Christopher Mott makes the case for restoring normal relations with Venezuela:
With attachment to Guaido fading, Washington should now disavow interference in Caracas’s internal affairs and offer sanctions relief as an easy price to pay for setting up a full and robust exchange of commerce, oil, and gas between Venezuela and the United States.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s attachment to Guaidó remains weirdly strong. The president’s wife posted a photo with Guaidó’s wife this week and refers to her as the First Lady of Venezuela. This is just the latest sign that U.S. Venezuela policy remains on Trump-era autopilot. I suppose it is fitting that our farcical fantasy Venezuela policy should remain tied to the fantasy that Guaidó is president, since they both lack any connection to the real world.
This week on our podcast, my colleague Kelley Vlahos and I spoke with William Neuman, the author of the new book Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse, which covers the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. In our interview, he talks about the political reasons why Biden and the Democrats don’t want to rock the boat on Venezuela policy. He writes about the effects of the 2020 election in the book:
Democrats were stunned by their shellacking in Florida. Besides losing the presidential vote in the state, two incumbent (and moderate) Democratic congresswomen lost their seats in majority Hispanic Miami-Dade County, where Republicans has aggressively pressed their “all Democrats are socialists” campaign (there were other factors, as well, including a better Republican get-out-the-vote effort). This meant any administration move toward Venezuela that could be portrayed as an overture toward Maduro or a softening of support for Guaidó could cost the Democrats votes in the midterm election and beyond.
“They see it as a third rail,” said a person who discussed Venezuela policy with an administration official. “They know nothing good is going to come of this.”
Read the rest of the article at SubStack
Daniel Larison is a weekly columnist for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
Biden is acting like Trump because he wants to get re-elected and is afraid the Republicans will control the House and Senate in addition to the Supreme Court. Since Biden is an ineffective president, that will likely happen. If the presidential election were held now, he would lose.
Biden says Putin rigged the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Both Trump and Biden meddled in Venezuela’s affairs because they want Guaido to be its president even if the majority of Venezuelans don’t want him in office and prefer Maduro. It is not the USA’s job to decide who the leader of another nation is anymore than it is another nation’s job to decide who the president of the USA is.
If the election was held right now, the question would be whether the Republicans lose only one Senate seat or more. Their chances of a net gain of one seat to have the majority are in the crapper. But five months is a long time in politics, so things could change.