The Fall of Maduro and Its Meaning for the Middle East

In an article published just two days before the Venezuela operation, Elliott Abrams observed that “cooperation between [the Maduro] regime and hostile powers—Cuba, Russia, China, Iran—and terrorist groups like Hizballah will not stop because they help the regime survive and share its hostility to the United States.” But Abrams warns in a second piece, written after Maduro’s arrest (and paywalled), that it is not enough merely to depose the dictator; rather, Venezuelans must be allowed to choose new rulers. Otherwise, “if the Maduro thugs remain in power, there will be more migration and more drug trafficking. . . . And the ties to hostile regimes like Cuba and Iran will remain.”