Maduro Makes the Election Theft Official

The dictatorship in Caracas made official its theft of the July 28 Venezuelan presidential election on Thursday when its Supreme Court pronounced strongman Nicolás Maduro the winner. The move was expected—unless you count the Biden Administration.

Team Biden has recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner by an overwhelming margin, but U.S. diplomats are still begging Mr. Maduro to produce the evidence he says he has to the contrary. Any day now.

Venezuela’s opposition, led by the popular Maria Corina Machado, placed registered monitors at polling stations across the country to document ballot tallies on election night. It has uploaded those images on the internet for the world to see. By now it’s obvious that tally sheets giving Mr. Maduro the win don’t exist and that stalling by his allies in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, who insist on waiting for them, is antidemocratic.

More encouraging is that Reuters cites sources saying the U.S. has drawn up a list of 60 Venezuelan officials and their relatives who could be sanctioned.

But greater pain would come if Treasury pulls Chevron’s license for bringing oil out of Venezuela and bans companies that do business with the regime from doing business in the U.S. Venezuelan production is so low today that global oil output will hardly be affected.

The time for negotiating is past. Dictators aren’t known for relinquishing power democratically and Mr. Maduro is no exception.

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