduro by toughening sanctions on Venezuela.
The United States should start by canceling all sanctions licenses granted by the Biden administration to Chevron and other oil companies that allow them to operate in Venezuela. The EU and the UK also play an important role. They should extend sanctions to senior Venezuelan officials to reflect the united states listclosing loopholes that currently allow some key regime figures the opportunity to enjoy assets and travel in Europe.
Arguments that sanctions will not work are wrong. Maduro fears sanctions more than any other measure, so much so that his regime passed a law last year that calls for 25-year prison sentences, the confiscation of all assets, and a lifetime political ban on any Venezuelan who defends them. . Most of the tough measures of the first Trump administration only came into effect in 2019 and were undermined by European loopholes and the regime’s (correct) calculation that a Biden administration would prove more docile.
The Venezuelan people have demonstrated through the polls a strong desire for profound political change. Now is the time for the West and democratic Latin America to give them their full support and tighten the screws on the illegitimate regime in Caracas.