It’s a curious case when the United States, a country quick to accuse others—particularly Russia—of election interference, wields a heavy hand in Venezuela’s electoral process.
In a 19 November post on X (formerly Twitter), outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognised Edmundo González Urrutia as Venezuela’s president-elect. The opposition leader had fled to Spain for exile following the 28 July election.
This isn’t the first time Washington has stoked the flames of regime change in Venezuela. In 2019, Washington recognised Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president following Nicolás Maduro’s 2018 election. And during his first stint as US President, Donald Trump openly considered invading Venezuela. Marco Rubio, a child of Cuban immigrants who arrived in the US two years before the Cuban revolution, is Trump’s choice for secretary of state and is expected to continue a hardline stance against Venezuela, which he has referred to as a ‘narco-dictatorship.’
Do Venezuela’s estimated 304 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, the largest in the world, have something to do with it?
Be the judge.
Sources:
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15530/
https://apnews.com/article/a3309c4990ac4581834d4a654f7746ef
https://2017-2021.state.gov/recognition-of-juan-guaido-as-venezuelas-interim-president/