Marco Rubio: Biden-Harris administration failures hurt Venezuela —and America | Opinion

Foreign policy doesn’t rank among the most important issues for Americans, because housing is unaffordable, groceries are expensive, schools are failing, and communities are unsafe.

But while a strong, America First foreign policy may not fix those problems, a bad Biden-Harris foreign policy will make them even worse.

Just look at what’s happening in Venezuela. The Biden-Harris administration has “serious concerns” that dictator Nicolás Maduro’s announcement of electoral victory in the recent presidential election “does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”

But such an outcome to this sham election was entirely predictable from the start. It was made more so by three years’ worth of concessions to and negotiations with the Maduro narco-dictatorship.

The level of capitulation is actually stunning: In June 2022, the Biden-Harris administration lifted sanctions against Maduro’s nephew. Four months later, they released two more of Maduro’s nephews from federal prison, where they were serving 18 years on drug trafficking charges.

Then, in November 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department allowed Chevron to resume business with Maduro’s state-run oil industry.

Each of these actions was intended to “encourage…a change in policies from the Maduro regime.” No such change occurred. But that

didn’t stop the White House from continuing its absurd strategy of appeasement.

The last year-and-a-half has seen America contrive a United Nations-run assistance fund for Venezuela, temporarily lift sanctions against Maduro’s state-run oil, gas, and gold industries, and release Maduro’s close ally and money launderer, Alex Saab, from prison. The Biden-Harris

Administration framed these actions as steps to “free and fair elections” in Venezuela, but without any indication that Maduro would permit those elections. Even when Maduro banned the leading opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, from the ballot, they considered additional sanctions relief.

In short, the Biden-Harris Administration gave away every ounce of leverage we had over Maduro, then appeared surprised when he didn’t do what they wanted. It’s problematic to say the least, and not just for the people of Venezuela—or for opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González, who are now facing threats of imprisonment—but for America.

In recent years, nearly eight million Venezuelans have fled their country. Many of them have crossed our southern border, and many more will do the same if Maduro retains power.

The tyrant will also happily send dangerous criminals—like the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, which is already wreaking havoc on our streets—the United States’ way. None of this makes life easier for American communities. It shows the White House’s feckless policies have failed across the board.

The White House’s policies have similarly failed in the Middle East. There, the removal of the Houthis’ Foreign Terrorist Organization designation and the lifting of sanctions against Iran only served to embolden both adversaries. None of this took place under President Donald Trump, of course, for the simple reason that he didn’t make concessions to dictators or tyrants.

The correlation between the Biden-Harris appeasement strategy and the increased confidence of rogue states is clear, and President Ronald Reagan’s old adage that “weakness invites aggression” is proven true once again.

Foreign policy failures may not make the front-page news in most communities, but those communities are still endangered by events in our destabilized region.

Naively begging bullies like Maduro to play by the rules has hurt America, so it’s time for this administration to admit its mistakes, ready sanctions against those involved in the anti-democratic electoral process, and start the hard work of rebuilding our reputation abroad.

Marco Rubio is a U.S. Senator from Florida.