Empowering Venezuela to Chart a Path Forward

It has been a month since the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, in an awesome display of military competence and power projection, captured Venezuelan despot Nicolás Maduro and his wife. (The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Statement on Maduro’s ouster is here.) ALEC celebrated Maduro’s arrest for allegedly leading a drug trafficking conspiracy, resulting in the export of cocaine to the US and to Europe. He was a murderous dictator, and his removal offers Venezuela the opportunity to restore democratic governance and spur economic growth. Empowering Venezuelans to restore their democracy also provides the United States with the opportunity to emphasize the humanitarian motivation behind removing Maduro. The strategic and economic reasons have already been highlighted with a seventh Venezuela-linked oil tanker seized in recent days.

Handpicked by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro assumed office following Chávez’s death in 2013 and doubled down on his predecessor’s failed economic policies. Universally unpopular, Maduro engaged in rampant human rights violations and political repression to stay in power. His rise is chronicled in the ALEC article, Old Nick and the Bolivarian Revolution, and Across the States podcast featuring ALEC’s immediate past National Chair, WV Senator Patricia Rucker, who described her family’s struggles in Venezuela. During Maduro’s regime, Venezuela, with the largest known oil reserves and vast mineral wealth, suffered widespread severe food insecurity, the mass exodus of almost one-quarter of its population, and still has the highest inflation rate in the world, although it is an improvement over previous years’ inflation figures, which topped 2 million percent in 2018-19.

U.S. business leadership’s assistance in the rebuilding of Venezuela’s oil and other extractive industry infrastructure is key to the restoration of Venezuela as a self-sufficient, democratic nation. With a little help, Venezuela can put its fiscal house in order by embracing free market principles, and the United States can assist. The White House has begun that process, and more needs to be done to encourage private sector involvement and investment to get US dollars into the country. Seventy percent of Venezuela’s population lives in poverty, and one economist predicted 2,000% inflation could be on the horizon.

While U.S. economic assistance is critical and the White House should continue to pressure the government to release political prisoners, ultimately, the people of Venezuela should chart their own course, led by those they elect. Courageous Venezuelans have made that job a little easier by casting ballots for two potential leaders. Despite brutal crackdowns on dissent, in October 2023, 93% of voters in the opposition presidential primary cast ballots for opposition figure María Corina Machado. Fearing she could best him in the general election, Maduro banned her future candidacy and forced her into exile, a familiar autocratic maneuver. Machado was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 and presented her award to President Donald Trump. Another opposition leader, Edmundo González, was recognized as the winner of the 2024 presidential elections by countries around the globe, including by the U.S. government. Maduro issued arrest warrants, prompting González to flee Venezuela.

Currently, Delcy Rodriguez, an ardent Chavista who held powerful positions during both the Chavez and Maduro regimes, including most recently as Maduro’s Vice President, is serving as Venezuela’s President. Except for the release of more than 100 political prisoners, far from eschewing Maduro’s excesses, Rodriguez has continued repressing Venezuelans fighting for economic and political freedom. It is a travesty that currently, Venezuelans who express support for President Trump’s decapitation of the Maduro regime are subject to arrest by Maduro’s former deputies, including President Rodriguez. As soon as possible, free and fair elections should be held, and Machado and Gonzalez should be incorporated into the planning for Venezuela’s future and political leadership.

America has been here before, and it worked out surprisingly well. In December 1989, then-President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Just Cause, which resulted in the January 1990 ousting and capture of Panamanian President Manuel Noriega in an effort to install the democratically elected Guillermo Endara to the presidency. Thirty years on, Panama stands as one of Latin America’s strongest democracies, boasting solid economic growth. The United States, at the cusp of its 250^th year as a global beacon for democracy, should not risk even the appearance of replacing one dictator with another in a bid to appropriate natural resources.