The US has reimposed economic sanctions against a Venezuelan state-owned mining company and says it could go on to reimpose further sanctions on the country’s oil and gas sector after Venezuela’s Supreme Court barred main opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado from running for president last week.
The US Treasury on Monday revoked General License 43, which had authorized dealings with mining conglomerate CVG-Minerven. The Treasury said US companies have until February 13 to wind down transactions that were previously authorized by that license.
While US economic sanctions against the mining company are unlikely to cause significant damage to the Venezuelan economy, the US State Department has crucially signaled it intends to renew oil and gas sanctions from April 18, if there’s no progress between Venezuela’s authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro and the opposition “particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s elections,” it said in a statement.
“Democracy is Bad, Actually” - Terminally Online ‘Leftists’
You can disagree with Maduro and his autocratic actions without supporting sanctions that mostly harm the civilian population.
She wants to privatize huge swathes of the Venezuelan government and wants a Milei style capitalist “shock therapy”. She’s on record not only stating that helping poor people is bad, but defends the statement. She’d make a bad situation for the Venezuelan people far, far worse. Of fucking course she should be barred from running. The US should stop intervening in South America.
Barring people from running because you dislike their platform is as fascist as it gets.
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Look at that deafening silence. You know you’re speaking truth to power when people are upset at you but don’t try to contest what you’re saying.
First of all, all censorship and undemocratic laws are justified by “protecting the people” from dangerous ideas, case and point, the Kids Online Safety Act, the problem being, who defines what is bad or good? and the fact of the matter is that people on power will always conveniently decide that the opposition is “dangerous” and “extremist”.
Secondly, the US system, as broken as it is today, actually started in a time where there were no political parties and as such, it was a popularity contest between whoever wanted to run, and still is to a point, had the system not had been enveloped by them.
Finally, the point of the location of birth is that most people tend to be faithful to their nation, especially the one they were born (of course it is not linear, but it is a reasonable rule)
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Should Trump be barred from running?
Yes, because he violated his oath of office
Yes, because he has been impeached and indicted multiple times for charges related to violations of the oath of office of the presidency.
What are Machado’s crimes that she should be barred?
From what I can tell, conspiracy (against the government), inciting violent protests, and corruption. It’s weird they don’t say it in the article. But she says the protests were supposed to be peaceful and some of the conspiracy evidence was faked, which it might be, idk, I wasn’t in the court room.
But considering the US is still doing shit like this, I could see why they have to be paranoid.
I don’t think a democratic process should be limited to only banning people that broke the law. Someone that intentionally wants to harm people through excessive austerity like Machado and Milei shouldn’t be able to run.
Remember, Hitler was elected. If a democratic process can’t stop a person like that from running, then the democratic process is failed.
This all sounds nice until you realize that a system like this would be easily abused. “I’m sorry, but the one candidate that actually stands a chance against me is banned because the courts full of judges I appointed has determined that their policies are harmful.”
Who gets to be the arbiter of what policies are acceptable and what are not? Let the voters decide for themselves.
The system can be made robust though. Implementation is also important, and I’m just one person so I’m not going create that framework for an Internet discussion. The question that the framework should rely on power: is the candidate advocating for a distribution of power, or a centralization of power? Privatization seeks to centralize power, for example.
State capitalism also centralizes power. It’s just centralized with the government instead of a monied class. I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem if there is a robust electoral system and a low level of corruption but I feel based upon everything I’ve read about Venezuela that they’re lacking in both.
Okay, so you don’t believe in democracy.
I can make reductionist arguments too:
Okay, so you believe it was a good thing that Hitler was elected.
Well not only does he have shitty policies, he did also attempt a coup. Which is why he should be barred from running.
Stop attempting the false equivalence, it’s not working.
Her party tried to rob a military arsenal, she was charged with a conspiracy and corruption, and so she can’t run. It went through their courts. It all seems legal, considering people in the US can’t run for similar reasons. It might be corrupt, idk, but the US doesn’t have a leg to stand on with corrupt courts. Why sanction other countries, which always affects the regular citizens, for this stuff we can’t even figure out ourselves?
What definition of fascism is it that prevents fascists from running for president?
There is no need to be tolerant of the intolerant. They don’t abide by the social contract and don’t reap the benefits of it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez described the move as “blackmail” on Tuesday, warning that Caracas would stop cooperating in repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants from the US if Washington’s “economic aggression” intensifies.
In October, the Biden administration lifted general economic sanctions targeting Venezuela’s mining and oil industries, in support of an agreement struck in Barbados between Maduro and the opposition to hold free and fair elections in 2024.
Earlier on Monday, White House’s spokesperson John Kirby had said Maduro had until April to return to the negotiating table and commit to what was agreed last year, including holding free elections where all candidates are allowed to run, or sanctions could be reimposed.
It also has the potential to impact the US domestic gas market because several US companies, including Chevron, operate in Venezuela and Venezuelan crude is regularly exported to refineries in the US Gulf Coast, data from the US Energy Information Administration show.
In an interview with CNN’s Isa Soares on Tuesday, Machado warned millions more Venezuelans could flee the country if Maduro doesn’t comply with commitments to hold free elections.
Machado also commented on Rodríguez’s warning that Venezuela could stop cooperating on repatriation flights, saying, “You can imagine that it breaks my heart to see our people being used in such a hard and unlawful way.
The original article contains 555 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
How long can Maduro continue to starve his people and threaten his neighbors before the world steps in and does something?
How many times must the US interfere with countries and elections in the global south before people realize that these types of articles suggesting war, coups, and sanctions are just puppeting US State propaganda?
What kind of election is it when anyone with a chance of beating Maduro is conveniently banned from running? The US has an abysmal record in south and Central America but that doesn’t change the fact that Maduro is an autocrat.
Perhaps he is an autocrat, but let the Venezuelans sort it out and stop intervening by coups or starving the whole country.
Ah, the good ol “spreading of democracy” in an oil rich country. A true classic.
I don’t think they should have barred Machado from running, but I also don’t think the US should sanction them over it. American meddling never improves this sort of situation, especially when in the form of hurting a country’s economy.
Oh yeah more sanctions for trouble areas. Surely this will help our immigration problem
What immigration problem?
Oh, you’re a victim of a government we deem undemocratic? We’ll further suffocate you economically then!
Sanctions should be recognized as a crime against humanity.
