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- Venezuela has experienced strained relations with Washington under both Democrat and Republican administrations.
MEXICO, CITY, Mexico, (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro warned that whatever the outcome of Tuesday’s US presidential election, Washington will have to directly negotiate with a “revolutionary government” in Caracas.
“Whoever ends up in the White House, whether it is Trump or Kamala, they will face a revolutionary government in Venezuela, a Bolivarian government, a Bolivarian people with whom they will have to dialogue,” said Maduro on Monday.
The Venezuelan president added that he would not endorse a candidate and that his government’s intention is to have a more positive relationship with the United States regardless of the winner.
“We do not get involved in the internal affairs of the United States, we simply observe and maintain our path,” said Maduro.
Venezuela has experienced strained relations with Washington under both Democrat and Republican administrations. US sanctions began under Barack Obama, who issued an executive order on March 5, 2015 declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
Obama’s decree was renewed every year by all US presidents. However, the US regime change effort was dramatically expanded under Obama’s successor Donald Trump, who pursued a “maximum pressure” strategy aimed at ousting Maduro from power.
A recent report by Wired revealed the depth of the US’ plotting against Venezuela. According to the report, the Trump administration’s strategy in Venezuela included a CIA-led effort to hack Venezuela’s military payroll in order to provoke distrust within the armed forces. The report also claimed that the CIA ran a secret “democracy promotion” program inside Venezuela.
These sorts of operations are normally run openly by USAID and the CIA’s alleged direct involvement served to confirm the Maduro government’s accusations that these programs were tied to regime change plots. The piece, citing administration officials and insider sources, went on to admit that the US Embassy was engaged in espionage, an effort that was heavily hindered following the closure of the embassy in 2019.
Wired revealed that the regime change effort against Venezuela likewise involved a high-level working group that included the CIA and the State, Treasury, and Defense departments.
The investigative report further revealed internal conflicts within the White House around the strategy, with the push for regime change being led largely by former National security advisor John Bolton. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper in 2022, Bolton boasted about his involvement in coup plots against the Maduro government.
Bolton was eventually removed by Trump and the attacks against Venezuela took a backseat to other priorities. The opposition, then led by self-declared “interim president” Juan Guaidó, eventually lost support inside Venezuela and Washington.
Despite the arrival of Joe Biden and a Democrat administration in 2020, Trump’s Venezuela policy was largely kept in place until negotiations led to a temporary reprieve of US unilateral coercive measures in late 2023.
In his comments Monday, Maduro issued a warning to the eventual winner to not fall for the same strategy employed by the opposition under Guaidó.
“Whether one or the other wins, we hope that they do not allow the failed policies of the failed oligarchy to be introduced,” said the Venezuelan president.
The hardline opposition has steadfastly rejected the results of the July 28 election that saw Maduro declared the winner of a new six-year term. Opposition leader María Corina Machado has pledged that her stand-in candidate, Edmundo González, would take office in 2025. González fled Venezuela in September and Machado is believed to have also left the country.
