Biden administration never learns —Venezuela’s dictator cannot be appeased | Opinion
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Just look at President Biden’s policy toward Venezuela.
The administration’s decision to renew the permission for Western companies to export petroleum to Venezuela via state-owned PDVSA is the latest example of the insanity. It came barely a week after narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro illegitimately barred his reformer opponent, Maria Corina Machado, from running for president. It’s like handing a bone to a dog after it’s bitten your friend.
This decision is latest in a series of failed appeasement attempts. Since entering office, Biden has weakened economic sanctions on Venezuela, allowed U.S. oil company Chevron to resume operations there and reduced U.S. support for the opposition.
Last November, presidential envoy John Kerry even shook hands with Maduro — even though Maduro is wanted by the U.S. government on drug-trafficking charges.
The administration has taken these actions in hopes of getting the regime to negotiate with pro-democracy leaders in Mexico City. Instead of loosening its grip, however, the dictatorship has only tightened it. This is made clear by horrific abuses of power, including state-administered torture at El Helicoide prison and barring Machado from the presidential race.
The regime also continues to threaten U.S. national security and violate international law. As Machado recently said, it is a “criminal tyranny that has handed [Venezuela] over to Russia, China, Iran, terrorist organizations, guerrillas and drug traffickers.”
If you won’t take her word for it, listen to Michael Renaud, the program director of Biden’s Office of Homeland Security Investigations. “Until I arrived in Washington, I didn’t know that there were flights arriving from Venezuela illicitly,” Renaud said at a recent Organization of American States (OAS) event. He continued: “Venezuela can move tons of cocaine. Imagine what they can do with gold. It is a narco-state, and somehow, they must launder their money in stable economies.”
None of this is surprising. These are the same thugs who stole power from Juan Guaidó in 2019, drove 90% of the Venezuelan populace to near-starvation and forced more than 7 million citizens to flee the country. What is surprising is that Biden still thinks he can bribe good out of a criminal enterprise masquerading as a government.
This wishful thinking does neither America or Venezuela any good. It also stands in stark contrast to the administration’s ideological persecution of democratically elected, pro-American governments in Guatemala and El Salvador. To regain foreign policy coherence on Venezuela, we must return to the maximum pressure campaign of the Trump administration.
This means rescinding the license granted to Chevron earlier this year. It means cracking down on countries that restore diplomatic ties with the Maduro regime and enable its abuses. It means upgrading the United Nations’ fact-finding mission in Venezuela to an independent Commission of Inquiry. Finally, it means designating the Venezuelan regime and its paramilitary “colectivos” as foreign terrorist organizations, doubling down on sanctions and blocking the regime from assuming Venezuela’s seats at the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
This is a lot to expect from the left-leaning Biden administration. But, in the end, it’s just common sense. Venezuela is ruled by a criminal enterprise fundamentally opposed to America’s national interest. No amount of appeasement will change that.
Marco Rubio is Florida’s senior U.S. senator.
