The Biden White House criticized Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday for barring the leading opposition candidate from his country’s upcoming elections — after Democrats tried to do the same to Donald Trump.
Maria Corina Machado, 56, won the opposition primary in Venezuela last year and has been favored in the polls to beat Maduro in the July elections, possibly putting an end to the authoritarian rule of Hugo Chávez’s successor.
But the Maduro regime blocked the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) opposition coalition from registering its candidate by midnight early Tuesday. Machado’s chosen successor, Dr. Corina Yoris, was also blocked.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about the Maduro regime’s actions during a press briefing on Air Force One on Tuesday afternoon, said: “Obviously, we’re deeply concerned by the National Electoral Council’s decision to prevent the registration of … the democratic opposition party’s candidate, Dr. Corina Yoris,.
“We are woring with other members of the international community to ensure that Venezuelans can participate in inclusive and competitive elections and urge representatives of Maduro to allow all candidates to run. We support the will and right of Venezuelans and the Venezuelans’ political parties to select presidentical candidates. We are monitoring the situation closely. ”
She suggested that Venezuela could lose sanctions relief if the Maduro regime did not provide for free and fair elections.
The White House has been silent about efforts by the Democratic Party to exclude former President Trump from the ballot — an effort that was only ended when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously last month against such efforts.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.