Perhaps the political crisis in Venezuela appears to you as a distant drama, but it’s not. What’s happening in Venezuela will reverberate across the Americas, including here in Texas.
A recent New York Times dispatch from the South American country describes a dystopian hellscape since strongman Nicolás Maduro claimed without evidence that he had won the presidential election on July 28. More than 1,400 people have been detained. Police are setting up checkpoints to inspect people’s cellphones for signs of dissent. The government has canceled the passports of human rights activists.
And, according to The Times, the National Guard dragged a priest away from a chapel as he was leading his congregation in praying the rosary. It was a chilling scene reminiscent of the terror unleashed by right-wing dictators in Latin America during the Cold War. Except now the perpetrator is a left-wing authoritarian who has enjoyed friendly relationships with other leftist governments in the region.
As everyday life devolves in Venezuela, the United States must lean on Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to pressure Maduro to leave office. These governments so far have declined to recognize Maduro as the winner, but they’ve resisted tough language against the Venezuelan strongman.
Opinion
The evidence shows that Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo González, won overwhelmingly. Maduro’s defiant crackdown on everyday Venezuelans who want him to step down will result in another exodus of people. They’ll join the more than 7 million Venezuelans who have fled their homeland in recent years. U.S. authorities had 266,000 encounters with Venezuelans at the southern border in the last fiscal year.
Brazil and Colombia have offered to negotiate a power-sharing agreement between Maduro and the opposition and even called for a new election. The latter in particular strikes us as preposterous. If Maduro won’t acknowledge the truth about the most recent election, why would he act any differently in the future? And why should the opposition agree to a new election when it already won fair and square?
President Joe Biden made things worse last week when he was asked by a reporter whether he supports new elections in Venezuela and said, “I do.” The White House later tried to clean up the comment, saying Biden actually meant the opposite.
The gaffe may signal to people like Maduro that Venezuela isn’t a foreign policy priority. The Biden administration must show otherwise.
A U.S.-led resolution by the Organization of American States demanding the impartial verification of election results initially faced resistance from Brazil and Colombia, which had to be brought along. Mexico skipped the vote.
“We will have to continue to insist … we will have to keep telling the dictator: Sir, you must leave. No one backs you anymore!” Uruguay diplomat Manuel Washington Abdala said to the OAS in an impassioned speech.
Abdala is right. The Biden White House must continue to use diplomacy and other means to create a united front against Maduro.
Part of our series The Unraveling of Latin America, this editorial calls on the U.S. to press Venezuela’s neighbors to spurn Nicolás Maduro’s illegitimate efforts to stay in power.
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Publish date : 2024-08-19 22:53:00
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