Latest in Venezuela
President Biden must change U.S.-Venezuela policy to include ditching the Guaidó strategy, easing U.S. sanctions, promoting migration talks, and more.
Humanitarian groups often express frustration with U.S. sanctions, which can hinder the deliver of aid during crises and make banks reluctant to work with them, but there are ways to bridge this gap.
The State Department's decision to add Cuba to the Not Fully Cooperating Country list could signal a more aggressive policy.
Nicholás Maduro and Jair Bolsonaro have had a very tumultuous month. Dana, Jamil, Les and returning guest Andrew Borene discuss the failed coup attempt failed in Venezuela, and Brazil’s new status as a COVID-19 hotspot. How should the United States treat friends and foes in South America? Should the U.S. place sanctions on a democratic country? Can our hosts find a way to link all of this back to Iran? All these questions and more answered in this week’s Fault Lines.
Whether a recent private military excursion violated U.S. law might hinge on the answers to a few important questions.
Federal U.S. prosecutors have today unsealed indictments charging Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with drug trafficking crimes, including narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. Charges were also announced against high ranking Venezuelan officials including Venezuela’s vice president for the economy, minister of defense and chief supreme court justice, as well as two Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) leaders.
In the 1970s, Venezuela was among the richest countries in the world, and, uniquely for Latin America, it maintained a robust constitutional democracy with peaceful transfers of power.
President Trump’s recent decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president has placed the United States in the middle of a heated struggle over that country’s political future.
The U.S., along with dozens of other states, recently recognized Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Discussion of international recognition of Guaidó’s presidency has focused largely on the political implications of the move as a rejection of Nicolás Maduro’s corrupt dictatorship. While recognition typically focuses on a ruler’s de facto control over a territory, Guaidó’s de jure status under the Venezuelan Constitution is also crucial.
For the past two years, the Trump administration has focused on slashing the number of refugees entering the United States, dropping the cap from 85,000 in 2016 to just 30,000 for 2019. These efforts have singled out top-sending—and predominantly Muslim—countries including Syria and Iraq. Yet, in the past two years, new refugee crises have popped up throughout the world; one of the most quickly unraveling of which is just across the Caribbean Sea in Venezuela.