U.S. must aim to keep Venezuela in check

Gustavo Cisneros died in December at 78. He was the co-founder of TV network Univision and an advocate of free enterprise who controlled a baseball team and a beauty pageant, among other valuable assets.

Cisneros died in New York, but was a native of Venezuela, just like tens of thousands of migrants who have flooded the U.S. since 2022. It may seem incongruous to connect a media mogul with those impoverished folks, but it’s important to remember where this crisis originated and why. The migrants are not accidental travelers.

Venezuela should be one of the wealthiest countries in South America. With the help of homegrown tycoons such as Cisneros, it developed its oil reserves into a huge moneymaker. Authoritarian regimes in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Cuba also have forced their people to flee north, but none had the level of economic potential that Venezuela enjoys.

Don’t blame the Venezuelan migrants. The fault lies with the failed leaders of their country, including a selfish business elite and, especially, the current dictator, Nicolas Maduro. Corruption and violent crime have made this once-promising nation unlivable. Maduro has destabilized neighboring countries and recently threatened Guyana, a nation friendly to the U.S.

The Biden administration has taken baby steps to ease the conditions leading Venezuelans to flee, and the country’s economy has partly recovered. Still, the mass migration continues.

It’s a mess, made even more frustrating because of the squandered potential.

Venezuela struck it rich a century ago. Standard Oil and other multinationals moved in, increasing production while handing over a share of their profits to the state. In the late 1950s, Venezuela elected a stable democratic government and in 1960 joined the OPEC oil cartel, which led to huge windfalls.

Alas, business and government leaders helped themselves to billions in oil revenues that could have been used to build a more diverse economy. When oil prices plunged in the 1980s, Venezuela was unprepared, leading to runaway inflation and an enormous foreign debt.

The 1990s brought an attempted coup by military officer Hugo Chavez, who became president in 1998 by promising that oil revenues would be used to reduce poverty instead of lining the pockets of the rich.

Chavez remained in power until his death in 2013, expanding social services but ruining the state-run oil company by forcing out competent managers. He ended term limits, compromised the courts and seized assets owned by multinationals. The U.S. and other countries responded with severe sanctions that limited the country’s oil exports. Those sanctions made life difficult for everyday Venezuelans yet didn’t stop Chavez from consolidating his autocratic powers.

When oil prices plunged a decade ago, Venezuela was more vulnerable than ever, given the sanctions and the erosion of its democratic institutions.

Maduro, who succeeded Chavez, locked up his critics and restricted access to information. In 2018, he stole an election, leading the Trump administration to ratchet up sanctions in an effort to topple the regime. When the pandemic hit, so did hyperinflation. Basic goods and services became unavailable. Millions of Venezuelans fled, mostly to neighboring countries but also to Spain and the U.S.

At the end of 2022, under pressure from the flood of migrants, the Biden administration tried easing the economic embargo, allowing oil giant Chevron to resume operations but also requiring free elections. Maduro, predictably, has failed to hold up his end of the deal so far, and he recently revived a long-ago dispute over oil-rich territory in Guyana.

Even without sanctions, Venezuela will never attract the private investment needed to rebuild its economy with a dangerous despot still in power.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said it exactly right: “When President Biden gave him an inch, President Maduro took a mile. And with no accountability, he is taking more.”

The world cannot allow Maduro to seize an inch of Guyana, and he’s unlikely to submit to a truly free election, given that his people have good reason to vote him out. The U.S. has little choice but to keep the pressure on.

One day, we hope, a country with great potential will wake up from its nightmare and create the conditions needed to keep its people from running away.