Nearly a year ago, the Biden administration saw an opening for democracy in Venezuela, easing some sanctions and allowing oil giant Chevron to resume operations there to encourage the leftist dictatorship to deal in good faith with its opposition. “Our ultimate goal with sanctions is to bring about positive change in behavior,” a senior administration official told reporters.
By the Editorial Board
Today, that policy is in shambles. The winner of the July 28 presidential election, opposition candidate Edmundo González, has fled to Spain, under threat from the ruling despot, Nicolás Maduro, who clings to power despite his decisive defeat. The United States and its allies can and should impose strong new sanctions, targeting the economic lifeline Mr. Maduro gets from oil production.
Mr. González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, stepped in as a proxy for the opposition’s most popular leader, María Corina Machado, after the regime denied her a spot on the ballot. Voting records collected by the opposition and examined by The Post show that Mr. González defeated Mr. Maduro, 67 percent to 30 percent. Mr. Maduro’s regime-controlled election commission and loyalist-packed Supreme Court brazenly certified that he won by 52 percent to 43 percent. And, when Venezuelans protested, the government unleashed repression. Security forces and regime-backed armed groups have killed 27 people and illegally detained almost 1,700 others, including 107 teenagers and 216 women, according to David Smolansky, deputy director of the ConVzla opposition presidential-campaign office in Washington.
Security forces targeted anyone who had worked in the opposition campaign or shown support for Mr. González or Ms. Machado on social media. Mr. Maduro unveiled an app in which Venezuelans could inform on fellow citizens. Mr. González fled five days after Venezuela’s attorney general filed a warrant for his arrest as part of what he said was an investigation into the opposition’s publication of voting machine receipts. Mr. Maduro thus forced his rival into exile, a common tactic of dictators.
The elected leftist presidents of Venezuela’s neighbors, Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, have responded with tepid words. They have demanded the official voting tallies — so far kept secret — be made public but stopped short of condemning the obvious theft. President Joe Biden hasn’t been heard from, despite Mr. Maduro’s having violated the promises he made in return for sanctions relief, turning the U.S. effort at “incentives” into a U.S. foreign policy defeat.
There are not a lot of options left for the United States. It has already sanctioned many Venezuelan officials — including Mr. Maduro — for human rights violations, corruption, drug trafficking and other reasons. Reconsideration of Chevron’s oil business should be next. The Biden administration allowed Chevron, which has been working in Venezuela for a century, to resume joint ventures with the state oil company last year; these currently produce about 200,000 barrels per day. According to the Wall Street Journal, this business generates about 20 percent of national crude exports and 31 percent of the government’s total oil income. Mike Wirth, Chevron’s chief executive, told investors in an Aug. 2 conference call, “We’re there to help develop the economy, support the people, create jobs and not get involved in politics, which can swing in any country from party to party.” He added: “We don’t have a role in selecting governments. … We’re a commercial player, not a political player.” But Chevron’s activities have political consequences anyway, propping up a dictatorship that Venezuela’s citizens don’t want. Chevron has been lobbying the White House not to reinstate sanctions. The company has argued that Venezuela, with the world’s largest oil reserves, will be a tempting target for geopolitical rivals Russia and China if Chevron is absented. Mr. Biden clearly wants to avoid a politically unpopular increase in gasoline prices or a surge in refugees that might be triggered by new sanctions.
Yet Russia and China are already deeply involved in Venezuela, and its oil production is trivial compared with global and U.S. needs — the whole point of boosting domestic energy production is to gain geopolitical freedom of action. A bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce new legislation to codify financial sanctions on the Venezuelan Central Bank, the state oil company and Venezuelan cryptocurrency. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed legislation to terminate all U.S. petroleum cooperation and related oil trade with Venezuela until Mr. Maduro respects the election outcome.
Mr. Biden has declared that the world is locked in a contest between democracy and autocracy, and it is. The Venezuelan strongman, apparently seeing the same high stakes, has been unrelenting in stamping out Venezuela’s courageous democrats. Mr. Biden cannot be any less relentless in defending them.
