Venezuela's election crisis shows limits of U.S. administrations over the roots of migration
As the presidential candidates likely spar over immigration in the debate, sanctions by Trump and Biden didn't push Maduro to accept fair elections.
In the upcoming presidential debate, former President Donald Trump will likely reiterate claims that Vice President Kamala Harris is a failed border czar, to which she will most probably counterpunch by saying that Trump blocked a crucial bipartisan border security deal in Congress.
But 48 hours before that showdown, the immigration landscape has been reset. The U.S.-recognized winner of Venezuela’s presidential election on July 28, Edmundo González Urrutia, fled to Spain as President Nicolás Maduro heightened his repression campaign and issued a warrant for his arrest.
These two events, nearly juxtaposed, serve as a reality check for American voters on the limitations the U.S. administration, regardless of party, face in the Latin American countries that are home to the hundreds of thousands of migrants that cross the border every year.
There are limits to the U.S.'s leverage when it comes to the political dynamics of a country or region, said Francisco Rodriguez, professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies in Denver, Colorado. Cuba is one example, he said.
“Once authoritarian regimes get entrenched, it is difficult to change them and external pressure doesn’t necessarily do the trick,” Rodriguez said.
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