Venezuela Breaks a Promise to Biden - WSJ
By: The Editorial Board (WSJ)
One what born every minute?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Ronald Reagan said “trust but verify” when making deals with adversaries. Joe Biden ’s variation on the theme, “trust and hope for the best,” is failing America’s friends. Latest example: Venezuela’s democratic opposition.
At issue is the Biden Administration’s Oct. 18 decision to lift sanctions in exchange for promises by the regime in Caracas to allow a free and fair election in 2024. Two weeks later dictator Nicolás Maduro has already broken his word. Who would have thought?
Venezuela’s Oct. 22 opposition presidential primary drew some 2.4 million voters to the polls. Vente Venezuela party candidate Maria Corina Machado won more than 90% of the ballots cast. This is strong evidence that Mr. Maduro would lose an honest election.
Mr. Maduro seems to agree because on Monday his handpicked Supreme Court suspended the primary results. It ordered the primary commission to turn over voter information, ballots, tally sheets and other documents. Organizers were summoned before the attorney general, who launched a criminal investigation last week. The high court also ratified the regime’s ban on Ms. Machado’s candidacy.
This crackdown on Venezuelan democrats is business as usual for the dictatorship. But it’s not the script the Biden Administration has been rehearsing. On Oct. 17 Caracas and the opposition signed an electoral agreement. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it an “election roadmap” and “a concrete step toward resolution of Venezuela’s political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.”
He noted in a press statement that the regime was supposed to produce, by the end of November, a “timeline and process for the expedited reinstatement of all candidates” who were banned. Caracas was also to begin “the release of all wrongfully detained U.S. nationals and Venezuelan political prisoners,” numbering around 300.
In return, the U.S. gave Mr. Maduro what he wanted: sanctions relief. The U.S. issued a six-month general license authorizing transactions in oil and gas in Venezuela. And it awarded what the State Department called “a second general license” for Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company and “amended relevant licenses to remove the secondary trading ban on certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds and PdVSA debt and equity.”
On Tuesday Mr. Blinken told Sen. Marco Rubio that if the U.S. finds that Venezuela has violated its agreement with the opposition, it is ready to reimpose sanctions. He didn’t say what he’s waiting for.
No Trump, trolling
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Par for the administration's course.................
Now isn't this a big surprise?😏
Biden is probably waiting for Maduro check to clear.
It's been failing American's as well.
What a surprise! Which Biden got the check from Venezuela for getting sanctions lifted though?
The granddaughter he's been ignoring?
To quote a famous movie...