Venezuela’s coming electoral farce could double its emigration to the US

Venezuela is experiencing a new and unprecedented wave of migration. Chavez Maduro’s dictatorship, which has been in power for 25 years, has announced presidential elections this summer. All points to another electoral farce that, far from producing political change, will crush the hopes of 28 million residents and trigger a wave of immigration unlike anything we’ve seen before. .

of US Annual Threat Assessment Iintelligence community It said political repression and a lack of economic opportunity will continue to encourage Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migration. Of course, the regimes in these three countries will continue to blame U.S. sanctions and policies for their failures and irregular migration, the perfect alibi.

of US Southern Command We recently reported that President Nicolas Maduro is presiding over an unmitigated humanitarian disaster. His management of Venezuela’s economy has worsened the living conditions of a desperate population with limited access to food, water and fuel, leaving them no choice but to migrate. The report also noted that record numbers of Venezuelans are leaving their homeland in search of a better life. More than 7.7 million people have fled the country since 2013.

Efforts to democratize Venezuela have failed. For two years, maybe he was three years, the international community started talking about things like: New strategies for dealing with oppression Less sanctions, more dialogue, and of course more oil. These efforts led to the Barbados Agreement, which outlined a path to free, fair and transparent elections.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, President Maduro did not abide by the signed agreement. With the US approving some relief from sanctions on oil, gas and gold, the dictatorship only strengthened its economic power and stepped up its persecution and arrests of opponents. This included disqualifying Maria Colina Machado, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, from voting in this year’s elections.

Maduro is a criminal. In March 2020, the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office charged him with drug trafficking and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest and conviction. Much has changed since then, most of it in Maduro’s favor and against the millions of Venezuelans suffering from hunger, exile, imprisonment, and death.

Maduro government too Blacklisted for human trafficking. In 2023, the United States added Venezuela to its human trafficking blacklist. This means President Maduro is not adhering to minimum standards to combat human trafficking and protect victims.

This month, the US extended it for another year. Executive Order 13692 The executive order issued regarding Venezuela said the situation in the country has not improved and continues to pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

President Nicolas Maduro is repeating the tactics of the Cuban dictatorship, deliberately and strategically facilitating the infiltration of migrants across the border by political allies and criminal organizations such as the notorious Torren de Aragua.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) are leading a bicameral effort to respond to President Biden and increase the number of violent Torren de Aragua. They requested that it be designated as a national criminal organization.

According to their letters, the Torren de Aragua is a criminal army that has infiltrated from Venezuelan prisons and is spreading its brutality and chaos to U.S. cities and small towns. If left unchecked, it will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror, mirroring the devastation already inflicting on communities across Latin America, including Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.

Let’s be clear: Venezuelan immigrants are not criminals. The majority are honest working people. But the Venezuelan regime is implementing a dark and dangerous migration strategy: a new version of Cuba. mariel boat liftexcept on steroids, designed to destabilize the United States from within.

The idea that immigration is just a border issue minimizes what is actually a much larger crisis. Immigration is also a national security and foreign policy issue. How we respond, or fail to respond, to Venezuela’s dictatorship will have a direct impact on new waves of immigration. That’s the elephant in the room.

Arturo McFields Yekaskas is an exiled journalist, former OAS Ambassador to Nicaragua, and former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps.