Pence Decries Venezuelan 'Bad Leader,' Ignores US History of Regime Change
Mike Pence, fresh from his tenure as Vice-President, recently proclaimed that Venezuela’s 'Delcy Rodríguez is not the right leader,' lamenting the lack of 'free and fair elections' in the country ( The Hill ). This critique, however, conveniently sidesteps a rather extensive U.S. track record in Latin America, where 'free and fair' often translates to 'U.S.-approved.' For context, the U.S. has a
rich history of interfering in Venezuelan elections and governance, from tacitly supporting a 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez to imposing crushing sanctions aimed at destabilizing the current government. One might recall the U.S. backing of Juan Guaidó as the 'legitimate' interim president in 2019, despite his lack of popular electoral mandate. It appears that for some U.S. politicians,
'democracy' is less about the choices of a nation's populace and more about aligning with Washington’s geopolitical and economic preferences. How many times must the U.S. destabilize a region before its leaders run out of 'wrong leaders' to point fingers at?