Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in yesterday for a third term in office, amidst an internationally-coordinated offensive intended to oust him on grounds that his July 28, 2024 election was fraudulent. The nefarious ‘Project Democracy’ apparatus responsible for many regime change operations around the world is fully mobilized behind the charge of election fraud and demand that the hapless opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who is barely ambulatory and never wanted to be President anyway, should be recognized as the legitimate President. The U.S. is leading the pack.
Just 11 days away from Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Biden administration announced a new round of sanctions on Maduro, his Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, on charges of drug-trafficking and corruption, increasing to $25 million an earlier $15 million reward for Maduro’s arrest or conviction on these charges. Immediately, Canada, the U.K. and the European Union jumped in with sanctions on additional individuals from the security forces and the National Electoral Council that had certified Maduro’s election.
In an Ibero-America and Venezuela that are deeply polarized, the demands of collective Biden that Edmundo Gonzalez be immediately sworn in as the legitimate president, is dangerous and stupid. There are regional tensions between Venezuela and Guyana with the Southern Command looking for any pretext to intervene. The attempt to impose a parallel government in Venezuela, like that of Juan Guaido, whom the U.S. recognized as “interim President” in January of 2019, will backfire. And, Edmundo Gonzalez was only the front man for Maria Corina Machado, who was banned from running for president but is the real leader of the opposition and fawned over as a great freedom fighter by the neoliberal international pro “democracy” apparatus.
