"Elections" are Empowering Brutal Socialist Regimes and American Adversaries

Reexamining Failed Strategies in Venezuela and Latin America is Sorely Needed

As the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela drags on, it’s clear that the U.S. and its allies must rethink their approach to dealing with totalitarian states in the Western Hemisphere. Relying on elections as tools for undermining entrenched regimes has failed not only in Venezuela but also in other parts of the world, such as in Eastern Europe during the color revolutions and the Middle East with Hezbollah’s rise to power in Lebanon.

These strategies, far from bringing about democratic reform, have only legitimized authoritarian regimes and empowered bad actors. Venezuela is a case in point, but this can also apply in places such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and a few other nations in the Americas where we have adopted weaponizing elections as the primary foreign policy tool.

For more than a decade, the U.S. and other stakeholders have hoped that manipulated elections would pressure the Maduro regime. However, these “elections” have done little more than reinforce the control of those in power—the very people with guns, control of the security apparatus, and foreign backers like Russia, China, and Cuba.

Rather than unseating Maduro, this strategy has allowed him to tighten his grip, all while presenting the image of a legitimate ruler through the façade of a democratic process. Free and fair elections are impossible in totalitarian regime police states such as Venezuela. With Russian backing and decades of Cuban support, Nicolas Maduro controls the military and the administrative super state — a system that, it seems, U.S. intelligence failed to coopt in any meaningful way to make a difference.

This isn’t just a Venezuelan problem. Similar tactics were employed in Europe’s color revolutions, where elections were supposed to lead to democratic rule and stability. In reality, they often led to instability or outright failure. Think Serbia, or more recently, Ukraine. Even more telling is the situation in Lebanon, where U.S. strategies helped bring Hezbollah into power, transforming a once-vibrant democracy into a state dominated by a terrorist group. The Palestinian experiment is another case in point. The parallels between these failed policies and what is happening in Venezuela are striking—and deeply concerning.