Biden has an opportunity to fix all the sanction problems the US has caused in Venezuela and Cuba

By Steve Otto

The US government has had a ridiculous policy against Venezuela since the election of socialist President Nicolás Maduro. Much like the stupidity over Cuba, the US refuses to have anything to do with the so called "socialist" government in Venezuela. The US has instigated harsh and crippling sanctions against Venezuela for the last several years.

Since Russia has invaded Ukraine, President Joe Biden is considering lifting sanctions against Venezuelan oil. Naturally that has sparked a backlash by conservatives in both parties, Democrats and Republicans. According to News Week magazine:

"The idea of easing sanctions against Venezuela in order to potentially supplement losses from a ban on Russian oil was met with anger and criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle."

Once again we see the tired old "cold-war" stereo types that this country still holds against Cuba and other left-wing Latin American countries. There is prejudice against the whole idea of socialism, even though more American people than ever, now take an interest in socialism.

It would be a positive step for Biden to lift any of the sanctions on Cuba or Venezuela. The idiot former President Donald Trump caused as many problems for those countries as he could. According to AS-COA:

"On TPS (Temporary Protected Status)

• The Trump administration quashed a bipartisan congressional effort to grant TPS to Venezuelans in the United States in July 2019. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli wrote then that while the administration “continues to monitor” the situation in Venezuela that there “may be other immigration relief measures available.” He also said the administration is reluctant in general to grant TPS to new groups since courts had denied the president’s previous attempts to end it for others, thus making TPS a permanent situation rather than a temporary one. 
• Still, some think the president could grant TPS to Venezuelans in the months leading up to the November general election as a way to carve out an edge in a must-win state. One in every three Venezuelans in the United States arrived after 2015, and 53 percent of all U.S.-based Venezuelans are in Florida.

On sanctions

• In addition to continuing individual sanctions, the Trump administration upped the ante in 2019 and sanctioned state-owned oil firm PDVSA and subsidiaries, as well as Venezuela’s Central Bank. The U.S. Department of Justice also charged Maduro and 14 other officials with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking in March 2020."

As we can expect, Trump's (and other idiots in the Republican Party) accusations against Venezuela are just plain ludicrous. Biden is not that different from other Democratic Party hacks, but he has shown some willingness to fix old problems caused by US capitalism and imperialism. For example he did pull the US out of Afghanistan. It was the right thing to do and he did it.

Now he needs to go further and fix the mess this country created in Venezuela. It is also about time to stop strangling the people of Cuba with those crippling sanctions. The people in both countries have suffered enough. It is time to end the stupidity. 

The US still supports Juan Guaidó's phony attempt to be the un-elected president of Venezuela.