The dictator of Venezuela has claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election. Although credible pre-election opinion polls showed Nicolas Maduro losing by a significant margin, although all exit polls on Sunday showed the same thing, and although millions of anti-Maduro Venezuelans flooded the streets outside polling stations, Maduro somehow beat Edmundo Gonzalez 51%-44%, according to the National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro.
China and Russia have rushed to endorse Maduro's victory, lending their voices rather than democratic credentials to election theft. Brazil's socialist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also endorsed this electoral fiction as well, pledging that he would "not endorse any narrative that there was fraud."
Most of Latin America and the rest of the world disagree and have responded with deep skepticism to the results.
But the Biden administration doesn't appear interested in combating Maduro's larceny. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he has "serious concerns" over the results and "the international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly." But these words are already a failure to respond accordingly. Were the Administration serious about holding Maduro to account, it would rally the Organization of American States for wide-ranging sanctions, call a U.N. Security Council meeting that forced China and Russia to explain why they back the dictator, and recognize Gonzalez as Venezuela's legitimate president.
President Joe Biden's weak response is characteristic. Since entering office, he has incentivized Maduro's double-dealing just as he has given succor to evil regimes everywhere else.
He foolishly waived sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and mineral export industries in 2023. This was part of an agreement designed to ensure fair elections — in other words, to ensure that what happened on Sunday would never happen. After months of blatant Maduro breaches of his obligations, the administration finally reintroduced sanctions in April, but the damage was already done. Maduro played Biden for a fool — who wouldn't? — and learned that the United States would not confront him. Soon after the sanctions were waived, Maduro began threatening to invade Guyana. If the White House now treats Maduro’s election theft as business as usual, he may decide he has little to lose by going for the Guyanan jugular.
Biden's foolishness on Venezuela speaks to a pattern of foreign policy defectiveness.
His Iran policy, for example, blends timidity in the face of terrorism with myopia on not holding Iran to account over its nuclear escalations. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last week that the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a U.S. presence plotting terrorist attacks. Iran continues to plot the murder of former Trump administration officials, including former President Donald Trump himself, in revenge for the January 2020 assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
The list of foreign policy failings runs far longer.
Biden's policy toward Israel mixes hectoring Jerusalem and petulant virtue signaling to the Democratic Left. As Hezbollah lobs rockets into Israeli children playing soccer, and as Hamas keeps dozens of hostages in underground dungeons, Biden calls for one-sided ceasefires and no Israeli defensive actions.
Russia policy oscillates between supporting Ukraine and bowing to theatrical Russian pressure over what weapons Ukraine may use against Russian targets.
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China policy obsesses over talk while China attacks ships from Taiwan and the Philippines , a U.S. treaty ally, even in Manila's exclusive economic zone.
This record shows the adults are not back in charge as Biden claimed they would be. But weak as Biden is, Kamala Harris seems likely to be no better. The vice president issued a bland statement asserting that "the will of the Venezuelan people must be respected" without acknowledging Gonzalez's victory or criticizing Maduro's conduct. America needs a stronger leader than this in the White House.
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