Editorial: Time is Now, For Democracy in Venezuela

It has now been seven (7) months since US Special Forces helicoptered into Caracas, Venezuela, and seized the dictator Nicolas Maduro, to be flown to New York to face charges of drug smuggling, human trafficking, massive human rights abuses.

Maduro ruled as an illegal dictator since 2013, when he was installed in office to succeed the deceased dictator Hugo Chavez - by Chavez' own "Bolivarian" revolutionary clique - in a rigged election.

Maduro was long accused by the world community of being a dictator who jailed or persecuted political opponents and repeatedly staged sham elections.

Rigged election after rigged election was followed by the arrest, torture and jailing of opposition members of the National Assembly, and the destruction of all civil rights in Venezuela.

Accompanying the Dictatorship was Kleptocracy - the systematic looting of the country by Maduro and his Bolivarian cronies: Everything as stolen: the once oil-rich country saw oil production plummet from over 2 million barrels per day, to 600,000 barrels per day, as the Bolivarian thugs literally stole and sold-off the oil equipment.

The result was a human rights horror: Gangs shot and beat anyone they wanted.  Women were raped, men and boys gunned down, and Bolivarian death squads ran wild. One third of the population - over 8 million people - has now fled the country.

The US ouster of Maduro in January promised the return of democracy - including the return of opposition leader Maria Machado (the winner of the 2025 Noble Peace Prize) and the actually elected President, Edmundo Gonzalez (who defeated Maduro in the 2024 presidential election - 70% to 25% - but was then threatened with arrest and death and had to flee the country).

Instead, the Bolivarian thug Delcy Rodriguez - Maduro's "Vice President" and head of the Bolivarian prisons and enforcement apparatus - has been anointed as "President" - with the approval of the United States. US sanctions were lifted, and over $15 billion in oil has now been sold - with the revenues shared between Delcy and the US-designated "brokers."

Talk of "freedom" and "democracy" have faded - and shunted into the future.

Finally - under prodding from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio - talks will finally begin in August between the Delcy Bolivarian thugs - and the opposition leaders who were driven out and jailed by Delcy and her gang.

Incredibly, Noble Laureate Maria Machado - and the 2024 presidential election winner Edmundo Gozalez - are still both still barred from the country. And Delcy still keeps thousands of "political prisoners" in her torture-jails.

Enough of the playing footsies with Delcy and her Bolivarian thugs - It is time to schedule real elections and return democracy and freedom to Venezuela.