WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) issued the following statement in response to Maduro’s handpicked Supreme Court deciding to uphold ban on the candidacy of opposition leader, María Corina Machado:
“I warned the Biden administration back in October when they broadly eased sanctions in their deal with Maduro that follow through would be everything. I said I would be watching closely because as we have seen in the past, Maduro uses these diplomatic processes as smokescreens to gain sanctions relief and other measures only to benefit his regime. I warned that the United States ‘must not fall for that again’ and here we are with Maduro’s handpicked Supreme Court upholding a ban on the candidacy of María Corina Machado, the opposition candidate and winner of last year’s primary election.
“This news out of Venezuela should result in sanctions being immediately reimposed and not lifted until Ms. Machado is allowed to run in a truly free election. Without free and fair elections, the release of political prisoners who have been wrongfully and unjustly imprisoned, and the guarantee that the Maduro regime’s political opponents will not be targeted for exercising their right to participate in the political process, the United States should not be engaging with this dictatorship. The Maduro regime has failed to live up to its end of the deal and there must be serious consequences from the United States and our allies.”
