(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Despite the Left’s attempts in various states—like Michigan and Colorado—to throw former President Donald Trump off the primary ballot, President Joe Biden and his administration have worked tirelessly abroad to punish other countries that engage in that same practice, the Daily Caller reported.
Among those nations is Venezuela, where current President Nicolás Maduro has enjoyed a 10-year run courtesy of fraudulent election practices that include keeping the dictator’s political opponents off the ballot.
The Biden administration offered to lift some of the sanctions first imposed by the Trump administration but kept many others intact for the country, which has been a major source of asylum-seeking illegal immigrants to the U.S.
Nonetheless, Venezuela struck Maduro’s top political opponent from the ballot at the next possible election, leading Biden’s administration to once more threaten sanctions.
“Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement will lead the United States to reconsider steps we have taken, including the easing of sanctions,” Biden’s State Department said in November.
A similar event unfolded in Nicaragua, which the Biden administration hit with harsh sanctions in 2021 after the nation engaged in what U.S. officials called a “sham election.”
According to reports, longtime President Daniel Ortega’s seven most threatening opponents were removed from the ballot in that instance, leaving only five nonentities.
Andrea M. Gacki, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, told the press that it is America’s duty to secure free elections throughout the world.
“The Ortega regime is using laws and institutions to detain members of the political opposition and deprive Nicaraguans from the right to vote,” she said in 2021. “We stand with the Nicaraguan people in their calls for reform and a return to democracy.”
Also in 2021, the Biden administration castigated the Belarus government for its “continued attacks on democracy and the ceaseless repression of independent voices in Belarus” after the nation arbitrarily barred a number of candidates from appearing on the ballot.
“Today’s actions, taken on both sides of the Atlantic, hold accountable those who continue to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people,” Gacki said of the Eastern European nation.
