Biden Extends Order Declaring Venezuela a Threat to US Security

 

Will maintain Trump-era sanctions against Venezuela

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMarch 4, 2021CategoriesNewsTagsBiden, Venezuela

Early in his presidency, Joe Biden was eager to declare America is back on the world stage, but policy changes are slow coming. On Wednesday, Biden issued a new executive order extending the declaration of Venezuela as a “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

This is an extension of an order by President Obama, which was extended by Trump. Biden’s action once again points to the continuation of the status quo in US foreign policy. Officials indicate Trump-imposed sanctions against Venezuela will also stay intact.

Trump’s Venezuela policy was defined by unilaterally declaring an opposition figure as the “legitimate” president, and then heavily sanctioning the de facto government for not accepting his decision. It’s not clear if Biden will be insisting on that same regime change that Trump was waiting on, but so long as the sanctions remain intact, that’s a distinction with little difference.

On the other hand, it continues a failed policy, as despite Trump’s declaration of Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela, he came no closer to taking power over the country, and the Maduro government came no closer to falling.

Keeping the US on an unfriendly track with Venezuela is perhaps not a shocking decision, as the executive order was already bipartisan. Yet it once again paints Biden as taking the safe decisions and not messing with the status quo, particularly where the existing policy was disastrously misguided

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/03/04/biden-extends-order-declaring-venezuela-a-threat-to-us-security/