The Trump administration should use its newly announced quasi-embargo on Venezuela as a bargaining chip to get much stronger international economic sanctions against that country’s dictatorship. Otherwise, I’m afraid that Trump’s latest sanctions will backfire.
From what I hear from diplomatic sources, there is total chaos in the Trump administration’s foreign-policy apparatus. It’s by no means clear that, despite its claims to the contrary, that the administration knows what to do next in Venezuela.
And without a clear follow-up plan to topple illegitimate President Nicolás Maduro, who blatantly rigged the 2018 elections, the new U.S. sanctions could actually help Maduro cling to power. That’s what happened in Cuba, where a U.S. embargo without international backing accelerated the island’s mass migration and gave the dictatorship an excuse to play the victim, allowing it to cling to power indefinitely.
