I reread the posts, and I can't believe what never made it into this thread. We know beyond a mathematical certainty that this vote was fraudulent. Here is one link, but there are many: In Venezuela as elsewhere, dictators are no good at maths In short, someone was told to fix the winning vote count to exactly 51.2% and they did. And it is precise to a single vote. That is a coincidence that simply does not happen. If it happened in bookeeping at a major company, it would be enough to defrock a CFO.
They are already under pretty extreme sanctions, so what is there really to do that doesn't involve acts of war? Is it our duty to violently depose governments not to our liking?
there are still levers to be pulled. Without foreign companies expertise and capital, their production would tank even more. it will worsen the economic issues in Venezuela and spur more immigration. Worlds largest oil reserves, stuck in poverty and corruption... US lawmakers press Biden administration over Venezuela sanctions policy | S&P Global Commodity Insights The United States should revoke any individual licenses allowing oil and gas companies to operate in Venezuela to pressure president Nicolas Maduro to admit he lost a July election, the chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said. At a Sept. 20 subcommittee hearing titled "Maduro Stole the Elections Again: The Response to Fraud in Venezuela," Representative Maria Salazar, Republican-Florida, said the US should immediately cease allowing Chevron and other oil companies to operate in Venezuela in the hopes of cutting off funding for the Maduro regime, which the US State Department and international observers have accused of denying the results of a July 28 election that showed opposition candidate Edmundo González won 67% of the vote and subsequently repressing internal democratic resistance. Maduro has said he won 51% of the vote, but has not provided proof. "Chevron, Repsol, Eni, and Maurel, there is blood on your hands," Salazar said. "Blood is on your hands, and it will be on yours, the Biden administration, and on us, the United States Congress, if we do not act." ................ In the immediate wake of the July 28 election, Biden administration officials announced they would not cancel the company-specific licenses previously given to oil companies to operate in Venezuela. Instead, they argued that the current sanctions policy -- which began with an easing of sanctions in 2023, after Maduro agreed to hold free and fair elections, before an April 17 snapback in response to regime moves to prevent opposition primary winner Maria Corina Machado from appearing on the ballot -- had helped to produce an election in the first place. "Really, it's remarkable that we are here now, that that election happened, the opposition was allowed to run in it, and that they were able to capture the results from that election and present them in a credible way," Sullivan said. "Our job now in the international community is to support them as they seek to ensure that the will of the Venezuelan people is respected."
How would spurring more immigration, economic misery or increasing oil prices be helpful to anyone in Venezuela or outside it?
to help to get rid of an oppressive regime that is ruining the country and is an international pariah?
Speaking of international pariahs we were the only vote in the UN against a Gaza cease fire. We’ve just elected a fascist according to many … perhaps we get our own house in order before telling others to with economic and military violence?
