In Venezuela, the U.S. can squeeze the dictator’s oil lifeline

VOC Senior Fellow David Smolansky was quoted by the Washington Post Editorial Board on Maduro’s crimes in Venezuela.

As the Editorial Board writes, “Nearly a year ago, the Biden administration saw an opening for democracy in Venezuela, easing some sanctions and allowing oil giant Chevron to resume operations there to encourage the leftist dictatorship to deal in good faith with its opposition. ‘Our ultimate goal with sanctions is to bring about positive change in behavior,’ a senior administration official told reporters.

Today, that policy is in shambles. The winner of the July 28 presidential election, opposition candidate Edmundo González, has fled to Spain, under threat from the ruling despot, Nicolás Maduro, who clings to power despite his decisive defeat. The United States and its allies can and should impose strong new sanctions, targeting the economic lifeline Mr. Maduro gets from oil production.

Mr. González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, stepped in as a proxy for the opposition’s most popular leader, María Corina Machado, after the regime denied her a spot on the ballot. Voting records collected by the opposition and examined by The Post show that Mr. González defeated Mr. Maduro, 67 percent to 30 percent. Mr. Maduro’s regime-controlled election commission and loyalist-packed Supreme Court brazenly certified that he won by 52 percent to 43 percent. And, when Venezuelans protested, the government unleashed repression. Security forces and regime-backed armed groups have killed 27 people and illegally detained almost 1,700 others, including 107 teenagers and 216 women, according to David Smolansky, deputy director of the ConVzla opposition presidential-campaign office in Washington.

Security forces targeted anyone who had worked in the opposition campaign or shown support for Mr. González or Ms. Machado on social media. Mr. Maduro unveiled an app in which Venezuelans could inform on fellow citizens. Mr. González fled five days after Venezuela’s attorney general filed a warrant for his arrest as part of what he said was an investigation into the opposition’s publication of voting machine receipts. Mr. Maduro thus forced his rival into exile, a common tactic of dictators.

The elected leftist presidents of Venezuela’s neighbors, Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, have responded with tepid words. They have demanded the official voting tallies — so far kept secret — be made public but stopped short of condemning the obvious theft. President Joe Biden hasn’t been heard from, despite Mr. Maduro’s having violated the promises he made in return for sanctions relief, turning the U.S. effort at ‘incentives’ into a U.S. foreign policy defeat.“

Read the full article in the Washington Post.

David Smolansky is a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, deputy director of the ConVzla presidential campaign office in Washington, D.C., and a former opposition mayor in Venezuela.