This is John Bachelor, conversation with Professor Avenales of the US Army War College about Venezuela

and the expectation that Nicholas Maduro, the illegitimate president of Venezuela, a deeply troubled country, a failed state.

Anticipating the presidential election in July has not only banned the opposition

candidate who would overwhelm him in a straight vote, Machado,

but he's also directed his state security services to arrest and harass members of the opposition parties.

Eben Ellis lays it out very clearly.

Questions remain about what the U.S. can do about this

about this because there was a dialogue between the Biden administration and Caracas

about lifting sanctions these last months.

And now there will be an election which the White House insisted upon, but it's a false face

of an election. The opposition is constrained, persecuted, harassed, the major candidate, the one who

would overwhelm him and the vote is prescribed. Naming an alternative is very difficult for the opposition right now.

They're struggling with it.

So here's Evan Ellis to describe Venezuela.

Remember Venezuela is in the company of Moscow, Tehran, Beijing, Havana, Managua.

This is part of the axis of resistance in the Americas.

Evan Ellis, the preparation for the phony election of July 2024 in Venezuela.

Well, what Maduro and security services like the Sabine, for example, have done,

is that they've kind of gone after opposition figures one at a time.

And so there are a whole series of people that they've gone after on Trumped up charges supposedly

of conspiring against the government in different ways.

Most recently two people who were close to Machado.

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