Is Venezuela Becoming a Cuba-Style Dictatorship?

True to his threat, Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro followed through with an election on July 30 to convene a constituent assembly tasked with changing the country’s constitution. His adversaries opposed the move as an illegal power grab and called the election fraudulent, warning that Maduro will stack the assembly with his supporters and accusing the National Electoral Council of grossly overstating the total vote count. With international opposition building, U.S. President Donald Trump also followed through with his warning of “strong and swift economic actions” should Maduro proceed, with the Treasury Department on Monday sanctioning the Venezuelan leader and freezing any assets he might have under its jurisdiction. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, called him a dictator and said other measures were still on the table.

In typical Maduro fashion, he celebrated them, stating that he was proud to be sanctioned and promising not to obey what he described as “imperial orders.” On Tuesday, opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were whisked away by secret police with guns drawn in overnight raids and transferred from house arrest back to prison. After 13 of his close aids were sanctioned by the U.S. last week, he presented them with ceremonial swords in a nationally televised address.